Negative: Longview RV (Windsor Locks, CT)

[loki008]

Ok, I have a total of 2 interactions with Longview RV in Windsor.

The first experience was when I was looking to buy my A122 camper. I was doing some shopping around and had located a few places that had or could get the A122 (not A122s or A122BH) and had some prices. Longview's price was $3,000 more than another quote that I had.

Rather than express interest in negotiating they told me that the price I had was below cost and it was just a bait and switch price that the other dealer was offering me and that "I would be sorry that I wasted my gas" if i were to drive to the other dealer.

I did not have good feelings about this sales person and was glad that I decided to go through with the purchase at the other dealer (who's review can be found here. Well worth the drive from anywhere in New England).

Well now that I have had the unit for a little bit, I have noticed a few minor issues with a couple of seals (window seal is so tight that I am afraid i am going to break the window opening it, door seal isnt quite sitting right because the upper magnet isnt sitting right). In all honesty they are all things I could probably fix myself in under a half hour. But I am not going to risk voiding the warranty by making my own repairs to any of the seals.

I called Longview on Monday of this week. Informed them that I would like to get some warranty work done and that I would like to drop it off and have it back hopefully be the end of the week. I was told shouldn't be an issue, they all sound like straight forward issues that shouldnt need parts.

Today (wednesday) I took a half day off of work to drop the unit off, and then was told by the service manager that they couldn't do the work this week, and that I would have to drop it off for 2 weeks while they process the warranty claim. When i questioned this because that wasnt what I was told when I called on monday he told me that its because rockwood won't pay most claims and that since I didn't buy from them they were unwilling to take the risk of the claim being denied and having to lose money on the service and they would need to have the service completely approved before they would do the work and this takes about 2 weeks.

When I asked if i could schedule a day to bring it back in 2 weeks from now, they said no. They need the unit to take pictures of the issues and to be able to provide any additional documentation that Forest River requires during this 2 week window. In addition I was told that if I wanted to pay cash they could have it done right now and it would be $100 - $150.

At this point I asked to speak to the general manager.

I then said that Ok, I need it this weekend, but if i brought it back next week, you will be able to get this taken care of in 2 weeks? Because in all honesty this sounds like complete BS to me and I want to know that in 2 weeks that I will have my camper back.

At this point the general manager came out and was very rude, accusing me of wasting their service managers time. And that I was trying to bully them into servicing my unit.

At this point I asked him the same thing that I just asked the service manager and was told. No, the 2 weeks is just for the paperwork, they wont even schedule the service till they get the approval. It then would likely be another 2-3 week for the repair because there is at least a week required to order any parts after the service is approved. So they would need the unit for at least 4-5 weeks for these issues.

At this point I said I didnt believe this and would like to get someone from rockwood on the phone to discuss this and get it taken care of. This is when the general manager flat out said that this was not worth their time to submit the claim and that I was free to take my business elsewhere and that they would not be servicing my camper.

Overall I can not belive how this dealer has behaved on both occasions that I have delt with them. I strongly recommend that you stay away from them as they know they are the only dealer in town and are comfortable with strongarm and underhanded tactics.

A perfect example of these policies is while waiting in the service area there was a sign stating that a "diagnostic charge" is required to diagnose any service contract work regardless if the work is covered under the service contract or not.

After dealing with this issue, i called the dealer i purchased the camper from and explained what happened, they promised to contact Forest River on my behalf to get this straightened out for me. I will post and update when i hear back from this.

[Terier]

Sorry that you are going through this. From what I have read in other threads its not uncommon for dealerships not to be willing to work on units that they did not sell. Some members have contacted FR and were given names of places for service.

[loki008]

I was told to contact the area Flagstaff dealers. One dealer already said that they do not service rockwood units and the other did not answer their phone (close at 4pm maybe? who knows?)

I cant believe that their franchise agreement does not require them to honor warranty work. This is likely 15 minutes of labor and frankly I would do it myself if i wasnt concerned about potentially voiding the warranty by "fixing" an issue involving a seal.

If I buy a Ford car, i expect to be able to get my service done at any Ford dealer. Not just the dealer i purchased the car from. I have a warranty with Forest River, not the dealer that i bought the unit from. Being told to try my luck with their other dealers is not what I call honoring their warranty

[sideout1961]

Originally Posted by loki008

I was told to contact the area Flagstaff dealers. One dealer already said that they do not service rockwood units and the other did not answer their phone (close at 4pm maybe? who knows?)

