Negative Experience on new 2013 Rockwood

[Triguy]

Jack, I understand you're upset, but you also exaggerate. I've had several trailers, too, and two from FR and I was happy with both. Sorry for your troubles, but there are plenty of us out there... http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...uct-23198.html

[Oakman]

I agree with Triguy. I'm on my third fifth wheel and all three have been Forest River products.

[Tailwind]

Agreed, I'm only on my second rv, but both Forest River products. 1st was a Wildwood and 2nd is a Flagstaff. Next will also be Forest River, designation to be determined.

[AquaMan]

Once again, someone buys from a long distance wholesaler, and is ticked off that their local RV dealer won't service their product. It's not to say that there are not "growing pains" when buying a new RV, some are very lucky and never have an issue, some are not as lucky. A lot of it comes down to the dealer, we ALL know that. When you don't have a dealer to fall back on and support you, you are lost in the world of manufacture runaround. It happens in EVERY business. To say that "MOST" are unhappy with Forest River is an untrue and complete fabrication! Many people on forums, regardless of subject, are there to search for solutions, improve their product, or to vent their frustrations. Many times the latter. I have a Forest River product, I'm happy with the product I have, I'm happy with the price I paid, and I'm happy with the dealer that supports my product. It's unfortunate for those who experience problems on the road, as it makes it 10x worse, but to me, I can general fix it or rig it, at least enough to get it home. Sometimes stepping back, breathing in and out, things don't look as bad as it seems in the moment.

[trudinator]

Originally Posted by jaherbst

BACK UP
Just read these forums if you think I am wrong. I have owned RV's and trailers for over forty five years including six high end Diesel Pushers and Forest River is by far and long the very very worst. Why else would they not be an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau. One reason and one reason only my friend. They have not been able to successfully settle their claims. In other words Buyer Be Ware!

Four of my friends have owned Forest River products once and once only. You can add me to the list. After thoroughly going through my unit it is the cheapest built thing I could possibly imagine. OK I did buy it in Texas from RV-Max in Sherman and should have bought it locally where I could and should have done a more thorough inspection. After calling RV-Max eight times with no return calls after I left, I had a bad taste in my mouth. No help there and little help from the F/R factory. La Mesa RV here in Tucson has been very good at helping me solve the numerous problems.

I am glad you have had a good experience with them and are happy. Most of us are not. Just read the forums my friend ,just read the forums.

Jack

The overwhelmingly majority of posts on these forums is from people who have questions or problems. How many satisfied customers post that they have no problems and they're just posting so everyone knows how happy they are? Very few. So you're basing your back up (assumptions) on skewed information. Not scientific, nor polled questioning, etc. I stand by my original post. You only hear the bad, not the good. I'm sorry you've had problems. FR is not the only manufacturer to have disgruntled customers. Read any other forum and you'll agree.

[lbrjet]

Satisfied customer here.

[bakken]

Originally Posted by jaherbst

BACK UP
Just read these forums if you think I am wrong. I have owned RV's and trailers for over forty five years including six high end Diesel Pushers and Forest River is by far and long the very very worst. Why else would they not be an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau. One reason and one reason only my friend. They have not been able to successfully settle their claims. In other words Buyer Be Ware!

Four of my friends have owned Forest River products once and once only. You can add me to the list. After thoroughly going through my unit it is the cheapest built thing I could possibly imagine. OK I did buy it in Texas from RV-Max in Sherman and should have bought it locally where I could and should have done a more thorough inspection. After calling RV-Max eight times with no return calls after I left, I had a bad taste in my mouth. No help there and little help from the F/R factory. La Mesa RV here in Tucson has been very good at helping me solve the numerous problems.

I am glad you have had a good experience with them and are happy. Most of us are not. Just read the forums my friend ,just read the forums.

Jack

If you hate Forest River so much, why are you here?

[Indymule]

Sorry Jack but you don't speak for everyone.

VERY satisfied customer here!

Next one will be another Forest River

[bakken]

I may not be 'over-the-moon' happy with our fifth, but I knew when I bought it, that it wasn't going to be as fancy, or well-built, as a "high end diesel pusher".
Anyone expecting perfection at a bargain price is expecting far too much.
The only real gripe I have is that they don't put name brand tires on them, as that is a safety issue.

[Weezer]

We bought our Flagstaff from a Route 66 dealer. That's huge. Dealers don't apply to become Route 66, they are invited to be one based on feedback they receive from customers.
Our salesman told us they are put through a school during the process, and are given oral tests, etc.

Regarding the BBB; they are a political organization with strong arm tactics and some businesses simply choose not to play their game. If you brown nose 'em (and write that check) you get good reports. I owned a nationally recognized dealership for 20 years and elected to not be a BBB member. Never affected our sales/service one iota. Our sales and service histories stood for themselves. FTR there was a big dust up lately about the BBB being biased.

