Bad Experience at Little Dealer Service Department

I’ll never forget the joy of finally being out of warranty and never having to deal with their service center again. I’m so much happier now just using mobile techs. It’s worth it to pay out of pocket.

We bought our '22 5th wheel last March '22 from Little Dealer in Mesa, AZ.
Just before the first year was up, we needed a few things to get taken care of. But instead of Little Dealer, we went to RV Renovators in Mesa. They took care of all items and sorted out who to bill and/or get parts from. We paid zero out of pocket and everything was fixed. We also stayed on their lot, plugged in and living in the RV while all the work was done.

I worked in the office for 5 plus years in a small RV dealership. Talking to the owner or General Manager should bring the results you want.

It's been my observations over many years and vehicle purchases that in the industry (both automotive and RV) the Sales Dept and the Service Dept are basically run as two completely different companies. Sales makes a big deal out of their Service Dept to aid in making the sale, but once you've signed the papers and driven off you're forgotten - until you're ready for a new purchase. The Service Dept doesn't care about building a dealership-customer relationship with good timely service that could result in another sale down the road.

Second, the RV industry, unlike the auto industry has a completely different warranty setup. In the auto industry the vehicle you buy is typically covered by two warranty policies, one for the tires and one for everything else. And the "everything else" warranty is backed up the the manufacturer to the point that you can go to virtually any dealer in the country and get prompt warranty work done. The RV industry is completely different here - Sales leads you to believe you're getting a warranty similar to what you get in an auto, but in fact you get a library book full of warranties. When you have a problem it's up to you to find out which warranty applies and find someone who will honor that warranty and do the work in a timely fashion. The RV manufacturers are usually no help in getting their dealers to tow the line either, and often you're forced to try and get warranty work done with the dealer you bought it from - no matter how far that may be from where you are when you need service.

Finally, from what I can tell, Thor is more into building and selling units as fast as they can thru as many dealers as possible. For some of their lines they offer virtually identical floor-plans and options under multiple nameplates. They claim this is to give the buyer more choices, but it seems to me it's a way of undercutting their own dealers. A dealer may think he's got quite a large territory in their dealership agreement only to find that it's be cut in half by another dealer selling the same type of units under a different nameplate right down the street from him.

yep hold on a bit that service won,t be there.

I need a service department rarely. However, I do bring in a treat for the staff once per year.

I suppose it might be different in larger cities / more populated areas, but now that I'm at the handshake stage with my '70's, if I were to cross off every service (i.e. provides a service, not "just" service departments) entity who had an employee that crossed the line, I'd be struggling to find anywhere to shop for darn near anything other than groceries...and that's uncertain as well.

I'd have a talk with, as suggested, the owner / manager / president and see what results...if it's not satisfactory, simply move on. It might prove to generate a good result, but if not, you've lost nothing but the time it takes for a short call.

OP...you had a bad experience for sure, but much of it was self inflicted. We all try to be respectful when talking to/dealing with others. However, there is times, when standing up for yourself, maintaining your own self respect is necessary. I would have cut that service guy off at the knees, in front of everyone present. You don't HAVE to let others treat you with blatant disrespect! After putting him in his proper place, you could have discussed what happened, with the GM, or owner, if you wanted to continue to use their dealership.

Coming on a forum to complain, is not going to regain your self respect, which is really what your post is about.

Jerry

Some very good advice above.

Before you make a hasty decision, take Lantley's advice. It's biting off your nose to spite your face. Talk to the manager/owner and then if you don't get any satisfaction move on. There's no need for everyone here to jump on the "I'm not going to shop there" bandwagon without having the OP make an attempt to rectify the situation.