Warranty Work - How long is too long

WyoTraveler wrote:

Davidlatham2012 wrote:
When we have warranty list from a customer, we have to take pictures, send in to warranty company, and wait on there reply. sometimes it is, more info needed, approved and then sometimes denied. Then most of the time we have to wait on parts. If the manufacture is on back-order this can take 2-3 weeks. sometimes if its a panel or similar we have to wait on the manufacture to cut the piece to our specifications. Im sorry it is taking so long but it does take this long, more than we like.

This is typical dealer talk giving your RV the sunshine treatment. I took my Monaco MH into a an RV dealer in Salt Lake City, UT. Bought this MH in NV. RV dealer I took it to was not even a Monaco dealer. They took pictures of the problem (They actually have digital cameras now). Faxed the pictures and described the problem to Monaco. Within 2 hours they received a return fax approving the repair. It took about 3 hours for the total repair. Call Fleetwood direct and fax the pictures yourself if your RV deal is too lazy to do that for you.:h BTW they fabricated the part at the RV repair shop.

You have NO CLUE at all about warranty procedures from the majority of RV makers.
1. WHY fax when you take digital pics. send them e mail, thats what we do
2. FAX pics are worthless
3. They ACTUALLY look at the Pics we take and if NOT good enough they require us to send better pics.
4. The OP did not say the dealer was not doing the pic and sending, just that it was taking awhile for the dealer to do.
5. IF the dealer does NOT have a dedicated warranty administrator, then the dealer does not know how to get warranty work authorized and done in a timely manner. That hurts both the customer AND the dealers bottom line.
6. YOU take your one experiance and then suppose that is the norm. It is NOT.
7. Yes, we also fabricate parts if needed. NOT all parts have to be ordered, we stock a lot of parts, but some OEM's require the dealer to use the OEM supplied parts for warranty even if that part is in stock at the dealer but purchased from another vendor. Doug

Demand for motorhomes right now is very high. Wait times on newly ordered models can be months. And they assuredly have parts reserved for the new ones under construction. Makes sense as thats where they make their money. Warranty work is pretty much a loss for a manufacturer so those parts get sent after new models are supplied and built. This means waiting for parts for warranty work when they become available. It can take weeks just to get the parts. I am sure there is a lot of warranty work all over the US that needs to be approved so it makes sense this takes time too.

Jeremy, in December 2010 while I was RVing in a Arizona State Park, a runaway pickup truck hit my coach! I had to wait until January 2011 to get parts! The Winnebago Factory was shut down for Christmas and New Years. I like Dennis had to wait 3 weeks for parts and the repairs took 3 days.

J-Rooster wrote:
Jeremy, in December 2010 while I was RVing in a Arizona State Park, a runaway pickup truck hit my coach! I had to wait until January 2011 to get parts! The Winnebago Factory was shut down for Christmas and New Years. I like Dennis had to wait 3 weeks for parts and the repairs took 3 days.

You are probably right. It is because of people like me that demand service. You wait and I'm on my way.The squeaky wheel gets the oil. I just don't put up with their **********. Been there done that. I know all the sunshine treatment stories. A few years ago the Ford garage told me it was going to take 3 weeks to repair my A/C on warranty because they had to order parts. DW called Ford 800 # and we were back on the road within a couple of hours. I have no idea how those parts magically appeared. Doesn't matter my vehicle was repaired.

Effy wrote:
Demand for motorhomes right now is very high. Wait times on newly ordered models can be months. And they assuredly have parts reserved for the new ones under construction. Makes sense as thats where they make their money. Warranty work is pretty much a loss for a manufacturer so those parts get sent after new models are supplied and built. This means waiting for parts for warranty work when they become available. It can take weeks just to get the parts. I am sure there is a lot of warranty work all over the US that needs to be approved so it makes sense this takes time too.

For those that don't know we are in a recession. This is probably the best time ever to get the deal of a lifetime on an RV. I don't expect them to give RVs away but 30 to 35% off isn't unusual. When we made the offer on our RV we low balled them on the phone and joked about it. Told DW they will never accept that offer. Problem was they accepted the low ball offer. We ended up with a new MH. :B.