We had our first issue week before last. Inside 24 hours (the TT was here at home when the issue was discovered) we had people coming out of the woodwork to help us;
FR rep. was calling and emailing me repeatedly.
Salesman returned my call within 2 hours.
Sales/service shop foreman called me *after hours* on the same day I discovered the problem.
Warranty department called bright and early the next morning and when I described the issue her only response was:
We're sorry you have this issue ma'am, when can we have it to fix it? Can we have it Saturday? (this was on a Thursday before July 4th).
I explained we were taking it out that Friday for the holiday so she asked if we could have it this past Saturday.
OK, so we got delayed here at home and realized we wouldn't make it there before closing this past Saturday.
The lady there in warranty made arrangements to have the "lives on the premesis" security guy meet us at the gates to let us in onto the property lot.
That security guy met us, got off his golf cart and immediately started assisting DH with the hitch disconnect. (yep, we tipped 'im)

Warranty dept. called DH this morning to go over the punch list I left in the TT.

Admittedly some of the items were nit picking (might as well get it all done on one trip) and I'm tellin ya the guy replied "yes sir we'll get that done" for *every* item on that list, including installing a TV mounting bracket up in the corner/ceiling of the bedroom (a feature we saw on another model while there Saturday and liked), checking the lug nuts and tire pressures, even moving a bolt up one notch on the hitch.

Mark us up on the "happy campers" side of the tote board.

You can read about the issue I found under the Flagstaff thread; "A Caution to all V Lite owners".

[Road-King]

Originally Posted by trudinator

The overwhelmingly majority of posts on these forums is from people who have questions or problems. How many satisfied customers post that they have no problems and they're just posting so everyone knows how happy they are? Very few. So you're basing your back up (assumptions) on skewed information. Not scientific, nor polled questioning, etc. I stand by my original post. You only hear the bad, not the good. I'm sorry you've had problems. FR is not the only manufacturer to have disgruntled customers. Read any other forum and you'll agree.

Right to the point.

Like the TV commercial said, "It has to be true, it on the internet, they can't put something on the internet that's not true."

[Weezer]

Oh, let me add;

While there we went down to the sales facility to say hi to our salesman. A lady came out of the back and invited us to their break room where they had sandwich and veggie/dip platters laid out. She said they do that every Saturday for those who work on the weekends and she heard us say we've driven 1.5 hours and thought we might like something to eat.

Our salesman came back to visit with us while we ate.

Southern Hospitality! Like chivalry it ain't dead 'round here!

[Rolling buckeye]

Well.... So far I like my FR product, it will be in for service this wed.am. The dometic refrigerator stopped working on a 6000 mi trip, fortunately, nearer the end of the trip. Stuff happens !

As for coach net. We broke down in the middle of nowhere ! They were VERY helpful ! Towed the camper, with the truck on a roll back. They ARE NOT a roadside repair service ! They are more like a AAA with rv plus.

I understand you're anger, but.... Humm.... I'll leave it at that.

[jaherbst]

I would be interested as to who owns this site and if they or the moderators have any connection to Forest River?

Not saying it is but would like to know for my own edification. I got deeply involved with another forum for BMW motorcycles, only to find out it belonged to the manufacture of heated clothing I was complaining about. It burned up and injured me.It would behoove us all to know who who owns the sites we all post on and if they are generated for questionable interests. I do know quite a few names at Forest River now and see they also post but not always give their position at Forest River. Of course they have the same rights as the rest of us but I would like to know.

I am glad that a few of you are Brand Loyal and that you are happy with your product. I do wonder how many have had other brands and how they would compare Forest River to them. I have had at least half a dozen other brands and only had a serious problem with one that was resolved in a class action suit.

As we all know any new product will have a few growing pains but it is when several serious (and repeated) problems exist to the point that the unit is unusable then as Willie Nelson said that ain't right.

Have a great day!

Jack

[CheezPack]

Originally Posted by jaherbst

As you will find out Forest River is the "Big Company with the small Heart". They could care less about you after purchase! I have had my F/R trailer for almost two months and have not been able to leave on a trip yet due to problems.

FOREST RIVER is not an accredited business with the Better Business Bureou. That should tell us all something. No customer or warranty service and no road service.

That is why there is almost no Forest River return customers. After dealing with Forest River you will most certainly change brands next time.

Jack

Don't let this keep you from buying another FR! When we purchased our FR new in April of 2012 we had multiple problems and just got nothing but run arounds from the dealer. Had to drive an hour and a half every time we went in for service. Spent most of the first few months doing this and not much time camping.

