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Old 09-18-2018, 04:56 PM   #1
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Junction City Ripoff

Earlier this year, we visited the Winnebago service facility in Junction City to have our large slideouts repaired. We're full timers, on our 8th RV over 40 years, with ten years in our 2006 Itasca Ellipse 40FD. We endured the train noise throughout the night and met our service tech the next morning, described the wear on the nylon "sliders" and left the coach. About three hours later I received a call from the tech, whose first words were "are you sitting down?". He stated that the estimate to repair the slides was $5250.00 and would take 4-5 days. Yikes. Since the slides operated without any indication of failing, I decided that if I was going to spent that much money I'd take the coach to HWH in Moscow, Iowa. I dropped the coach off this morning, explained my concerns, and the HWH tech said they'd inspect and repair to ensure everything would last another ten years. When they called back at 1:30 I was surprised that the work was done. I picked up the paperwork from Ashley and was astounded (in a good way) that the total charge to inspect, replace worn "sliders", check and top off the pump, and adjust the auto level system was........$163.60! How Junction City Winnebago came up with an estimate of over $5000 makes me wonder - was it incompetence or a deliberate attempt to rip off the customer? Either way, I'm not happy and since later this week I'll be in Forest City (Lichtsinn) I plan on dropping by corporate and dropping off a letter or, if possible, talking to someone about it. On the plus side, count me as another fan of HWH - they were friendly, efficient, and thorough. We've always had good service at Forest City, but will never return to Junction City, and I'd advise you to avoid them also.
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Old 09-18-2018, 04:58 PM   #2
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.Interesting. I took my rig to a well known shop in Eugene and asked them the check the main slide as it stuck out a couple times. Then to check and align the other three. They did check the main slide and lube the chain drive mechanism. Charged me about $1,000 and never checked the last three.
Have an appt at HWH in late April to have the Active Air system installed, then the next week to have all the slides checked and adjusted.
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Old 09-18-2018, 05:06 PM   #3
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Glad you got it fixed and at a great price. Winnebago ‘s price is a “mile high”. But doubt EVERYONE needs to avoid them based on this one experience.

Wonder if WBGO was planning on doing a lot more work on your slides than the couple of hours HWH completed.?? That price had to be based on something. Why not call and tell them your experience with HWH and hear their side of the story.
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Old 09-18-2018, 05:54 PM   #4
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I like CreativeParts advice. I have had very good experiences at Junction City, and if it were my rig, I’d like to know what they saw and were thinking. Wishing you another 10 trouble free years!
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Old 09-18-2018, 06:27 PM   #5
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Did the Winnebago guy have a patch on one eye? Pirate ????
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Old 09-18-2018, 06:35 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by creativepart View Post
Glad you got it fixed and at a great price. Winnebago ‘s price is a “mile high”. But doubt EVERYONE needs to avoid them based on this one experience.

Wonder if WBGO was planning on doing a lot more work on your slides than the couple of hours HWH completed.?? That price had to be based on something. Why not call and tell them your experience with HWH and hear their side of the story.
Sorry, but as the saying goes, "you only get one chance to make a good impression". I can understand a higher price, but a $5000 difference is unfathomable - what, they were going to install platinum sliders? The tech at Junction City told me that he and the service manager worked together on the estimate. I believe they inflated the price because they simply didn't want to do the work - it worked, and I won't be back.
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Old 09-18-2018, 10:06 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith K View Post
Sorry, but as the saying goes, "you only get one chance to make a good impression". I can understand a higher price, but a $5000 difference is unfathomable - what, they were going to install platinum sliders? The tech at Junction City told me that he and the service manager worked together on the estimate. I believe they inflated the price because they simply didn't want to do the work - it worked, and I won't be back.
Your theory is likely. Years ago I worked part-time installing garage doors. One day a man asked for an install estimate, his house must have been built prior to 1900, anyway, we gave him an over-priced estimate because we didn't want to tackle that job. Surprise!! He called next day and asked how soon we could begin.
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Old 09-19-2018, 06:15 AM   #8
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If the Junction City facility gave you a real "estimate" it should have included the individual price for each part they thought needed to be installed and the labor to do it. Compare that to the one you got at HWH and it should be easy to see where the differences are.

The HWH repair will certainly include all the components necessary to repair their system. However if there are problems with the slide boxes or the house structure itself they may not have addressed those problems. Unless you know exactly what components the Junction City facility intended to repair or replace it's not an apples to apples comparison.

Hopefully your slides have been permanently repaired. However if you have problems in the future it may be that the Junction City facility discovered problems the HWH facility either missed or doesn't have the resources to complete.
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Old 09-19-2018, 06:45 AM   #9
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I suspect that the service people didn't have the ability or knowledge to repair your slide. I don't know how many really experienced service techs from Forest City are there. I suspect few or none and the HWH slide system is viewed by Winnebago as "legacy" technology and they likely didn't both to train any of their new techs. For my money, they should have declined the opportunity to service it due to lack of skills. It really speaks a lot to the values, integrity and arrogance of the Winnebago culture when they opt to scare you away with an outrageous price.
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Old 09-19-2018, 09:43 AM   #10
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ive heard that a couple of times about junction city, from owners i sent there to have non warranty work done.
i do know the facility at forest city is great. ive had work done there myself, and gotten both a good price, and great work.
so it may just have been the tech, maybe?
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Old 09-19-2018, 10:00 AM   #11
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A lot of former CC workers at Junction City have been hired by Winnebago so the HWH slides are familiar to them. Of course a lot of the old CC workers started their own service businesses so lots of good (and not so good) support in the area.
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Old 09-22-2018, 11:41 AM   #12
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Well that difference in cost to replace the nylon slide bearings is certainly remarkable. We've had service performed at the Junction City facility twice....once in 2014 before WGO bought it and again in 2016 after they bought it. Both times we had a number of things done including repairs that required mechancial/technical expertise. Both times we were pleased with the quality of the repairs and the cost. There were a number of Winnebago's there for service in 2016 but I did not talk to any of the owners so not sure how pleased they were with the work or cost.



We owned a 2002 Journey for 8 years before trading for the CC we now have. In about 2008, we visited the WGO factory in Forest City for some repairs, including replacement of the cracked/crumbling nylon slide bearings on the big, flat floor slide on the coach. WGO worked on the coach for 2 1/2 days, telling me it was a big deal to replace those nylon slides. They said the work required lifting the slide up and some cutting and welding. The final bill for the work (which included replacing a bad solenoid on the hydraulic pump and another minor item) was about $3,000. I thought it was pricey but believed at the time they best knew how to do this work.


Later I was told by several WGO owners that HWH could do the same repair in far less time and at far lower cost.



We actually visited HWH last year for an issue with our air leveling and some slide creep on our CC. They did the repairs in 3 hours and the charge was much lower than what I had expected. They are IMO the go-to place for most issues with their systems on our coaches.
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