warranty secrets revealed

[Semi_Retired_Gr]

Took me several motor homes and many years - but it finally dawned on me that the manufacturers have it figured out pretty well. Offer a one year warranty - build in a few relatively minor problems - have your buyers take their new MH's back to the dealer for service and make them wait days - or perhaps weeks - for service. Then find the need for repair parts that take weeks to arrive - and soon the one year warranty period has expired. I say this a little 'tongue in cheek' - but it sure seems our MH's spend much of their first year at the dealers taking far too long to address relatively minor problems. Nothing similar to the service we receive from the chassis manufacturers - if in fact service is ever required. The MH manufacturers can - and should - do better.

[mtrumpet]

dougrainer wrote:

mtrumpet wrote:

Tntman wrote:
Sorry to be so late here!
You bought a Tiffin motorhome, Bob Tiffin WILL take care of ANY problems you may have PERIOD. My Phaeton had more than three years of work performed with no charge. When my exhaust pipe blew a hole EIGHT years after I bought the coach, I talked to Bob and he told me to send him the bills for the repair and he would take care of it. I TALKED directly to Bob, try that with ANY OTHER COACH manufacturer. When I am in Red Bay, I stop and talk to Bob, the owner of Tiffin. Try that with the owner, president or CEO of any other RV manufacturer.
Tiffin has a service center out west somewhere, take your coach there, call Bob in Red Bay if you have a problem.

That's all well and good, however, isn't it true that you have to take the coach all the way to Red Bay, Alabama in order to get warranty work completed? Or, will local Tiffin dealers (who have the capability) do the work? (I'm not commenting, I'm merely asking because I don't know.)

Having to have to run down to Red Bay for repairs wouldn't seem to do much good for those Tiffin owners in, say, the northeast or upper mid-west for example.

OUT of warranty, you MUST usually take the Tiffin to Red Bay for warranty consideration for major repairs. Tiffin has a West Coast area RV service center authorized to do those major type out of warranty, warranty repairs to keep from driving to Red Bay. 99% of Tiffin warranty work (non chassis) can be done by the Tiffin dealer network. Some people just like to go to Red Bay. Now, Tiffin has changed their policy last year.
Units within 2 years on new can make appointments at Red bay for warranty repairs
Units OUT of the 2 year time frame cannot make an appt and are served First come first served. You arrive sign in and they give you a ticket and you park in their camping lot and they come get you as service bays open up.
They did this because a LOT of their repairs were items that any dealer or authorized service center could do, but people just wanted to go to the factory and they were overloaded with these type repairs. Doug

Ah, OK. I see. Thanks for the explanation (which may help clarify for some of the Tiffin owners here). I figured that if anyone would know, it would be you Doug.

[wa8yxm]

Well, reading some of the comments here I need to make one I guess.. The rig in my Sig is a 2005 Damon Indruder.. Did (DO) I have a few issues.. YES.. and I am addressing them as I go along.. Would I buy another when this one wears out (Assuming I do not wear out first) Well, that is a complex question as some of the factors that went into deciding on this unit have changed.. For example, the key selling point on this unit was the Bath and a half floor plan.. I no longer need 2 holes as there is just me, no wife any more. But this has nothing to do with the quality of the motor home... IF I can find a wife 2.0 (And I am working on that, though not all that hard) yes, I'd buy another . The problems are simply not that bad and the one that was.. Warranted.

Also, the more I learn, the more problems I an either control or prevent or fix myself.. And I learn.... Well I enjoy learning, this makes me do lots of it.

[dougrainer]

mtrumpet wrote:

Tntman wrote:
Sorry to be so late here!
You bought a Tiffin motorhome, Bob Tiffin WILL take care of ANY problems you may have PERIOD. My Phaeton had more than three years of work performed with no charge. When my exhaust pipe blew a hole EIGHT years after I bought the coach, I talked to Bob and he told me to send him the bills for the repair and he would take care of it. I TALKED directly to Bob, try that with ANY OTHER COACH manufacturer. When I am in Red Bay, I stop and talk to Bob, the owner of Tiffin. Try that with the owner, president or CEO of any other RV manufacturer.
Tiffin has a service center out west somewhere, take your coach there, call Bob in Red Bay if you have a problem.

That's all well and good, however, isn't it true that you have to take the coach all the way to Red Bay, Alabama in order to get warranty work completed? Or, will local Tiffin dealers (who have the capability) do the work? (I'm not commenting, I'm merely asking because I don't know.)

Having to have to run down to Red Bay for repairs wouldn't seem to do much good for those Tiffin owners in, say, the northeast or upper mid-west for example.

OUT of warranty, you MUST usually take the Tiffin to Red Bay for warranty consideration for major repairs. Tiffin has a West Coast area RV service center authorized to do those major type out of warranty, warranty repairs to keep from driving to Red Bay. 99% of Tiffin warranty work (non chassis) can be done by the Tiffin dealer network. Some people just like to go to Red Bay. Now, Tiffin has changed their policy last year.
Units within 2 years on new can make appointments at Red bay for warranty repairs
Units OUT of the 2 year time frame cannot make an appt and are served First come first served. You arrive sign in and they give you a ticket and you park in their camping lot and they come get you as service bays open up.
They did this because a LOT of their repairs were items that any dealer or authorized service center could do, but people just wanted to go to the factory and they were overloaded with these type repairs. Doug

[nbargolf]

Everyone posting complaints about a dealer should state the dealer and the address. Should be too long and those guys will be gone. Just a thought.

