Community Forums

Nedra · 04-23-2008, 05:09 PM

We bought a Neptune 36PDQ a year ago and it's been in for service for a total of 4 1/2 months already (not all at the same time). The majority of theproblems are caused by a very hard/bumpy ride. Cabinets and counters separating from the wall and having to be bolted and recaulked and then still coming out. Windshield popped out, shower door fell off several times......

I am now fighting with Monaco to get some compensation for all the time spent getting this work done when we could have been using it. They are saying drive it to us (2000+ miles @ $4.00/gallon) but they are not willing to pay our expenses and considering it's been all warranty work for what I consider a lemon they should pay our expenses.

This coach is a nightmare. WE've have 3 other motorhomes, all gas and they were far better than this.

Has anyone else experienced the same problems with a Neptune or any other Monaco product?

Nedra

Neptunes · 04-24-2008, 12:53 PM

Sorry about all your problems. We have an 06 36PDQ and overall have been very happy with it. Ours is also still under warranty and we have a sizable list of mostly minor issues. Have a May appointment in Wildwood and hopefully all will be resolved.
As far as the ride,we only have four airbags verses eight on more expensive coaches. This coach was in our budget and sometimes you just have to accept a little less for your price range.
My advice would be just to bite the bullet and take it to your nearest Monaco service center. It's a great unit for the price, so get the bugs out and enjoy it.

Happycarz · 04-24-2008, 01:07 PM

Nedra,
Be sure to have the air bag height checked. Mine were 1" too high from the factory and after I set them to factory spec, the ride was completely different.

Nedra · 04-24-2008, 01:15 PM

We've had the ride height adjusted, tires checked, shocks checked, tires aligned.

We're not talking about minor issues and I am/was willing to accept a little less but having cabinets separate from the walls and need repair 7 times; shower doors falling off 3 times and windshield popping out all due to vibration and bouncing is not, in my opinion minor issues or inconveniences.

Nedra

RoadRohrers · 04-24-2008, 02:54 PM

Read your post and thought about it today. It actually sounds like your air suspension is not working at all. I know the couple of times to move my DP without the bags inflated, it was awful. Very, very jarring and rough as you say. Read you had checked, but something major just doesn't sound right. Being in NM, I don't know whether you would head for Florida (Wildwood), Oregon or Indiana. We were at Wildwood. Techs were great. As with all the manufacturer services I've been to, double the amount of time you think you will require. Best of luck.

Richard

Nedra · 04-24-2008, 03:42 PM

The ride height was adjusted in June and they were inflated but not at the right height. Monaco has asked the dealer here in NM to check it again as well as the shocks, tire pressure and air bags to see if there is a problem. We had the tires aligned last month and the tire pressure checked but we'll let them do it again.

We might end up taking it to them and I think Oregon would be easier for us but as I told them, we have lost 4 1/2 months of use and many miles traveling to a dealer to try to deal with these problems. If we have to drive 2000 miles @ $4.00/gallon I'm going to be mighty upset. They have been trying to resolve this problem since June and it's just happening over and over again. They fix the counters and cabinets, we take it out and it happens all over again.

My neighbor (a judge) is telling me to contact an attorney but I agreed to give Monaco one last chance to get this right before we throw up our hands. I thought when you upgrade from a gasser to a deisel you get a better coach

This isn't even their entry level deisel.

Nedra

nodine · 04-24-2008, 05:00 PM

May I suggest going back to your dealer and if they have another Neptune similar to yours ask them to let you take it for a test drive. That will give you something to compare to. It is not likely that two Neptunes will have the same suspension problem. There must be a problem with your suspension that the dealer does not have the skill to correct. If it were my coach it would be heading to the nearest factory center. No dealer is going to have technicians as knowledgeable of your coach as the factory.

Bob

Quote:

Originally posted by Nedra:
The ride height was adjusted in June and they were inflated but not at the right height. Monaco has asked the dealer here in NM to check it again as well as the shocks, tire pressure and air bags to see if there is a problem. We had the tires aligned last month and the tire pressure checked but we'll let them do it again.

