What does having an appointment mean?

I only go to a mom/pop rv shop in ohio for me its close ,BUT when they set a appointment thats the day it gets serviced. great sales and service at camper care in north east ohio. p.s. I.m just a happy customer.have nothing to do with the shop. theres a CW close but thats ok ,I,ll drive by.

Ive had appointments with doctors for various times and had to wait hours before they see me. Same for cable, plumbers, all kinds of service organizations. Had to wait days and weeks at various RV service centers when parts were needed and got the age old response when queried “waiting on the parts”.

There can be valid reasons for delays, and then there’s just BS.

What "Appointment" means to me is that if you do not show up you get billed for Missed appointment and service should start within a reasonable time, Usually one hour.

How long it will take depends on what's wrong.. They might look at it and say "one hour" or "5 Hours" or "This evening" but when they get into the job it's an "Oh-****" event there is a whole lot more needs to be done.

And then there's the odd case of the "Oh **** we backed into it and now have major body work to do"

True Story: Man got in a traffic accident (Car) took it to a body shop that was next to where I worked..

They put on the new fender. Painted it all up. backed out of the paint booth to move it to the drying booth... FORGOT TO OPEN THE DOOR FIRST

Dear sir: There will be a slight delay. no additional charge.

They replaced the fender AGAIN, painted it up. parked it at the curb and the shuttle truck that was backing in BOBTAIL to pick up the shuttle trailer from the warehouse where I worked to the store....

Dear sir: there will be an additional slight delay. Though this time there IS an additional charge you won't have to pay it for the moving company will.

I kid you not. Really happened.. I witnessed the truck hitting it.

Unless it's a major project I fix the small things myself in order to avoid leaving it at a dealer. I realize this isn't a option for a lot of people.

My experience has been that when I have an appointment on a certain day at 8am, they start working on it within the hour. That has been my experience at a Cummins facility and at an independent rv repair shop.

No way am I going to leave my motorhome sitting at a repair shop for 2 weeks where it could get vandalized, theft, or collision damage from other rv's.

The problem is industry wide.

Depends what needs done. Did they have to order parts?
I use Robbins RV and they do a good job communicating and keeping me informed.

Like car dealers I expect it to be an appointment to drop off only.

A simple service such as oil change might get completed same day or in a couple hours but this should be verified in advance.

Hmmm. Let me guess. Is this a Camping World rv center?

I would expect it to mean this is the day to bring the coach in and we will start working on it.

From being on this forum so long it is obvious that the appointment is many times only to get a parking spot on the service lot. They might sit on it for a while before they even look at it.

Then again the whole virus thing might have them short handed. I would call and ask if they can estimate how long before each step is completed (inspection, ordering parts, tear down, fix and test, release)