Is it a sign of the times?

[Ricci]

Hi - Recently there seems to be more negative commenting and just blowing off steam on this board. I firmly believe in people airing their grievances but sometimes it is hard to see what they are complaining about. We just finished up on our first service experience at Newmar. We are not newbies as this is our 9th coach dating back to 1985. Our experience during this warranty visit was excellent. Everything that needed attention was taken care of to our satisfaction in a professional manner that respected our property. The coach had a variety of issues but at no time through the first year did it ever stop us from its use and enjoyment as full-timers. These were break-in issues and mostly related to third party products. One year ago we traded in the "coach from hell" so I know what bad looks and smells like. To be honest I don't see that type of coach being produced at Newmar. No doubt that things go bad on motor homes but our current DS is hands down the best built coach we have owned and Newmar has been responsive to our needs. No, I don't drink the corporate Kool-Aid but I'd rather talk to the folks who can help me out. Every night we received an email that delineated what was done so if we had an issue we could discuss it in the morning. Maybe we just had beginners luck but you could not ask for better treatment than we had at the hands of Bob Young and Alvin Borkholder.

Delays happen, someone else has an emergency and things get held up. It's not always about you. Relax, this is supposed to be fun.


Tom

[Winemaker2]

I'm guessing that your work was at the factory.
I believe there are a LOT more negative posts re dealer issues than factory. I don't have much dealer experience but it seems like there is a huge gap in competence between factory and dealers.
There are many MH owners that trips to factory is a major inconvenience.

[WoodyS]

Just my two cents.

1) I believe the market is changing. If you look at RV sales recently, they're going crazy! Some of the new rigs are being bought by people who have been traveling in RV's for years -- decades. But I suspect that most are being bought by first-timers. And they have no experience with RV's, the lifestyle, or maintenance.

2) I believe that more of the "new" buyers are not only inexperienced, but also much older than RV buyers in the past. I'm thinking "Baby Boomers." And I can say that because I'm one of them. And I suspect many of these new to RV traveling, have created idealistic images of what it is, how to do it, and what's involved. And those images aren't necessarily based on reality.

3) In addition to RV traveling, my current main hobby is star-gazing. And because my eyes aren't that great and my background is in video production, I concentrate on live video imaging through my scopes -- for public outreach. And one of the things I've noticed with others trying to get into this hobby is that they subscribe to the theory that the more money you spend on something, the simpler the operation and the fewer "problems" they'll have. And in fact, it's almost exactly the opposite! To some degree, buying a new RV and hitting the road might be similar.

4) I believe new RV's are getting much much more complex, and that their design, construction and maintenance aren't completely understood yet -- by the manufacturers, service people, or customers.

5) Anyway, I'm sure glad I'm not in the RV manufacturing, RV service, or RV Park business right now. I couldn't deal with all the people who don't know what they're doing and blame everything and everybody else for their "problems." And in fact, many of their "problems" aren't problems at all -- just different expectations.

End of sermon.

[TJ]

Good points! Attitudes and expectations are key factors that will determine whether you will enjoy your RV experience or not. Sadly, some will probably never enjoy theirs.

TJ

[We_B_Tripn]

I agree TJ.

[gimlimike]

I agree with you on the Newmar service, our experience was fantastic and exceeded my expectations, and am very glad I chose Newmar and have this board for advice and suggestions.

[FLJOE]

We are really not experienced RVers like some. We purchased our first fiver in 2012 and immediately sold the sticknbrick and went full time. We have owned 4 different RVs in the last 6 years, made by 3 different manufacturers. I have taken factory tours besides the one recently at Newmar.

I was very impressed with our warranty visit last month at Nappanee. We have had some minor "speed bumps" this first 10 months in our new coach but I expected as much.

Dealing with a couple other dealers/manufacturers in the past it was more like "now, what is your name again and did you buy that thing from us". When dealing with my dealer and Newmar it seems to be "good morning Mr. $^%#@, how may we assist you?"

[Soniccruzer]

Originally Posted by WoodyS

Just my two cents.



1) I believe the market is changing. If you look at RV sales recently, they're going crazy! Some of the new rigs are being bought by people who have been traveling in RV's for years -- decades. But I suspect that most are being bought by first-timers. And they have no experience with RV's, the lifestyle, or maintenance.



2) I believe that more of the "new" buyers are not only inexperienced, but also much older than RV buyers in the past. I'm thinking "Baby Boomers." And I can say that because I'm one of them. And I suspect many of these new to RV traveling, have created idealistic images of what it is, how to do it, and what's involved. And those images aren't necessarily based on reality.



3) In addition to RV traveling, my current main hobby is star-gazing. And because my eyes aren't that great and my background is in video production, I concentrate on live video imaging through my scopes -- for public outreach. And one of the things I've noticed with others trying to get into this hobby is that they subscribe to the theory that the more money you spend on something, the simpler the operation and the fewer "problems" they'll have. And in fact, it's almost exactly the opposite! To some degree, buying a new RV and hitting the road might be similar.



