Winegard Garbage

donn0128 wrote:
I posted a few days ago about my Winegard Travler failure. Im back to let everybody interested in adding a Travler, DON`T! While some folks seem to get decent life out of them, I have had two major failures, Winegard has been lacking in customer service and totally refuse to sell parts. They insist you remove the thing from your RV, box it up and spend a hundred dollars shipping it back to them, charge you to "repair" it, and charge you again to ship it back. Then you again have to figure out how to get it back up on the roof. All the while hoping that it was actually fixed. No Thanks Winegard!

Sound like someone is upset and needs a hug :-)

When I was on the roof I focused on removing the broken parts. Did not look into how to remove the whole unit. Never dreamed that I would need to.

I have since been told that it is no big deal to disconnect it from the base plate. But even so getting it up and down is not a cake walk. Finding a box and shipping it isn't either. The nearest UPS store to me is 80 miles away. I could replace the parts many times over in the time it would take me to remove ship and reinstall.

It may still be under warranty as it is less than two years old, but this is not a warranty issue as it is not Winegard's fault that it broke.

If they sold parts I would be up and running days ago. Even if I were to go through their send it in gauntlet it would be weeks to get it fixed.

Not only is the refusal to sell parts bad, their attitude on the matter is also. No explanation on why or how. If they deem it irreparable you eat the shipping cost. What prevents them from deeming it irreparable if doing so likely ends up in selling a new unit?

BTW becasue of their send it in policy, most irreparable units wind up with them, so about the only way to find one to salvage parts from is from a wrecking yard. There are not many RV wrecking yards around and to quote one we sell Travelers off of totaled RVs almost as soon as they come in. Wonder why.

There will always be folks unhappy with every product ever made. Manufacturers, especially large manufacturers, sometimes produce a faulty product. That's what warranties are for. Once you are outside the warranty the manufacturer has exactly ZERO obligation to the product you bought. Winegard does it differently and offers to repair broken antennas at the owners expense rather than simply say sorry, go buy another. I don't really see a problem here.

chuckbear wrote:
We've had our Travl'r for over a year with absolutely no issues. In the last 7 months, the unit has been deployed and stowed sometimes on a daily basis. There are thousands on RV's all over the country and in use every day without issue. It's too bad that you have a problem and the fix is inconvenient for you. But to say no one should buy this product based on your experience is not doing anyone hear a service. For every complaint about the Winegard products there are hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers. Maybe you just need to get over it and move on. I doubt any manufacturer of any type of equipment, especially electronics, can make 100% of their products perfect, including Mogul. I have certainly seen complaints from their customers. So based on your logic, no one should by Mogul either. Nor anything else manufactured by man. Chuck

I expect you would be singing a different tune if it was your $2000 plus Trav’ler acting up and you were scrambling to get it fixed .
Count me as another dissatisfied former Trav’ler owner . Mine lasted two years before it became a pos. Hope you continued good fortune with yours.

We've had our Travl'r for over a year with absolutely no issues. In the last 7 months, the unit has been deployed and stowed sometimes on a daily basis. There are thousands on RV's all over the country and in use every day without issue. It's too bad that you have a problem and the fix is inconvenient for you. But to say no one should buy this product based on your experience is not doing anyone hear a service. For every complaint about the Winegard products there are hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers. Maybe you just need to get over it and move on. I doubt any manufacturer of any type of equipment, especially electronics, can make 100% of their products perfect, including Mogul. I have certainly seen complaints from their customers. So based on your logic, no one should by Mogul either. Nor anything else manufactured by man. Chuck

The list is quite sparse but there are dealers. I believe there are still less than 100 in the entire US and many States have none.
https://rfmogul.com/dealers.html

fpresto wrote:

lryrob9301 wrote:
Actually their parts support is very good. Unlike Winegard, they offer individual parts replacement and technical diagnosis assistance to the owner. Also RF Mogul has a number of dealers around the country to perform repairs both warranty and non-warranty.

Where are these dealers? I as you live in the mid-Atlantic. Where is the nearest dealer to us? Keep in mind that I am talking about service not sales.

Check the RF Mogul website all their dealers are sales AND service.

lryrob9301 wrote:
Actually their parts support is very good. Unlike Winegard, they offer individual parts replacement and technical diagnosis assistance to the owner. Also RF Mogul has a number of dealers around the country to perform repairs both warranty and non-warranty.

Where are these dealers? I as you live in the mid-Atlantic. Where is the nearest dealer to us? Keep in mind that I am talking about service not sales.

It might take all of 5 minutes to disconnect the coax cables and remove the antenna from the base plate. It does take time to get it down and take it to the UPS Store so it can be packed and shipped. This is, of course, related to an antenna out of warranty so you had at least of couple of good years sue but how many we will never know.
I agree that it's a bad policy not to sell parts to customers who have products out of warranty except I know they tried it in the past and customers did not know what the actual problem was, destroyed the new parts and insisted Winegard make good on the stuff they destroyed. Winegard finally make a choice not to sell parts and they have had that policy for many, many years.

I could not agree with donn0128 more. Recently it took me less than an hour to get to and remove the broken mechanical parts. Then, shockingly, I found that Winegard will not sell the parts.

Yes they really expect you to instead spend many hours removing the unit, shipping it, waiting for a return and reinstalling it. The cost of shipping is greater than the cost of the broken parts, and then there is their repair cost to add. Unbelievable.

So right now I am trying to find one from a wrecked rv (that is how I got to this forum) that I can salvage the parts from. If that does not work I will try to make the parts myself.

Worst case I will replace with RF Mogul as I will never buy a Winegard product again.