Warranty work...

[CampBradley]

Does anyone have trouble getting warranty work done? We purchased our 2012 Surveyor SVT-301 a month ago. After our first outing we had damages caused by faulty workmanship and a non-working refrigerator. A dealer here agreed to repair all damages and the fridge under the warranty. He had it three weeks and when we picked it up he said he would not do any other repairs on units unless the they were purchased from him. This is the same thing the dealer said where we purchased our unit. Also, we read on Forest River's site to buy locally as dealers are not required to repair if they didn't sell the unit. Wish we had seen this before purchasing a Forest River unit... We are now forced to return the unit to the dealer we purchased it from, which by the way didn't do the "dealer prep" we paid for which caused the damages in the first place!!!

[Triguy]

Its sad to read this because it happens too often.

The dealer-network within the industry (not just Forest river products) does not lend itself to a friendly service experience in your case.

The FR dealers are not required by FR to service the trailers purchased at other places as you have since discovered. The first thing I would do is to call FR directly and ask them to help find a dealer in your area who will work with you (and them).

Your other options are:

Find a dealer who is willing to build a long-term relationship with you by servicing your current trailer.

Dealers are not paid well for warranty work, apparently, so offer to pick up the difference.

Find a third-party service shop (not usually a dealer) that will do the warranty work. Before I bought this last trailer I had been considering buying out-of-state so I found a couple of independent shops in my area.

Do the work yourself by having FR send you parts as needed. Only works if you have the time, are interested in this type of thing and are mechanically inclined.

Good luck!

[Len & Cheri]

I haven't had any issues getting warranty work done, but I was told the same thing about my warranty and I think it's nonsense that they can get away with this. I don't understand how they can say this. Sounds like a lawsuit in the works. Could you imagine buying a car and them telling you that no other dealer is required to do any warranty work to it?

[Malco]

We bought our trailer in April from a dealer in Detroit.We live in Nova Scotia and started out to buy locally.We went to three dealers in Ns and got prices on various makes and models.A friend of ours heard we were looking and told us to check on line.We found a small importer who,after taking his profit,import charges and delivery fee,could still sell us an identical trailer for almost $9000.00 cheaper than the big dealer would.We bought from the little dealer but then had an issue with the fridge fan running all the time.The little dealer did not have a repair shop so we called the dealer with the Salem franchise in our area.They at first said no problem they would fix it.They asked for the serial number to check if the warranty was good and called back saying they would not be interested in doing the warranty work since it was a US purchased unit.I would think they would be paid the same for warranty work on it if they sold it or not.Regardless,the dealer we bought it from then found an independent repair shop that can do the work for us.We have not gotten the work done yet as we did not want to have the trailer tied up during our short camping season and taking the fuse out when not in use stops the fan from running,so we plan to get the repairs done later in the fall,and hopefully everything will work out fine.

[Herk7769]

Buying locally is NO guarrantee you will get quality work or even coverage.

Find a local truck trailer repair shop willing to work on your camper. They can inspect and repair most all items that YOU can't repair. Most items (like the fridge) YOU have to go to the manufacturer of the fridge ANYWAY. They only want the invoice from the sale to cover it (if it is still under warranty - which is LONGER than FR's anyway.)

Most anything that goes wrong with your camper (NOT coverered under the individual vendors warranty) will ultimately BE YOUR FAULT and not covered. Water damage, tire failure, slide seals, slide adjustments, bearing siezures, etc are YOUR FAULT unless you can PROVE it is not.

Hard to do when it is in the dealers best interest to get immediate cash from you, or wait months for an FR check, and THEY get to decide.

[LadyWindrider]

I have worked for an RV dealer, as a tech, small dealer. I don't know it all, but all of the RV dealers around here are independent shops, and have the right to refuse to work on your RV, just like an independent garage doesn't have to work on your car. Car dealers on the other hand are franchises, and must honor the factory set of rules. Same as buying something at one Lowe's or Wal Mart store and being able to return it at another.

Warranty work pays very little most of the time. After spending 8 hour replacing a set of axles, the boss didn't really want to change, we were offered 1.5 hours of labor. Another 2 hours on the phone, begging and pleading, and explaining we were a small shop, with only a cement pad and no air tools, we finally got 5 hours labor time.

Lastly, I worked for a shop less than 10 miles from home. He sells Wildwood, Shasta, and Cardinal, mainly. I have a Work and Play. All of theses are owned by Forrest River. He can't get anything specific for my camper because the dealer 25 miles away carries Work and Play. Sometimes it is not because you don't want to, it is because you HAVE to.

[Herk7769]

Windrider made my point with first hand logic.

If you REALLY need a part only FR can provide (and they are darn few - like decals) you can normally order from FR's parts department.

For delamination damage, I would ONLY bring it to FR and deal with them directly for the repair. There has been nothing but praise for factory repairs here.