Keystone Warranty - What A Joke!

While I wouldn't own most Grand Design trailers for various reasons, their customer service is top notch. I can see why the company took off like a rocket in sales. Not very many disappointed customers.
Key MFG's should take a page out of their CS book.
For those that aren't mechanically inclined having a good CS plan from the MFG is priceless.

I wouldn't expect a for profit company to be in the business of being nice or spreading goodwill. However, a company can be so focused on profits that they'll actually start driving away business. When someone has a poor experience such as this one, they tell everyone about it. This make people question the company. Even if the company is eventually vindicated, the damage has been done and can't be reversed. After reading several similar experiences people start actively avoiding the brand. The only recommendations that you'll get from those people would be to stay away.

I know when we were looking to replace our trailer, we heeded the warning and avoided Keystone. I'm not saying they build trash, but I didn't want to undergo similar situations if we did have a problem. I doubt the OP will be a returning customer. I bet they lose a few more customers every time a posts like this one pops up. To me it doesn't make sense to miss out on a $20k sale to save maybe $100 on warranty work.

We ended up purchasing a Coachmen. The few times that we needed to have something fixed under warranty, Coachmen has been top notch with their service. They're very easy to work with. They could've easily told me to work with the manufacturer, but they didn't. Would I be back as a repeat customer? Yep. Would I recommend their product? Yep. Have my recommendation lead to more business? Yep (2 buddies).

Lantley wrote:

proxim2020 wrote:
Seems a lot of people are missing the point. Keystone denied the claim because they found that the damage done to this 6 month old toilet was normal wear and tear, which is a bit appalling. Keystone never denied the claim because they felt the claim should be filed with the toilet manufacturer. Keystone doesn't appear to be operating under this premise in this case according to the statements and actions.

The warranty for the toilet may very well indeed rest with the manufacturer and Keystone may have no obligation to replace the broken parts. However, from a customer service stand point they would be better off de-escalating the situation by covering the small costs associated with the repair and saving a customer's warranty experience.

This morning I had no obligation to slowdown, put my 4 ways on, and help a struggling semi merge into traffic. I clearly had the right of way and could've easily zoomed right past him. I didn't do it because I was obligated to, I did it because it was the nice and courteous thing to do.

There's plenty of cases out there where manufacturers have covered components that have their own warranty. I've even seen where manufacturers have stepped up to the plate to cover issues caused by the operator. Those are the types of companies I want to do business with. Not someone who's going to fight me tooth and nail over such a small issue. If Keystone offered parts only from the jump then that would be one thing. At least they were trying to help out. But both the OP and the dealer had to fight just to get to that point.

Keystone is not in the business of goodwill or being nice.
Their decisions are driven by profit. They are part of a large conglomerate driven by profit.If they can avoid paying a warranty claim they will.

well, sort of on "the not in business of goodwill."

Part of the equation in maximizing profit is satisfying customers. So, therein falls the warranty policy. Having worked for a large company with a reputation of products to solve customer design issues, warranty satisfaction was a noticeable driver in customer satisfaction. Develop a policy customers understand, and be willing to go out of the normal when issues arose,helped us keep high profits and high customer satisfaction.

Keystone (actually Thor) gets to decide how strick or loose they are on warranty, and let the results flow, good or bad for profits.

proxim2020 wrote:
Seems a lot of people are missing the point. Keystone denied the claim because they found that the damage done to this 6 month old toilet was normal wear and tear, which is a bit appalling. Keystone never denied the claim because they felt the claim should be filed with the toilet manufacturer. Keystone doesn't appear to be operating under this premise in this case according to the statements and actions.

The warranty for the toilet may very well indeed rest with the manufacturer and Keystone may have no obligation to replace the broken parts. However, from a customer service stand point they would be better off de-escalating the situation by covering the small costs associated with the repair and saving a customer's warranty experience.

This morning I had no obligation to slowdown, put my 4 ways on, and help a struggling semi merge into traffic. I clearly had the right of way and could've easily zoomed right past him. I didn't do it because I was obligated to, I did it because it was the nice and courteous thing to do.

There's plenty of cases out there where manufacturers have covered components that have their own warranty. I've even seen where manufacturers have stepped up to the plate to cover issues caused by the operator. Those are the types of companies I want to do business with. Not someone who's going to fight me tooth and nail over such a small issue. If Keystone offered parts only from the jump then that would be one thing. At least they were trying to help out. But both the OP and the dealer had to fight just to get to that point.

Keystone is not in the business of goodwill or being nice.
Their decisions are driven by profit. They are part of a large conglomerate driven by profit.If they can avoid paying a warranty claim they will.

