Negative Beware of Ron Hoover of Katy, Texas

901Hunt · 07-03-2020, 07:05 PM

***Pay attention to warranty/service reviews. They speak to the true nature of a company. Any retailer can put up a façade to make a sale.***

Purchased from Ron Hoover because of the Forest River name. Forest River is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffet would be ashamed to know how Ron Hoover handles their service and warranty department.

After purchasing a BRAND NEW, albeit one year old RV off the lot; (2018 model purchased in 2019) and putting 1,500 miles on the odometer, we discovered major quality and workmanship issues and filed a claim. To name a few issues:
-Leak in the roof over the cab bunk which resulted in rotted wood under the bunk.
-Forward slide leaked around the weather seal rotting the floor in the dining room, living room, and kitchen)
-Fresh Water tank leaked under the master bed causing black mold and requiring the frame be replaced.
-Rear slide weather seal leaked and the bedroom floor needed to be replaced.
(To name a few.... Did I mention this was a new RV?)

We have now owned our RV for just under 1 year. It has spent 7 months with Ron Hoover's laughable warranty and service department with no light at the end of the tunnel. We have to call repeatedly for updates, no work has been completed to date, and the last we heard, "the parts we need weren't on the supply truck so we can't complete the work." 7 MONTHS!!! In the time our RV has been in for warranty work, the entire 2021 Forrest River line up has been built. Ron Hoover, an "authorized dealer and service center" doesn't have the ability to repair seals and floors in their own RVs. When we pressed for answers the Warranty Department stated, "Well, you did buy last years model." Let me get this straight; Ron Hoover has such little faith in their product, that if a Brand New RV sits on their lot for 1 year, they expect it to catastrophically fail when driven 1500 miles. If this sounds like your kind of RV and dealership, go right ahead.

After several months of nothing happening, we made a trip up to try and speak with someone in person. Must have been our lucky day. We spoke with non other than Chris Hoover who said he would personally ensure the RV was repaired in a timely manner. He's either a typical smoke and mirrors sales person, or has zero control over the company he is CEO of; as two more months have gone by with zero effort made.

If you are the type of person that wants to enjoy their RV and receive reasonable service when needed, AVOID RON HOOVER. On the other hand, if you enjoy stubbing your toes on corners, smashing your thumb while hammering nails, or brain freezes while eating ice cream, this may be the RV Dealer of your dreams.

I don't normally write reviews, but this has to get out. If you are spending the money for a quality RV, you can do so much better than a Forest River by Ron Hoover.

Reverse_snowbird · 07-03-2020, 07:24 PM

Have you tried reaching out to the Forest River Warranty department?

**Mr. Dan** · 07-03-2020, 07:36 PM

You say it's a Forest River unit. What division built it?

901Hunt · 07-03-2020, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reverse_snowbird

Have you tried reaching out to the Forest River Warranty department?

Multiple times...Spoke with Jeff in Western Division of the Warranty Department.

Side note, this isn't our first RV. We previously had a 25 footer that we hit 49/50 states and Canada in. Usually spend over half the year on the road traveling the country. We aren't the negative review type, but we are at our wits end dealing with this nonsense.

901Hunt · 07-03-2020, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Dan

You say it's a Forest River unit. What division built it?

It is a Forest River Class C motorhome. I'll need to do some digging to find out where it was built if they are made in more than one factory. I know one of the plants is in Elkhart. We've been attempting to deal with the Western Warranty Division.

**Mr. Dan** · 07-03-2020, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 901Hunt

It is a Forest River Class C motorhome. I'll need to do some digging to find out where it was built if they are made in more than one factory. I know one of the plants is in Elkhart. We've been attempting to deal with the Western Warranty Division.

Forest River is the corporate name - like General Motors. Is the division Sunseeker, Forester, etc. - like Chevrolet, Cadillac?

901Hunt · 07-03-2020, 10:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Dan

Forest River is the corporate name - like General Motors. Is the division Sunseeker, Forester, etc. - like Chevrolet, Cadillac?

