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Old 08-11-2015, 08:53 AM   #1
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XLR After Sale Support = OUTSTANDING

Last week we had Rodney in for some repairs. Many of you on this forum have had interactions with him here before his departure. I'm aware he is unable to post on this forum, so please allow me to share with you what his experience was while at our plant. I also know each of you have seen Bob and I on this forum giving help when we can. While we are not asked or required to do so, I believe this write up will help explain why we do. Our entire team takes great pride in how we treat our customers. From all of us at XLR - Thank you for your kind words.
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XLR After Sale Support = OUTSTANDING
We bought our XLR Thunderbolt 395AMP this past spring. It has had a few issues as all new rigs do, which my selling dealer has taken care of promptly for me. However, recently I had one that prevented the trailer from making a trip to a dealer to fix. My large ODS slide had found it's way out of adjustment and jumped a tooth or two on the front gear pack and the slide bound up in the out position as it was just too far out of time. A call directly to the XLR warranty got me a Lippert mobile tech right to my home to get the issue resolved. The tech was able to get my slide in but not to completely resolve the issue. Rather than trust a dealer with something of this magnitude, I decided to make the trip to Goshen IN and let XLR take care of the issue. If all else fails, XLR does take care of warranty work on site. This is not the norm as most issues can be resolved at the dealer level but when something big goes wrong, they WILL make it right.

I made the trip in a day from MA. 800 miles would be out of some people's comfort zone but I want to get it done and did. I stayed in the rig in their parking lot overnight and woke to the sound of 100+ cars, trucks, and bikes rolling in to get to work between 4:30-5. These guys and gals get it fired up early! About 6 the plant manager Bob Elson and his service manager Randy knocked at the door. I went over some bugs and adjustments that the trailer could use as well as showed them all the upgrades and customizations I'd done over the previous few months. They were genuinely interested in all I did to personalize the rig and actually took notes and pictures as some things interested them for their line. Then I showed them how the Lippert tech had addressed my slide issue which turned out to be not good. They sent me off to breakfast and got my trailer into an open bay.

When I got back an hour later, I couldn't believe the swarm of XLR employees going through my trailer. Bob had already had a senior Lippert tech Ennis out to assess my slide and had scheduled their best guy Ramon to get it rebuilt. Meanwhile, the XLR guys and gals tore into any adjustments I needed to make the trailer better than new.

While they all got to work, XLR national sales rep John Miller gave me a plant tour. I was walked through each step of production. From where the raw frames were rolled in the back door to where completed rigs were rolling out other end after PDI, I saw it all. All I can say is WOW. These guys work for their money. Anyone who says the "American Worker" is lazy hasn't been through this place. These people HUSTLE.

After that I got to talk with John a while about the industry in general and XLR. He was a very and honest and candid guy. Not what you'd expect from a salesman. He had to get back to work so I went back to my trailer. There was a regular team of 4 that were all over it over the course of the next two days. (More were called in from time to time when required to ensure all was done before Friday end of day.) While I was there I had them do a few paid upgrades and Josh and Billy were all over them. Then as the adjustments etc. got underway Kim and Renee (AKA Myrtle) got on it as well. Now, what amazes me even now that I'm back home, is that I know their names. These were real people who couldn't be nicer if they tried. All of them took time to explain aspects of production and in only two days, I'd call each one of them friends. What really got me though is that they found things wrong that I didn't even know about. If they just wanted me out of there, they'd hit my list and get my gone. But because of the keen eye of a couple of their guys, they found issues that would have caused me trouble in the future and got them repaired. Bob Elson also took time to come by and talk about my trailer as well as production as a whole more than once. He is a 100% straight shooter...

Anyways, Lippert got my slide fixed, XLR made adjustments and improvements, and I got an inside look at a truly great brand. That said, I would recommend XLR to anyone in the toy hauler market. No, their trailers aren't perfect. No brand is. However, this kind of service from these kind of people after the sale is just so rare in the RV industry... Buy with confidence when shopping XLR!
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Old 08-11-2015, 11:31 AM   #2
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Do you guys go like this year round or is there a slow time like other industries?


