Dealer refusing to do Warranty work?

[trukeeper]

After owning my new Winnebago Era 70A for a few weeks, I decided to take it to a local Winnebago dealer to have some warranty work done. Nothing major, really, some adjustments/repairs, and a couple of items need to be replaced (a non-functioning tail light, etc.).... In other words, typical warranty items. I went over my list with the service department yesterday and they said it would take a week or so since there were a few parts to order. Today, I get a phone call from the Service Department stating their GM instructed them to do NO Warranty work on my Era since I did not buy it from them!! Bear in mind, this dealer is an authorized Winnebago Dealer and is on Winnebago's official list. I have never heard of an authorized dealer refusing to do warrantly work before. Is this typical of Winnebago dealers? I have contacted Winnebago on this and they are "Looking into the matter".. meanwhile, my RV sits in that dealers lot waiting for me to pick it up. Any sugggestions? Do I have any recourse? Unfortunately, I don't know of any other Winnebago authorized dealers in our metro area and I really don't want to drive 700 miles (rountrip to the dealer where I purchased the RV) to get these issues taken care of. Suggestions?

[Bumpyroad]

debandi wrote:
Iowa may be snow free this time of year.

I wouldn't bet on it. 🙂
bumpy

[debandi]

Take it back to Winnebago, I believe they will do the warranty work. Iowa may be snow free this time of year.

[GeoBoy]

After reading these 7 pages, and the fact that the OP is new to RVing, the OP saved substancial money buying their Winnebago from another dealer, I think that the OP should call the selling dealer and arrange a date when that dealer can fix the warranty items at their facility. The money the OP saved should pay for the trip, and make a vacation out it.

[FernandoSanders]

I do agree that if once you have get done any work from from out side or local shop then dealers refuse to do work on the same because of some rule they already mentioned in rule book,i also faced the same case and had get get done all the work from local shop.

[kendall69]

For all the people WHINING about the dealer not making " money " on warranty work, number one THEY SIGNED UP FOR THE DEALERSHIP , no one held a gun to their head. THEY NEGOTIATED all compensation deals with whomever they are dealers for, no one held a gun to their head during those negotiations.

Now for the cry babies trying to blame the OP for buying an RV on the cheap from an out of state dealer - ARE YOU SERIOUS ??????

Let me explain this very slowly for you all. When I buy from dealer "A" from out of state and don't buy from my local dealer "B" GUESS WHAT, another guy bought an RV from Dealer "B" and gets it service from Dealer "A".

Most RV's get service by other than their buying dealership because...WAIT FOR IT........RV'S are on the road all the time and hardly ever are at HOME BASE. So having another dealer service your rig is NOT unusual and should not be a foreign concept to all RV dealers. Furthermore none of us should be PUNISHED for having someone other than the purchasing dealer service our rigs,

What the OP is going through is unconscionable and the offending dealer should be poster here and we should all contact him as a group and give him a piece of out mined.

We should all vote with our wallets.

As an industry we the people should put out foot down and let dealers, manufacturers and the government know we will not stand for this abuse.

The manufacturer has teh power to pull the franchise from the offending dealer and should.

Lastly if it was me, both Winnebago and the dealership would be in a law suite for making me waste my time at no fault of my own.

Sorry but sometimes that what it takes for dealers and manufacturers to wake up and stop treating us buyers like a red headed cousin.

They wine and dine us till we buy then forget we're alive once we sign the contract.

[bob_nestor]

1775 wrote:
It is not unusual for a dealer to say that they only service under warranty what they sell. When we were shopping for our Roadtrek, one dealer that we were pricing at told us that if we purchased from someone else, he would not service it under warranty. Pretty much some dealers do whatever they want.

Being an authorized dealer for a manufacturer though means that refusing to do warranty work on a unit sold by another dealer reflects badly on the manufacturer. Some manufacturers are sensitive to that and Roadtrek is one. I purchased my Roadtrek from a local dealer who no longer carries Roadtrek and they understandably were hesitant to do warranty work for me, but they did tell me who the new Roadtrek dealer was. When I contacted them I did get the response of "well if we didn't sell it we won't do the warranty work on it". I contacted Roadtrek, they asked for details and I got a call from the dealer asking me to bring it in. They've since lost their Roadtrek dealership and it has gone to another local dealer who seems to have a much more positive attitude.

[mlts22]

I've talked to CW reps who have said that one CW will do warranty work on another CW's sold product. Not sure if that is helpful or not, but it did earn a point in my book.

[Johnworth914]

wildtoad wrote:
Why did you drive the 700 miles to buy it instead of buying from the local dealer? Just curious.

I would go get the RV as soon as possible and ask to meet with the GM and the Owner if they are not one in the same.

RV dealers are not Car dealers. They are not required to perform warranty work on RVs bought elsewhere. Why DID you drive 1400 miles (RT) to buy when you had a local dealer? How much did you "save?"

Did you know that warranty work is often a LOSS for dealers due to low reimbursement rates? It's not surprising that they don't want to support someone who does not work with them.

[tgreening]

I had a sales rep at my local camping world tell me they generally wouldn't do warranty work on units they didn't sell. I needed work done and went to service anyway. When I told them this story the service rep just laughed. He said Sales have their sales goals..and so do I. Bring it in.


In the long run I did find myself a local rv service center that does warranty work, and I've been happy with them.

[tbred]

NMace wrote:
I have never had a problem with Camping World honoring my warranty no matter where I purchased it. In fact where I purchased it has never even came up.

Same here.

