Not so good at the Service Facility

[Barbaraok]

I'm sure glad someone was helped at the Service Facility in Yakima. Our experience this summer has not been as good. In June they determined that they would need to take the slide completely out and do some work. And that we needed a new solenoid for the air horn. OK, we scheduled the slide work for today (October 8th) and asked that they order the solenoid and ship it to us so we could get it installed. We stayed in the northwest because of the scheduled appointment, rather than doing the upper midwest as we had planned. We called a few times during the summer, leaving voice mail that we had not gotten the solenoid and to please check on it. Finally just left a voice mail saying not to send the solenoid, just replace it during our visit in October.

Last week we call to make sure we are all set for this morning. First time we were told that Dave is no longer a service writer. Right then and there I knew we were probably in no man's land again.

Sure enough, no one knew about the solenoid for the airhorn. Got there this morning and after they take the coach in we meet with the technician. THEY HAD NO IDEA WHY WE WERE THERE. THEY HAD THE WORK ORDER FROM JUNE, BUT EVIDENTLY THE DESCRIPTION WAS VAGUE BECAUSE WE HAD TO EXPLAIN THE PROBLEM ALL OVER AGAIN. In June we were told that they would need to block the whole week off. OK, we made arrangements to stay somewhere else for this week. Today, we are told that a week isn't enough as they don't know if they can get to it and they hope to be able to complete it by the END of next week!!!! There was snow up in the passes as we came back to my brother-in-law's place this morning.

And probably can't get to the airhorn problem because that wasn't on their list. So again the ball was dropped when people were moved around.

This is the type of thing that drives people crazy and will lead us to consider another manufacturer in about 3 years when we start looking for a new coach. And we love our coach, but .....

[Barbaraok]

I'm sure glad someone was helped at the Service Facility in Yakima. Our experience this summer has not been as good. In June they determined that they would need to take the slide completely out and do some work. And that we needed a new solenoid for the air horn. OK, we scheduled the slide work for today (October 8th) and asked that they order the solenoid and ship it to us so we could get it installed. We stayed in the northwest because of the scheduled appointment, rather than doing the upper midwest as we had planned. We called a few times during the summer, leaving voice mail that we had not gotten the solenoid and to please check on it. Finally just left a voice mail saying not to send the solenoid, just replace it during our visit in October.

Last week we call to make sure we are all set for this morning. First time we were told that Dave is no longer a service writer. Right then and there I knew we were probably in no man's land again.

Sure enough, no one knew about the solenoid for the airhorn. Got there this morning and after they take the coach in we meet with the technician. THEY HAD NO IDEA WHY WE WERE THERE. THEY HAD THE WORK ORDER FROM JUNE, BUT EVIDENTLY THE DESCRIPTION WAS VAGUE BECAUSE WE HAD TO EXPLAIN THE PROBLEM ALL OVER AGAIN. In June we were told that they would need to block the whole week off. OK, we made arrangements to stay somewhere else for this week. Today, we are told that a week isn't enough as they don't know if they can get to it and they hope to be able to complete it by the END of next week!!!! There was snow up in the passes as we came back to my brother-in-law's place this morning.

And probably can't get to the airhorn problem because that wasn't on their list. So again the ball was dropped when people were moved around.

This is the type of thing that drives people crazy and will lead us to consider another manufacturer in about 3 years when we start looking for a new coach. And we love our coach, but .....

[jimandsue60]

Barbara and David, besides your issues here we hope all is well with you.

Are the airhornes a hadley System? If so a generic air horn solonoid can easily be fitted. I am suprised that the service facilty does not have a solonoid in stock or can't have one shipped in in a day or 2.

Good luck on your stay in Yakima.

Jim

[gjstacy]

Barbara & David,

I'm really sorry to hear your experience is so bad. I had hoped that Lundy's experience would become more of the norm.

Sure hope things get better for you there at Yakima, and they take better care of you!

[VAGABONDMAN]

If I were you, I'd walk across the street to the front office and tell your story to someone who can make things happen.

[Barbaraok]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Gail & John:
Barbara & David,

I'm really sorry to hear your experience is so bad. I had hoped that Lundy's experience would become more of the norm. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


I was also hoping that things had changed. Unfortunately since we can't stay in the coach, we had to return to my brother-in-laws in Centralia on the 'wet' side of the mountains. They have a 5th wheel at their house that we are staying in - - less tramatic on our cats than trying to keep them in a hotel room, plus a LOT cheaper. So our home (we're fulltimers) is in their hands - - leaving it is not a great feeling for fulltimers, especially when you have no confidence in the facility at this time.

[Dave & Colleen]

Dave & Barbara
Sorry to here about the lack of service. We just purchased our (new to us first motorhome from a tent trailer of 30+ yrs) 1999 alpine coach in June. The concerns and issues you've experienced are not isolated to WRV. The end of June I had a Roadmaster authorized dealer install the tow hitch brackets on our new Chevy Trailblazer. Because they quote are a dealer and just do motorhomes trailers they should be able to do thing right. WRONG! In September, I crawled under the car to change the oil. That's when I had the big ONE! The attachment brackets holding the tow bar hitch to the frame had 4 out of 6 bolts that were short! Only holding by 2 threads way way inside the nut. I called them and took it back (Oh We towed the car 4 times behind the coach) they said that's the way it came in the kit from Raodmaster. But they'd change it. Like it was a favor to me. Then I looked under the coach! They installed the brake line without a hose and routed it over the top of the heater duct. Yeah, it pulls the duct down and the whole brake line flexes up and down with the air bags. So, guess the short of it is if you don't do-it yourself expect screws-ups.
Dave

[EngineerMike]

Barbara- there is only one excuse I can think of for your time plight, and that is if they didn't have a sufficient description of the slide problem to properly quote a time frame initially. If that is not the case then your plight is just poor management of time and people in the shop.
As to the solenoid issue, if that has been diagnosed prior (as you indicate), the shop has numerous instances where they are waiting around for parts and yours is one more. Can't get parts was a constantly recurring theme @ Camp WRV when we were there in early September. Why this is a recurring problem is a mystery to me. It is the simplest of shop management things to resolve, and there really is no excuse for the huge number of service snafus of this sort that aggravate customers time wise. It is just good business to jump on and rectify silly issues like this, and not difficult.
Which brings me to suggest just what Frank did above; you are not there to walk across to the main office but you can certainly call and speak to top management. With as much lead time as you gave, there is no excuse to be waiting on parts.

[Barbaraok]

Mike,

The slide fix is at their recommendation based upon what they saw and did in June when we were there to get it adjusted. It wasn't something we came up with! I think that is what shook us up so bad - that we were there to have something done that they recommended and then the new people have no idea what is going on.

We are hoping to be proved wrong and are giving the people a few days to see if they can follow through. If not, then obviously a call higher up is in order. But if the only way that things are taken care of is to call the president of the company then that says VOLUMES about what is wrong in Yakima.

[OldForester]

I'm copying a thread from the Monaco Coach Forum -- this is an example of what WRV needs to target in its service -- read both page 1 and 2 to fully follow this story.

Does Monaco Care