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Old 08-11-2015, 11:36 AM   #3
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Cool
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Old 08-11-2015, 04:36 PM   #4
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We are actually a low volume plant. The most we have ever run is 9 a day. We are currently only running 8 a day. I guess you could call it a slow down time. What people view when they come through the shop is a fast paced environment. The guys work between 7-10 hour's a day and earn an honest living. If you want to see a real fast paced production facility, go to shop that runs 20-30 units a day. Not that don't do a good job in those plant's, but you will never see an XLR built at that pace. To complex and quality would suffer greatly. We'll stick with our low numbers and have the best warranty rate in the corporation.
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Old 08-11-2015, 05:57 PM   #5
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I would love to come up for a tour with my 29HFS for a few adjustments and a few upgrades. I would also like to have the sticker changed to reflect the axle swap (4400 to 5200) and possibly reflect a higher GVWR. Would it be possible to have a matching slide-out cover installed?
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Old 08-11-2015, 08:04 PM   #6
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This is confusing, I filed a warranty claim on several small items with my dealer and was told after 3-4 weeks that FR was behind on shipping parts out.
I have sent several emails to my dealer with no reply yet. It's been 7-8 weeks.
Is my dealer pulling my leg ?





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Old 08-11-2015, 10:53 PM   #7
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Excellent thread!! On one hand, glad we're buying XLR. On the other, it's hard for us (consumers) to understand how a less than perfect trailer comes off the line. Hard working great people no doubt. American made....all good things.

But, we're nervous about the build quality of our 417amp scheduled off on the 14th. Nothing we can do, but in the back of our minds we wonder about all the dynamics at play.

Good or bad, our money is spent and we "love the one we get." When it's all said and done, we know it won't be perfect. But, we're glad we have this forum and you guys.....the dedicated Forest River folks willing to make things OK should things go wrong.
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Old 08-12-2015, 08:02 AM   #8
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KULA's - we have an in-house dedicated parts department. I would have a hard time believing any part would take us longer than a week to ship, if we don't have it on site already and have to order through a vendor. Read into this as you wish.
PM me the last 6 of your vin and what dealer is ordering the parts.
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Old 08-12-2015, 08:34 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jamiller45 View Post
KULA's - we have an in-house dedicated parts department. I would have a hard time believing any part would take us longer than a week to ship, if we don't have it on site already and have to order through a vendor. Read into this as you wish.
PM me the last 6 of your vin and what dealer is ordering the parts.

Dealers sit on crap and then blame FR to the customer.
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Old 08-12-2015, 12:04 PM   #10
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Great narrative of the plant
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Old 08-12-2015, 02:33 PM   #11
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I agree 100% with what Rodney said and have had the pleasure to work with Bob Elson and some of his team members. We love our 2016 XLR 375 Thunderbolt AMP and will also recommend XLR to anyone looking for a TH.

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Old 08-12-2015, 11:38 PM   #12
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I'll add to the narrative here--I also have been in email contact with John recently about an issue with my bedroom pocket doors, he had Diane in XLR warranty and Valerie in Parts on the phone with me in no time, and new hardware was shipped to my door in 2 days. These folks are dedicated to making things right, even if they don't always roll off the line that way. Kudos to all involved, I really want to make the rally one of these years and get the full tour!
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Old 08-17-2015, 07:32 AM   #13
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I've been going back and forth with Diane since May to try and get several problems addressed including not being able to find a local dealer who will do the warranty work. The way it's looking now I'm going to either have to take two days off to take it back where I bought it or try and do the work myself which is ridiculous when I've got a warranty. Diane hasn't responded to me in over two weeks now.
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Old 08-17-2015, 07:43 AM   #14
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I would give Diane a call, they have always answered my calls. I know they have been busy last week at FROG.
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Old 08-17-2015, 03:15 PM   #15
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I wish I could say the same. Let me first say that Diane has been extremely pleasant to work with, but I am so far not very happy with the answers I've been given (which may or may not be her choice so I am not blaming her in the least). I am not going to go into detail as we are still trying to work it out (going on almost 2 months now) so I will reserve the details for now.... And the only local XLR dealership hasn't exactly been all that great either which definitely isn't helping my stress levels...
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Old 08-20-2015, 05:42 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jamiller45 View Post
KULA's - we have an in-house dedicated parts department. I would have a hard time believing any part would take us longer than a week to ship, if we don't have it on site already and have to order through a vendor. Read into this as you wish.
PM me the last 6 of your vin and what dealer is ordering the parts.

Update after PM John-
My dealer has gone out of there way to contact me and the person responsible for delaying my resolutions has apologize and has promised to do everything to resolve my warranty issues.
This just happened today so I will give keep you posted.

I just wanted to thank John and Bob for helping everyone!



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Old 08-20-2015, 09:00 PM   #17
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That's what I would expect of FR.


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