New RV Owner - RV Dealer Problems

[John2016]

MadisonRV in Madison Alabama - I would not recommend them to anyone, even people I may not like. We do recommend Winnebago as they have been great in helping us and standing behind their products.

I began dealing with MadisonRV with an upbeat attitude. They had been recommended by some friends, so we were excited about purchasing our motorhome. We believed we were getting a real good deal on the RV. My bad for believing what I was being told. Buyer Beware State!

Our journey with them has now been about 17 months. Our motorhome (2016 FORZA) has been in their shop for more than 5 months of our first year of ownership. Our factory warranty was only good for the first year (Winnebago extended it to 3 years for us). MadisonRV had many delays and poor or no repairs performed at all. It got so bad we ended up taking our RV to a dealer in the Pacific NW while we were up there. They were able to repair all our issues, even redid most of what MadisonRV had repaired. You see, MadisonRV’s repairs on a whole were so poor that they did not even last the few weeks we took to travel up to the Northwest. Some failed within the first couple of days.

Fact - We bought a “New” motorhome from MadisonRV. Turns out that they had had it on their lot for over a year and didn’t share that with us.

Fact - At my request they installed new house batteries in the coach after I dropped by the dealer to look at the coach before purchasing and the batteries were dead. Turns out that the batteries they installed were not the manufacturers recommended batteries but were a off brand. The specification sheet shows the installed batteries were about 18% less amperage output than what the manufacturer designed the system for. This we found out from the PNW dealer and the manufacturer. Madison RV caused many of the electrical problems we had been experiencing.

Fact - MadisonRV had our RV for over 4 months to fix a few warranty items which caused us to miss several reservations, lose out on many RV membership uses, and National Park Pass use.

Fact - It took a reputable dealer a few days to repair what MadisonRV could not complete in the over 4 months they had our RV.

Fact - MadisonRV was asked a week after we purchased the RV about the electrical problems we were having. We approached them 3 separate times about it. Had they talked to the manufacturer they would have found that many items in the coach had service bulletins on them. Should have been looked at and repaired before selling the coach.

Fact - We found out that we could have purchased a year newer model for less than what MadisonRV sold us ours.

Fact - MadisonRV did make a few attempts to make good on some issues, however all of which had been caused by them.

Fact - MadisonRV should have made an attempt to contact the manufacturer prior to our final purchase paperwork, or certainly at the first repair appointment. If they had, they would have found out that many of the warranty repair items had been called out by the manufacturer and could have been taken care right away. This would have removed most of the problems we’ve experienced over the last 17 months.

Bottomline is I would never entertain going to MadisonRV again for any reason. I would not recommend their sales or service to anyone for any reason. The level of workmanship, follow through, detail, and honesty is poor at best. We have paid to replace the batteries with manufacturer recommended batteries which has taken care of most of our electrical issues. So far MadisonRV has not responded to my request to be reimbursed for the cost to me, about $900 on the batteries.

[Mr_D]

Fact: You bought a new rig as advertised. Sitting on the lot for a year does not change that.
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Fact: You paid too much, that's not the dealers fault. Do your due diligence when shopping.
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Fact: Having 18% less battery capacity would not cause electrical problems unless you ran them completely down and then only in the last few minutes before shutdown. I used my rig with wet cell starting batteries for two years before buying LifeLine AGM deep cycle batteries.
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Fact: Not unusual to lose many months waiting for repairs on new RV's. On our 2002 DSDP the dealer had it 113 days out of the first 305 days of ownership.

[tcg]

Originally Posted by Mr_D

Fact: Not unusual to lose many months waiting for repairs on new RV's. On our 2002 DSDP the dealer had it 113 days out of the first 305 days of ownership.

Is this something dealers advertise or tell you about at or before closing?

[John2016]

Update: My intent was to help make others aware that you may have some problems with dealers that may not work to help you resolve your RV problems.

Some do, some don't, and some just forget to help you out. I actually only listed a few problems we had. We went through multiple pages of problems that the dealer didn't fix, fixed poorly, or just blew off and told us everything was fine.

Educate yourself on expectations and don't expect all dealers to be helpful. I don't know why we were treated the way we were, never had the problem before in any of our other dealings. I believe we were patient, up to the several months point.

I did learn that, regardless of what people think about the battery quality installed subject, that many of our electrical issues went away with the better batteries. Can't explain it other than the dealer who found it, and the manufacturer both agreed. One small thing was we had a 1 volt drop in our system that caused problems with our auto-gen programing. The problem went away with the new batteries. Pretty coincidental to have electrical issues we have been asking to be checked since the day we had our first trip, a week after purchase. It's been about 5 weeks since the new batteries and about 2,600 miles and we experienced no electrical issues. The local dealer here is, as of today, considering some resolution on the battery cost to us. We'll just have to see.

[Kdsgone2dogs]

Buyers remorse...been there, done that. We purchased a new Airstream many years ago, and when I say it flooded on our first trip...it was close to Hurricane Florence in our rig. Our dealer was worthless, kept it 3 months and still leaked. Finally decided to just drive to manufacturer and so glad we did!! Everything fixed (and they found so much more) and back on the road in three days.
Also had a few (not too major) problems with a Winnebago Aspect and ended up at the manufacturer just because we were in the area. All fixed and never had a problem.
Fast forward to this month. Bought new Winnebago Aspect and haven't picked it up yet.....but...if there is a problem, dealer has a few days to fix or we are headed to the mothership.
I'm very sorry for your experience with your dealer..unfortunately its nothing new. Too bad there isn't a Lemon Law for RV's...might encourage better Quality Control with manufacturers.

[V3600]

I did the warranty repairs to my Voltage myself so I wouldn't have to leave it at the dealer for months. Doing my own repairs (such as removing one the of the air conditioners) kept the trailer in my possession and not at the dealer for months on end. One final benefit was I learned a lot about my RV such as how cheaply it was built.

[V3600]

We bought a new 2016 34T in March, off the lot. Got a OK deal on it, last 2016 on lot. We’ve been traveling for about 6 months now and had several Warranty issues come up. Would I do it again? Yes/No. I would have quickly done another manufacturer until I’ve talked about the issues with other RV owners on this trip across the country. Everyone has had issues when they bought their RV, no matter what kind.

Winnebaggo requires you to bring your coach into a recognized dealer for Warranty work. They help you find one close you you. Not always convenient but understandable. We now are very happy with ours.

I may have opted for a Tiffen just because they are manufactured near where we live and all the Tiffen owners I talked too had great things to say about their support.

So now I'm confused. You posted the above on Oct-1-2017 and "are very happy with ours" and what you post now appears contradictory.