We purchased a sanibel 2014 fifth wheel in Dec of 2013. One of the reasons it got our attention was the 2-year warranty. But no one told us we couldn't buy it at one dealership & NOT get it repaired at another dealership! This sanibel has major issues along with small issues. We purchased the rig 300 miles away from our home as the local dealership did not have what we wanted at the time. Now we took the rig to our local dealership for warranty work......they have had the rig a total of 115 days, we have had it in our possession 138 days. It just sits at the dealership until we request it back, we get it back with damage done to it, scratched counter tops, chips, gouges in paneling, but no repairs have been done! I have called the sanibel manufacturer in indiana & talked to Roger Stickel. He said: "we don't force any dealership to work on another dealerships rigs!" Are we up a creek here.....or is it lawyer time??? I would NOT reccommend anyone buy a sanibel!! They have w-a-y to many issues!!! Or did I get a lemon??

It just amazes me that these RV manufactures keep putting out junk. Then they don't honor their warranties and try to find any way they can to wiggle out of it. What are the MAJOR issues? I would take it back to where you purchased it.

You found out what many other RV owners have found out. Most dealers will take care of their paying customers and warranty work on the rigs they sold before warranty work from another dealer's rig. And, you can change Sanibel in your post to just about any other brand or manufacturer out there and the story would be the same. Best of luck.

Take it back where you bought it. Dealers get a certain amount of the sale price for doing warranty work. If you buy from a dealer he gets the money and then you expect to get it fixed some place else that dealer is left hanging. It is the same in the auto industry. If you read you car warranty it says that you should take it to the selling dealer unless you need repairs while away from home.

The OP doesn't say what they think should be fixed under warranty. We don't know what his complaint is so how do we know if it should be fixed by the dealer or not.

There are only a very few RV manufactures that will pay any dealer a fair price to make warranty repairs. 300 miles isn't that bad if the selling dealer will repair the problems. On my previous RV I was 2000 miles away from where I purchased it. I bit the bullet and paid for repairs. When a major problem showed up I traded it.

Unable to get sanibel fixed under warranty? | Good Sam Community

39 Replies

mileshuff
Explorer
Sep 22, 2014
I found that La Mesa RV dealerships will service RV's purchased elsewhere without issue as long as they are an authorized dealer for the brand being serviced.

For issues involving the A/C, Furnace, awning, fridge, toilet, converter, etc. its possible to have a non-dealer RV service shop perform warranty work if they are an authorized retailer for those items. I have had all of my warranty work for such items done by an independent RV service shop. Much better service than any dealer I've been too.
laknox
Nomad
Sep 22, 2014
chevyman2 wrote:
we work on any unit. Most Rv dealers near us-though-only work on units they sell.

We have to get MFGR approval prior to performing any service under warranty. Once approval is granted, we are allowed to charge the MFGR a reasonable labor bill. Parts are usually supplied by the MFGR, however, if we need to gather parts/supplies elsewhere, the MFGR pays the sublet. It is not as complicated as some express.

Now keep in mind, there are 2 other RV dealers near mine. Either of them only work on their units, and are scheduling repairs 1 week out. We work on every make/model, and we are scheduling for the 3rd week of Nov. right now.

Last thing to note is---RV parts can not be purchased by using VIN#. (Most parts anyway). They must have the number on the part itself. Realize, the 2 of us could order identical units right now (from the same dealer at the same hour), and several parts on mine would be different than yours.

Good luck with your repairs

Good on you, Tim! You should get more techs and mfr. certs and put the other guys out of business! The RV industry badly needs more shops like yours.

Lyle
laknox
Nomad
Sep 22, 2014
amandasgramma wrote:
ummmmmm My understanding is that the "fixing/non purchasing" dealer would bill the "selling" dealer....must be wrong... I can understand them not wanting to do the work for another dealer HOWEVER, there is NO excuse for the damage done to OPs rig!!!!!!!!

OP -- thank you for the info --- we're in the market, we'll avoid their products!!!!

They're =supposed= to be getting paid by the manufacturer for performing warranty work, same as any other dealer. Just because they didn't make any money on selling the unit shouldn't let them off the hook for valid warranty repairs.

Lyle
laknox
Nomad
Sep 22, 2014
B.O. Plenty wrote:
I can't imagine that your trailer got damaged inside while just sitting on the lot waiting to get repaired. I'm sure the people there have better things to do than to scratch your counter tops and chip your paneling...Drive the 300 miles and get it fixed. Hire all the Lawyers you want, the local dealer is under no obligation to fix it. This policy is the same for EVERY brand of trailer for reasons explained in previous posts.

B.O.

