Negative: Forest River Warranty and Service

[jbcz3]

This post is a warning to potential Forest River buyers and for current owners. I bought my 2013 Surveyor Select brand new. One week in my AC quit. Since I am a full timer I couldn't bring it to a dealer and I needed mobile service. It was a complete runaround from dealer through manufacturer. Finally, I made contact with Susan Thornberg from Forest River's Surveyor Select. She gave me written warranty authorization through email to have a mobile serviceman come check out my AC. Side note: I needed this service in south Texas during the first week of July; triple digit heat. I got the brand new AC unit serviced. The problem was an incorrectly installed freeze sensor; it was too high up and needed to be lowered. After the service I sent the receipt to Susan Thornberg and have not received a response. It's been almost 3 months since my service and no one from Surveyor Select answers a phone call much less returns a message. Needless to say I am out money for a "warranty" coverage. Forest River is a joke. Below is the email thread I promised them I would post in this forum. I hope you find this informative. The Todd that is mentioned below is from Ohio RV Wholesale from whom I purchased the TT. He has also been of no use.

Todd,

Please forward this to your in house parts/warranty man-- I forgot his name, but he put me in touch with Susan at Forest River. I sincerely appreciate the help as I haven't been able to get anywhere with Forest River.

John Donati





8/15/13





To: Susan Thornberg




Susan, It's been over a month and I've yet to hear from you. I will extend you 24 hours to respond and then I will copy this thread to the Forest River forum so other owners and prospective buyers see











From:John Donati (john.publicrelations@hotmail.com)Sent:Thu 8/15/13 7:32 PMTo: Susan Thornberg (sthornberg@forestriverinc.com)






Susan,

It's been over a month and I've yet to hear from you. I will extend you 24 hours to respond and then I will copy this thread to the Forest River forum so other owners and prospective buyers see this type of customer service.

With Regards,

John

















John Donati

7/18/13





To: Susan Thornberg




Susan, Just touching base with you. Have you received my receipt??











From:John Donati (john.publicrelations@hotmail.com)Sent:Thu 7/18/13 5:49 PMTo: Susan Thornberg (sthornberg@forestriverinc.com)






Susan,

Just touching base with you. Have you received my receipt??











John Donati


7/15/13





To: Susan Thornberg




Susan, Did you receive the email I sent you with the receipt? John Donati











From:John Donati (john.publicrelations@hotmail.com)Sent:Mon 7/15/13 4:06 PMTo: Susan Thornberg (sthornberg@forestriverinc.com)






Susan,

Did you receive the email I sent you with the receipt?

John Donati
63663457









John,
I am sorry for the inconvenience this is causing and hopefully your mobile repair can correct it.

This e-mail comes to you as authorization to have a mobile repair service come to your trailer at your part and repair you’re A/C and Forest River will reimburse you’re the dollars you have to pay.

Sincerely

Susan Thornberg
Warranty, Parts & Service Manager
574-642-3119 574-642-3119 FREE

[BarryD0706]

Small claims court?

[jbcz3]

The service call ran me $65 and for that amount it's not worth the hassle of court. However, it is worth my time to alert others to the shady business practices of those mentioned in my thread.

[SaskCampers]

Interesting the contact I see as the Surveyor warranty contact is Amber Wilson. Perhaps the Susan you refer to is no longer at FR, although I would think they would have forwarded her account to the new rep.

[bob34787]

I do not understand if its under 2 years old and a dometic A/C its not a forest river problem, seems to me that if its a dometic A/C you should have contacted them for a mobile service, at least thats what Dometic told me when i needed service during my full time adventure last year.

[ResQfrog]

Seems to me that that the warranty normally states that you are to get the unit to the authorized dealer. For warranty work. Seems like the beef should be with your dealer not Forest River. I now that Ford, GM, Dodge, etc. Do not make house calls to fix the A/C when it does not work. Should have made sure the dealer did this before you went through them.

[jbcz3]

@Bob-- I was told by Dometic to use Forest River just in case it wasn't directly an AC issue. IOTW if it was a "loose" wire elsewhere in the TT causing the problem.

@TheSask-- Amber was the rep before Susan; she took over for Amber. They never changed their directory. Hell, Amber still has a voicemail setup even though she's been gone since May of 2013.

Like I said: their warranty service is abysmal. The only thing close is a used car "warranty" which at least I would expect terrible service.

[jbcz3]

@RGMiller--that is complete BS. It's unreasonable to think that if I am 600 miles away I need to get the rig to them. That's why there is mobile servicemen that are listed through Coachnet. If I pay 25K over the internet for my rig; have it delivered without ever setting foot in the dealership then the dealer and Forest River need to work it out between themselves without inconveniencing the client. The answer to my problem from both dealer and Forest River should have been: "Right away sir; sorry for your problem and we'll take care of it. What is the location of your TT? We will have a service tech there in 24 hours. We sincerely appreciate your business and again we are so very sorry for your inconvenience."

[TURBS]

Understand your issues and sorry to hear of your issues.

Something to be said about buying local in my opinion.

[jbcz3]

@f1100turbo- I agree with buying local, but that is relative considering my "local" is anywhere in North America because my job is 105% travel.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by f1100turbo

Understand your issues and sorry to hear of your issues.