I misunderstood your last message. It's the Sunseeker division.

Yillbs · 07-03-2020, 11:54 PM

sorry you got sucked into it. calling forest river seems to always do us better. they can't let it go months long like the dealer does. They are also very good about calling back.

CaptnJohn · 07-04-2020, 01:25 PM

Buffet has the money and could care less. He never is ashamed if he makes a dime. Former A share holder.

babock · 07-04-2020, 01:28 PM

I was always laughing when I went to look at trailers and the salesman mentioned Buffet. If Buffet ever set one foot in any RV manufacturing plant, I would be totally surprised.

mbbutler · 07-04-2020, 01:38 PM

Sorry for your issues. I believe this is the dealer JD uses on his videos "BigTruckBigRV". If this dealer was totally bad, I doubt JD would use them.
Hopefully JD will see this post.

NMWildcat · 07-04-2020, 01:48 PM

What always amazes me is how some folks have a wonderful relationship with a certain dealer, and then another says that same dealer is crook and the worst dealer ever.
So what we don't hear are all the details of how folks come to the point of declaring a dealer good or bad. I find personalities, approaches, and circumstances vary wildly in the final decision

That being said, I only use dealers for the initial sale, and then never see any of them again.
Use independent, service only shops after the sale, you will be much happier...

DouglasReid · 07-04-2020, 02:10 PM

I have a suggestion for you. Pick up the camper, drive it to The Good Shepherd RV in Lafayette, LA.

Mitch will take VERY good care of your unit, Will NOT waste your time and will provide you with the satisfaction you deserve.

2784 NE Evangeline Thruway, Lafayette, LA 70507
(337) 534-0908

He has repaired mine and several other persons Ive referred to him. NONE of us have been disappointed!

I know it is far from Houston, but would it not be wroth the trip to gain the satisfaction of knowing yoru RV was repaired, right, the first time?

I have NO connection or affiliation with Mitch's business other than as a satisfied customer

tomkatb · 07-04-2020, 02:15 PM

You have to take this kind of thing with a grain of salt.

I used to pick major construction contractors to build our plants.

You learn pretty quick that good companies make 80% of their customers happy. Not so much for the others.

I too am from the good PDI and take care of most stuff myself group.

This rv I think was a looser. Some vehicles are just born bad. More than the average rv dealer can handle.

My new Hathaway was swell! Most of the real horror stories seem to come from Motor home folks.

larry2c · 07-04-2020, 02:38 PM

We had some issues with our TT shortly after getting it home. We felt the dealer response was very poor and after giving them a few weeks to try and make things right, I went looking for the next level above the Salem support level. I found this link to FR Customer Satisfaction..

Jumping the chain of command is something I rarely do but if you feel you're getting nowhere (7 months would way exceed my tolerance) then give this a shot. I got a call back about 2 days after leaving a detailed message. A day or so after talking to the FR Customer Satisfaction person (sorry, the name escapes me at the moment) I received a very polite call from the dealer/service department. They first asked if I'd called FR and I said yes because I got nowhere with you. Their response was very polite and they took care of all of our issues immediately. After it was all done, I received a follow up call from the dealer/service department and a call from FR verifying that I was satisfied with the outcome. I was and still am - just a shame it had to go to a corprorate level to get it right.

Brother Les · 07-04-2020, 02:41 PM

Warren Buffet trained Ron Hoover. To them you are just another patsy/rube/mark. Stop being perceived that and take your unit to an independent RV repair shop, you will be glad you did. I mean absolutely no offense, but as you know, Ron does not seem to care.

Daycruiser · 07-04-2020, 02:52 PM

Did the OP ask Sunseeker if he could bring the RV back to the factory to have all the warranty issues taken care of? Most dealers are useless, they want nothing to do with warranty work, they just want to sell and do non-warranty work. With all the water damage I would want the factory to do the work.