Johnworth914 wrote: That few thousand saved by driving 1000 miles won't seem so good when you have to ake the drive every time you need warranty work done.
Increasingly, real dealers will not do the work for rvs bought through a wholesaler... The $$ that the manufacturers reimburse them is generally way below their shop rate, so while they will service their customers, they are in no hurry to help out the guy who lives 10 miles away, but drove cross country to save a grand
I'll bet when you ar getting ready for a trip and your fridge, or a/c goes on the fritz, you are going to want your local dealer to help you out.
How do you think the wholesaler can sell at the prices they do? Simple.. Pump and dump.they have nointerest in servicing you when you need
Or if you are on the road and have a problem, you are going to want a local dealer to help get you back on the road.
A/C, furnace, water heater and all appliances are warrantied by their individual manufacturers not the company that built the trailer. There are plenty of independent repair shops that will fix any of those items under warranty. You don't have to go back to your selling dealer for repairs on them. For a few thousand dollars saved I'd shop around. We travel a lot and having a local dealer to help get it fixed doesn't work for us anyway. We bought ours from a local dealer. The service was so bad I'd never go back anyway. Besides the warranty on the coach only lasts a year in most cases..Big Deal..
B.O.
2011 Big Country 3250TS...2010 Ram CC Laramie 4wd Cummins
15k Super Glide, Firestone Ride Rite, TrailAir Tri-Glide
Michelin XPS Ribs. Just say no to Chinese tires.
Twin Cities Mn.
pitch wrote: If I am on the road when I have a problem, I will be no where near the local dealer!
Of course you will be, one local to where you are broken down. And that local dealer ( not wholesaler) will have a service staff that you will want to help you. That staff is paid for largely by the margin the dealer makes on RV sales.
If RV dealers service departments had to be self sufficient their customer--pay rates would need to be much higher... To cover the much lower amount they get reimbursed through warranty work.
Alaska is next! Still trying to fit the pontoons to the RV so We can get to Hawaii!
pitch wrote: If I am on the road when I have a problem, I will be no where near the local dealer!
Of course you will be, one local to where you are broken down. And that local dealer ( not wholesaler) will have a service staff that you will want to help you. That staff is paid for largely by the margin the dealer makes on RV sales.
If RV dealers service departments had to be self sufficient their customer--pay rates would need to be much higher... To cover the much lower amount they get reimbursed through warranty work.
Boy are you dreaming! How much $$ do you think the out of town dealer is making on the sale of your trailer by another dealer? Doesn't matter if it was a wholesaler or not they made nothing on the sale and you will be treated accordingly..What you need to do is get an authorization for repair from the manufacturer, have it fixed, pay for the repair and submit it to the manufacturer for reimbursement. A non-selling dealer has no obligation to fix anything on your trailer under warranty. That's part of their dealer agreement with the mfg. Why should they bend over backwards to service your rig, then submit it for payment? Sure they get paid for for their labor from the Mfg, maybe it's not enough, they have the profit they made on the sale to help offset that. No sale, no profit..There's nothing in it for them but extra paperwork. Don't believe me? Stop in at a dealer and ask..
We seriously considered driving the 1200+ miles to RVWolesalers to get our TT. It would have been four grand cheaper and even after expenses we would have saved two grand.
I told the dealership here that we were considering it and they told me they would do warranty work but only after "their" customers work was done. Usually December and I would have to pay for it and get reimbursed. Then she mentioned that if we bought there and found our fridge not working today we would be camping by Friday.
In the end the local dealer ship local shop lowered the price on a nicer TT to the point that the savings was only a grand up front and saved us a bunch by getting us a super low interest rate and low down vs 2 grand down and 7.99% with the wholesalers.
So staying local saved us money and we still get service.
2011 GulfStream Amerilite 25BH
2007/2003 Ford Expedition
Nights camped in 2011 21
Nights camped in 2012 16
I LOVE wholesale RV dealers! The drive the price down and then my local store matched it, saves me from having to haggle as much. I actually chose a store about an hour away because they would come down in price. The store right next to us had a "No Haggle" policy, so we walked out as the prices were high.
