2005 Dolphin Bedroom Slide-out - AL-KO new slideout system problem

[donhaus]

This is a follow up to my original post on the subject submitted in October 2008.

Well so much for the new and improved AL-KO bedroom slideout design to solve the original faulty RBW design. The motor failed after 6 months on the new design that was installed on my 2005 Dolphin bedroom slideout in March 2009. The problem is the motor runs but does not engage the driveshaft. After diagnosing the problem with the AL-KO engineer in California he told me that there was an internal motor problem and it needed to be replaced. He did not have an answer about if it would be covered under warranty for the new system that was installed by my dealer and purchased from AL-KO. He told me that I would have to take the MH back to the dealer that installed the new slideout system to work through the warranty question.

Yesterday AL-KO informed the dealer that there is only a 90 day warranty on the motor and I would have to buy a new motor. It took them three days to figure this out because AL-KO is closing the California facility and moving to Elkhart, IN. AL-KO also said that they rarely see these motors fail, but there happened to be another call for the same thing from another unfortunate customer shortly after my call. (I still do not know how much the new motor will cost, but the new system cost about $1000 when it was installed.)

My experience tells me two things:
1. AL-KO has a poor customer service organization and does not care to service their customers and support their products. If they rarely experience this problem then why not fix it if it failed after only 6 mos? (Especially when this was supposed to be the new and improved design that they recommended to replace the original faulty design.)
2. If you experience problems with your RBW slideout system and AL-KO (bought RBW) recommends the new and improved design I suggest waiting to find out if it is actually better than the old POS they offer. Let the poor suckers like me find out if these guys know what they are doing.

Companies like AL-KO do not understand the power of an unhappy customer. I will be the first one to applaud a company that has excellent customer service and the last one to drop the issue when I have been serviced badly.

Buyers beware!