Two price increases in one month?

[Mrdq33]

Ordered a surveyor 19BHLE from XXXXX on April 30th. Its taking almost 6mos to receive but we finally got a pickup date for this Tuesday Sept 28th. My sales guys sends me pics of unit and then says production cost went up and btw bring another $1300 to closing. The first increase was $1085 a little over a month ago, now they can legally increase it again and get away with it? The fine print does say the cost can change during production but HAS ANYONE EVER HEARD OF TWO INCREASES in such short time?

This whole first time RV ordering experience has been a total nightmare. First they go up on the price, then they change to cheaper cargo nets above the bed unlike the 2021 units which have the nicer glass prism cabinet doors. Then they forgot the flipout countertop and to add insult to injury they ultimately are asking for an additional $2474 which increases the original amount from 19,700 to 22,100. The model year changed during production so that helps for value but now I'm not only not getting the trailer I wanted but I'm getting less for more!!! MAKES NO SENSE!!!!

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by Mrdq33

The first increase was $1085 a little over a month ago, now they can legally increase it again and get away with it? The fine print does say the cost can change during production but HAS ANYONE EVER HEARD OF TWO INCREASES in such short time?

Legally, yes.

It sucks especially with all of the other changes. But contractually, it sounds like yes, they can increase the price twice in a short period of time.

I'm no lawyer, don't play one on TV, and am not even the brightest bulb in the bunch. So take my $0.02 for what it's worth.

[wmtire]

Yes, this has been going on for a bit as we have previous threads on it as well as some forest river representatives explaining how some costs are being unexpectedly thrown on them too. There are YouTube videos on this situation too as it's not just forest river

Depending on your purchase agreement, you may can walk away. It's such a sellers market right now.

Here is a dealers video from 4 months ago about this.

https://youtu.be/57ITzduTsBw

[Mrdq33]

@wmtire, thanks for sharing. I've seen that and believe it or not I watched and thought it didn't apply to me!! but then I went to read my fine print and saw that i wasn't special. I was torn apart after the first increase and would never think they could do it twice. Oh well, I keep telling my wife it will cost more to walk away now than to just complete the transaction.

[bclemens]

My wife has heard me preach about the rate of increases. She finally got excited when our Amazon subscribe and save order came in.

Paper Towels....went from like $12 to $24.
Bird food, $17 to $39 a bag.

Shipping container costs were $2k-$3k. $14k was projected as the high, it then hit $23k. We have heard of single containers in a bidding scenario hit $33k and then $45k recently. It is madness.

I had a supplier recently layout their increases in advance now. A part I paid about $800 for a year ago is at $1100 now, my Sept price is $1400 and my Oct. Price is $1800. One single part.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by bclemens

My wife has heard me preach about the rate of increases. She finally got excited when our Amazon subscribe and save order came in.

Paper Towels....went from like $12 to $24.
Bird food, $17 to $39 a bag.

Shipping container costs were $2k-$3k. $14k was projected as the high, it then hit $23k. We have heard of single containers in a bidding scenario hit $33k and then $45k recently. It is madness.

I had a supplier recently layout their increases in advance now. A part I paid about $800 for a year ago is at $1100 now, my Sept price is $1400 and my Oct. Price is $1800. One single part.

Mrdq33, just to introduce you. bclemens is the General Manager over Forest River's Motorhome Divisions. He's as close to "in the know" as we'll get from FR.

[Cowracer]

One wonders if there was a price decrease, if the dealer would be so quick to try to pass that on.

Tim

[Mrdq33]

ependydad, thanks and thanks to bclemens for your input. It always means alot when someone who works in the industry can shed light on things like this. I guess I can look on the bright side. My $2474 worth of increases still has me in a 2022 (i ordered a 21') for two grand less than what it would cost today. Still not happy about the beautiful prism glass cabinet doors being ditched for cargo nets. I'll never hear the end of it from my wife.

p.s. I was actually able to get the parts dept at FR to sell me four doors however they don't fit. The 22' has three 18 inch openings and the doors i have at home still in the box are 12 inch openings I JUST CAN'T WIN!!!.

[bclemens]

Originally Posted by ependydad

He's as close to "in the know" as we'll get from FR.

lol...and that is a stretch.

As for decreases, it will definitely not be quick.

On the OEM side, we are VERY alert to decreases. The OEM that starts passing on the decreases the fastest, will win the battle on the back side of this. Dealers will gobble up the lower cost stuff and it will not leave shelf space for manufacturers that try to hold at higher margins. The problem is, I can't see that Horizon. Sort of like this stock market "It has to correct at some point" (been saying that for two years?)

