Service issues if buying long distance?

[DatacomGuy]

Looking at buying a TT at Gillette in Michigan. Local dealer is nowhere near the price, so its worth it financially.

Will i have issues getting service locally? Its a Shadow Cruiser, so my choices are limited nearby. The local dealer is 1.2mi from my house, but next one is 200mi.

[RobertRyan]

mark_be wrote:

goducks10 wrote:

mark_be wrote:
I bought in Wisconsin and live in Belgium. Does that count as long distance? 🙂

I think you won.

Not sure because there are also Germans here, which is even a bit further away. And Australians? Or do they buy Aussie RV brands?

Just saw this, the answer is a definite yes.

[VinCee]

Lets see, local dealer doesn't have the best price and won't meet the lower price achieved elsewhere. Local guy gives you the runaround on why he can't get you in to do warranty work, regardless of the amount paid by the manufacturer as earlier posted. Local guy is the only dealer of a particular brand within a 100 plus miles and doesn't care of the world wide web on shopping brand, price, service. Why the heck would anybody buy anything from a local jerk like that. Sooner or later business practices like this catch up to most businesses.

[bikendan]

we bought our HTT from a dealer 2000 miles away from us.
before we picked it up, i contacted the manufacturer's warranty dept., who gave a number of local dealers that were more than willing to do the warranty work.

only thing is that i accepted the fact that i wouldn't be first in line and that was fine with me.
had most of the work done during the winter, so i got free storage.

never had any issues with warranty work.

[B_O__Plenty]

I bought mine from a dealer in my State maybe 75 miles away. The one and only time I went there for service I ended up taking it back when it was 1/2 done after 6 weeks, and doing the repairs myself. My manufacturer was happy to send me the necessary parts. I will never set foot on that dealers property again..Moral of the story: Buy where you get the best price, worry about repairs when and if you need to. You will always find a way to get it done. The manufacturer will work with you.

B.O.

[janstey58]

Interestingly, distance has nothing to do with this. I purchased my MH at CW in my area, and when I went to another local dealer (starts with an "L" in CoBluffs,IA) I get the treatment that old-Biscuit describes:

Dealer will do it....but YOU are not a priority to them
Priority:
Those that bought from them
Those that have prior business with them
Those that pay cash
Then those that bought elsewhere.

AND, I have been a former customer of dealer "L" twice! Still got snubbed and fell into those that bought elsewhere catagory. I found a local serviceman to do my work elsewhere.

[Mich_F]

JEBar wrote:
its a misconception that dealers make the same money on warranty repairs that they do on nonwarranty repairs .... manufactures set the payment based on the time they will allot for a given repair, not on the actual time it takes the dealer to actually complete the repair .... in addition, most provide parts so that the dealer doesn't make much, if any, profit on the parts used .... when a dealer sells a unit they make some money which helps offset smaller warranty payments from the manufacture .... I do find it interesting the folks choose to purchase from someone other than the local dealer and then expect the local dealer to take care of the problems .... when an item is bought on the cheap, should it come as a surprise when you get what you pay for

Jim

I answered a similar thread started a few days ago, saying the same thing, although my response was no where near as comprehensive as yours. :B

[mark_be]

goducks10 wrote:

mark_be wrote:
I bought in Wisconsin and live in Belgium. Does that count as long distance? 🙂

I think you won.

Not sure because there are also Germans here, which is even a bit further away. And Australians? Or do they buy Aussie RV brands?

[goducks10]

mark_be wrote:
I bought in Wisconsin and live in Belgium. Does that count as long distance? 🙂

I think you won.

[mark_be]

I bought in Wisconsin and live in Belgium. Does that count as long distance? 🙂

[Ron3rd]

mosseater wrote:
Given that most factory warranties are a year, sometimes two, the likelyhood of needing a serious repair in that time doesn't really make it a consideration for me. I bought ours over an hour away in MD and only had it down there twice in two years. After that, it's your baby and you can take it anywhere you please because you'll likey be paying out of pocket. That's why so many of us learn to do our own repairs/mods.

IMO this is the best answer so far. And yes, this topic pops up from time to time and there's no hard and fast rule; it depends on the dealer in your area.

[peaches_cream]

DatacomGuy wrote:
Looking at buying a TT at Gillette in Michigan. Local dealer is nowhere near the price, so its worth it financially.

Will i have issues getting service locally? Its a Shadow Cruiser, so my choices are limited nearby. The local dealer is 1.2mi from my house, but next one is 200mi.

You can always take it back to Michigan and get the work done. You can use the large amount of money you saved to travel back and forth. Also, look at all the sites you will see from Ga. to Michigan.

Why don't you call the local dealer, tell them you are going to Michigan to purchase the tt because of price, but you expect them to maintain the warranty. See what kind of answer you get. :h

[JEBar]

its a misconception that dealers make the same money on warranty repairs that they do on nonwarranty repairs .... manufactures set the payment based on the time they will allot for a given repair, not on the actual time it takes the dealer to actually complete the repair .... in addition, most provide parts so that the dealer doesn't make much, if any, profit on the parts used .... when a dealer sells a unit they make some money which helps offset smaller warranty payments from the manufacture .... I do find it interesting the folks choose to purchase from someone other than the local dealer and then expect the local dealer to take care of the problems .... when an item is bought on the cheap, should it come as a surprise when you get what you pay for

Jim

[mgirardo]

We bought our MH in NJ, live in GA. We didn't plan to buy it in NJ, it just worked out that way. We don't have a Jayco dealer close by, nearest one is about 120 miles away. The next closest is about 200 miles away.

We needed warranty work twice. Both times we took it to the dealer that was 200 miles away. They were happy to service it and did it in less than a week both times. Fortunately for us, the 200 mile away dealer is in a nice area (Charleston, SC) so we don't mind driving there and spending the day.

However, I have read many accounts on this forum where people have not had the same experience. There is a chance that you won't get preferred treatment from the dealer.

The dealer that was 120 miles away didn't give me a hard time, but told me it would be a couple weeks before they could get to it because they were so busy. It was July in Florida, can't imagine they were really that busy. Perhaps that was their way of saying we aren't going to give you any preferred treatment.

-Michael

[Old-Biscuit]

YES there have been issues with folks getting warranty work done at a dealer that they didn't buy from.

Dealer will do it....but YOU are not a priority to them
Priority:
Those that bought from them
Those that have prior business with them
Those that pay cash
Then those that bought elsewhere.

I haven't had that issue.........we left area where we bought. Used factory for one repair and mobile techs for others that I wasn't able to do.

BUT I have read posts on here about folks having issues getting warranty work done at dealerships (factory authorized ones) that they didn't purchase from.
Even have read posts where dealer won't do the warranty work.

RV dealerships/warranty....not the same as with autos.

But it can vary.....some dealerships have better business practices.
If you can find one :B