I can =easily= imagine it. I stored my trailer at my selling dealer for a while, and went to pick it up one time and found the black tank near-full. It was empty when I brought it in, so =someone= with keys was using it. I've had friends take their RV in for service and had cabinet doors come off and just be tossed on the bed/couch, run into by forklifts and other vehicles, propane tanks run dry and moldy food in the fridge when tanks and fridge were off when checked in, all kinds of other stuff. Just one of the =other= totally ludicrous things the manufacturers let the dealers get away with. How long do you think an auto manufacturer would sell cars here if they pulled this b.s.?

Lyle
ford_truck_guy
Nomad
Sep 22, 2014
OK . . 4 pages down and no return of the OP to enlighten us on exactly what the issue was ?? maybe the dog did eat the sofa ??
bob34787
Explorer
Sep 22, 2014
goducks10 wrote:
So when your slide is broke and your dealer is 1500 miles away because you're on a 2 month vacation, I guess you're SOL with some manufactures or dealers.

yes unfortunately you are, no dealer even the selling dealer has to fix a warranty item , one exception is Heartland, they require the selling dealer to fix warranty items but only the selling dealer. you don't have to like it but that's the way it is.
Lantley
Nomad
Sep 22, 2014
v10superduty wrote:
Roger10378 wrote:
Take it back where you bought it.

Dealers get a certain amount of the sale price for doing warranty work. If you buy from a dealer he gets the money and then you expect to get it fixed some place else that dealer is left hanging.

It is the same in the auto industry. If you read you car warranty it says that you should take it to the selling dealer unless you need repairs while away from home.

Really wrong information here Roger...
Dealers absolutely don't get a certain amount of the sale price as warranty payment. They have to dicker and fight for every dollar, sometimes with the manufacturer of a component, as well as the trailer builder. Its a painfull process for a dealer to get approval and payment in a lot of cases. That's why they are not to keen to look after someone from their area who decided to buy elsewhere. There's nothing in it for them. Repairs can be troublesome; i.e. getting wrong parts from manufacturer, taking x number of hours to get repair done and getting paid only 1/2 x hours, and on and on.

But its fairly common that many dealers will do their best to help a travelling RVer. Not all obviously, but most will.

And the RV warranty issue is NOWHERE even similar to auto industry. Auto dealers can get punished in several ways by their manufacturer for refusing to offer warranty to anyone who requests it. But they are usually glad to do it because they get paid fairly and timely in most cases.

There is a warranty plan that works well for products like RVs that tend to be used away from their selling dealers. I have mentioned this before here but will explain it again for any who care to read it and think that would be great for their RV brand to offer.
I am referring to marine industry. I spent 5 years running service dept at boat dealer and both Mercury Marine and BRP (Evinrude) will not force you to work on product you did not sell but they pay so well and quick that most dealers welcome the work
PLUS they pay a 10% premium on the labour for motors you did not sell!
If an RV manufacturer went to such a plan I believe they would have the highest customer satisfaction rates within a year.. :W

This is the first I've read of the boat warranty system. If the RV manufacturers adopted such a policy it would go a long way towards resolving the warranty denial issue
Paul_Clancy
Explorer II
Sep 22, 2014
The op issue is a bad dealer he went to for repairs and there are many who refuse to work on rigs they don't sell OR give those rigs the lowest priority. Sad but true. When I asked about this prior to purchase of my PT crusader I found my dealer belonged to a network of dealers that promised "same as if you bought from us" service across country. Made me more comfortable. Also prime time was excellent with the response to warranty issues. I called them directly and made sure they would help the dealer expedite repairs. I spoke with a different local dealer who said he would not work on rigs bought elsewhere and explained "we make enough profit on a sale to make up for the low warranty payment we get from the manufacturer. Without that sale we barely cover cost with warranty work ". True or not I would not buy there OR pay for a repair there. I suggest if the OP has serious issues he either get it to the selling dealer or the factory or the yearly frog rally in gosh end where teams do free repairs.
Greentreena
Explorer
Sep 21, 2014
One on my coworkers worked at a large rv dealership in the warranty department and she said numerous manufacturers made it difficult to get paid or get paid at all. They dealt with a lot of upset people because the dealership made sure they would get paid before they did the work. I can see how people who bought there rv at this place would get better service. As stated above, rvs dont break down in the driveway.
chevyman2
Explorer
Sep 21, 2014
we work on any unit. Most Rv dealers near us-though-only work on units they sell.

We have to get MFGR approval prior to performing any service under warranty. Once approval is granted, we are allowed to charge the MFGR a reasonable labor bill. Parts are usually supplied by the MFGR, however, if we need to gather parts/supplies elsewhere, the MFGR pays the sublet. It is not as complicated as some express.

Now keep in mind, there are 2 other RV dealers near mine. Either of them only work on their units, and are scheduling repairs 1 week out. We work on every make/model, and we are scheduling for the 3rd week of Nov. right now.

Last thing to note is---RV parts can not be purchased by using VIN#. (Most parts anyway). They must have the number on the part itself. Realize, the 2 of us could order identical units right now (from the same dealer at the same hour), and several parts on mine would be different than yours.

Good luck with your repairs