4) I believe new RV's are getting much much more complex, and that their design, construction and maintenance aren't completely understood yet -- by the manufacturers, service people, or customers.



5) Anyway, I'm sure glad I'm not in the RV manufacturing, RV service, or RV Park business right now. I couldn't deal with all the people who don't know what they're doing and blame everything and everybody else for their "problems." And in fact, many of their "problems" aren't problems at all -- just different expectations.



End of sermon.

[emoji1319][emoji1319][emoji1319]

[rodz]

Originally Posted by Ricci

Hi - Recently there seems to be more negative commenting and just blowing off steam on this board. I firmly believe in people airing their grievances but sometimes it is hard to see what they are complaining about. We just finished up on our first service experience at Newmar. We are not newbies as this is our 9th coach dating back to 1985. Our experience during this warranty visit was excellent. Everything that needed attention was taken care of to our satisfaction in a professional manner that respected our property. The coach had a variety of issues but at no time through the first year did it ever stop us from its use and enjoyment as full-timers. These were break-in issues and mostly related to third party products. One year ago we traded in the "coach from hell" so I know what bad looks and smells like. To be honest I don't see that type of coach being produced at Newmar. No doubt that things go bad on motor homes but our current DS is hands down the best built coach we have owned and Newmar has been responsive to our needs. No, I don't drink the corporate Kool-Aid but I'd rather talk to the folks who can help me out. Every night we received an email that delineated what was done so if we had an issue we could discuss it in the morning. Maybe we just had beginners luck but you could not ask for better treatment than we had at the hands of Bob Young and Alvin Borkholder.

Delays happen, someone else has an emergency and things get held up. It's not always about you. Relax, this is supposed to be fun.


Tom

I've owned several motorhomes since the late 70s. My purchased new Newmar from hell was completely from poor engineering and lack of any quality control. I gave up on it after one year of repairs at a huge financial loss. If you had a different experience, that's great. There's way too many of us that haven't had that satisfaction. There were no parts failures on mine, just horrible workmanship with major problems.

[Logan Oregon]

How often do you go to a web site for reviews of any type of service, just to leave a positive comment?

Probably not very often. Most of the time, posters here have had something go wrong, or don't know, and they want some advice and help. I try to post both the positive and negative on my postings.

It's all too easy to post when there is a problem, get it off your chest, and move on. Rarely do I see follow-up postings in the same thread about how it got resolved, or if it got resolved.

These are indeed complex machines, and I agree with a lot of the posters here.

When we purchased, after following the threads here on this forum, I was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised, and have had only a few minor things go wrong with our new motorhome.

[rodz]

With better engineering, management, quality control and a final inspection before leaving the factory, I suspect the vast number of warranty trips could be prevented. Do they really believe it's better to send poor quality motorhomes and build bigger repair facilities to correct problems later?

[Ricci]

Hi - As the OP of this topic I want to make clear that my thoughts were not intended to be directly about Newmar, but rather the mindset of some of the recent topic area comments. As we were taught in kindergarten, share and play nice. Not one of us is the center of the universe, we share it together. This gets forgotten in the me first rush.

Tom

[AITG]

Originally Posted by Ricci

Hi - As the OP of this topic I want to make clear that my thoughts were not intended to be directly about Newmar, but rather the mindset of some of the recent topic area comments. As we were taught in kindergarten, share and play nice. Not one of us is the center of the universe, we share it together. This gets forgotten in the me first rush.

Tom

Unfortunately we live in the era of "me, me, me". The people who never see beyond their own needs are everywhere. I have found that both the factory and my dealer have been excellent but I make it a point to ask them what works for them when repairs are being scheduled rather than dictating what I want.
My dealer has gotten me taken care of in less time than estimated and fixed everything correctly the first time.

[Dutch Star Don]

I think there are two types of service. Factory Service and Dealership Service. I think the factory service will almost always be better. Large well rated dealers will also provide some great service. The problem......there are not a lot of great service centers everywhere in the country. Those of us on the west coast don't want to drive to Indiana when we need service. So...often the complaints are based more on lousy service at a dealership versus the factory. Many would like to see Newmar crack down on these lousy service centers, but there isn't a bunch of others service centers waiting to take their place.

As an example, we have a local Freightliner shop that could care less about RV's. They make you wait hours before they even look at your coach, when Freightliner's moto is to look at your coach within 30 minutes of arrival.

I had a service girl at my Freightliner shop that thought it wasn't a big deal to just bring it back tomorrow. I had enough of her ignorant thought process and got knee deep in her stuff. I think she now understands that bringing in a motor home, isn't like bringing in a car, her only experience in life.