One of our booked trips was to the rally in August of 2013. Best trip we ever had and would have been regardless if service hadn't been one of the benefits! Didn't know about this before we went but it became the highlight of the rally; both for us but for many of the people who attended. Yes, we met many great people but we truly found out about the "heart" of Forest River and the people who are a part of it.

We met Bob and Cindy Byrne, hired to run the FROG group, dedicated to making RVing in FR fun! We met people like Johnny Jones from the Sabre division who after having a conversation with us found out that we had a page and a half of issues that the dealer just wouldn't resolve. He sent out techs to fix all of those that they could right at the rally. For the ones that couldn't be fixed there (actually fixed some that we didn't even know existed) they made arrangements to keep our RV in Indiana and paid to have it transported back to us in Wisconsin once it was completed.

Forest River knows that we owners have issues, issues that I'm sure all RV companies have. The difference is that FR cares that their owners issues get fixed. They didn't have to do any of the work they did. Many of the units were long past warranty periods. Many of the issues were things that could have been lived with and not needed to be fixed, but they want us to be happy.

You may contact someone at FR and get wrong or uncaring information - you're dealing with humans and we make errors! Don't let it stop you. Call back and ask for someone else; the head of the division, the supervisor, whoever - let them know your issues and work together to solve the issues. Just getting angry and spouting off about FR won't solve your problem.

Our experience is that there are far more happy FR customers than unhappy ones - us included. Can't even imagine buying any other companies RV after doing business with Forest River!

[kandl]

Originally Posted by trudinator

How many satisfied customers post that they have no problems and they're just posting so everyone knows how happy they are?

We'll post that! Yep, got some issues re FR's QC and/or production processes but overall very satisfied with this rig we've been lugging around for some 14K km over the past two yrs and which we've relied on to provide us with a warm/cool place to park our behinds while on the road. Freezing temps, snow, monsoon-like rains... the Rockwood has eaten it up.

Regret the OP's issues (and Jack's too).

[Oakman]

Originally Posted by jaherbst

I would be interested as to who owns this site and if they or the moderators have any connection to Forest River?

Not saying it is but would like to know for my own edification. I got deeply involved with another forum for BMW motorcycles, only to find out it belonged to the manufacture of heated clothing I was complaining about. It burned up and injured me.It would behoove us all to know who who owns the sites we all post on and if they are generated for questionable interests. I do know quite a few names at Forest River now and see they also post but not always give their position at Forest River. Of course they have the same rights as the rest of us but I would like to know.

I am glad that a few of you are Brand Loyal and that you are happy with your product. I do wonder how many have had other brands and how they would compare Forest River to them. I have had at least half a dozen other brands and only had a serious problem with one that was resolved in a class action suit.

As we all know any new product will have a few growing pains but it is when several serious (and repeated) problems exist to the point that the unit is unusable then as Willie Nelson said that ain't right.

Have a great day!

Jack

This forum is privately owned and has no affiliation with Forest River Inc, Berkshire Hathaway, or Warren Buffet nor do the moderators who are unpaid volunteers.

There are employees of Forest River who are members of this forum who read and respond to many of the threads but they are just members like you, nothing more.

Karl and Jackie’s post says it all and they weren’t the only ones to leave last year’s Goshen rally impressed with the service provided by Forest River. It was obvious to everyone at the rally that Forest River has a commitment to customer care.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by ttrost65

Once again, someone buys from a long distance wholesaler, and is ticked off that their local RV dealer won't service their product. It's not to say that there are not "growing pains" when buying a new RV, some are very lucky and never have an issue, some are not as lucky. A lot of it comes down to the dealer, we ALL know that. When you don't have a dealer to fall back on and support you, you are lost in the world of manufacture runaround. It happens in EVERY business. To say that "MOST" are unhappy with Forest River is an untrue and complete fabrication! Many people on forums, regardless of subject, are there to search for solutions, improve their product, or to vent their frustrations. Many times the latter. I have a Forest River product, I'm happy with the product I have, I'm happy with the price I paid, and I'm happy with the dealer that supports my product. It's unfortunate for those who experience problems on the road, as it makes it 10x worse, but to me, I can general fix it or rig it, at least enough to get it home. Sometimes stepping back, breathing in and out, things don't look as bad as it seems in the moment.

X2

[TURBS]

On my second forest river product.
if there is a third it'll also be a forest river product.
My dealer has always bent over backwards for warranty issues.
Even the factory has went above and WAAAAY beyond on a few repairs.
Oh did I say way beyond? I meant way way way beyond!


Turbs

[dretired]

Originally Posted by trudinator

I know I freaked the first time I heard it, driving out of our dealer's lot. I thought something was terribly, terribly wrong! Now I'm used to it.

When i had my TT... i had a Equalizer brand hitch... I.put a light coating of bearing grease on the pivot points..and any other area. where there was metal to metal contact..it helped ..good luck