Recent service trip at Coburg, OR

Chef Guy · 07-16-2011, 12:01 PM

At the end of last month, June, 2011, I had the opportunity to have some service work done at the new (old building) Monaco LLC in Coburg , OR. Items to be fixed including a nasty 4 year old water leak by the driver's left foot area, a replacement of the broken OEM Carefree OtD awning (old was Freedom, new is Marquis) the replacement of a piece of vinyl trim by the front door (caused by another water leak) and replacement of both rooftop AC gaskets (which had been crushed by an earlier install (probably factory, who knows?)

Although the reception area is old Monaco, with coffee that tasted like dishwater (when there was coffee that was) and the whole place seemed old, I found the few staff remaining very professional, attentive and diligent. Besides, I didn't come here for the coffee anyway!

All of the items were fixed right the first time, including the water leak which was tested in their rain booth on site, and here at home during the last few days of downpour we have had in Surrey, BC, Canada.

Jimmy, the tech who worked on the coach, was exceptional and had been with Monaco since 1991...he was one of the 40 people who remained on site during the transition from the old Monaco to the new Monaco. Although he had worked up to a supervisor level with the old Monaco, he felt lucky just to continue to be working with Monaco with thousands not so lucky.

A year before this, going on some recommendations from other RVers, I decided to try out other repair facilities in this area, and found all of them lacking, unprofessional and a hit and miss attitude with a "their time was more important than your time" attitude. After having wasted a whole 4 weeks last year trying to get items fixed, I was glad to have followed Dave's (DiplomatDave) advice on this forum and try out Monaco for one last shot before I gave up completely.

Don't know if everyone's story is similar to mine, probably not, but the new Monaco sure earned my respect!

Here's to a coach that knows where to go for it's next hard to fix items!

...up here in still rainy Surrey, BC

anthrosciguy · 07-17-2011, 06:35 PM

How much do they charge, and how's the lead times to get an appt time to get in?

Chef Guy · 07-17-2011, 09:28 PM

anthrosciguy or whatever your real name is...

The new Monaco charges $109.00 per hour, and the lead time for an appointment for me, because they had to use the paint shop, was about 4 weeks. It may be shorter for other work. They did not seem "overbooked" when I was there and I was quite surprised when the service men told me that they had been open during the takeover from Navistar. I had always assumed that the service center closed when they shut down the Harrisburg operation.

Because I had camped down the street at Armitage, I didn't use their on-site camping option (free electricity, free water and free use of their on site concealed dump station.)

But I was pleased with their work and their knowledge base of the Monaco chassis et al. I did not think they overcharged me either, and apparently, they have to get your approval to order any parts, no matter how small (2 AC gaskets totally $70.00) On the first day I received a cell phone call (my dime, of course) when I was 2.5 hours away in Portland asking me to approve the order of the AC gaskets.

Good luck...