I cant believe that their franchise agreement does not require them to honor warranty work. This is likely 15 minutes of labor and frankly I would do it myself if i wasnt concerned about potentially voiding the warranty by "fixing" an issue involving a seal.

If I buy a Ford car, i expect to be able to get my service done at any Ford dealer. Not just the dealer i purchased the car from. I have a warranty with Forest River, not the dealer that i bought the unit from. Being told to try my luck with their other dealers is not what I call honoring their warranty

I don't know where you live but did you check out Diamond RV in Hatfield, Ma? I've had nothing but good experience there. My parents bought a MH from Longview and have nothing but problems with them.

[davel1971]

could you imagine if car/truck dealers operated in the same manner as the majority of RV dealers

[Ida Ratherbe Camping]

Originally Posted by Terier

Sorry that you are going through this. From what I have read in other threads its not uncommon for dealerships not to be willing to work on units that they did not sell. Some members have contacted FR and were given names of places for service.

I have had to do this to get my warranty work done. Selling dealer is 800 miles away. Never had any problems though once I contacted Forest River.

[Grn_Mtns]

Will never go back to Longview. Major hustle on unneeded maintenance that was way over priced & A long view tech offered to adjust my LR slide trim with a hammer and two by four. I knew it was time to leave :-).
Diamond RV crew is awesome

[loki008]

Originally Posted by Grn_Mtns

Will never go back to Longview. Major hustle on unneeded maintenance that was way over priced & A long view tech offered to adjust my LR slide trim with a hammer and two by four. I knew it was time to leave :-).
Diamond RV crew is awesome

I will likely live with the issues for now and maybe at the end of the season follow up with Diamond RV for these issues and to have the unit prepared for winter.

Thanks

[bob34787]

Originally Posted by loki008

I was told to contact the area Flagstaff dealers. One dealer already said that they do not service rockwood units and the other did not answer their phone (close at 4pm maybe? who knows?)

I cant believe that their franchise agreement does not require them to honor warranty work. This is likely 15 minutes of labor and frankly I would do it myself if i wasnt concerned about potentially voiding the warranty by "fixing" an issue involving a seal.

If I buy a Ford car, i expect to be able to get my service done at any Ford dealer. Not just the dealer i purchased the car from. I have a warranty with Forest River, not the dealer that i bought the unit from. Being told to try my luck with their other dealers is not what I call honoring their warranty

there is no franchise agreement, they are simply resellers of a product, your warranty is with Forest River not the dealer, they do not have to service anything they do not wish to, call Forest River and ask, you may be in for a shock. But than you did not buy from this dealer and you are surprised they do not want to service it? why would they want to? they charge $120/hour for non warranty work and get about 1/2 that from the factory, so their incentive to work on your trailer is what?

[Gaffer222]

Originally Posted by bob34787

there is no franchise agreement, they are simply resellers of a product, your warranty is with Forest River not the dealer, they do not have to service anything they do not wish to, call Forest River and ask, you may be in for a shock. But than you did not buy from this dealer and you are surprised they do not want to service it? why would they want to? they charge $120/hour for non warranty work and get about 1/2 that from the factory, so their incentive to work on your trailer is what?

It's called good customer service and maybe if the dealer tries a little they may gain a customer for life. I have had very similar experiences with Longview and so has a good friend of ours and we both bought our campers there. Neither of us will ever go there again. I had the bait and switch game pulled at purchase and warranty service issue etc with Longview. It's like going to a 3 ring circus and not knowing which way to look when you go there. The place is just stressful from when you first park and gets worse from there. I just ordered a new Camper from another dealer and I was amazed at the difference and how pleasant it was to not have any of bologna going on.

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by loki008

...This is likely 15 minutes of labor and frankly I would do it myself if i wasnt concerned about potentially voiding the warranty by "fixing" an issue involving a seal...

If it's that minor of a fix, why worry about a warranty if you fix the problem?

You said 15 minute fix and you spent more time than that hooking up and taking it to the dealer. IMO you are making a mountain out of a molehill.

[wbdvt]

I stopped in at Long View to look at their parts department and was not impressed by selection or people. Not even a Hello, May I help you when I entered even though several employees were milling about the area.

I bought my first TT from Vermont Country Campers and had a good experience with them on the purchase, PDI and pick up. I did have one issue with the stereo system, called them, they got a new one in for me. They even had no problem with me taking the system out of the TT and just bringing that up to exchange for the new one. Made it alot easier than towing my unit up for that!