Seems a lot of people are missing the point. Keystone denied the claim because they found that the damage done to this 6 month old toilet was normal wear and tear, which is a bit appalling. Keystone never denied the claim because they felt the claim should be filed with the toilet manufacturer. Keystone doesn't appear to be operating under this premise in this case according to the statements and actions.

The warranty for the toilet may very well indeed rest with the manufacturer and Keystone may have no obligation to replace the broken parts. However, from a customer service stand point they would be better off de-escalating the situation by covering the small costs associated with the repair and saving a customer's warranty experience.

This morning I had no obligation to slowdown, put my 4 ways on, and help a struggling semi merge into traffic. I clearly had the right of way and could've easily zoomed right past him. I didn't do it because I was obligated to, I did it because it was the nice and courteous thing to do.

There's plenty of cases out there where manufacturers have covered components that have their own warranty. I've even seen where manufacturers have stepped up to the plate to cover issues caused by the operator. Those are the types of companies I want to do business with. Not someone who's going to fight me tooth and nail over such a small issue. If Keystone offered parts only from the jump then that would be one thing. At least they were trying to help out. But both the OP and the dealer had to fight just to get to that point.

JCR-1 wrote:
B.S.. Gm replaced 4 tires for me under warranty.. due to mis alignment from the factory. It was not the tire's that were bad it was a misalignment from the factory.

Whoooosh. That wasn't the tire warranty.

JCR-1 wrote:

Lantley wrote:

soren wrote:

Ozlander wrote:
Change the valve yourself.
It ain't rocket science.

Not really what the OP wants to hear, but it's a valid point. I've owned 3-4 new RVs over the years, and got to the point where a warranty issue would have to be pretty significant for me to invest the time, energy, and stress to drag a unit back to the dealer for repairs. Particularly since a significant pecentage of the work I've had done at dealers ends up being less than satisfactory, and grossly overpriced. Toilets are stupid easy to remove, replace and repair. Take them up on their offer to provide a new part, and fix it. Easier in the long run.

I agree to
he sooner you realize the warranty is a PIA and not worth much the better off you will be. I consider warranty for major catastrophic failures only. Smaller issues are simply easier to deal with yourself.
I agree that is not how it should be, however the RV manufacturers track record for warranty repairs is far from stellar.

B.S.. Gm replaced 4 tires for me under warranty.. due to mis alignment from the factory. It was not the tire's that were bad it was a misalignment from the factory. Also if you have a failed suspension comnponent that wore out the tires they would replace it if it was due to a manuf defect and not wear and tear.

Tires were replaced because of GM's fault. If the tire had blown out on it's own GM would nothelp you. You'd have to deal with the tire MFG. Keystone didn't make the toilet, they installed it. If they installed it wrong and caused a problem to the toilet then Keystone would be responsible for it.

RV warranty, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy are all pretty much in the same category in my opinion. Unless there is a major structural failure, I would fix it myself.

I agree that the warranty is MORE FOR the major stuff... The chances are greater that you will have a major appliance, or something large happen AFTER warranty anyway..

My fifth was back at the dealer a couple times for warranty work that I did not want to tackle myself. Any other smaller repairs, I just did myself as it saved me the 1 hour-15 minute drive 1 way crossing the toll bridge to the
dealer... I have better things to do than to take 3-4 hours per trip ( 3-4 to drop off and 3-4 to pick back up ) ...

JCR-1 wrote:

Lantley wrote:

soren wrote:

Ozlander wrote:
Change the valve yourself.
It ain't rocket science.

Not really what the OP wants to hear, but it's a valid point. I've owned 3-4 new RVs over the years, and got to the point where a warranty issue would have to be pretty significant for me to invest the time, energy, and stress to drag a unit back to the dealer for repairs. Particularly since a significant pecentage of the work I've had done at dealers ends up being less than satisfactory, and grossly overpriced. Toilets are stupid easy to remove, replace and repair. Take them up on their offer to provide a new part, and fix it. Easier in the long run.

I agree to
he sooner you realize the warranty is a PIA and not worth much the better off you will be. I consider warranty for major catastrophic failures only. Smaller issues are simply easier to deal with yourself.
I agree that is not how it should be, however the RV manufacturers track record for warranty repairs is far from stellar.

B.S.. Gm replaced 4 tires for me under warranty.. due to mis alignment from the factory. It was not the tire's that were bad it was a misalignment from the factory. Also if you have a failed suspension comnponent that wore out the tires they would replace it if it was due to a manuf defect and not wear and tear.

I'm not sure who GM is? General Motors?.
My point is if you can fix it yourself. Do it going through warranty is more trouble than it's worth, especially for an issue that you can repair yourself.