Workhorse left me stranded!

[vacation on wheels]

I'm traveling to Charlelston, Sc when right on the NC/SC border on I-26 my motorhome had a terrible sound and burning rubber smell coming from engine accessory belt. The air conditioning compressor bearings froze and destroyed the belt (Stranded because no turning water pump or alternator). Yesterday a really nice shop owner drove out to look at the damage and got it back to his repair facility (Larry Stott's garage). So here I am stuck in a small town, hours from my destination and Workhorse won't sell him the part because he's not an authorized Workhorse service center and because, as usual, Workhorse has, at least, a 1 week back order on the part! Am I supposed to wait weeks to even try to get an air conditioner compressor from Workhorse? We are not driving Ferrari motorhomes with hard to get parts, are we? Thankfully, Mike at Brazel's came through for me for overnighting the part to the shop because he had 1 in stock. What would we do with our Workhorse's without Brazel's? Driver, something needs to be done about waiting weeks for parts! By the way, the nearest service center was hours away and the motorhome was not driveable. The compressor is a Delphi, made be GM right? Workhorse would rather leave me stranded for weeks to make money off of me than allowing me to purchase parts from any GM dealership? The coach is out of warranty but I am forced to go to the select few authorized service centers? How about giving owners the GM part numbers for our Workhorse chassis parts. Doesn't Workhorse buy the parts from GM and then raise the price to us owners? I believe and Ford dealer can get part numbers and order parts for any Ford chassis. What do you guys think?

[vacation on wheels]

I'm traveling to Charlelston, Sc when right on the NC/SC border on I-26 my motorhome had a terrible sound and burning rubber smell coming from engine accessory belt. The air conditioning compressor bearings froze and destroyed the belt (Stranded because no turning water pump or alternator). Yesterday a really nice shop owner drove out to look at the damage and got it back to his repair facility (Larry Stott's garage). So here I am stuck in a small town, hours from my destination and Workhorse won't sell him the part because he's not an authorized Workhorse service center and because, as usual, Workhorse has, at least, a 1 week back order on the part! Am I supposed to wait weeks to even try to get an air conditioner compressor from Workhorse? We are not driving Ferrari motorhomes with hard to get parts, are we? Thankfully, Mike at Brazel's came through for me for overnighting the part to the shop because he had 1 in stock. What would we do with our Workhorse's without Brazel's? Driver, something needs to be done about waiting weeks for parts! By the way, the nearest service center was hours away and the motorhome was not driveable. The compressor is a Delphi, made be GM right? Workhorse would rather leave me stranded for weeks to make money off of me than allowing me to purchase parts from any GM dealership? The coach is out of warranty but I am forced to go to the select few authorized service centers? How about giving owners the GM part numbers for our Workhorse chassis parts. Doesn't Workhorse buy the parts from GM and then raise the price to us owners? I believe and Ford dealer can get part numbers and order parts for any Ford chassis. What do you guys think?

[Richard 34A]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by vacation on wheels:
I'm traveling to Charlelston, Sc when right on the NC/SC border on I-26 my motorhome had a terrible sound and burning rubber smell coming from engine accessory belt. The air conditioning compressor bearings froze and destroyed the belt (Stranded because no turning water pump or alternator). Yesterday a really nice shop owner drove out to look at the damage and got it back to his repair facility (Larry Stott's garage). So here I am stuck in a small town, hours from my destination and Workhorse won't sell him the part because he's not an authorized Workhorse service center and because, as usual, Workhorse has, at least, a 1 week back order on the part! Am I supposed to wait weeks to even try to get an air conditioner compressor from Workhorse? We are not driving Ferrari motorhomes with hard to get parts, are we? Thankfully, Mike at Brazel's came through for me for overnighting the part to the shop because he had 1 in stock. What would we do with our Workhorse's without Brazel's? Driver, something needs to be done about waiting weeks for parts! By the way, the nearest service center was hours away and the motorhome was not driveable. The compressor is a Delphi, made be GM right? Workhorse would rather leave me stranded for weeks to make money off of me than allowing me to purchase parts from any GM dealership? The coach is out of warranty but I am forced to go to the select few authorized service centers? How about giving owners the GM part numbers for our Workhorse chassis parts. Doesn't Workhorse buy the parts from GM and then raise the price to us owners? I believe and Ford dealer can get part numbers and order parts for any Ford chassis. What do you guys think? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Seems like a very frustrating and disappointing response from Workhorse to me. I had the same thing happen to me once on a then new GMC Crewcab dually pick-up going into a three-day holiday weekend. I was able to nurse the pick-up to the next GM dealer, which was a Chevrolet dealer. After checking things out and telling me what froze up, I was told that even though they had the parts in stock, they couldn't repair it under warranty because it was a GMC and not a Chevy. (They did offer that I could pay for the entire repair out of pocket though.) Forget the fact that both pick-ups are built on the exact same assembly line.