When I took my coach in with a list of 21 items to be fixed mine was in the shop for 3 weeks. When I called the shop they gave me the line that they were waiting for parts from the factory. I emailed the factory and told them what the dealer told me and I had the coach back in 3 days. Needless to say the service writer I was working with was no longer employed there after I complained to the Mgr. I think they take in more Rvs than they can handle so complain to the Service Mgr and if that does not work go to the Gen Mgr. Good Luck

We bought a used class A, (2002 Itasca 32V) from a local dealer who also has an RV shop in town. We were able to get the dealer to agree to repair several minor issues, however we were set to go on a vacation so brought the MH back to the shop after we went on a 2 week trip. The sales team told us to "check everything out" and let them know when we got back. We found 3 additonal minor issues (a broken drawer slide, a loose drivers side mirror and the windshield washer didn't work). The shop told us they would repair these "new" issues as well as the ones on the due bill. After three weeks of waiting, we were told that the shop was "waiting on parts". Long story short, we talked with the shop techs and found that it is better for us to have them order the parts, then bring the rig in when the parts are in for repair. We've had the MH in for two other minor issues, and both times, they call us when the parts are in, we drop off the rig and in 1 to 2 days it's done. This has worked for us so far, they have been more than willing to work with us on getting the MH back to us asap.

Don't email. Call the factory. Then re-call the factory. Ask for a supervisor. If you send me a letter it may go in the trash. email? Erased. Be the squeaky wheel. I don't argue with manufactures. I just suggest. Bad service? Unable to handle warranty? Tell me why I should buy your product again. Believe me these guys aren't stupid. There is tremendous competition selling RVs. If building an RV and selling it was a piece of cake they wouldn't be going out of business. However, you can't be hostile. If you find a bad manufacturer, I have, sell the RV. Don't buy another one of that brand. Tell others about their bad warranty service. For example, I would never buy another Jayco. Fairly good RV but very poor warranty service. In fact Jayco could offer me a lifetime warranty instead of 2 years and I wouldn't buy another one. If they don't take care of their customers it doesn't matter how long. I can get sunshine treatment anyplace. JMHO.

Monaco has taken care of us on every phone call. If you want super warranty service buy their RVs. JMHO. I don't get anything else from them. Just great fast warranty service.

Dirtbags77 wrote:
When I took my coach in with a list of 21 items to be fixed mine was in the shop for 3 weeks. When I called the shop they gave me the line that they were waiting for parts from the factory. I emailed the factory and told them what the dealer told me and I had the coach back in 3 days. Needless to say the service writer I was working with was no longer employed there after I complained to the Mgr. I think they take in more Rvs than they can handle so complain to the Service Mgr and if that does not work go to the Gen Mgr. Good Luck

I do have to admit if I had a list of 21 items. I either bought a piece of junk or I am trying to nickel and dime the dealer to death. I have never bothered dealers with 10 min repair jobs. I don't hassle a dealer for a missing screw, a squeaky door hinge that I can oil, or a light bulb that goes out on the first trip. If I were a dealer and had that type of customer they would get the sunshine treatment.

prism wrote:

et2 wrote:
Make sure they have a secured storage area. We had a similar situation years ago on a Montana fiver. Many trailers on their lot were vandalized including ours. They refused to pay for the damage. I went that day and picked it up and never went back. Contacted Keystone and explained why I was changing dealers, they said they never had part requests as the dealer claimed they were waiting for parts.

Dealers lie ... But we all know that. It's your RV, if it were me I'd contact to mfg and find out our options, also ask for a list of items causing the delay.

In my long multifasted business life I have found Customers lie just as bad also
Sorry kinda off topic i suppose and the Op asked a valid question and I think its answered earlier.your one little fish in a big ocean when it comes to dealing with BIG manufacturers like Fleetwood

Did you have to fast so often in your business life??;)As I said it was Keystone, maybe that was overlooked. Anyway your satisfied with the responses so that's all that really matters.