Is getting service done a hassle?

[Wineman]

Newbie here, just talking with another newbie yesterday from New England and he was showing me his new rig, about 6 months old, Fleetwood Class A gas. He travels up and down east coast and bought it from LazyDayz in Tampa. When he got back to New England he called Flagg RV in Uxbridge, MA who is a Fleetwood dealer to have some warranty work that needed to get done. Flagg told him at least 8 weeks before he could get an appointment, he said OK because he wasn't going anywhere the next two months. He brought it down 8 weeks later and left it there, while driving home they called him and said you didn't buy it here so come pick it up! He said he waited 8 weeks for the appt, they just said pick it up and hung up on him. He turned around and went back and got it. He called Fleetwood and they said to just get work done wherever you can and pay for it and they will reimburse him. My question is., is this common? I thought it would be like a car dealership and you could get it done at any dealership who carries that line. Am I being naive here?
I'm getting a new Entegra Anthem end of January, will I have to go through the same crap to get warranty work done?

[palehorse89]

Originally Posted by Wineman

Newbie here, just talking with another newbie yesterday from New England and he was showing me his new rig, about 6 months old, Fleetwood Class A gas. He travels up and down east coast and bought it from LazyDayz in Tampa. When he got back to New England he called Flagg RV in Uxbridge, MA who is a Fleetwood dealer to have some warranty work that needed to get done. Flagg told him at least 8 weeks before he could get an appointment, he said OK because he wasn't going anywhere the next two months. He brought it down 8 weeks later and left it there, while driving home they called him and said you didn't buy it here so come pick it up! He said he waited 8 weeks for the appt, they just said pick it up and hung up on him. He turned around and went back and got it. He called Fleetwood and they said to just get work done wherever you can and pay for it and they will reimburse him. My question is., is this common? I thought it would be like a car dealership and you could get it done at any dealership who carries that line. Am I being naive here?
I'm getting a new Entegra Anthem end of January, will I have to go through the same crap to get warranty work done?

Your question would be best asked and moved the the "Entegra" forum. Maybe one of the Moderators can help you by moving it for you.

[mikebrls]

Originally Posted by Wineman

Newbie here, just talking with another newbie yesterday from New England and he was showing me his new rig, about 6 months old, Fleetwood Class A gas. He travels up and down east coast and bought it from LazyDayz in Tampa. When he got back to New England he called Flagg RV in Uxbridge, MA who is a Fleetwood dealer to have some warranty work that needed to get done. Flagg told him at least 8 weeks before he could get an appointment, he said OK because he wasn't going anywhere the next two months. He brought it down 8 weeks later and left it there, while driving home they called him and said you didn't buy it here so come pick it up! He said he waited 8 weeks for the appt, they just said pick it up and hung up on him. He turned around and went back and got it. He called Fleetwood and they said to just get work done wherever you can and pay for it and they will reimburse him. My question is., is this common? I thought it would be like a car dealership and you could get it done at any dealership who carries that line. Am I being naive here?
I'm getting a new Entegra Anthem end of January, will I have to go through the same crap to get warranty work done?

this is common practice::::
after warranty is up you will not want to goto a dealer " to much $$$".

I bought mine from Lazy day's in tampa about 3.5 hour drive from me , I waited 2 month's and a few trip's to go back for warranty work all done in a 3 day period . now with warranty work I will go local . and on a side note my micro wave did not work so I called the manufacturer and they sent a repair guy to my RV and they fixed it just like at your house . so if it something that is not made threw the coach manufacturer " fridge, oven , tv, water heater ect, you can call them direct .Almost everything is made by someone else the manufacture just put's it all together for the most part.

[mikebrls]

also I have Northtrail rv about 30 minutes from my house and they said the same thing " NO BUY HERE NO FIX HERE

it's all a sale's game . they try and scare you into paying more money for your new RV by buying threw them so you can have warranty work done " in my case $ 10 k "" so I went for a drive north " .
also there are a few other Rv shop's around my area that will do warranty work for the manufacture of my RV " they are just not selling new coaches

[demoon]

Wow. I find what happened in the original post very odd. We have done business with Flagg RV for 20 years and that does not sound like their mode of operation at all. I know of several people who purchased elsewhere that had work done there.

That being said, what happened never should have been tolerated by Fleetwood - as a dealer I would think they are obligated to provide warranty service on Fleetwood products.

