LOL! You guys were right!

2oldman wrote:

rickeoni wrote:
What are we going to do when tire installers go belly up and there is no place left to install tires?

That is not as crazy as it may sound. Perhaps there will be shops who ONLY install, not sell, tires.

Maybe "gas stations" will become "service stations" again and then they will mount, balance and do alignments. Or go to Harbor Frieght and buy a tire mounter, and do it yourself. Proof of RVer being able to do a lot of services to their own vehicles. :D

Several years ago, I ordered 4 snow tires, mounted and balanced from Tire Rack.
In two days they were on my back porch, mounted, balanced and inflated. Three days, and cheaper than other local places. There's a Tire Rack store about 25 miles from me.
Even if you have a weird size, they either have them in stock or can get them in a couple of days.

Tire Rack has agreements with 100s or 1000s of installers to install their tires and can refer you to one of their "approved" installers that are happy to do the work. For me, I always buy from Americas Tire/Discount tire because we're on the road a lot and if I ever have a warranty problem on the truck or trailer tires, there's usually one in every major town. I've had to use them out of town twice. Their prices are always competitive and you can't beat their service.

Lantley wrote:

JEBar wrote:
there is absolutely nothing wrong with folks buying based on the cheapest price .... there is absolutely nothing wrong with a dealer (of any product) making the decision to take care of the folks who buy from them .... when a person chooses to buy on the cheap, hopefully they will get what the pay for .... what I do find interesting is the mindset of folks who buy on the cheap from one business and then expect some other business to take care of their problems

Jim

The root of their error is they assume the dealers are affiliated and obligated to do warranty work when in fact they are not.
Again the manufactures need to step up and correct/improve their warranty policies. instead they knowingly let the problem persist.
Buyer Beware!

understood and in a perfect world what would work .... in the world we live in, I find it a bit hard to believe that many folks don't know that a decision to not purchase from their local dealer may have an impact on any subsequent service they may need

Jim

JEBar wrote:
there is absolutely nothing wrong with folks buying based on the cheapest price .... there is absolutely nothing wrong with a dealer (of any product) making the decision to take care of the folks who buy from them .... when a person chooses to buy on the cheap, hopefully they will get what the pay for .... what I do find interesting is the mindset of folks who buy on the cheap from one business and then expect some other business to take care of their problems

Jim

The root of their error is they assume the dealers are affiliated and obligated to do warranty work when in fact they are not.
Again the manufactures need to step up and correct/improve their warranty policies. instead they knowingly let the problem persist.
Buyer Beware!

there is absolutely nothing wrong with folks buying based on the cheapest price .... there is absolutely nothing wrong with a dealer (of any product) making the decision to take care of the folks who buy from them .... when a person chooses to buy on the cheap, hopefully they will get what the pay for .... what I do find interesting is the mindset of folks who buy on the cheap from one business and then expect some other business to take care of their problems

Jim

JJBIRISH wrote:

THE TRUTH AND THE FACTS ARE THE LOCAL DEALER IS NOT OBLIGATED TO YOUE IN ANY WAY IF YOU DIDN’T BUY FROM HIM…

Correct. For that matter, is a dealer that you did buy from legally required to accept your trailer for repairs? (I honestly don't know the answer to this.)

Regardless, a GOOD dealer will use the service visit as an opportunity to win you over for future business, including future repairs, even if the money from the repairs is break-even for them. This is just good business. Why? While there waiting for your trailer to be brought around, finished up, or for the paperwork to be completed you're very likely to peruse the new stock...

A dealer refuses you? That's not one you want. Find another. I've never been turned away for service from any RV dealer.

wbwood wrote:
Kind of why we liked purchasing from CW. There are over a hundred locations across the country and they are still growing.

Yeah, my BIL thought that, too, when they bought their 5th wheel from a CW dealer 'bout a year ago. They sold him on the fact that since it was sold by a Camping World dealer, he could take it to ANY Camping World dealer for warranty work and would not have any problems.

