No such thing as service after the sale.

[Roberte52]

Originally Posted by jozack

I have not heard of one dealer that take care of you after you buy. You may have to bring it back 2 times for same thing. I bought a Rock Wood mini Lite, and it had a weak battery from the start. I worked in the electrical field so I know a bad battery. First time I brought it in they said they had to charger it for 23 hours. All good now. Nope that right their is a sign. Next trip they said I would have to leave it so they can find what is draining the battery. Still no fix, I got tired of having to plug the camper in just to get it off my truck. I called FR they replaced the awning but not the battery, so I bought a new one. My buddy got a Newmar close to half mill,and no dealer would work on it, they said he did not buy it from them. This is sad.

Not true! Camper Clinic II in Buda, Texas has taken care of all my RV needs and repairs.

[AbdRahim]

Hi folks. Just a reminder to also post reviews on rvservicereviews.com. This is a great resource when looking for reliable service when away from home. I always check this site for service along my route and near my destination.

[joeuncool]

RV dealers don't work like car dealers. The "dealerships" are private business and have absolutely no connection back to the manufacturers that they sell. They have a tendency to give priority to the customers that they sell the campers to. Those customers tend to be repeat customers for everything, new sales, parts and accessories, and repairs so they cater to them. Warranty repairs they make very little from. If you didn't buy the camper from them they have little desire to jump on those warranty repairs.

As for the repair techs and quality of work, you never know what you are going to get. Unlike car dealerships they don't have factory sponsored training programs to make sure their techs/mechanics are Forestriver or whatever other brand certified. They are whatever hired employee that have who knows what experience.

Hence, this is all why you hear a lot of people on here that decide they can do the work as well John Doe down at a dealer. University of YouTube training with a minor in Forestriverforums.com.

If I was in the battery situation I would have replaced it myself with a far better battery than the dealer is going to give me anyway. Yeah, I should expect a brand new good battery upon purchase but sometimes spending a $80-$120 is worth saving the headache.

[fred+sherry]

If you're in NY . Fingerlakes area . Family RV . Newark , NY .
Larry , is a straight shooter . Does what he says .
I will use them the rest of my life. .
Fred +Sherry

[modelrr]

Sorry you are having service problems. We have been given excellent service, both warranty and non warranty issues by our dealer. I often see people shopping both near and far for the best price and wonder if they also include service by those dealers as part of the equation. As far as I'm concerned both parts count equally. We have dealt with our local dealer, Stoltzfus Rvs in Adamstown, Pa, for our last five units. We always received good pricing and courteous help from the Sales Dept. and excellent help from the Service Department. (I've even called with problems we had on the road and the service department has walked me through what needed to be done over the phone!) We're very happy with our new CCS and again our dealer has followed up with excellent service.

[McCormickJim]

I got lucky and didn't know it until after the sale.

I bought my georgetown 31L5 (35' Class A) from Century RV in Longmont Colorado.

They service only what they sell. Simple reason is they have so much business that they only have time for their direct customers. If they took on others, their purchasing customers would suffer.

Service? I call and make and appointment. When I arrive they make out the work order and then walk the coach with me placing tape one every item in need of attention. When they get through with the walk-through, they tell me what day to pick up the coach (usually 2-10 days depending on whether or not parts must be ordered). As work progresses I receive phone call updates from the service manager. If the promise-date has to change, I get a phone call with an explanation BEFORE the date. When the coach is ready for pickup I receive a phone call. When I pick up the coach the service does a walk-through with me and verifies everything is repaired to my satisfaction.

I'm very happy with my selling dealer.

[Love-to-campp]

X2 on Century RV in Longmont Colorado.
We bought our TT from them and the service department has been great .

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Rmstack

Do you have a battery master disconnect switch on your camper? If not, there can be electrical usage which drains the battery. Did the dealer think of that possibility?

THIS!
Plus Forest River has nothing to do with the battery, since they are a dealer-installed item on trailers.

[Onecuff]

I called over a year ago to R.V. One in Albany I’m still waiting .

[TitanMike]

Every time I consider buying a coach I end up asking me if I want to double my "Dealer Issues"

With a travel trailer I can repair most issues myself and only consider taking it to the dealer for major issues (non so far with 2 TT's over 23 years).

If I have truck issues they get handled at the dealership by a whole different level of techs.

