Community Forums

Jkwilson1989 · 11-12-2020, 09:45 AM

Wife and I took a leisurely trip to one of our favorite “not too far away” relaxation destinations last week and had a wonderful trip.

After we had been there a few days, another couple showed up across the road with, as it turned out, their brand new first ever RV.

After hearing them talking and starting the truck for better than an hour, I moseyed past on the pretense of walking a dog. I could see they were having all kinds of trouble leveling their rig. I walked on, but stopped to talk on my way back. It was probably their lucky day.

After some conversation and learning that they were new to RV ownership, I asked if they needed help leveling. Turns out they had been trying to level using Lego blocks under the jacks and stabilizers. I showed them how to level and got enough thanks to make me walk on air going back to our site.

They came to visit a few times over the next few days, with a lot of questions, beer and wine and a totally unnecessary gift card to a restaurant we had recommended.

We exchanged Facebook info so we could help them make their way through the learning curve. We made new friends, and that is always a good thing.

Seeing their gratitude has me feeling good even days after coming home.

But I’m disappointed their dealer didn’t do a better job of explaining things. Their entire experience with the RV could have been ruined by a poor dealer experience IMO.

I’m kind of pumped I was able to help.

Jim_HiTek · 11-12-2020, 10:22 AM

Some dealers these days have the gall to ask $495 for them to show new owners how to operate their multi-hundred thousand dollar RV. True. I find that disgusting and had a FB argument with a dealer on FB once about it and they would not back down from thinking it was fine to be charging people that much for just showing buyers how to use their RV.

I know if I was a new buyer, I'd balk at paying that much just to be given a tour too. My last purchase the shop tech took as much time as I needed to show me everything about this Journey. Free. Perhaps you ran into a new buyer who had the misfortune to choose a dealer that charges for the owners tour.

ken64k · 11-12-2020, 10:26 AM

This is so true, way to many dealers just care about making the sale. Once the papers are signed your on your own. When I bought my motor home from Camping World in NH the salesman told us that they would go over every system with us. What a joke that was. They made the appointment for me to come in on a Saturday to pick it up. I had to look for some one to get me a couple of screws to put the licence plate on and the service guy wasn't even around to show me anything.
Good thing I knew about using most everything on the RV and what I did not know I asked on sites like this one.

mhs4771 · 11-12-2020, 10:55 AM

How can they show you something they don't have a clue about. They're just there to sell you an RV not tell you anything about it. Even most of the Tech don't really know much of the real world operations, unless they happen to be RVers themselves.

Old-Biscuit · 11-12-2020, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhs4771

How can they show you something they don't have a clue about. They're just there to sell you an RV not tell you anything about it. Even most of the Tech don't really know much of the real world operations, unless they happen to be RVers themselves.

No truer words have been stated

RV Tech.....
Yesterday they were selling hot dogs from a cart in front of store
Today they are repairing your A/C Unit, Fridge, Water heater, Furnace, 12VDC/120VAC Systems....YIKES!

Skip426 · 11-12-2020, 11:22 AM

The salesman was working at " Big 5 " last week selling running shoes and golf balls .

My last 5er purchase, first new RV cash deal no trade , I was lucky enough to deal with a true professional RV; long term salesman ; only after telling him that it was my forth 5er and second tow vehicle did he allow me to hook up to leave the sales lot ; then he contacted me by phone for the next three days , to be sure I had no questions or problems .

boomersooner · 11-12-2020, 11:24 AM

When we bought our RV, first class A (DP), our dealer had the RV tech assigned to us a whole day and went over everything, inside, then outside, front to rear top to bottom. The next morning he took us for a drive and gave my wife a few pointers. We filled up, dropped him off. And we were on our way home. I did a lot reading and watching videos before we picked our RV up from the dealer. I am still learning after 11 months but feel pretty comfortable and my wife loves to drive it (she is driving this minute as we go through Atlanta).

arcaguy · 11-12-2020, 11:29 AM

These "extra cost options" that people seem to think they deserve for spending money at a dealer are the direct result of people being price driven in their purchasing decision. Back when I owned an ISP (way back last century) I used to get people on the phone complaining that my price was $5 a month more than the guy down the road. My reply was easy. When you called here, a real live person answered the phone and could handle your issue immediately, the guy down the road always let his phone calls go to voice mail and then he would answer them when it was convenient for him, sometimes days later. Did I lose some customers because of that? Probably, Did I gain some customers because of that? Probably more than I lost. My point is, people want first rate service for second rate pricing and that just doesn't happen in this world. As always YMMV.

Jubilee 45 · 11-12-2020, 11:37 AM

I find that successful coach owners take responsibility to learn what they are buying and take ownership.

**hamm2018** · 11-12-2020, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

No truer words have been stated

RV Tech.....
Yesterday they were selling hot dogs from a cart in front of store
Today they are repairing your A/C Unit, Fridge, Water heater, Furnace, 12VDC/120VAC Systems....YIKES!

Most of the RV salespeople can't even spell the words "RV", let alone know how things work.
In the Navy we would joke that "last week I could not spell engineer, now I are one"!!!!!!!!!!

momdoc · 11-13-2020, 05:57 AM

Most sales folks have NO IDEA on how your new rig works and many less reputable dealers will charge you a huge fee to have someone, who may or may not know your rig, go over you rig with you. You should NEVER pay for a PDI (pre delivery inspection)

We were not new to RVs when we purchased our new rig two years ago and still had a two day PDI to go over the rig in detail. A great experience.

Good luck.

Teamfoxy · 11-13-2020, 07:13 AM

Sometimes people have done no reasearch and don't really know what questions to ask. No matter how good the PDI, there is so much information that it does not all get absorbed. Even an experienced RV owner has a lot that they can learn.
We bought our current coach at Lazy Days Tampa two years ago and stayed 4 days in the coach before leaving. We wanted to take the driver confidence course they offer. Besides the tech who gave us the initial PDI, several managers came by to see how things were going and see if we had more questions after spending time in the coach.
Before the sale, the salesman spent about 4 hours with us two days in a row. The first day showing us several coaches we were interested in and the second day going through the coach we decided on and giving us our test drive. The test drive covered manuvering in a parking lot, some high traffic streets, and a drive on I-75 & I-4. It was a great experience.

HopsBrewster · 11-13-2020, 07:57 AM

Every moment that an hourly or salaried dealer employee is on the lot costs the dealership money. The technician is paid to work on the machines. Spending time with customers is just an expense. Some dealers are able to see a return on this expense, thinking that helping the customer's ownership experience will increase the likelihood of a return customer.
Other dealers only see the expense as money out of their own pockets, or even an opportunity to profit on the customer training, like a hospital charging $$ for a Tylenol.
And sales 'droids? they usually get paid on commission, so every moment they spend off the sales floor is money out of their own pockets. Only the best sales people can see the return value spent on educating their customers.
So who is the dealer supposed to pay to educate you?

IME, it is the smaller mom&pop dealers that are more likely to able to look into the future and see a return on investment in educating new RVers.
The big national chains are more likely to only see the immediate bottom line.

Now consider that there are hours upon hours of youtube video giving some very good training for free. doesn't the buyer hold any responsibility to learn how to use that expensive equipment they just bought?

MRUSA14 · 11-13-2020, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HopsBrewster

IME, it is the smaller mom&pop dealers that are more likely to able to look into the future and see a return on investment in educating new RVers.
The big national chains are more likely to only see the immediate bottom line.

Not necessarily. Two giant dealers come to mind. National Indoor RV and Lazydays. Both do a great job of customer training. When I picked up my coach from Lazydays, they had a dedicated employee who did nothing but teach new owners the ropes.