Charging for a PDI??

[Free_Range_Huma]

We completely missed this in our negotiations, but our customer quote worksheet lists these "options"

Clean for delivery $0
PDI $1300
New owner school $0

I expect expect them to clean for delivery.
"New owner school" is the part where they take hours to make sure you know how everything works and you can even stay over night if you wish. Sounds great to the uninitiated, but we all know EVERYBODY does this.

$1300 for a walk-through inspection? Really??

Has anybody seen this before?

They're actually doing a few things for us that they really shouldn't have to, which we negotiated up front as part of the overall sales price.

But we're prepared to walk over this $1300 charge (haven't finished the financing--which was approved--taken delivery, or signed anything yet except this "customer quote"), unless anyone can tell us they think it's reasonable.

Karen

[WoodGlue]

ependydad wrote:
How did you negotiate your deal? Mine was on an "out the door price". Quite literally, what I negotiated was what I took a check in on the purchase day. I could care less if they had "Clown Training" as one of the line items as long as the final price was what I wanted it to be. In fact, I'm fairly positive that I was charged a $5.00 "Internet fee". Don't know, don't care. My price was the same when I called up to negotiate price.

X2 on this!!

You'd think that they would try to hide this "fee" somewhere else, and not let you know that they're trying to rip you off for an additional $1,300!!

WoodGlue

[noe-place]

It's the same "add on" car dealers hit you with, ie; paint sealer, scotch guard, undercoating and all that******that adds another thousand dollars to the price of a car. If they don't drop the charge, then I'd go elsewhere.

[wbwood]

Who is the dealer?

[sidney]

This PDI might be the dealers own inspection before you do your own personal inspection before taking delivery.

Our dealer did a very thorough PDI of our trailer before we ever showed up to take delivery. They had it in one of their bays for a couple of days. I don't know if they found any significant problems or not but there wasn't any saw dust to be found any where... so I know they at least looked and cleaned every where.

When we arrived to take delivery we spent about 3 hours with a tech going over all the typical PDI punch list items on our own.

We were not charged a PDI "fee" but I'm sure the dealer had his cost built into the out the door price we paid.

If a dealer truly believes they need to charge $1300 to insure the RV is completely functional without any defects before the customer takes delivery... you have wonder about the quality of the units they receive from the manufacturers.

On edit:
I forgot to add... I wouldn't pay it. The dealer should already have any prep time figured into his costs of business.

[ependydad]

How did you negotiate your deal? Mine was on an "out the door price". Quite literally, what I negotiated was what I took a check in on the purchase day. I could care less if they had "Clown Training" as one of the line items as long as the final price was what I wanted it to be. In fact, I'm fairly positive that I was charged a $5.00 "Internet fee". Don't know, don't care. My price was the same when I called up to negotiate price.

[crickeydog]

Free Range Human wrote:
PDI $1300 for a walk-through inspection?

I wouldn't pay $13.00 for a PDI much less $1300. Let'em keep that sucker. There's about a thousand more out there just like it from dealers who will never charge for a PDI. The manufacturer pays the dealer to complete the PDI on a new unit.

Happy camping!!! See y'all down the road!!!:)

[ScottG]

They tried to charge me $1500 for a PDI. TOld them I wasn't falling for it and to just give me the bottom line on price. Worked great and they quit trying to BS me.

[dodge_guy]

My only question as of right now is, what is the $1300 supposed to cover?

[shooted]

What couple of things? And does the 1,300.00 supposedly cover the objects and install?

Free Range Human wrote:
I think this is a false alarm, although I still have to talk to the sales manager.

We asked them to install a couple of things that don't normally come with this unit (it's a used 2013). I'm pretty sure after talking with the salesman/co-owner that this is just where they represented the costs/fees for doing that, but we still have to nail them down on this.

[I_am_still_wayn]

It is just pure profit for the dealer in order for them to give you what appears to be a lower sales price and/or more for your trade in. The bottom line is does it really matter that they charge you $1300 for the PDI but sell you the new unit for $1300 less than any other dealer?

The out the door price is what matters, regardless of how they got there.

[dahkota]

We asked the dealer to install a few extra things not included with the tt: a toilet riser, fantastic fans, 2 12V receptacles, upgraded extra batteries, vent covers, etc. Some were line items on the bill, some the sales rep threw in for free. We were not charged for a PDI and the lengthy list of extras installed did not add up to $1300.

[Free_Range_Huma]

I think this is a false alarm, although I still have to talk to the sales manager.

We asked them to install a couple of things that don't normally come with this unit (it's a used 2013). I'm pretty sure after talking with the salesman/co-owner that this is just where they represented the costs/fees for doing that, but we still have to nail them down on this.

[Free_Range_Huma]

BurbMan wrote:
There was an article in the recent Car & Driver about negotiating with the FI (finance and insurance) manager at car dealerships. One guy reported seeing a "$129 ADP" on his qquote. When questioned, the FI manager immediately removed it. Later, the salesman let it slip that ADP stood for "Additional Dealer Profit".

LOL! Wow, that takes some balls!

[NRALIFR]

Well, here's another point of view for whatever it's worth.

30+ years ago, I spent a 8-9 months working for an RV dealership in their Pre-Delivery Dept. It was just me and another guy, but our job was to get the sold units ready for the customer after the sale. We looked for and fixed major defects, installed the house batteries, leak checked the water and LP systems, installed extras the customers had purchased like awnings, AC's and such, and generally tried to make sure everything worked so the salesman wouldn't look like a fool when the customer came to pick up their new RV.

Did they charge the customer for the time needed to prep the unit and get it ready for the customer? I never saw the sales invoices, but I have to believe they did, whether it was a line-item on the invoice or was just buried in the fluff of the bottom line. When you buy a new car, you get charged for a lot of things like this. Dealer prep, shipping cost, they even charge you for filling out all those forms they have you fill out.

My point is, I seriously doubt what they're charging you $1300 for is the privilege of walking though the unit looking for loose trim, crooked wallpaper, and sawdust in the cabinets. What are you getting for the $1300? That's what you should be asking. I know the two of us spent several hours on each unit getting them ready for delivery, and we weren't working for free. Whether you see the cost of the pre-delivery labor as a line item on your sales invoice, or it's just factored into the amount of profit they are going to make, it's part of the overhead, and the customers pay for it one way or another.

There's always the used market, where everything is "as is".

:):)

[bob_nestor]

There's one Class B manufacturer that now lists a Factory PDI as an option. Seems to me this is asking the customer to pay for a Quality Inspection on the build that should have been part of the build in the first place, especially if the manufacturer is claiming to be ISO 9001 certified!

Paying the dealer or the factory for a PDI is a ripoff and is a good indication of the quality of workmanship and service after the sale once could expect on the deal.