We started seeing material tightening and price increases, pretty severely in 2020. Sept 2020, we were just told we needed it make it through the first quarter where we would see relief. Then it was 2nd quarter, the it was not just price increases but allocations....you could no longer get as muhc as you needed, you got a fraction of that. Now it is summer of 2022. They keep trying to compare it to cycles in history and this is unlike any cycle we have ever seen...so everyone is flying blind.

[Backcountryboondocker]

Originally Posted by Mrdq33

Still not happy about the beautiful prism glass cabinet doors being ditched for cargo nets. I'll never hear the end of it from my wife.

I saw a walk through on a 2022 19BHLE and I was jealous of the new logo, was wanting me to go out and get a new 2022 one….. then I saw the cargo nets. I’m happy that I got a 2021 version, had I been looking for a trailer now I would have passed on the Surveyor just because of the nets. Guess it’s easier and less likely for production to screw up installing nets compared to real doors.

When I was looking early this year at trailers, dealers were telling me they were getting MONTHLY price increases.

[Mrdq33]

@backcountryboondockers....guess what? I finally got over the cargo nets after contacting the FR parts dept. They sold me 4 new glass prism doors for a great price. Then I finally get pics of my new trailer which we pick up on Monday and low and behold, it has 3 18 inch cutout opening above the bed and not the standard 4 that you have in your 2021. It's so frustrating because I provided them the VIN# when I ordered the parts and it still didn't work out. worse experience ever!!! (now I'm waiting to hear back and am hoping they have doors to fit the 3 openings otherwise my wife is literally willing to walk away from the deal)

[Backcountryboondocker]

Unfortunately the overhead doors are not the only “major” change that Surveyor did to their trailers. They also eliminated the dinette under seat storage doors and went with the standard remove the cushion and lift up the plywood base option, with their reasoning being it’s easier access to the back of the dinette storage space without bending all the was down. (I LOVE having the doors on the dinette) In my opinion Surveyor has cheapened their trailers for 2022. But….. the price of your new 2022 isn’t horrible. I paid about $5k more than your original price for a June 2021 built one, so for an extra $2k (Your new price) less I might have still got it and then did upgrades myself.

And is your deposit refundable? How would you be losing money if you walked away from the deal?

[dustman_stx]

You should have bought from RVWholesalers. Only major dealer in the country I’m aware of that is price protecting their customers still.

[Mrdq33]

backcountryboondocker, i believe my deposit is refundable based on the verbiage but the thing is....RV sales are so high that no way i would be able to find the same or similar trailer again for less than what we would be walking away from ($22,100).

[NavyLCDR]

It's called inflation.



And then you add to that the short supply of transportation and shipping workers, especially in the U.S. which drives the cost of shipping up.

Exchange rates come into play as well when foreign parts are used. As the value of the dollar decreases due to inflation not only does the price of the foreign part go up because of the increase in price the foreign supplier is charging, but the price in USD goes up even more as the USD value is driven down by inflation.

[Mrdq33]

Originally Posted by NavyLCDR

It's called inflation.

Attachment 263338

And then you add to that the short supply of transportation and shipping workers, especially in the U.S. which drives the cost of shipping up.

Exchange rates come into play as well when foreign parts are used. As the value of the dollar decreases due to inflation not only does the price of the foreign part go up because of the increase in price the foreign supplier is charging, but the price in USD goes up even more as the USD value is driven down by inflation.

INFLATION IS FINE. it's the quality. it's so not fair to get less and pay more. greed causes corners to be cut and the end result is the consumer gets screwed.

[azfansinnc]

I'm with bclemens on this. While I don't work in the RV industry, I'm in the process of working price increases for the company I work for, the second one in two months. Commodities, Shipping and Labor costs are all going through the roof. We originally projected a leveling that has not happened and companies like mine need to protect ourselves and our employees.

It's not industry-wide greed that's causing this. The problems are very real. Overseas shipping is 6X what it was in 2020. Delivery timelines are 2X. Aluminum products +6%, Steel +8%, Plastics +12%. The list continues....

[jd4010]

I bet in another year or two we'll start seeing a ton of slightly used RVs hitting the market. Covid drove the sales of RVs thru the roof but as more places open up, I think we'll see many fire sales on rigs because camping wasn't for them.

[NavyLCDR]

Originally Posted by Mrdq33

INFLATION IS FINE. it's the quality. it's so not fair to get less and pay more. greed causes corners to be cut and the end result is the consumer gets screwed.

That is totally true. Pay more for less.

[Ready2camp]

Not to say you didn't, but I never sign a contract without fully understanding it and reading it. I would NEVER sign something that states I might have to pay more money for something after buying it. A few months ago I signed a contract for $190,000 to remodel my home. The contractor came to me a month later asking for $27,000 more because materials have gone up. I told him NO! I signed/agreed to your contract terms and I'm not paying more unless I make changes causing an increase in the price. So, unfortunately, it seems you agreed to those price increases.