We might end up taking it to them and I think Oregon would be easier for us but as I told them, we have lost 4 1/2 months of use and many miles traveling to a dealer to try to deal with these problems. If we have to drive 2000 miles @ $4.00/gallon I'm going to be mighty upset. They have been trying to resolve this problem since June and it's just happening over and over again. They fix the counters and cabinets, we take it out and it happens all over again.

My neighbor (a judge) is telling me to contact an attorney but I agreed to give Monaco one last chance to get this right before we throw up our hands. I thought when you upgrade from a gasser to a deisel you get a better coach

This isn't even their entry level deisel.

Nedra

Nedra · 04-25-2008, 07:14 AM

The local dealer (we bought it in WA state) is now just checking this stuff now, not fixing anything (unless they can of course). The ride height adjustment, etc was performed in June by a company who works on chassis, not an RV dealer. If there is a problem with the suspension system it will be taken to the factor for repair and we will talk to an attorney about getting Monaco to pay for our expenses, etc.

Right now it's just diagnostics again to see if they can find the problem.

Nedra

[QUOTE]Originally posted by nodine:
May I suggest going back to your dealer and if they have another Neptune similar to yours ask them to let you take it for a test drive. That will give you something to compare to. It is not likely that two Neptunes will have the same suspension problem. There must be a problem with your suspension that the dealer does not have the skill to correct. If it were my coach it would be heading to the nearest factory center. No dealer is going to have technicians as knowledgeable of your coach as the factory.

Bob

Nedra · 06-05-2008, 06:35 AM

It's been a while since I posted an update but our coach has been in and out of the RV Hospital.

We did find out that our problems were due to Monaco in a few ways:

The gave the service techs the wrong ride height settings several times. The first time was last June and two different techs at Monaco gave the wrong setting. The most recent time was when Monaco again gave the wrong settings twice and then Monaco discovered that the system (computer) had the wrong settings. They have now corrected the settings BUT the coach cannot be set at the correct ride height setting because the rods they installed are too short.

The coach never was and never could be set at the proper ride height because the rods were too short and the ride height was never any where close to what it actually should have been.

Monaco authorized Rocky Mountain to do a complete diagnostic and check the ride height and they discovered we also had a cracked valve and leaky air bag.

We paid to have the coach aligned (didn't need it) because Monaco insisted that was what was causing the problem.

We paid to have a motion control installed because nothing else was working and our ride was so bad that everything was falling apart: shower doors falling off, cabinets separating from the wall, front windshield popping out, etc.

Our ride was so bad it was like riding in a bucking bronco.

Well our coach is fixed and the Asst Service Manager at Rocky Mountain says it now rides like a dream. We then were told that Monaco denied a few claims including adjusting the ride height.

Meanwhile we have had ongoing problems because of this since day one (bought new April, 2007)and in June, 2007 Monaco first paid for ride height adjustments (they then denied they ever authorized anything) and both I and the owner of the service center spoke with some of Monaco's techs and supervisor.

Our coach has been out of commision and in the shop just about 5 months and we have been unable to use it during this time and we have been paying our loan and our insurance for a coach we haven't been able to use. I have been talking with Monaco and faxed them a list of what we wanted from them as compensation and reimbursement for out of pocket expenses and all we got from them is that they will extend our warranty 6 months. I said no way!

I was floored yesterday when I heard that Monaco denied some things all related to the ride issues so I called Monaco. If we want to pick up our coach we have to pay almost $500 most of which Monaco should have taken care of.

I got fed up and called and got Monaco to agree thate they did in fact have documentation of an ongoing problem since June, 2007 and they agreed to pay all the repairs at Rocky Mountain (except one small one that I will deal with the dealer we bought it from). They also agreed to pay for the alignment but refused anything else except a 6 month extension IF we sign a contract saying we will not hold them liable and will not persue any legal action, etc.

My response was I'll get back to you on that on that AFTER we get the bill paid at RM and we get our check for the alignment.

How frustrating not to mention expensive. We have a brand new coach and out of 12 months we've been without it for 5 months. We've traveled almost 100 miles round trip each time it goes in for service and we have paid out of pocket to try to resolve a problem that Monaco denied was a problem. We've paid our loan and our insurance for something we have been unable to use because of manufacture defects and incompetence for 5 months and I'm MAD!!!

