Sad Development At Cedar Creek!

[MPI_Mallard]

Ya' know when something's going good you can always rely on some idiot to screw things up which is now the case at Cedar Creek's fiver'
division! About a month ago I called (repeatedly) cedar Creek's fifth wheel tech department and after about a week and a half they finally called me back. I wanted to inquire about buying new day-night blinds for my Daydreamer and was told that Cedar Creek will NO LONGER be selling parts or doing any OUT-OF Warranty repairs and from now on we CC owners will have to go through the dealership! The last time I dealt with the "stealership" the in warranty repairs (The extended warranty wasn't worth the paper it was printed on)cost me over $600(one of the sales people were at a car show and wondered why I didn't want to buy a new fiver off them, right!). So now I have a leaky water supply line on my fridge and again I called CC's tech department from last Tuesday until today with,, wait for it,, NO RESPONSE! I left several messages that I just wanted to know how to pull the Amana Residential fridge out of the cabinet properly to repair the supply line myself, luckily my local RV shop back in Canada (Tisdell RV in Tilbury Ont. Great shop,,) told me how to do the whole she-bang (thanks Larry) so for the last long while I was one of those "Creekers" bragging about how great the outstanding after-the-sale customer service is that probably sold many fiver's (three of which I know of) has come to a unfortunate end, thanks for nothing Warren!

Red Green: We now come to the part of the show
called "If it ain't broke, you're not trying!"

[packnrat]

so sad on all this, they want to keep customers, get new ones. then sell a product that has little to no problems off the lot. then provide 5 years full warranty work.5 years full warranty work.
and NO sitting on the dealers lot for months.

when i retire it would be grand to buy a new unit i could relay on to get me through a good 10+ years.
but the way it looks now i would be better off buying a old trailer for the vin and build a new one my self.

[Hammerboy]

Read the pin box thread, it even sounds like Northwoods is going downhill as well. They all suck apparently.

Dan

[Fizz]

Have to wonder if it's because they are overloaded with requests and it became a money drain.
Quality has dropped so more things break.
The older generation grew up being able to fix things so we never bothered taking it in for minor repairs, just fixed it ourselves.
Today it's the throw away generation. Nobody learned how to fix things so they take it all to the dealer or manufacturer.
Eventually it affected the bottom line so they cut back.

[garyp4951]

That statement is so true, and funny. I buy used so no need to worry about warranty.

[Ralph_Cramden]

B.O. Plenty wrote:
I've had great service with my Cedar Creek. Front cap was fading and I got an approval from the factory to have it painted in just 3 days. It was also out of warranty by about a year and a half. This was done last fall.

B.O.

A lot of things can change between last fall and this winter. All it takes is a corporate directive from up the ladder to come down, or a new general manager assigned to the division, and there you have it. You can not count on past policies being around when you need something at a later point in time.

The fanboi's over at Forest River forum used to crow and pump their chests about the 2nd year warranty that could be purchased for between $100 and $300. Silence developed when Forest River nixed it with no prior announcement, and the reason claimed was nothing more than total BS. They also used to talk up how great Forest River was by holding the yearly rally in Goshen where they would fix your junk. Just so happens the reins are being tightened on that also.

Fact is you can go to a dealer and line up 4 of the same floorplan Cedar Creeks, or 4 Jaycos, or 4 Grand Designs, 4 Winnebago's even 4 Lances or Artic Foxes, and you'll have 4 of the same floorplan with different levels of build quality/ fit and finish. One can be perfect, the next a lemon. The perfect one may have followed the lemon down the line.

Your in worse shape if you become afflicted with RV forum branditis or itsthegreatestbecauseipurchseditosis.

[B_O__Plenty]

I've had great service with my Cedar Creek. Front cap was fading and I got an approval from the factory to have it painted in just 3 days. It was also out of warranty by about a year and a half. This was done last fall.

B.O.

[azrving]

Bemota wrote:
I have an ‘18 CC 34rl2 bought Sept ‘17, 600 miles the fenders broke and almost fell off, that was the beginning of nonstop things, broke window hardware, water pump problems, falling apart drawer slides/latches, cracked/broken door/drawer faces, fireplace not working when furnace is running all in the first 6 mos.
Buying local, service local is fine if you only do weekends or a month at a time and can get by. Buying in Mn and need service in Ok, Tx, Nm, Az, Ne, Ks or Sd, my advice is have a good supply duck tape, baling wire, assortment of screws, nut ‘ bolts. And when you stop for a few days always, ALWAYS do so close to a Home Despert/Lowe’s. The littney from dealers for warranty work is: Bring it in, we’ll document and take pictures, we’ll submit to Forest River/CC, when they approve bring it back and we’ll measure/check part nos. and place order, when parts come in we’ll call and make an appointment to get you in, but since you didn’t buy here it might take weeks to get you in: . I have a list of 6 dealers that never called me, I can’t believe all 6 went out of business or died! Your favorite rv repair men can’t do much when Forest River/CC won’t answer their phone, text, e-mail or Fax?!!!!!
I’m traveling again and have enough tools with to fix most everything. Hoping pretty soon this pos will be going down the road behind some-one else’s truck, then I can get back to traveling and seeing the country. Done. The Stealer had it for 9 weeks through the summer and got most of our tablet sheet of things fixed just in time for the warranty to run out, go figure!!!!!

