Neutral: Jeff Couch's RV Nation

[24_Byron_fan]

I just picked up my first real TT (upgrading from a pop-up) a week ago from Jeff Couch's RV Nation in Ohio. Their website is great, lots of pictures and info. The salesman I dealt with was ok, maybe not quite as polite as I expect a salesman to be but definitely not rude either. I would work with him again.

My biggest issue is the guy that did the PDI with me. It wasn't even an inspection. It was nothing but here's how to turn everything on and off in your TT and that was it. I had several questions about tanks, plumbing, electrical, heating, etc... and he could not answer but a couple of them. They initially weren't even going to give me a spare tire until I pointed out that it was in the online ad. And I had never used a weight distribution hitch before and apparently the "walkthrough guy" hadn't either. It took me about two hours to get it hooked up by myself while the walkthrough guy took off to take care of other people's PDIs.

I did find a couple small issues that they fixed right away which was nice but now that I'm home I've found several more.

Overall I would buy from them again but I'm glad I did my research on this sight and found a very comprehensive PDI checklist. I spent about 3 hours going over the trailer with a fine-toothed comb before finishing the $$ paperwork.

This FR forum is awesome! Whoever created this and the mods that run it deserve some of my wife's double chocolate cookies.

[dalford]

Welcome to the forum from Central Florida...

[bikendan]

I would've refused delivery and told them that when they could provide a competent RV tech, you'll come in and do the PDI/walkthrough.

[Daycruiser]

Couch RV has a huge delivery building with many bays all filled with units to be delivered to owners everyday except Sunday. They are running from one unit to another to do the walk-thru. If you're dealing with Couch you need to hire your own inspector to do your PDI in advance of picking up the unit. It will cost you a few hundred but what will it cost to drag the unit back or worse yet have a major issue far far from home? They will fix any problem as long as they know about it well in advance of the Walk-Thru. They are a wholesaler, turn and burn is how they do business. They have a Call Center at the dealership just to handle on-line sales. Very different business model that the traditional dealership but you have to know that going in with them.

[Delco Bobby]

Originally Posted by 24_Byron_fan

This FR forum is awesome! Whoever created this and the mods that run it deserve some of my wife's double chocolate cookies.

Since you are new and hopefully don’t know any better you can send those chocolate cookies to me.

[Old Bleu]

24 Byron Fan, sorry to hear about your poor experience at Couch RV. It sounds very different than ours last October. We had a very personable young man do our PDI, and when we had a question that he couldn't answer, he got someone who could. Two of the mechanics also installed the Andersen coupler on the pin box for us.

They are a volume dealer, so i wonder if they were just short handed at the time you were there. Still no excuse, but it could explain it. You might want to contact Jeff Couch directly and let him know about your experience. In the past, I have actually seen him reach out to someone on this forum who had a complaint.

[Splashes3]

Like Old Bleu, we had a great experience with Couch's. Our PDI was conducted by an older gentleman and when he didn't know a few things he went and got a much younger "kid" that was able to answer our questions. So we were very happy.

I should add, we also were not as concerned with issues, because we were taking our Cedar Creek straight to Orvan Fry at Amish Family RV. He only works on Cedar Creeks; he went over it with a fine tooth comb and repaired/aligned things - and then billed the factory.

We would buy again from Couch's and then take it to Orvan.

[nmccoy]

Sorry to hear about your bad PDI experience. Ours was very good, we printed off the list as well. I don’t remember the techs name but he did install our Equalizer WDH, as well as instruct us how to.

[rlh1957]

If I get someone that can't answer a question then either get me someone different or say I am going to find out for you now. That is ridiculous! Although the answers you get to your question my include opinion, conjecture, hype and dealer or manf rhetoric they learned at the seminar and it isn't always correct. There is no excuse for not doing a thorough PDI... I call it a Show & Tell meeting as well as an inspection. Our guy was good, but he earned his money that day because my wife wore him out with plenty of questions and what if's. Didn't matter if I knew the answer or system, she wants to hear from these players. She is a real What If person and only sees black or white, on or off, and no in between maybes.

[tomkatb]

When we picked up our fiver at Couches our representative was not terribly familiar with our unit. They only sell hundreds of different units. However, his general knowledge and good effort was more than enough for us. It was our first rv. A complicated one.

We spent about 3.5 hours there. Ours was near perfect. We were able to figure everything out our first week, except for that black tank. Took me a year to figure it out.

My feeling of is that if you know what you want they will provide it with minimum negotiation at a lower than average price.

Unfortunately with a dealer like this that sells 5,000 of these per year you will possibly not get as much service as you need. Gotta ask! We made it clear this was our first.

When our representative got stuck the big boss was nearby.

[milton_w_herron]

I went to two dealers near London Ky for wheel bearing inspect and repack. The first one wouldn’t even try. The second was charging 4 to 500 dollars. I should start an RV repair and maintenance business.

[RoyalFrog2]

Originally Posted by Splashes3

Like Old Bleu, we had a great experience with Couch's. Our PDI was conducted by an older gentleman and when he didn't know a few things he went and got a much younger "kid" that was able to answer our questions. So we were very happy.

I should add, we also were not as concerned with issues, because we were taking our Cedar Creek straight to Orvan Fry at Amish Family RV. He only works on Cedar Creeks; he went over it with a fine tooth comb and repaired/aligned things - and then billed the factory.

We would buy again from Couch's and then take it to Orvan.

We bought from Couch's and have recommended them because of their straight forward pricing. Yes, it was our 4th RV so we didn't need much hand holding and we knew up front we would never take it back to them for warranty work.