Well, last month they learned that this is NOT necessarily the case. Regardless whether a dealer has that 'Camping World' sign on their name or not, they can be just as independant and difficult to deal with when it comes to warranty work on units they did not sell as any other RV dealer.

They brought their 5er to a closer Camping World dealer for some warranty work with the paint fading/peeling. Dealer was about 2 hours away from the one they originally bought the RV from. Long story short, this dealer dragged their feet, took their time, tried to avoid doing it at all....you name it. It took them MONTHS to get their 5th wheel taken care of, and they (BIL and his wife) had to STAND on that dealership, calling them practically every other day to get the dealer moving and get it taken care of. I won't go into the details, but will just say it seemed pretty obvious that they were doing this because they were making little if any $$ off of a pretty big paint/decal repair job.

Bottom line: Doesn't matter if its CW dealers or not. Every RV dealer is independant, and its really up to the individual dealer how easy or difficult they will be about doing warranty work on a unit they did not sell. If you purchase a unit out of town and ask your local dealer to handle warranty work for you, don't set your expectations very high, regardless whether its CW dealers or not.

I like one local RV dealer here, and their policy toward warranty work: They have a huge, very nice service department that handles lots of service work, and have a good reputation for doing a great job. They have big signs up saying they accept and will gladly do ANY service work, warranty or not.

Only one catch: If its warranty work, and you did not buy from them, YOU will pay for all repairs/work done (using their regular labor rates). They will provide any/all paperwork you need to get the manufacturer to re-imburse what they'll pay on the work, but it is your responsibility to get reimbursement from the manufacturer. This way, when manufacturers cheap out on what they'll pay for a repair, the dealership doesn't have to 'eat' the difference for units they did not sell.

I think if I was running an RV dealership, given the way the RV industry is now, I'd probably adopt a policy similar to that.

When we bought we told the saleswoman that we were considering buying from a wholesaler out of state. She was up front about the fact that any repair done there would be in December when THEIR customers had been taken care of. In the end the wholesaler would have been cheaper up front but the difference in loans will have the trailer paid off in half the time with the local dealer. We also got to go for a two week camping trip instead of driving to Ohio and back to get the it.

Dottie5 wrote:
This is a follow up from posts made on JohnnyE!'s thread about buying a TT out of town as opposed to sticking with his local dealership where he gets preferential treatment as a current customer. Several of us thought that any dealership would be happy to have the service work regardless of where the TT was purchased. Some of you said that's not true.

Dh called the RV dealership we had planned on using for our service, namely right now warranty service since our TT is still under warranty.

Guess what? Service guy said he'd work on it but gave dh the very definite hint that he didn't want to. Kind of gave him a break down of the reimbursement from manufacturer and how he'd not make any money on it. Then gave dh some ideas of what we could do instead.

So you guys who said dealerships wouldn't be all that willing to work on a rig not purchased from them were right. At least in this case.

Funny! Live and learn, live and learn.

Funny what you are saying is true… but very few admit it, or change the facts and try to compare auto to RV to justify blaming the dealer, some claim they all really want this work (this is just a laughable idea)… the what ifs just seem to come out of the woodwork to discredit the truth, but I must say for the first time I have seen tire warranty procedures used to muddy the water and avoid the topic…

THE TRUTH AND THE FACTS ARE THE LOCAL DEALER IS NOT OBLIGATED TO YOUE IN ANY WAY IF YOU DIDN’T BUY FROM HIM…

He may try to treat you as his own customer if you are traveling through, or if you relocated to the area after purchase… that is completely different the living there and thumbing you nose at the dealer in the buying process… even here he is going beyond his contractual obligation…

By all means lie to him, I can’t think of a more Nobile why to ask for help, before he finishes typing the VIN in he knows you didn’t buy it from him… give me a break…

BTY go visit the dealerships now and see how many need let alone want to do free work on units they didn’t sell… I’ll go just the opposite of others here, if you have a dealer begging for warranty work of any kind at this time of year or has open bays just sitting there unused it’s time to look for someone else to do the repair…