[no3putt]

Getting "GOOD" service all depends on the dealership. Usually the manfacture of the MH has very little say in how the dealership runs. We gave up on the dealership we purchased ours from since it would sit on their lot, even with an appointment for weeks on end and nothing done or very little. If your going to buy a new MH check out the dealership first for service, just drive by a few times and see how many of the units are sitting waiting for service and how many are there the following week. Would be so nice if they worked like car dealerships but they don't

[redbaron73]

Yes, this is very common. The dealership exists only to serve their own customers, and even then they do a very poor job. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but it is not brand specific. My first coach was a Fleetwood, and the dealer I purchased it from was always 8 weeks out on the schedule, and then leave it for another 2-3 weeks to get 3 hours worth of work done.

My current coach is a Newmar, and I have had very poor service from the dealer network. The dealership I purchased the coach from was such a poor performer, that Newmar dropped them as a servicing dealer. That move has left me stranded without a dealer for warranty work, I am now at the mercy of the other dealerships to work me in. I have had work done twice at dealerships since my dealer lost their newmar dealership, and had two very different experiences.

One dealership scheduled me out 6 weeks, and then did sub-standard work, without fixing any of the original complaints. Another dealership, Guaranty RV in Oregon, scheduled my within 3 days, and not only completed the original work, but did additional items. All of their work was done while I waited, same day, and was done to perfection.

[redbaron73]

Originally Posted by no3putt

Would be so nice if they worked like car dealerships but they don't

AGREED! I do not understand why RV Dealerships act the way they do. They have introduced service writers into the mix recently, but there is no reason they cannot schedule service, and work on it when your appointment time comes up.

There are some dealerships that are much better, but I have often thought that an RV service center that puts the "service" back into the business would be a very profitable business.

At one time Camping World was that kind of service center. I am sure there are a few that still are, but in my mind, once they started selling RV's and doing their own in-house service, the business model shifted to one that no longer serves the customer.

[RickO]

IMHO, it's not common at all.

Many dealers will tell you that they give preferential appointment times to customers who bought their coaches from them but I've viewed it mostly as just salesman talk.

I had no such problem with my new Winnie DP and I would think Fleetwood would want to know about this. Seems unacceptable to me.

Rick

[ChileRick]

Sadly, this has been our experience also. Servicing your RV just isn't any dealerships priority. Even our service rep from Winnebago told us "new sales come first". We use the dealership we bought it from and we are weeks out for an appt. and it sits for weeks while they fit in the repairs around the new coach prep on the coaches they recently sold. Service is so low on this multi-location dealerships priorities that our service departments staff has gone from 4 to 1 in about 6 months, but they are as busy as ever. Not sure how the last guy standing is going to handle the workload. I wouldn't!

[donhoward49]

I would suggest that we all start using "RVservicereviews.com" to let others know about good and bad service.. We could steer clear of the bad shops and support the good guys.. I am very fortunate to have found a good guy in Portland but it took some time to figure it out.

[mojoracing]

I have run car dealers all my life. About ten years ago I had the opportunity to run an RV dealer. I was shocked to find that the RV dealers were a good ten years behind the car dealers. In the car business we would never turn down business, whether the customer was paying or the manufacturer. It was pretty much common place for the rv dealers to service their own only. Appointments were backed up and to wait, while your coach was worked on was unheard of. I can tell you that the RV dealers especially the big chains and larger, multiple point dealers have got with the times so to speak. If my service department turned down work, they would be looking for jobs. Call around and find a good dealer that is willing to work with you. That's what I did and that's how I ended up running the dealer that serviced my coach under warranty 10 years ago. I urge you to build a relationship and you will find it easy to not only buy your coach locally but service it locally as well.

[Yellowpointe]

I really haven't found any dealer service departments to be of much use other than picking up a part or two. Yea when you buy a unit from them they will promise the world but that is more like Disney world. If I need some work done I can't do myself I go to a local garage that services the trucking industry, they are usually quite familiar with CAT and cummins power plants.

[ChileRick]

Even though there are flakey Auto Dealers, they are obligated to repair all vehicles of the brand they sell no matter where they were purchased, What, in my opinion, would be a smart move by one of the biggies is to open a string of exclusive dealerships, with complete service and parts departments and big old sign on the corner. But, since that's not going to happen, I'll wait till next fall when a new RV mega-dealer opens with a new 14 bay "state-of-the-art" full repair facility just up the road. The dealers rep I chatted with said their customers needs come first,