Keith99RS wrote: If you are an authorized dealer, have a service agreement with the manufacturer that makes you an approved service center and put me at the bottom of your list for work to be done because I bought my RV elsewhere itis a good bet you will one, not work on my TT and two rest assured I will never do business with you. You can also be assured I will report your actions to the manufacturer you are representing. Timely repairs and following the manufacturers agreement for service are not too much to ask. I can see a long wait for major repairs and needing parts, but if I go in to have something relatively minor done I should not be waiting weeks. Especially with a warranty that is only good for one year. FWIW the only real thing covered by the manufacturers warranty is the construction anyways. All the accessories tend to have their own warranties that ae usually longer than the RV manufacturers. That is why it is important to go through your literature and mail in all the registration cards. Would you wait a month for warranty work on your car? Why should you have to on your RV? I can understand being busy in the spring for preseason inspections and dewinterizations and the fall for winterizations but the rest of the year does not exactly strike me as having RV's lined up at the garage doors for service work.
Out of warranty I think I would fel more comfortable having a nondealer RV tech service my TT from the experiences I have read here. They are specialized and usually doingit for a living, not just a paycheck. I have seen too many "techs" that know no more than myself do PDI's and walkthroughs to inspire me with any confidence. I get the feeling many dealer ships have 2 or 3 master techs and use their certifications to represent everyone in the service department.
You have described the problem well. At the end of the day all of your complaining to multiple people will result in no change of the dealer's attitude and in fact usually reinforce it. As you did when making the purchase and choosing to make your purchase decision based on price, the dealer has the same right to look for his best return on investment. In his opinion, if you wind up at the bottom of the list, he will be better served to process his customers first. They have already demonstrated a willingmess to purchase from him and not just putting him on the shopping list next time to see if he has the lowest price available anywhere.
Keith99RS wrote: If you are an authorized dealer, have a service agreement with the manufacturer that makes you an approved service center and put me at the bottom of your list for work to be done because I bought my RV elsewhere itis a good bet you will one, not work on my TT and two rest assured I will never do business with you. You can also be assured I will report your actions to the manufacturer you are representing. Timely repairs and following the manufacturers agreement for service are not too much to ask. I can see a long wait for major repairs and needing parts, but if I go in to have something relatively minor done I should not be waiting weeks. Especially with a warranty that is only good for one year. FWIW the only real thing covered by the manufacturers warranty is the construction anyways. All the accessories tend to have their own warranties that ae usually longer than the RV manufacturers. That is why it is important to go through your literature and mail in all the registration cards. Would you wait a month for warranty work on your car? Why should you have to on your RV? I can understand being busy in the spring for preseason inspections and dewinterizations and the fall for winterizations but the rest of the year does not exactly strike me as having RV's lined up at the garage doors for service work.
Out of warranty I think I would fel more comfortable having a nondealer RV tech service my TT from the experiences I have read here. They are specialized and usually doingit for a living, not just a paycheck. I have seen too many "techs" that know no more than myself do PDI's and walkthroughs to inspire me with any confidence. I get the feeling many dealer ships have 2 or 3 master techs and use their certifications to represent everyone in the service department.
You have described the problem well. At the end of the day all of your complaining to multiple people will result in no change of the dealer's attitude and in fact usually reinforce it. As you did when making the purchase and choosing to make your purchase decision based on price, the dealer has the same right to look for his best return on investment. In his opinion, if you wind up at the bottom of the list, he will be better served to process his customers first. They have already demonstrated a willingmess to purchase from him and not just putting him on the shopping list next time to see if he has the lowest price available anywhere.
Actually be relegating me to a third class status he will have damaged his reputation of ever getting my future business, any future referrals by me to any of my other coworkers who have RV's and have negatively represented one of the brands he carries. You would be suprised how complaining to the right people will work. Manufacturers are very interested in how their customers are treated after the sale. I have submitted one negative service survey card to my NIssan dealer and a week later got a call to have me elaborate on why I rated a few areas low.
You never seem to hear about an RV Service Department not doing a good job on a PDI, it is always the manufacturer is bad and at fault. Shoddy warranty repairs are also blamed on manufacturers in alot of cases. These are the things the manufacturer wants to know. There is a thread in the TT forum where the OP has had issues on warranty work performed by the dealer being problematic, yet he wants the manufacturer to replace the TT. Fleetwood advertises they have a large network of certified service centers to accomodate any issues after the sale. The recommend going back to the dealership of purchase but also acknowledge that is not always an option.
FWIW The local dealer we went to first that didn't want to deal on our trade or budge on his "sale price" still has the 08 model we looked at on his lot with the same "sale price" in the window and I saved $3,000 on a 2009 model made in June of this year with more standard features by driving 5 hours round trip. Can't say as I feel sorry for their loss of sale. What we requested was not unfair. Two other dealers jumped at the same offer.
An RV is just like a car in this regard. Would you accept a dealer saying your car would be out of service for a month for warranty work while you make payments on it?? I don't think so.