One issue, as i see it, is that RV dealerships are somewhat seasonal in nature. They have busy seasons for repairs and during the slower months they lay off the extra people needed for minor repairs or delivery prep. You can only get so much work out of a small number of techs that are full timers.

The exception of course are the dealerships that have year around business.

[The Newsoms]

Well, I can actually fix that and say Bayou Outdoors in Bossier City, LA.

X2

[slipf18]

Purchased two TTs from Lazy Days in Seffner, FL. You're able to negotiate a fair price with these people, but once you drive off the lot, they forget about you and your problems. Typical. Unfortunately.

[bareftn]

Originally Posted by spock123

I live three hundred miles from where I brought my camper at. I’m going to be honest if I had a bad battery I would just buy another better battery. Where you brought the camper at installed the battery and they most likely put the cheapest one in they could find.

when ever I need a battery no matter what's its for car, boat truck, tractor if it needs a battery I go to my nearest interstate battery distributor and get a blem battery it a battery that's been on the shelf at a dealer. All batteries have a shelf life then its got to go so I get a 5 year battery for $40.00 with trade. Out of the dozens I have bought over the years I had only one fail me after a year and that was because a short in the truck drained the battery over the winter till it was dead for a month, Both my car, truck, tractors have one and now my camper has a deep cell
Like I said I only pay $40.00 plus tax with trade
why go anyplace else

[MCTroy]

We are lucky to live near our Forest River dealership. Arbogast RV in Troy. Ohio has done a good job on our Windjammer's minor repairs and maintenance. On the road, we had excellent emergency service from Coleraine RV near Alum Creek in Columbus, Ohio. So we don't agree with OP. There are good dealerships with service out there, at least in Ohio.

[ferrisjc]

Mixed reviews on this one. I would like to say the dealer I bought my RV from would always take the rig right in, bend over backwards to get the work completed, etc. Truth is it has waited for weeks without nary a touch to it. The work would eventually get done and so far successfully but when I started taking it to another dealer they took another attitude, one of which was positive, honest, and regardless of where I bought it weren't disgruntled about that. They took in the warranty work without problem. The biggest difference to me was they had a well staffed maintenance group and the work would get assigned, the tech would talk to me, the parts department would contact me when the part came in and in my view the work got done as soon as possible. Pick who I use now. Like folks have mentioned some good, some not so good. Find one that fits and don't worry a bit about leaning on another dealer advertising a different brand. In many cases those techs have worked on many, many different brands.

[rskeans]

Originally Posted by NMWildcat

But you do have choices, even for warranty work! If you don't like the way your dealer treats you for service, stop banging your head against the wall and complaining. Go somewhere else! Either another dealer, or (my choice) an independent service only shop. Problem solved.

^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^
I bought 1200 miles away. I knew from the get go that I'd never be back. Did a very thorough PDI before I departed for home and it paid off. Had an Aquahot mobile service come to my home to fix same under their warranty. Had the power cord reel fail and some other petty things and Forest River said to take it to ANY FR dealer for repairs. That I did to a TT dealer 1/2 mile from my house. They were very good! The only problem was for the dealer to get the parts from FR. It took about 4 months for the dealer to get all of the parts. I brought the MH home and they called me when the parts arrived.

If time is of the essence go to the small private RV repair shop. Get pre approval first from FR though!

[JohnD10]

Every time I've found a dealer with a good repair tech...

It seemed that when the time came to use that tech he/she had moved on to another dealership.

[dcheatwood]

I can name 2 dealer's with great service, at least when we were using them. One is Cenla RV in Alexandria, LA and the other is Bayou Outdoors RV in Bossier City, LA.

[Carguy1965]

Camper City at I 985 and Friendship Rd in Buford GA. Family owned business and great folks to deal with. We bought our first camper out of state,(long Story), but they handled our warranty service like we bought it from them. They picked up a customer for life. Great service and prices etc. The good dealers are out there, you just have to look for them, and stay away from Camping World !

[poorturtle]

I'll keep it short. I purchased from RV Wholesalers in Ohio. We towed back home to Arizona. One of the cold water lines in the belly had a small crack that caused a minor leak. I called my Rep at RVW on Tuesday. The next day I received a call from a mobile repair tech he would be on my seasonal site Thursday. He was and dropped the belly and repaired the leak. No problems, no wait, no towing to a dealer. Problem gone.