WWYD: Feeling violated

[ApexBunk]

Originally Posted by 5picker

I'm going to be the Devil's Advocate.

Are you certain that you didn't cause these latest problems?

I have to assume when picking up the unit at the dealer you must NOT have went inside and checked things out before you towed it home or you would have likely seen the busted door(s). You realized there was a dead battery when you went to hook up... did you check for items that could have been left on once you applied 12v power. Do you know the switch for the slide was somehow damaged by the dealer causing it to be on? Had I seen these things when picking up my unit, I would have marched right inside the dealership and dragged someone out by the ear to document this stuff.

I'm not trying to be a stickler but lets face it, there still remains a certain amount of responsibility each and every one of us must bear EVERY time we hook up our rigs to tow them somewhere.

Did you fully communicate with your dealer an exact time when you would be dropping by to pick up the unit? If you did, shame on them for not having it ready but if you simply said "I'll drop by and pick it up so we can use it while waiting on parts" then some of that onus is on you.

The other thing that is going to be tremendously hard to overcome in this situation is your perspective of whether it will EVER be good enough for you from here on out. I'm not supporting the dealers position (or yours) but from your comments, I just don't see you being happy with any outcome.

I sure hope you get this resolved but I also hope you don't let it eat at you to the point you will never enjoy your camper or the RV life all of us here look forward to. We all have make lemonade out of lemons sometimes.

Comments meant respectfully.

I can appreciate a devil's advocate perspective, but I do hope after reading the things I've written you're doing it solely to play both sides. We did not check the camper when we picked it up. We had just driven 4 hours from my brothers house, and just wanted to pick it up for the weekend and bring it back Sunday after my birthday. We were told the camper would be "ready for pick up anytime that day" since the service dept was closed on Sunday's. It was parked in an open spot for us to hook up. We assumed the battery was dead because the electric jack was left in the on position by the dealership. That's a reasonable thought process.

Am I certain we didn't cause the problems? I don't mind exploring your idea, but can you elaborate? How exactly would we have knocked the slide off its track, bowed the body to the point where seam sealer was detached, and the doors latches break? This is especially odd to me considering we've drive it lots of places this year with not a single problem, and our drive home was smooth sailing.
The switch for the slide isn't damaged physically. Even if we went inside there would have been no way to test the slides (battery was dead). I don't think the switch is damaged at all, to be honest.
I'm confused as to how this would be "on us" because we wanted to use our camper while waiting on parts for the original warranty work. That would be:
-Stickers, upholstery, and the small fitting that was delaminating.
None of this would be "on us" based on this? Unless i'm missing your thought process.
Again, I get playing devil's advocate but I also hope you can play consumers advocate and put yourself in the position of owning a 2016 camper with extremely minimal warranty repairs needed, picking it up for your birthday to find your slide not working, damaged interior, and damaged exterior- how is that acceptable to anyone?

[JAClend]

At this point, it doesn't matter how it happened. To get the dealership to fix it, you have to go back to that dealership. Once that's done then patronize someplace else. We, too, are dealing with CW (St. Louis) and having problems (scratches, doors off tracks, etc). I will fix these issues myself as I really don't trust them to do a good job. When CW completes the warranty work that we need then we will patronize another repair facility, as needed.

[asquared]

I have been thinking on this. I might have an idea on some of this. When my fiver went back to the factory the first time, they fixed it (sort of) and sent it back. Someone forgot to latch the closet sliding door in place. If jostled around enough to come off track and get damaged. My thought for you is either you or the dealership forgot to latch the sliding door in place. When you drove it home it jostled around and same thing happened.... to be fair though, I have forgotten to latch sliding bedroom doors on my old tt and driven 2 hours without any damage.

I had outside lower trim on my slide pop off on its own early on. A new bead of clear silicone fixed it. Dealer said it was flex from going down the road.

New question. Are we seeing multiple smaller signs of a larger issue? That is to say, do you have a frame issue causing flex? Enough flex can lead to trim issues, leak issues, slide alignment issues, etc. I had an issue with a bolt in my frame coming out. that one bolt lead to bending of my hitch plate where my hitch attached to my fiver. It also creased the skin under my nose cap.

[ApexBunk]

Originally Posted by asquared

I have been thinking on this. I might have an idea on some of this. When my fiver went back to the factory the first time, they fixed it (sort of) and sent it back. Someone forgot to latch the closet sliding door in place. If jostled around enough to come off track and get damaged. My thought for you is either you or the dealership forgot to latch the sliding door in place. When you drove it home it jostled around and same thing happened.... to be fair though, I have forgotten to latch sliding bedroom doors on my old tt and driven 2 hours without any damage.

I had outside lower trim on my slide pop off on its own early on. A new bead of clear silicone fixed it. Dealer said it was flex from going down the road.

New question. Are we seeing multiple smaller signs of a larger issue? That is to say, do you have a frame issue causing flex? Enough flex can lead to trim issues, leak issues, slide alignment issues, etc. I had an issue with a bolt in my frame coming out. that one bolt lead to bending of my hitch plate where my hitch attached to my fiver. It also creased the skin under my nose cap.

The slide I'm referring to being off its track is the bedroom slide-out, not a door slide. The door latches were broken, but that shows they were locked and something jolted them hard enough to break the hardware. (Again our trip home was completely smooth)
For the new question- We have gone over a thousand miles this past year with our unit and not had any problem with flexing. The unit was out of our hands for 3 weeks, so I'm not sure how to judge what occurred while out of our sight. The dealership has not once denied that this was carelessness and done during the time in their hands. When asked several times if there is something between the storage lot and repair shop that could have been run over/hit and caused this, we've only been told "don't worry we're going to fix everything and make it right". Not an admission of guilt, yet they aren't going through a warranty repair for these items.

Crossing fingers for a successful repair, and praying there is nothing below the surface that was damaged.

[asquared]

I will tell you when my slides were out of alignment, it took 2 trips to the factory to get it right.

[ApexBunk]

Hey all! I am posting an update as I haven't been back on here in a while. The camper is almost done. We picked it up from the shop last week so we could go camping on our Holiday off. We are only awaiting a piece of molding to finish the rear door frame. The slide was fixed and we got a sincere apology. On our last camping trip we found a small leak where the new slide hardware damaged the foam gasket that keeps water out, so that should be an easy fix. There are parts that were put on backwards (the emblems are mountains), so right now they look like jagged cliffs since they turned them sideways to make them fit LOL! There has been a serious lack of communication, mixed with poor employee work ethic, so they assure us now that the employee who lacked skill is gone, we should have a better experience. We will bring the camper back once we know the part is in stock and then you couldn't pay me to go back there. All in all, it was a learning experience and one the comments here helped me prepare for, so thank you all!