My new TT was bought from Pete's RV in Williston, VT. Sales process was good. I pick up the TT this friday, 4/25, so can't comment yet on the PDI and pick up process.

[PhoneDude 8289]

I bought our RV from a dealer more than 1000 miles from home. Have had a couple of minor issues and one not so minor, a grease seal on a wheel leaking. I have taken care of all myself, not worth the hassle of the local dealers. Anything serious that I can't handle a trip to Goshen will be in order.

[vinmaker]

Thanks for this post. I did not know they treated customers this way. I will make sure not to take my camper there if I have any problems.

[rattleNsmoke]

Longview is covering their a**es by keeping your trailer hostage for a month to answer any potential questions by the factory. It make sense. They squeeze a profit from you when buying from them so they can cover the warranty denials an eat the losses. They have the law of large numbers working on their side. Kind of like insurance premiums\claims. When you buy elsewhere, it's a crap shoot for the dealer whether or not they 'might' get paid from Rockwood so i's NOT in their best interest business-wise to bend over backwards and help a 'stranger'. I hate that business mentality from dealers but it's the way it works. I'm glad you bought elsewhere. I personally dislike their attitudes and it comes fro their GM down.

[ChooChooMan74]

Rousseau's RV in Lakeville Ma is a good option. Didn't buy my trailer there, but went in for paid service. One day turnaround on installing a new bed wing door for my Roo.

[RollingDownTheHighway]

we bought our first TT from long view and we had no issues with them. When we went looking to upgrade they wouldn't budge on their prices at all and only wanted to give us 2500 on a 2012 Shasta Revere for a trade in (we paid cash for it when we bought it) and we walked away. Their parts department is bare bones, the service department is average. We bought our new one at Diamond RV up in mass and would recommend them all day.
Sales were great, inventory was good, and their service department was excellent.

[Semperfi24]

I am somewhat new to owning (which also means buying, lol) an RV, so I dont know all the ins and outs of the business. But I have family who have owned for years and years, so I was warned that dealers tend to want to cater to their customers before servicing a trailer bought at another dealer, I can understand that. So my thoughts on this type of a situation arent based on a vast amount of knowledge and experience. But I see this from a different view. I can appreciate the idea that for them to service a vehicle they didnt sell, and deal with the warranty aspect and all of that is a bit of a hassle, but there is a bigger picture. This particular time it is involving warranty work on a trailer you didnt sell, but if the customer is pleased with your work, attitude, service, etc, when the warranty is up (and thus the potential hassle is gone from the equation) they are going to bring it back to you for service because you earned that business. The incentive is if I do a stand up job with this customer for warranty work of which I am not really making money, he is going to gladly come back and pay $120 (or so) per hour cash money once or so a year in the future. The idea that it isnt worth the effort today is going to cost them (potentially) a lot of money in the future, right? I cant for the life of me understand the attitude that thousands of potential future dollars earned isnt worth the "hassle" of only making $100 today...

[loki008]

Originally Posted by Semperfi24

I am somewhat new to owning (which also means buying, lol) an RV, so I dont know all the ins and outs of the business. But I have family who have owned for years and years, so I was warned that dealers tend to want to cater to their customers before servicing a trailer bought at another dealer, I can understand that. So my thoughts on this type of a situation arent based on a vast amount of knowledge and experience. But I see this from a different view. I can appreciate the idea that for them to service a vehicle they didnt sell, and deal with the warranty aspect and all of that is a bit of a hassle, but there is a bigger picture. This particular time it is involving warranty work on a trailer you didnt sell, but if the customer is pleased with your work, attitude, service, etc, when the warranty is up (and thus the potential hassle is gone from the equation) they are going to bring it back to you for service because you earned that business. The incentive is if I do a stand up job with this customer for warranty work of which I am not really making money, he is going to gladly come back and pay $120 (or so) per hour cash money once or so a year in the future. The idea that it isnt worth the effort today is going to cost them (potentially) a lot of money in the future, right? I cant for the life of me understand the attitude that thousands of potential future dollars earned isnt worth the "hassle" of only making $100 today...

Thats exactly it. A few simple fixes could have won a customer over. I am sure that there will be service work that I will be interested in over time. However I will be staying far away from Longview RV for any paid work. I honestly dont feel that I would be able to trust them even with paid work based on the underhanded behavior I've seen so far and what others have said.