RV Direct - Too good to be true?

[Campin__Nana]

Hello Everyone,

Someone on the forums mentioned RV Direct to me for purchasing a TT. When we got the quote last night, I nearly fainted dead away. LOL

How many of you have purchased from them and did you have any trouble at all? ANY cons at all to purchasing a TT that way? Anything we should know ahead of time? Can you haggle on the price they quote you? (Although, I don't know why we would! The price is amazing!) It just seemed too good to be true. Will be awaiting your responses. Thanks!

[GoPackGo]

Mountaineer42 wrote:

ol' yeller wrote:
What happens to all those folks who buy locally and then move to another state? Or what happens when you are travelling out of state & have a breakdown? Also how about a used RV that you buy from a private party and needs to be fixed? I think the opinion that dealers won't service anything they didn't sell is greatly exaggerated. I understand there is a difference in how a dealer is paid for warranty work vs service but any GOOD dealer would go ahead and fix the issue in hopes of gaining a future customer.

The issue here is WARRANTY work. The dealer gets a reduced rate from the manufacturer rather than the gouging rate they charge the guy off the street. They will service your rig but not for the warranty rate, unless you bought the rig from them. That makes your warranty pretty much useless.

I appreciate the fact that has been your experience. Unfortunately we just do not know how prevalent this situation really is. Even if we asked everyone on RV.net we still would only have a small sample size.

I do understand this can be a scare tactic - and I'll bet many dealerships want us to believe it's the norm.

I can only state my experience. I bought from a large wholesaler located 1000 miles from my home (at that time) in Florida and have had warranty work done twice, once at a dealership near my (then) home and then once when I was on the road in the middle of the country. There was no out of pocket cost to me.

[Mountaineer42]

ol' yeller wrote:
What happens to all those folks who buy locally and then move to another state? Or what happens when you are travelling out of state & have a breakdown? Also how about a used RV that you buy from a private party and needs to be fixed? I think the opinion that dealers won't service anything they didn't sell is greatly exaggerated. I understand there is a difference in how a dealer is paid for warranty work vs service but any GOOD dealer would go ahead and fix the issue in hopes of gaining a future customer.

The issue here is WARRANTY work. The dealer gets a reduced rate from the manufacturer rather than the gouging rate they charge the guy off the street. They will service your rig but not for the warranty rate, unless you bought the rig from them. That makes your warranty pretty much useless.

[Campin__Nana]

There's one thing that I would think would shape those kinds of dealers up and that's the fear of social media. We are now in a time that if you don't follow decent business practices, the entire state can know about it shortly. Maybe more people need to start leaving reviews on these RV dealers facebook pages. I read those reviews sometimes before picking a new establishment to do business with.

[Mountaineer42]

Been there, done that. Keystone even called several of the local dealers that turned me down for warranty work, but in the end they had to tell me that they had no control over their dealers and had no way of requiring them to do warranty work on units they did not sell. As mentioned by others it is a scare tactic used to try to get you to buy from them but it is real and anyone who thinks it doesn't happen is delusional.

Spoon059, if their local dealers are under no obligation to do warranty work on a unit they didn't sell, it doesn't matter what the manufacturer says about their warranty. For all intents and purposes the warranty is useless, unless you want to drive back to the factory to have them do it. Those who have local dealers willing to service their units are very fortunate and I wish that was the case for everyone, but this is a common scare tactic. My comments come from actual experience rather than your OPINION of the way things SHOULD BE.

pconroy328 wrote:
I'd be tempted to alert the manufacturer to any dealer that (possibly) wasn't abiding by the agreements they signed with that manufacturer.

It took a while but we ran most of the shady car dealers off. Looks like it's time to shine the light on RV dealers that practice these tactics.

[GoPackGo]

ol' yeller wrote:
What happens to all those folks who buy locally and then move to another state? Or what happens when you are travelling out of state & have a breakdown? Also how about a used RV that you buy from a private party and needs to be fixed? I think the opinion that dealers won't service anything they didn't sell is greatly exaggerated. I understand there is a difference in how a dealer is paid for warranty work vs service but any GOOD dealer would go ahead and fix the issue in hopes of gaining a future customer.

Or what about all of us full-timers ? There is no such thing as a 'local' dealer for us. So do we just never get service ?

This gets a bit ludicrous. I can fully understand a dealer putting his local customers first, but to completely turn down income makes no sense to me.

[pconroy328]

I'd be tempted to alert the manufacturer to any dealer that (possibly) wasn't abiding by the agreements they signed with that manufacturer.

It took a while but we ran most of the shady car dealers off. Looks like it's time to shine the light on RV dealers that practice these tactics.

[Campin__Nana]

ol' yeller wrote:
What happens to all those folks who buy locally and then move to another state? Or what happens when you are travelling out of state & have a breakdown? Also how about a used RV that you buy from a private party and needs to be fixed? I think the opinion that dealers won't service anything they didn't sell is greatly exaggerated. I understand there is a difference in how a dealer is paid for warranty work vs service but any GOOD dealer would go ahead and fix the issue in hopes of gaining a future customer.

I agree. When the dealer I spoke to said he wouldn't service our TT if we didn't buy from him, I totally felt like it was a scare tactic and have since read on the internet that using that scare tactic is very commonplace. I think it's dirty of them and I wouldn't want to do business with any place that had that mindset. If you don't want my service business, then you won't get any of my business, ever.