2011 Keystone Passport 2910BH
2005 Ford F-250 King Ranch (yes, the dreaded 6.0)
2004 Suburban 1500
We bought our Hybrid TT while at a show. We didn't get the show trailer, had to order one which was fine with us. We got the show price which was about $700 more than RVWholesalers. Our dealer even told us to compare with RVWholesalers. It wasn't worth the time and gas to drive out the RVWholesalers.
The only downside of getting the wholesale price through the dealer was that they would only give us the wholesale price for our 10 year old pop-up. So we sold it ourselves and sold it for $2,400 more than the dealer would have given us.
-Michael
Michael Girardo :: michael@ecxc.com
2009 Jayco Greyhawk 31FS Class C Motorhome
2006 Rockwood Roo 233 Hybrid Travel Trailer Four Green Feet
I've had warranty work done on my 5ver local and it came from RVwholesalers. No problems at all. After negotiating $3500 off their asking price I saved $9000 by driving to Ohio so was very pleased.The 9000 dollar savings was including the expense of the trip.We did have to sell our tt instead of trade it in.
We bought our Rockwood 5'er from Tom Raper in Indiana and saved about $7000 over the "best" offer in Maine. Raper took our old TT in as a trade. For warranty issues, we dealt directly with the manufacturer (Forest River), who readily consented to allow an independent RV service guy in Maine do needed repairs. Al-in-all, I'm glad we made the drive to Indiana. MaineDon
pitch wrote: If I am on the road when I have a problem, I will be no where near the local dealer!
Of course you will be, one local to where you are broken down. And that local dealer ( not wholesaler) will have a service staff that you will want to help you. That staff is paid for largely by the margin the dealer makes on RV sales.
If RV dealers service departments had to be self sufficient their customer--pay rates would need to be much higher... To cover the much lower amount they get reimbursed through warranty work.
Boy are you dreaming! How much $$ do you think the out of town dealer is making on the sale of your trailer by another dealer? Doesn't matter if it was a wholesaler or not they made nothing on the sale and you will be treated accordingly..What you need to do is get an authorization for repair from the manufacturer, have it fixed, pay for the repair and submit it to the manufacturer for reimbursement. A non-selling dealer has no obligation to fix anything on your trailer under warranty. That's part of their dealer agreement with the mfg. Why should they bend over backwards to service your rig, then submit it for payment? Sure they get paid for for their labor from the Mfg, maybe it's not enough, they have the profit they made on the sale to help offset that. No sale, no profit..There's nothing in it for them but extra paperwork. Don't believe me? Stop in at a dealer and ask..
B.O.
B.O ... Sorry, I am not dreaming. and I don't have to stop in and ask a dealer, as I work for one of the largest RV Dealers in the Mid-Atlantic region (no, I am not a salesperson) and am very familiar with how dealers handle warranty work and customers who bought at wholesalers.
I have no problem with people looking for the best deal for themselves, but too often I see people who bypassed their local dealers to drive 1000 miles to save a grand and then are shocked and surprised when their local dealer is not bending over backwards to help them.
We have even had people buy at the wholesaler, then because the unit did not get a thorough prep and they did not get an adequate pdi, come in to us with a punchlist of warranty repairs and operational questions they expect to have taken care of. It really takes a lot of nerve. And before you say it is just one dealership, of course these things get discussed at our regional dealership association meetings as well.
Out of courtesy, Most dealerships will help you if they are on the road traveling, but those people who buy at the wholesalers and then want help from a full service dealer are taking advantage of the dealer's good will.
And yes, it is becomming increasingly the norm for dealers to charge wholesaler customers for warranty work, and then let the customer work with the mfg for reimbursement. Having a warranty administrator to work with customers and manufacturers is another cost that the dealer pays for with the margin on sales.
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