I had to pay $85 for that information; by the time it was hauled to the nearest GMC dealer, the shop told me that it was too close to quitting time to make repairs, so my pick-up spent the holiday in Ukiah, Ca. and my 5th-wheel trailer spent it in Willits, an hour and a half from Benbow campground we were supposed to stay at. (Which wouldn't refund us our deposit because we didn't cancel in the appropriate time frame!) Gee, with customer service like that, should I wonder why GM could be 6-10 months from bankruptcy? Maybe the people who run Workhorse originally came from GM... (no one should get upset at that remark, since no one from Workhorse has any direct connection to this forum.)

Good luck to you on your repairs and your next adventure; at least you know you won't have any A/C problems for a while!

[DriVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by vacation on wheels:
What do you guys think? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>I regret your belt broke and compressor failed. I'm on my 3rd compressor and 4th belt I believe but these were special circumstances.

Did you call, Workhorse Roadside Assistance at 877-946-7731?

They would have found you an alternate service center in the vicinity where you broke down and they would make the arrangements to get a part out to the dealer with more urgency. It does not matter if you are in or out of warranty call roadside assistance first.

Mike's shop is one of 10 top dealers in the country. One of the reasons for this top 10 rating is that they keep parts in stock.

My Workhorse service center in Myrtle Beach would indeed have a compressor and a belt and just about anything else they can cross and get locally. Nobody keeps large items in stock, they are just too expensive to carry on the shelf. A gas tank for instance would be one such part however there must be shops out there that have them.

If you go out of the network to get work done on your motorhome please know that you will indeed encounter these types of problems because WCC has agreements with their dealer network that they have to honor.

[FrontRangeRVer]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by vacation on wheels:
Thankfully, Mike at Brazel's came through for me for overnighting the part to the shop because he had 1 in stock. What would we do with our Workhorse's without Brazel's? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

We're going to Oregon/Washington this Summer, and plan on using this same shop when and if we have problems.....I'll PAY extra to have my unit towed there.

[edgray]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The coach is out of warranty but I am forced to go to the select few authorized service centers? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
VOW: I'm also sorry to read about your A/C failure. But I'm confused by your statement quoted above. If you are out of warranty "who" is forcing you to use a WCC ASC. You can use parts from any source, and cross-referencing a Delphi compressor should not present problems for a competent parts counter man. ED

[oemtech]

Mike,

Say what you want about how many Workhorse Service Centers there are and how great they are. There is a reoccurring theme showing up. The Workhorse parts systems sucks and the prices are outrageous.

The fact is that in most cases we can xref parts and either buy via GM or a parts house. Just look at the brake parts that a fellow IRV2 member got to repair his brakes.

[oemtech]

Ed,

If the parts were available and the prices were inline with GM or a parts house we would probably buy from Workhorse.

[edgray]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">we would probably buy from Workhorse. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Dale: I thought the inability to do that was a part of the OP's problem. I just asking why he even bothered to try to go thru WCC if not a warranty issue. ED

[edgray]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The fact is that in most cases we can xref parts and either buy via GM or a parts house. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
DALE: I agree with you, isn't that basically what I said? ED

[oemtech]

In warranty or out of warranty Workhorse will not sell to anyone other than a Workhorse Service Center. Most places that I have stopped and asked about parts... 90% of the time I hear, "Whats's your vin #" and then "We don't have any but we can order them".
Next, "It will take 3 to 4 days to get the parts".
Next, "We can overnight for $$$$".
But, one that really gets me is, "The parts is on back order" and your standing in a GM dealers parts room.

Cross referencing parts is can be a real PIA when all you have is a casting number. If your lucky you may find a GM number or Delphi number. I try to support the products that I have. I buy from my dealer as much as possible even that I know the markup is more than I want. Workhorse will never provide xref part numbers because if they did no one ever buy their overpriced parts.
Example -
Fuel Filter - $77.95 Oemy's - $45
MAF - $249 Ebay - $26 (NIB - running on my coach)
Serpentine Belt - $65 Autozone - $30

When I was at Myrtle Beach I over heard a comment about the price of the fuel filters that I was selling. Something to the effect of why can he sell them so cheap.

[Brazels RV Performance]

Dale,

I'm sure even IBM had bad service centers & they didn't have everything in stock. It still comes down to Customer service now more than ever & some shop's make they're own pricing too.

[oemtech]

I can't speak for the current IBM but when I worked there there we no bad parts centers. Because if they were they didn't stay that way for long. What CE's didn't have in stock were air shipped at IBM's expense to customer. I even heard they bought a seat in coach to ship parts at one time or another.

You are right Customer Service is what it is all about.

[Brazels RV Performance]

Now figure Workhorse is about 100 times smaller with alot less resorces & they have only been around for eight years