Keith99RS wrote: If you are an authorized dealer, have a service agreement with the manufacturer that makes you an approved service center and put me at the bottom of your list for work to be done because I bought my RV elsewhere itis a good bet you will one, not work on my TT and two rest assured I will never do business with you. You can also be assured I will report your actions to the manufacturer you are representing. Timely repairs and following the manufacturers agreement for service are not too much to ask. I can see a long wait for major repairs and needing parts, but if I go in to have something relatively minor done I should not be waiting weeks. Especially with a warranty that is only good for one year. FWIW the only real thing covered by the manufacturers warranty is the construction anyways. All the accessories tend to have their own warranties that ae usually longer than the RV manufacturers. That is why it is important to go through your literature and mail in all the registration cards. Would you wait a month for warranty work on your car? Why should you have to on your RV? I can understand being busy in the spring for preseason inspections and dewinterizations and the fall for winterizations but the rest of the year does not exactly strike me as having RV's lined up at the garage doors for service work.
Out of warranty I think I would fel more comfortable having a nondealer RV tech service my TT from the experiences I have read here. They are specialized and usually doingit for a living, not just a paycheck. I have seen too many "techs" that know no more than myself do PDI's and walkthroughs to inspire me with any confidence. I get the feeling many dealer ships have 2 or 3 master techs and use their certifications to represent everyone in the service department.
You have described the problem well. At the end of the day all of your complaining to multiple people will result in no change of the dealer's attitude and in fact usually reinforce it. As you did when making the purchase and choosing to make your purchase decision based on price, the dealer has the same right to look for his best return on investment. In his opinion, if you wind up at the bottom of the list, he will be better served to process his customers first. They have already demonstrated a willingmess to purchase from him and not just putting him on the shopping list next time to see if he has the lowest price available anywhere.
I didn't read Keith's post as "complaining" as you did, as a dealer. Fostering ill-will as a dealer loses customers. From reading your post here, ill-will seems to be something you look upon as an opportunity to promote more of. Strange indeed.
I have a sweet tender nature, however I enjoy sharing my thoughts and opinions.
airsickfish wrote: Other than possibly a lower price why would you not want to buy from your local dealer?
OP: If you discover that a dealer has gained a bad reputation for any reason through word of mouth, then you would be a fool to do business with them, just because "they're a local dealer."
I would pay up to 5% more for an RV from a dealer that had good, honest service record. I have an Arctic Fox which are not sold in Ohio anymore but if I bought another RV, it would be a Fox and I'd drive up to 500 miles to get it. Service isn't as big a problem for a real quality unit as it may be for an entry level unit. Doesn't everyone remember their first entry level unit?
Vanda and Dave Ludwig (Vandave) & world's laziest Bassett Hound, Daisy Mae, 6 month King Charles Spaniel, '06 2500HD, 4WD, EC, SB, D/A, 30U Arctic Fox, Equalizer hitch, Prodigy.
Contrary to the opinions of some, my comments were not meant to be negative but rather accurate. Any dealer evaluating his own results or any manufacturer evaluating a dealer will look at his entire body of work. If in fact out of 100 customers polled, 95 rave about his service and reputation and five think he is Genghis Kahn, he is a good dealer.
Every dealer has the right, when investing his own money,to do business as he wishes. He alone will suffer the failures and enjoy the success. If he chooses to only service first his own customer and is still in business or has been in business for several years, he by definition made the proper choice. His purpose is to make money, not to conduct business as others wish.
Every dealer has heard the story repeatedly and often that "If you don't do this.....I will never be back". If I had a nickel for every time I have heard it over the last forty years, I would be playing Pinochle on my yacht in the Mediterranean with Bill Gates. As a business owner you set your policies as you think they should be and take the consequences. If you are successful you were right and if you fail, maybe you should have listened. But, the jury doesn't stay out for forty years.
Personally, I don't subscribe to the theory of discriminating against those who I don't sell. But I can assure you I save the special touches and policy adjustments that cost me money for my own customer. Then again, I am not a RV dealer. I also don't subscribe to "forcing" any dealer to work on my equipment that does not want to. In my opinion that can only come to a bad end.
airsickfish wrote: what about when you need service? or some of the little fit and finish issues that most new rv's need. Its been my experiance that the local dealers are not too receptive to doing the work.
When I purchased my Wildcat from an out of state dealer, (600 miles away), I went into the deal with an understanding between me and myself that I would do this for the sole reason of saving $$$ (7000 of them to be exact), and that I would have to warranty small things myself, (having rebuilt a previous TT, I have a great deal of confidence in myself for such matters), and also the dealer proposed that if I had a major appliance problem, call him and see what we could work out, possibly him shipping me a new appliance and me shipping the defective one back. Never had this problem. Had a couple of very minor issues that I would not have towed the unit to a local dealer even if I had bought from him. Unit is now going into its' fourth year, and myself has assured me that myself will continue to warranty everything now. What a deal!!! (while this works for me, I realize there are those who prefer a dealer tech do all warranty repairs, even little things like a minor leak or loose screw. Those need to deal locally, and forget the cost)
E.C. & Sandra Walker, (aka She Who Must Be Obeyed), and Baby, the "children cat" (non-camping), 1999 Ford F250 CC 4WD Powerstroke, 29' Wildcat RLBS 5ver.
I've bought two RV's from out of state. Both times because they were not available locally and in one case, there were no dealers of the Class B I wanted within a few hundred miles. When I bought my Nash 27.5 fiver, the local dealer suggested I run up to Oregon to get it seeing as though a friendly competitor had one in stock.
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