Expired Warranties

A lot of people have a heck of a time getting it fixed IN the warranty period.

I don't think its unreasonable to reach out to the manufacturer if your warranty period is only weeks or a few months expired. If I bought my camper in January and my warranty expired the following January, but I didn't get a chance to go camping until March and found that XYZ was broken, I might be a little upset if the manufacturer doesn't even consider covering or splitting cost with me.

Now, more than 2 or 3 months and I wouldn't expect much. A great company would be willing to work with a customer and help them out even after the warranty expired. If you had a great experience with your manufacturer, you would probably buy your next RV from them, wouldn't you? Then again, if you had a bad experience, you might avoid that manufacturer for the rest of your days.

When I think of all the money spent on advertising by car and RV companies, I have to wonder why more don't try to help customers and keep them loyal. You are directly advertising to a person who is already vested in your product and you are giving them a sense of ease.

Just my thoughts.

I just don't get that somehow you can agree to a price and buy a product knowing it has a warranty for a certain period of time and then EXPECT coverage after that period of time. I'm not saying you shouldn't ask, but you should not expect it.

Must be my boating background. Nope, don't expect any free extensions on warrantees. Don't pay out thousands for so called extended warrantees either. It is all a gamble. The money not spent on extended warrantees goes to repairs & preventative maintenance, done by myself. So far I figure I am way ahead of the game, even after spending over $4000 on a new fridge last fall. That is $4000 over a 7 year period. The rest of the stuff done would not be covered.

Count me as one of the "weird" ones.

I don't ask for, nor expect anything that I did not pay for and that includes extra warranty time.

In my OP, I wasn't speaking of RVs, specifically. I realize this is RV.Net, so it makes sense that this is pretty much where the conversation has gone, but I am referring to everything. For example, I remember a thread where a member was cursing SurgeGuard for not replacing his two-year-old unit after it got fried during a thunderstorm. Of course many chimed in saying how if he had bought a Progressive Industries EMS with a lifetime warranty, he wouldn't have anything to complain about because they would have replaced it, no questions asked. The poster went on to slam SurgeGuard even though his unit saved his electronics like it was supposed to. He knew when he bought it, it had only a one-year warranty, and he probably knew he could have spent a little more and bought the PI unit with a lifetime warranty, but he decided not to lay down the extra cash.

In this case the product lasted one year beyond the warranty and worked just as it should have, but the poster bad mouthed the company and the product online because they didn't give him a new one for free. This is wrong.

Bruce

It can be really interesting when you do press for something to be done when an item actually has a longer warranty. We had a Wilderness trailer and I found a leak in the roof awhile after we bought it and it was where the end cap joined the roof. The factory had not done a good job of caulking the seam and it had a small leak over time. They fixed the leak,the ceiling material and some of the wall covering in the bedroom. What they didn't find was that the water had run down the wall and the floor was,some kind of composite pressboard,coming apart.Called the dealer and was told to bring it in,they called the manufacturer and was told that the trailer was out of warranty and that wasn't their problem because they hadn't manufactured the wood flooring. I then did a bunch of searches and found out that the flooring material was some really special stuff and had a lifetime warranty against coming apart from water damage. Oh,and guess who owned the company that produced all the lumber AND the flooring material.Never got any satisfaction from the manufacturer of the Wildernes,but did a great job of covering it over with a marine grade plywood and a great berber carpet.

Add me to the list of those who would ask for extra warranty if the product didn't live up to my expectations. I also reserve the right to gripe and complain to powers that be and anyone else who would listen.

Asking for something is hardly very big deal.

Add me to those who never thought to ask for warranty work after warranty time.

However, we did just by a new used truck from a dealer and bought an extended warranty. They showed us what they inspected and repaired. Less than thirty miles driven on the truck it broke down. We had left the dealer less than two hours prior. In this case I did expect them to take care of it even though legally they didn't have to in my state. Guess what? That night broken down with the trailer in tow on the way to a weeks vacation they lent us a truck they drove to us and towed the truck back. No questions asked. They had a new exhaust system put in. $1500.

Got back home and it wasn't ready so they said keep the truck until it is. Truck was ready. Dh picked it up and drove home. Heard a weird sound coming from front passenger side and that the paperwork from previous work indicated a leak not fixed that I had noticed in the paperwork while he was driving it back to the dealer. . Turned around and drove it back. Their mechanic took it for a ride and told the manager they needed to take it to the diesel shop again. Gave dh back the loaner truck. Week later and two ujoints replaced because while fixing one they noticed the other was going and new gaskets for the leak we have our truck back and it is running great. Dealer out $1100 for last repair. What did they get? Happy customers who will buy from them again and tell friends. It is NW Honda in bellingham,wa. They got into selling used trucks within the last year and are doing well with it. We never pushed them to do anything. Just said nicely there was a problem and they did not hesitate to say we will make this right for you.

Okay if you read that all. Sorry so long. Oh and to add had it not broke down tight away we would have not asked the dealer for anything but used our extended warranty if applicable or paid ourselves.

… certainly not my problem…

I think you may have borrowed this line from a copy of the RV industry's "beyond 12 month" vision statement.