They know that people have little choice.

RV

[Bemota]

I have an ‘18 CC 34rl2 bought Sept ‘17, 600 miles the fenders broke and almost fell off, that was the beginning of nonstop things, broke window hardware, water pump problems, falling apart drawer slides/latches, cracked/broken door/drawer faces, fireplace not working when furnace is running all in the first 6 mos.
Buying local, service local is fine if you only do weekends or a month at a time and can get by. Buying in Mn and need service in Ok, Tx, Nm, Az, Ne, Ks or Sd, my advice is have a good supply duck tape, baling wire, assortment of screws, nut ‘ bolts. And when you stop for a few days always, ALWAYS do so close to a Home Despert/Lowe’s. The littney from dealers for warranty work is: Bring it in, we’ll document and take pictures, we’ll submit to Forest River/CC, when they approve bring it back and we’ll measure/check part nos. and place order, when parts come in we’ll call and make an appointment to get you in, but since you didn’t buy here it might take weeks to get you in: . I have a list of 6 dealers that never called me, I can’t believe all 6 went out of business or died! Your favorite rv repair men can’t do much when Forest River/CC won’t answer their phone, text, e-mail or Fax?!!!!!
I’m traveling again and have enough tools with to fix most everything. Hoping pretty soon this pos will be going down the road behind some-one else’s truck, then I can get back to traveling and seeing the country. Done. The Stealer had it for 9 weeks through the summer and got most of our tablet sheet of things fixed just in time for the warranty to run out, go figure!!!!!

[garyp4951]

No offense to the op, but I could never see myself complaining about the factory not telling me how to remove a refrigerator on a 12 year old unit, or not selling me things that are sold elsewhere.
As others have stated, you need to find a good mobile rv tech, or dealer, if you can't make the repairs yourself.

[Hammerboy]

southernsky wrote:
The norm for Forest River products and support. Had three from top of the line to weekender same after the sale support. Never will own one again

Probably depends on the division. We own a 2017 (new in spring 2016) Forest River Wildcat and I cannot say anything bad as they have been very good to us. I had a delamination issue with our floor and walls (turned out to be a glue issue) and they replaced our fifth wheel with a new one. I never expected to see that as what I read online where cut and patch repairs as being the norm. They even added a second AC unit on our replacement at no cost to us plus the replacement included a outside fridge which our old one did not. I brought in for a second time when the colored striping on the awning started to come off (awning was fine, just losing the color) and a couple emails with pictures and I had that replaced as well.

With that being said we had a very good dealer that help get things done along with I told the dealer I would rather bring our unit to the factory for delamination repairs as I only live a couple hours away.

Just because one may have a bad experience doesn't mean everyone will. Just give it time and I'll bet even the Godly Grand Designs service will not be what it once was.

Dan

[lenr]

It's a real world trend unfortunately. Six years ago even some of the less expensive Forest River brands were easy to get repair--they now seem to be tightening up. Big test will be if the August Rally at Goshen, IN where anything/everything Forest River gets repaired for free gets cancelled. When it first started there was no age limit, but recently they limited free repair to units less than five years old.

[Ozlander]

"My friend has had his back to the factory 3 times and once they sent Lippert to his house to rebuild all his brakes due to leaking grease seals, ultimately solved by a 4th trip to the factory and totally replacing both axles with Dexter."

Having to go back to the Grand Design factory 4 times to GOOD???

[MPI_Mallard]

Well they finally called me today and had no idea how to pull the fridge,,, I get that with things winding down the company wants to tighten up their collective boot-straps but I believe that excellent customer service when times get bad are what can keep sales up but I'm no wizz-bang like warren buffet so after this I guess I'll be keeping my 07' as there's no point in spending a lot of money on a fair weather outfit,,, good bye cedar Creek,, nice knowin' ya'

Red Green: Every mall has three things the same:
clothes, stores and benches for the husbands
to sit on.

[Dick_B]

Just slightly off topic but TrailManor used to have superb customer service. There was one guy that handled all the calls and he tried very hard to please the owners. They made a well engineered and built foldup trailer.
Anyone seen or heard from TrailManor lately?

[southernsky]

The norm for Forest River products and support. Had three from top of the line to weekender same after the sale support. Never will own one again