Warranty Issues/Questions

[Teamfoxy]

Not specific to RV's, but in other industries, when a dealer for a product does not want to provide warranty service, it is usually because the OEM does not reimburse them promptly or properly for the service. If they did not sell the unit in the first place, there is no incentive to incur a loss when someone else made the profit. By going out of area for the initial purchase, you have already demonstrated that you will not likely be a return customer no matter what they do for you.
An OEM is not going to give any repair facility cart blanch for warranty work, but probably pays a set amount for certain issues. If the facility has work for which they will be paid in full, that work gets the priority over a warranty.
There are two ways to go about purchasing new with minimal frustration: 1) Go to a local dealer with a good reputation for customer service and pay them a fair price. 2) Go wherever you can get the lowest price, make sure you get everything taken care of before you complete the sale, and be prepared to fix any other issues yourself, or at your expense.

[Bob_C]

Go to the main Forest River Owners Forum, a different one that's a sub forum on IRV2, join, just like this one, and there are people their that can help....with contact phone numbers, names and etc...DO NOT even mention legal stuff.....and feel free to use my name as there's a lot of old time posters that I used to post with (16,500) still there...

[Glenn and Kathy]

All they cold tell me is that it was out of warranty and I was on my own. When I told the rep I was going to contact the Attorney General, he hung up on me!![/QUOTE]

That's standard procedure with many businesses. As soon as you mention attorney or Attorney General they stop the conversation and wait for their legal department to be contacted.

[Dav L]

Originally Posted by Teamfoxy

Not specific to RV's, but in other industries, when a dealer for a product does not want to provide warranty service, it is usually because the OEM does not reimburse them promptly or properly for the service. If they did not sell the unit in the first place, there is no incentive to incur a loss when someone else made the profit. By going out of area for the initial purchase, you have already demonstrated that you will not likely be a return customer no matter what they do for you.
An OEM is not going to give any repair facility cart blanch for warranty work, but probably pays a set amount for certain issues. If the facility has work for which they will be paid in full, that work gets the priority over a warranty.
There are two ways to go about purchasing new with minimal frustration: 1) Go to a local dealer with a good reputation for customer service and pay them a fair price. 2) Go wherever you can get the lowest price, make sure you get everything taken care of before you complete the sale, and be prepared to fix any other issues yourself, or at your expense.

That is part of the possible issue, the other one is the Dealer (most of which came up through the ranks of Sales) have a belief that if you didn't buy it from me, then you're on your own. My experience in this is that it is short term thinking. My best dealers were greedy across all departments and realized that one feeds the other.

State laws have tended to normalize the difference between warranty and customer pay. I was responsible for Labor Rates for Chrysler back in the day. Yes, any OEM will only pay a certain markeup on parts, and an agreed upon labor rate (which is never low) and a flat rate time guide of hours. And, won't pay for stuff to be done twice (that the OEM becomes aware of). Pretty much what any educated consumer would insist on. Basically the OEM as an expert tries to reduce the slam dunk that many dealers insist on with their customer pay business. Make no mistake, if the dealership is run well, they are making a ton of money on warranty work. But if they are overcapacity scheduled, then they will prioritize customer pay where they can slam dunk with the available hours and space.

[Gary RVRoamer]

only 2 months out of warranty...

I think most all RV manufacturers are really rigid on the warranty period. Once the warranty is expired, even by one day, you are relying on "customer good will" for any factory or dealer paid repair. I suspect the Attorney General would have said the same thing.


To get some "good will", sweet talk garners more sympathy than threats.

[MrZip]

This is becoming more and more of an issue, as RV sales increase there's more repairs than ever on the new RVs. Places that have large RV populations like Florida have more work than they can handle, I don't use my RV year round so during "down time" I try and get all the maintainece issues taken care of locally from the dealer I purchased the unit from. I also took an extended warranty from that dealer with future maintainece in mind.

It's really important that when purchasing an RV you know if that dealer can service your RV.

If you have a motorhome like I do, It's also good to know a commercial truck center that can work on the engine. Most dealers will work on the chassis but have very limited knowledge on the power train.

Also warranty on the power train would be handled by an authorized service center which in my case would be a Ford commercial truck center.

I try to have my oil changes done at the truck center as they also check several suspension points and lube as required.

Remember motorhomes are not aligned after the chassis is built out so an alignment is necessary when you buy the unit, if you know this ahead of time you can negotiate to have the dealer complete this or find out later like I did and had to have it done at the Truck Center on my dime.

Tires can be repaired and replaced at just about any commercial truck center. So no need to go to the dealer for that.

[cbusmc]

Originally Posted by cbusmc

Warranty Issues/Questions
While traveling through Indiana we traded our 2017 FR 5th Wheel for a 2019 FR 5th Wheel. We live in West Palm Beach, Florida. All the dealers in this area tell me they only do warranty work on what they sell. I called FR HQ and they said they couldn't help as the Dealers are independent and can make their own rules. Does anyone out there have any suggestions or am I going to have to go back to Indiana to have the work done? Thanks in advance for any feedback.
__________________
Carl Bergener
1stSgt, USMC (Ret)

I was finally able to get in touch with the Forest River Warranty Department. They were very helpful and told me if none of the RV Dealers would help I could get just about anyone to fix the problems, pay for it and submit a claim for reimbursement. Luckily I found a local company that works on RV's and has no problem working with the manufacturer on the issues. Just took it there the Friday before Christmas. I'll give an update on how this turns out. Thank you for all your comments and suggestions.