RV Service Centers... and Caulking

Jcs1382 wrote:
Yes, the cracks went all the way through the old caulk. In some places, the caulk was completely broken away and gone. BTW - the worst example of what they missed is the vertical seam on the side at the very back of the trailer. It is all cracked and at least 25% is completely gone.

I didn't tell them to replace all of the caulk, but I did tell them that wherever it was cracked, they should clean and reseal the entire seam. I'd expected it to be pricy and had been surprised when the cost was so low. The price was fair for the limited areas they actually took care of.

It definitely a disconnect between my expectations and their 'professional judgement'.

I have a mechanic like that, he's honest to a fault and would never overcharge me. Unfortunately he's either a bit too much of a tightwad or his typical client is a bit penny wise. As an example he pulled the head on one engine and replaced a failed coil pack. I asked him to replace all 3 on that side, he said that only the one was bad. I thought they're only $60 each, I'm over $400 in labor into this, spending $120 to avoid $800 in future expenses is cheap insurance. Same deal when the rear differential on another car went, I asked him to search nationally for the lowest mileage wreck to have one pulled from, spending an extra $2-300 to not have to re-do a $1,200 repair was common sense to me instead of taking one off a vehicle with nearly as many miles as mine that might go at any time.

I guess what I'm saying is that sometimes you have to be very upfront with good maintenance people that you're willing to spend more than their typical customer to have the job fully done to avoid future problems/expenses. Once they learn you're serious and that you honestly do want to spend the extra money they're generally happy to do the job right and charge you a fair labor rate for honest hours worked.