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

Nedra

Les Stallings · 06-06-2008, 06:29 AM

I complete agree that your experience is incredibly bad.

I do not think that any vehicle manufacturer routinely pays out of pocket expenses for the time a vehicle is in the shop. I know that when I need warrantee work on any of our cars, neither the dealership nor the car company will pay for the mileage to the dealership and they don't pay for a replacement vehicle while in the shop.

Why would your motor coach be different?

Maybe if you were full timing and you had an insurance policy like on your house, the insurance would pay for accommodations while your house (RV) was uninhabitable. Even if it was a new house and the builder's warrantee was still in effect, the builder is usually responsible for repairs, not paying you out of pocket expenses.

Sorry, but that is the way I see it. Again, I feel your experience is horrible.

Nedra · 06-06-2008, 08:21 AM

I see it differently because this issue has gone on for over a year. They refused to acknowledge that it was an issue and that they were responsible. As a result we paid for things out of pocket trying to resolve an issue that WAS in fact a manufacturing defect that they denied. If it was unrelated things I would have no issue with them but since the ongoing problem was due to manufacturing defects that took over a year to correct.

Nedra

Les Stallings · 06-07-2008, 03:37 AM

Read your warrantee. What it says is the legal agreement you have with the manufacturer.

Good or bad, right or wrong, that is the agreement. That is what a court of law will rule on.

Please don't forget that I'm on your side and wish companies would be financially able to make large "good will" investments in customer satisfaction. However, I do hope that Monaco has a management and financial plan in place that will keep them in business during these hard times for RV manufacturers. Many RV companies are going "dormant", reorganizing or bankrupt.

Chef Guy · 06-08-2008, 07:09 AM

Nedra,

Sorry, Les, but I would totally agree with Nedra on this People's Court of Public Opinion.

One can always tell an excellent manufacturer, dealer, retailer, or whatever, not when the company does good work when nothing is seriously wrong or when everything is going right, BUT when things are seriously wrong, as on her brand new coach, and when the company, Monaco, refuses to acknowledge legitimate safety concerns relating to one of their products that was not adjusted/built correctly from the factory.

In my view, both the dealer and the manufacturer have to share blame for inflicting this totally unnecessary burden and hardship upon unsuspecting owners, who fork over their hard earned money for a product that Kay Toolson so proudly tells us is better than anything else out there.

While many of us will never experience anything other than minor problems with their coaches, there are exceptions like Nedra who will. It is when these exceptions are handled better than Nedra's that I will begin to have faith in corporate America again. Right now, I have little faith.

When Monaco, or anyone else, builds a product, they should stand behind it 100%. A one year bumper to bumper warranty is just that. And, it should cover all expenses related to get it fixed right. I mean, how many people live next door to the factory when the factorys are located in the middle of farmlands miles away from major cities? (no insult to you, MonacoMama)

While insurance is nice to have (and I am over protected just like most of us are) I still believe that one has to stand behind whatever you make or sell, or just don't bother selling it or making it.

Sorry for all of your problems, Nedra. Some of the other unfortunate stories I have heard related to other Large RV companies (who still happen to be in business today) makes my hair stand on end when I hear the horrible stories about similar, or worse, plights with their brand new motorhomes. Things like that should not be happening to us seniors (54 moving on to 64) after we have worked so hard for our money.

All the best and happy travels with your "finally fixed up coach!"

Nedra · 06-08-2008, 09:37 AM

Thanks for your understanding. We are taking it out for a week long trip and I'm praying it's better than hubby says it is when he drove it home from the Service Center. He claims it's worse now than before and on the way home the mud flap came off probably from fatige over the last year.

I'm really not a happy camper and I'm at the point that if he is right and the coach is worse than before just throwing up my hands and getting a lawyer to get out of this nightmare.

I do agree when you spend this kind of money on a coach you expect better workmanship. You expect a manufacturer to stand behind their product and not try to deny some accountability for what we have had to endure. We spend a lot of money out of our own pocket trying to fix THEIR problem and they say tough luck! Well, we'll stand behind you as long as we don't have to reimburse you for anything due to our incometence.

Nedra