[mtrumpet]

Tntman wrote:
Sorry to be so late here!
You bought a Tiffin motorhome, Bob Tiffin WILL take care of ANY problems you may have PERIOD. My Phaeton had more than three years of work performed with no charge. When my exhaust pipe blew a hole EIGHT years after I bought the coach, I talked to Bob and he told me to send him the bills for the repair and he would take care of it. I TALKED directly to Bob, try that with ANY OTHER COACH manufacturer. When I am in Red Bay, I stop and talk to Bob, the owner of Tiffin. Try that with the owner, president or CEO of any other RV manufacturer.
Tiffin has a service center out west somewhere, take your coach there, call Bob in Red Bay if you have a problem.

That's all well and good, however, isn't it true that you have to take the coach all the way to Red Bay, Alabama in order to get warranty work completed? Or, will local Tiffin dealers (who have the capability) do the work? (I'm not commenting, I'm merely asking because I don't know.)

Having to have to run down to Red Bay for repairs wouldn't seem to do much good for those Tiffin owners in, say, the northeast or upper mid-west for example.

[Effy]

Just another post rehashing what we already know. There is no quality in the RV industry and little in the way of regulation. It takes either compeitition or oversight to make products "better". I prefer good old fashioned free market, be it foreign or otherwise to tighten things up. All oversight does is invovle the gubmint and drive up prices. But until a competitor steps up to make better quality at the same price (key point) you have 3 options; don't buy an RV, be as knowledgeable as you can - buy and deal with it, or pay a lot more money for a brand that adds the quality you are looking for. But I disagree with the OP's stance that's its all a ruse. I don't believe there is intentionally placed warranty items. I think they cut as many corners as they can cuz all of us suckers will still buy them. Slap em together, overlook known issues, get it off the line to sell, and deal with problems later. Its not about the product, its about money.

[OhhWell]

peaches&cream wrote:

John S. wrote:
Reading these stories makes me glad I have a Foretravel. Even an old one can get fixed in two weeks at the factory with a long list. If you buy a new one they have a whole team dedicated to making it right. They send you out for a long weekend about 90 miles away and have you come back with anything that is wrong. Usually there is not much.

John, that sounds great, but. Could you not purchase 3 HR Ambassador's new for the same price as 1 Foretravel? That way if 1 was in the shop you would have use of the other 2. This holds true comparing yr. models for 15 yrs.

:B Good one.

[peaches_cream]

John S. wrote:
Reading these stories makes me glad I have a Foretravel. Even an old one can get fixed in two weeks at the factory with a long list. If you buy a new one they have a whole team dedicated to making it right. They send you out for a long weekend about 90 miles away and have you come back with anything that is wrong. Usually there is not much.

John, that sounds great, but. Could you not purchase 3 HR Ambassador's new for the same price as 1 Foretravel? That way if 1 was in the shop you would have use of the other 2. This holds true comparing yr. models for 15 yrs.

[JoeH]

We just finished our first year of ownership of our current coach. We had several significant issues that required it to be in the dealership for extended periods of time. Now that things seem to have settled down, I went to the manufacturer and told them I wanted the warranty extended by the amount of time it was in the shop and I didn't have use of the unit. hey complied and extended the warranty at no cost to me for the agreed to duration.

[John_S_]

Reading these stories makes me glad I have a Foretravel. Even an old one can get fixed in two weeks at the factory with a long list. If you buy a new one they have a whole team dedicated to making it right. They send you out for a long weekend about 90 miles away and have you come back with anything that is wrong. Usually there is not much.

[jerseyjim]

What the motorhome..and the RV industry needs in general....is what happened to the American auto makers years ago:
The Japanese came in and darn near destroyed the "Big Three"...by making trouble free and quality cars and somewhat less cost to the consumer. Took a few years for the "Big Three" to catch up....but catch up they did.
However...recently, the Japanese are having recall and QC problems, too.
So....................

[B_s_Bunch]

peaches&cream wrote:
After reading these post it's no wonder some people purchase only 1 MH (their 1st and last). Once they get out of it they would never commit to another purchase of one. Scares normal people to death trying to keep the thing going while making payments on a lemon. I've been there, done that, and have the T shirt.

I could not agree more. Larry

[peaches_cream]

After reading these post it's no wonder some people purchase only 1 MH (their 1st and last). Once they get out of it they would never commit to another purchase of one. Scares normal people to death trying to keep the thing going while making payments on a lemon. I've been there, done that, and have the T shirt.

[michelb]

Tntman wrote:
...
You bought a Tiffin motorhome, Bob Tiffin WILL take care of ANY problems you may have PERIOD. ...

Unfortunately, that is not my experience. A few years ago, we purchased a used 2003 Phaeton 40RH (which might make it more of a 'pre-04' as the 40RH wasn't listed a model available in 2003). Last summer, I noticed that it suffers from the wet bay problem but unfortunately Tiffin will not repair it since it is older than 8 years old and they only repair 04s and up (they tell me 03s were constructed differently and did not suffer the problem ...)

I understand that Tiffin certainly doesn't have to repair my unit but on the other hand, I don't think anybody will disagree that it's a design / manufacturing defect and since they don't actually contact owners to inform them of the problem and instead only fix it at their cost when the owners notice and ask them to fix it, I would have not expected them to impose an strict age limit. Is it unreasonable to expect that a motor home costing over $150k should last more than 8 years?