Something to be said about buying local in my opinion.

X's 2, sometimes the wheels turn slow, I'm sure if FR told you that they will get you your payment they will. They have been very good to me. Try calling instead of emails. Sorry to hear of your problem, but it still will not sour me on FR. Sometimes a call is worth a thousand emails. I have known of alot of other people with bigger bills then that they took care of, maybe not as quick that we all would like but they are pretty responsive in my opinion.

[elind]

Originally Posted by jbcz3

The service call ran me $65 and for that amount it's not worth the hassle of court. However, it is worth my time to alert others to the shady business practices of those mentioned in my thread.

Not sure if it could work everywhere, but this is what I would do. Go down the the court house and ask for the paper forms to file a claim in small claims court. Bring them home and fill them out. Then send them the top copy of the small claims paper work you filled out. Attach a note to it that they have 7 day to respond to you. After that date you will file the claim at the court house. It will cost you nothing but a stamp but it sure puts the pressure to call you back before you summit it in.

[jbcz3]

@gljurczyk-- I have called and left more messages than I have sent via email. Still no response. This is about principle not money. God forbid it was my inverter...

Do you have a contact I could call??

[bob34787]

Originally Posted by jbcz3

@Bob-- I was told by Dometic to use Forest River just in case it wasn't directly an AC issue. IOTW if it was a "loose" wire elsewhere in the TT causing the problem.

@TheSask-- Amber was the rep before Susan; she took over for Amber. They never changed their directory. Hell, Amber still has a voicemail setup even though she's been gone since May of 2013.

Like I said: their warranty service is abysmal. The only thing close is a used car "warranty" which at least I would expect terrible service.

I see, but once you established it was a dometic issue, payment would ultimately come from Dometic as FR would just be the middle man. But than again if they won't return your calls or emails than I guess you get screwed. also you can't lump all FR warranty issues into one as each manufacturer has its own warranty dept. I have had good luck with cedar creek, many problems but they have been handled and as of now no problems with FR on fixing my Aviator

[huntr70]

Well, for one thing, warranty will NOT cover service calls. Period.

Also, if you press the manufacturers buttons, they will stop your warranty, as these are not full time living accomodations, they are "recreational" vehicles.

Been down this road many times, on the dealership side. No RV company will cover service trips. You may gladly take in to any service center and have warranty work performed.

[bob34787]

Originally Posted by 2008Wildcat

Well, for one thing, warranty will NOT cover service calls. Period.

Also, if you press the manufacturers buttons, they will stop your warranty, as these are not full time living accomodations, they are "recreational" vehicles.

Been down this road many times, on the dealership side. No RV company will cover service trips. You may gladly take in to any service center and have warranty work performed.

DRV does. also had my dealer at my site a few times for repairs, not a problem.

[jbcz3]

Originally Posted by 2008Wildcat

Well, for one thing, warranty will NOT cover service calls. Period.

Also, if you press the manufacturers buttons, they will stop your warranty, as these are not full time living accomodations, they are "recreational" vehicles.

Been down this road many times, on the dealership side. No RV company will cover service trips. You may gladly take in to any service center and have warranty work performed.

Warranty does, in fact, cover service calls. It was preapproved on the phone in an email from Surveyor. The email thread is in my original posting. I don't use my rig full-time; only when I'm on the road for work and recreation. That's the plus of loving what I do-- it's a hobby; therefore, recreation by anyone's definition. My home and address of record are in Missouri. Again, if I am on the road they come to me hence the Coachnet membership that Surveyor pays for the first year.

[Aussiecat]

Wow! This is interesting, we're considering a FR and purchasing from RV Wholesale Ohio. Their big spiel was that they have service availability all over the US whereas most dealers will only provide service locally. Food for thought.

[asquared]

Jbcz3-- in one post you say you full-time then you retract that statement. While I understand your frustration, I have always understood that service calls aren't routinely covered by any manufacturer, it is typically the owners responsibility to bring it in to an authorized dealership (does not have to be where you purchased, you just tend to get better service from purchasing dealership).

[BigJohnD]

I wish more manufacturers were like Tiffin. Ask anyone that owns one. No questions asked, they will take care of you. If you needed a part, give them a call, and they'd overnight it to you, and pay for the mobile repair. They always answer phones and emails. But, that's a family run business. Our experience with Forest River (Elkhart facility next to Forester / Sunseeker plant) was pretty good. They jumped through hoops to take care of us fixing our previous motorhome. With FR, every brand is like it's own little company, so you get some good, some not so good. Unfortunate but that's the way it is. There were a few items on our new Silverback that would've been covered by warranty, but I paid for and fixed them myself. It wasn't worth the time, hassle, and stress to deal with a mobile tech, or fuel to get the RV somewhere to fix it. In other words, I paid for my own convenience.

We full time as well, and we've heard the yes and nos to being covered or not. We have a residential address, with no house, just a shop with a guest room, and a PO Box for the few bits of snail mail. The only people that know we full time are friends, aquaintances and people on this forum. So, either way, on paper, we don't full time in this RV if it's ever an issue with a warranty claim. Really no way to prove it other than my signature here.

Sorry for your issues and I hope they get resolved.