[Bumpyroad]

i might suggest testing the temp of your coffee with one of those infra red or whatever they are that read the surface, rather than sticking a rectal thermometer into my coffee.
bumpy

[John___Angela]

kendall69 wrote:
Let me add to the Delivery checklist. Number one bring a detailed check list - they on the the web. Next take your own test equipment with you of hire a house inspector. Test every electrical outlet with the cheapo home depot outlet testers. Bring a Digital thermometer to test the heat and air coming out all vents INCLUDING The dash board.

My fist RV they went through the walk through, got to the Roof AC turned it on and said SEE IT WORKS, then moved on to other things. First night camping I HAD NO AIR - oh the fan blew, but the AC was dead.

I bought several more RV's and I can tell you that the walk throughs took HOURS to complete and they fixed EVERYTHING before I signed off on the unit.

My $3.00 digital thermometer comes in handy OFTEN. Once I needed the dash AC fixed on a Ford Chassis, the dealer called said "it's fixed" - I sat in the pick up area turned on the AC stuck the thermometer in the vent and the temp coming out was 80 degrees. I called the manager over and said " you call this FIXED" - he was speechless.

I even use it at starbucks. I usually order my coffee at 180 degrees as I like it HOT. One time it just didn't feel HOT. I stuck my digital thermometer in and it read 150. I told the girl it wasn't 180, she looked at me like I was a piece of you know what. She argued YES IT IS. I dropped the digital thermometer in the coffee and it showed 150. I asked her WHAT DOES THAT SAY? - I shut her up and got my new cup at 180.

My point is TRUST NO ONE, do your own due diligence, then you have no one to blame.

LOL. Love it. I haven't used my thermometer thingy on my meter yet but maybe I'll start carrying it with me. 🙂

Happy trails.

[kendall69]

Let me add to the Delivery checklist. Number one bring a detailed check list - they on the the web. Next take your own test equipment with you of hire a house inspector. Test every electrical outlet with the cheapo home depot outlet testers. Bring a Digital thermometer to test the heat and air coming out all vents INCLUDING The dash board.

My fist RV they went through the walk through, got to the Roof AC turned it on and said SEE IT WORKS, then moved on to other things. First night camping I HAD NO AIR - oh the fan blew, but the AC was dead.

I bought several more RV's and I can tell you that the walk throughs took HOURS to complete and they fixed EVERYTHING before I signed off on the unit.

My $3.00 digital thermometer comes in handy OFTEN. Once I needed the dash AC fixed on a Ford Chassis, the dealer called said "it's fixed" - I sat in the pick up area turned on the AC stuck the thermometer in the vent and the temp coming out was 80 degrees. I called the manager over and said " you call this FIXED" - he was speechless.

I even use it at starbucks. I usually order my coffee at 180 degrees as I like it HOT. One time it just didn't feel HOT. I stuck my digital thermometer in and it read 150. I told the girl it wasn't 180, she looked at me like I was a piece of you know what. She argued YES IT IS. I dropped the digital thermometer in the coffee and it showed 150. I asked her WHAT DOES THAT SAY? - I shut her up and got my new cup at 180.

My point is TRUST NO ONE, do your own due diligence, then you have no one to blame.

[Lantley]

This is sort of a comedy of errors. Unfortunately
the OP is guilty of trusting the RV industry. Don't do it. The entire industry is shady and has no where near the integrity of the automotive industry. The whole warrantee refusal issue is an example of this. You are not the the first or last person to encounter this issue.
As mentioned above the manufacturers are aware of this issue and do nothing to resolve it.
As a novice you need dealer assistance far more than a veteran Rv'er. Buying local becomes more important if you require dealer assistance.
Your selling dealer should have discouraged you from picking up your rig during a snowstorm if possible.
As a novice owner the OP should have not left dealer until they thoroughly understood and tested all systems.
Once you pull away you are on your own. The selling dealer is a key part of the transaction and the focal point for service after the sale. All other dealers are independents and have no obligation to your RV.
The OP could have also researched a bit more and had his local dealer Special Order the desired unit. The local dealer could have been a bit more interested/helpful and offered to order the unit as well.
In the end there is a learning curve to the ins and outs of the unscrupulous RV industry.
I wish I could be more positive but the OP was just another naive,trusting new buyer caught in the everyday web of shady tactics prevalent in the RV industry.
Don't despair it gets better,however you should be prepared to pay/patronize your local dealer or find a independent RV service willing to work with Winnebago. While it may seem the local dealer is your enemy, and they are to some degree for not offering to sell you the unit in the 1st place. The local dealer is trying to protect their own bottom line by refusing work that will lose them money in the long run. It is a losing scenario for them.
I purchased my first unit out of state and was quickly informed by my local dealer that they would not perform warranty work. Fortunately I am fairly capable and my unit did not need any warranty work. I did make an effort to buy parts and patronise my local guy in an effort to have a positive relationship vs. blacklisting the local guy and refusing to step foot in the place.
In the end we developed a decent relationship, that was beneficial to both of us.
My next rig I did lots of research and priced shopped the exact model and options I wanted to dealers locally, regionally and nationally. In the end it cam down to the local guy and a more competent dealer about 3 hours away.
The local guy went the extra to beat the competitions prices and earn my business. I still believe the 2nd place dealer has a better operation however they are 3 hours one way vs. 30 minutes.
Price,location and service after the sale must all be factored before buying and RV. A rookie buying on impulse without considering the entire scope of the purchase is a recipe for disaster.
Fortunately the OP seems to have only minor issues. I'd consider the whole experience as a wake up call and part of the learning curve of RV ownership and the true ins and outs of the industry