[ol__yeller]

What happens to all those folks who buy locally and then move to another state? Or what happens when you are travelling out of state & have a breakdown? Also how about a used RV that you buy from a private party and needs to be fixed? I think the opinion that dealers won't service anything they didn't sell is greatly exaggerated. I understand there is a difference in how a dealer is paid for warranty work vs service but any GOOD dealer would go ahead and fix the issue in hopes of gaining a future customer.

[bikendan]

spoon059 wrote:

Mountaineer42 wrote:
Obviously you have never tried to get a local dealer to do warranty service on an out-of-state purchased rig! I purchased a new 5th and saved a bundle on the purchase price BUT when it came to getting ANY warranty service I got NOTHING! I tried every dealer for 150 miles around and every single time, the first question they asked was "Did you purchase out-of-state?" When I answered "Yes" they would flat-out tell me they didn't do work on rigs purchased out-of-state. Even though Keystone was willing to cover the cost under their warranty, as mlts22 states, for all intents and purposes there is no warranty as no-one will do the work.
Before calling anyone foolish and accusing them of spreading false information, maybe you should do a little fact-checking first.

Well I don't know about your experience, but I know that Jayco will authorize repairs by a dealer or an independent company. They can even recommend local companies to do the work for you. Sorry that you are surrounded by crappy dealers, but you still have a warranty. Saying that you don't have a warranty is foolish and false. I stand by my comments.

EXACTLY!

Forest River did the same for us.
We bought from a dealer 2000 miles away.
FR found us dealers locally, that were more than willing to do warranty work. Just had to realize that I wouldn't be first in line.
we just waited till winter to have the work done. Then we got free storage for the winter.
and FR would've authorize an independent shop to do it, as long as we got pre-approval from them.

[spoon059]

Mountaineer42 wrote:
Obviously you have never tried to get a local dealer to do warranty service on an out-of-state purchased rig! I purchased a new 5th and saved a bundle on the purchase price BUT when it came to getting ANY warranty service I got NOTHING! I tried every dealer for 150 miles around and every single time, the first question they asked was "Did you purchase out-of-state?" When I answered "Yes" they would flat-out tell me they didn't do work on rigs purchased out-of-state. Even though Keystone was willing to cover the cost under their warranty, as mlts22 states, for all intents and purposes there is no warranty as no-one will do the work.
Before calling anyone foolish and accusing them of spreading false information, maybe you should do a little fact-checking first.

Well I don't know about your experience, but I know that Jayco will authorize repairs by a dealer or an independent company. They can even recommend local companies to do the work for you. Sorry that you are surrounded by crappy dealers, but you still have a warranty. Saying that you don't have a warranty is foolish and false. I stand by my comments.

[Campin__Nana]

Mich F wrote:

Campin'_Nana wrote:
We do have a local RV dealer whose website says it services the top 25 lines of RV's so I called them to ask about servicing a Jayco bought out,of state. First he said "no" and then while he was trying to talk me into the Keystones he sells, he told me yes, but said, "If you don't buy from us, we'll provide you service, but you won't be first in line. You'll be number 5,000 at the end of the line". To which I immediately decided I wouldn't want to do business with someone with an attitude like that anyway, whether I bought from them or not.

That dealer's attitude is quite prevalent in the RV and marine industry as well. With warranty work, they are normally getting no where near as much money as they get from their service work, and frequently have issues/hassles with the manufacturers over payment.

I hope that doesn't end up being our experience. It's really a shame because it gives them a bad name in the RV world. I told the Jayco dealer I mentioned earlier, what the other guy said, and he said they don't want that kind of name for their business and that even if that was that guys real attitude towards the situation, he didn't understand why he'd say it out loud to a customer. Hopefully this guy's not just blowing smoke. I like to think that all people are good unless they show me otherwise, so hopefully he won't show me otherwise. 😄

[Mich_F]

Campin'_Nana wrote:
We do have a local RV dealer whose website says it services the top 25 lines of RV's so I called them to ask about servicing a Jayco bought out,of state. First he said "no" and then while he was trying to talk me into the Keystones he sells, he told me yes, but said, "If you don't buy from us, we'll provide you service, but you won't be first in line. You'll be number 5,000 at the end of the line". To which I immediately decided I wouldn't want to do business with someone with an attitude like that anyway, whether I bought from them or not.

That dealer's attitude is quite prevalent in the RV and marine industry as well. With warranty work, they are normally getting no where near as much money as they get from their service work, and frequently have issues/hassles with the manufacturers over payment.

[Campin__Nana]

We do have a local RV dealer whose website says it services the top 25 lines of RV's so I called them to ask about servicing a Jayco bought out,of state. First he said "no" and then while he was trying to talk me into the Keystones he sells, he told me yes, but said, "If you don't buy from us, we'll provide you service, but you won't be first in line. You'll be number 5,000 at the end of the line". To which I immediately decided I wouldn't want to do business with someone with an attitude like that anyway, whether I bought from them or not.

[Campin__Nana]

I asked if they would provide warranty service work. It's money in their pocket either way. I cannot understand why any dealer would turn that down.

[Mich_F]

Campin'_Nana wrote:
When I called and asked our local Jayco dealer if they would service a TT we bought out of state, his answer was "Absolutely! We want your business"!

Did you ask about service work, or warranty work ?