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Old 04-03-2014, 10:03 AM   #21
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We have a good experience with two different dealers far from home but very bad experience with the selling dealer. In the RGV we had a coach battery blow up I called Forest River they contacted Ron Hover RV. They brought out two new batteries and checked out the converter all that day. The next year in Tucson AZ now out of warranty Lazy Days did several things on our coach after getting authorization from Forest River. It sure showed me that the next time I would look much more closely at the dealers service record. Its sad but I would not be able to buy an other Georgetown in my Province with out driving 550Km or import on from a USA dealer.
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Old 04-03-2014, 12:30 PM   #22
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like i said and others have said, the RV Industry does NOT operate like the Auto Industry.
i often say that the only thing they have in common, is that they both have dealerships that sell things on wheels.

outside of that, they have very little in common.
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Old 04-03-2014, 12:38 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by jeeplj8 View Post
Keep in mind the warranty is between you, the buyer, and the manufacturer - Forrest River. The seller (your dealer) is only a retailer and therefore must honor the warranty by nature of some federal and state laws (generally, there are exceptions).

Every dealer is independent and does not step into Forrest River's shoes. They owe nothing to anyone other than their own customers.

The Auto Industry changed how they did things by putting into their franchise agreements that every dealer must honor all warranty work. The RV industry will not do this.

what he said!
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Old 04-03-2014, 04:22 PM   #24
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Umm, being a Forest River authorized dealer they can't refuse warranty repair no matter where you bought the unit. I'm sure FR would like to know that one of their dealers isn't taking care of their customers.

I'd make them put it in writing that they're refusing repair, then I'd draft a very official letter to FR, namely warning them that you're going to run this by legal council for their opinion.

Bet that gets things moving.

I wasn't "denied" warranty repairs, but they told me that they could schedule me a date but that the date really didn't mean anything, I would keep getting bumped by customers who had purchased thier Rv from that dealer! So I found another NON FR dealer that likes money and customers!!
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Old 04-03-2014, 04:27 PM   #25
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I'm a master mechanic with over a decade in dealerships. I'm pretty adept at pissing people off until it gets fixed and being able to tell when it's actually fixed right.



I'm going to look into this refusing warranty repair thing further, I can't believe that they can refuse it whether you purchased there or not.

I worked for 2 Ford dealerships for a combined 23 years as a diesel tech, I know the game, I was just floored when the service advisor said to me what he said!! "We take care of the customers that buy from us first! I can't give you a date and time to get your Rv repaired, just have to leave it and we will get to it whenever we can. Dave the owner likes to take care of his customers first."
Really?? Wow!! So now Dave's Rv in claremore,ok gets NOTHING from me now! It's all good!
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Old 04-03-2014, 04:56 PM   #26
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It's mind boggling that any dealer will refuse anything with the way the economy is. Maybe they wont make too much profit now, but they could line something up for the future.

I also can't believe how some dealerships stay in business. Maybe they make so much money that they can afford to piss customers off. We couldn't believe the reaction of the salesman and lack of reaction from the owner when we received a nasty gram from the salesman. When we bought our coach I noticed that the tank was nearly empty. I told the salesman that with every vehicle I've bought I have always received it with a full tank. He said they didn't do that, but I managed to get them to fill it up. While at the gas station I asked the salesman how many MPGs could I expect. With a straight face and lots of confidence he said about 14. The first thing that crossed my mind was BS, but I've been wrong many times before and this was our first Class A. I figured that maybe there is a small nuclear reactor on the new V10s. To be honest, I sort of believed him probably due to a long day and the fact that he seemed so confident. Well, a few days later I realized that the truth was that he was right if you divide that number by 2. It really ticked me off and also felt embarrassed the I believed him. We didn't buy the RV with MPGs in mind, but the fact that he lied didn't sit well with me. I found out that they offer customer's reviews through their website that actually posts the review through google or something. We posted the review with an emphasis on what the salesman said. Next day I receive a nasty email from the salesman. He even said that I needed to get hearing aids, etc. etc. We forwarded the email to the owner and got nothing back. Now, why in the world would you send a nasty email to a customer that just spent a bunch of money in your business. He could have simply said, it was his mistake as he was thinking of a different RV or something. I would have gladly revised the feedback and do more business with them in the future.

It is crazy. We have also notice really bad customer service in a lot of other business from restaurants to the cable company. I just don't get it.
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Old 04-03-2014, 05:16 PM   #27
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I had a warrantee window leak issue. Didn't want to haul it 200 miles for that fix... So I called The local Rockwood dealer. He wouldn't fix it because he was PO'd that I didn't buy from him. So I went the route of getting an RV repair shop authorized to do the work.
Here's the thing... And what I stressed to FR when I called... The local Rockwood dealer keeps ZERO new campers on his lot. He also had ZERO used campers of the model line I wanted to purchase (Mini Lite) on his lot. He literally had about 10 campers on his lot that he rents out... And that's it! It took almost a week and three attempts just to get a return phone call. So I was supposed to drive 200 miles to the closest dealer who had spent the money to bring one in, take a half a day of their time while they gave me the tour and explained all the info on it... But drive back to my "local guy" to purchase? No way... I didn't even let him quote it.
Hard to believe a company has so little knowledge about how they're represented once the unit leaves the mfg plant.
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Old 04-03-2014, 07:48 PM   #28
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I highly recommend getting repairs in the following order:
1. FR factory (Elkhart) - they do a great job. Anything less than 300 mile drive is worth it
2. Ron Green in Elkhart - He takes the warranty overflow from FR. They do a really nice job too.
3. Check the service ratings on: RV Service Reviews (BTW - Master Tech in Elkhart is AWESOME for anything non-warranty)

Anyone too far from Elkhart IN area, good luck. If you go in with the expectation of getting 20-30% of your warranty items actually fixed, you likely won't be disappointed.
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Old 04-04-2014, 06:56 AM   #29
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I highly recommend getting repairs in the following order:
1. FR factory (Elkhart) - they do a great job. Anything less than 300 mile drive is worth it
2. Ron Green in Elkhart - He takes the warranty overflow from FR. They do a really nice job too.
3. Check the service ratings on: RV Service Reviews (BTW - Master Tech in Elkhart is AWESOME for anything non-warranty)

Anyone too far from Elkhart IN area, good luck. If you go in with the expectation of getting 20-30% of your warranty items actually fixed, you likely won't be disappointed.
Elkhart is 250 miles away from us. I'll put Elkhart in my "break glass in case of emergency" box. Thanks for the recommendation.
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Old 04-04-2014, 07:40 AM   #30
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I know this is of no good to someone not living near McComb (Summit), MS, but I know the owner of Dixie Springs RV Services and he does warranty work with authorization from the manufacturer. He has a mobile service in addition to a physical service location. Those of you far away from a dealer might check to see if there is an independent service person in your area – just an idea. I am sure if you find an independent person close to you, they’ll contact the manufacturer. On my last trailer, the water heater had a recall and they paid Dixie Springs RV Services to make the repair. In fact, I understood Ken (owner) to tell me one time that the manufacturer he ever had to not give him clearance was Keystone as they wanted the unit taken to the dealer.
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