Lance 1181, First Impressions Wrong

[mdpay]

Well its been 6 months with my new camper. I originally posted that I was happy with my unit, boy did things change after the honeymoon. Here is my first post.

https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27550035.cfm

Not sure where to begin. I just returned from picking up my camper at the Lance factory. It spent 5 weeks there being repaired, all at my expense (travel, fuel, time, bank payment). The repairs were fixed under warranty. I live in Phoenix so it was 780 miles roundtrip to drop it off, then 780 more miles to pick it up 5 weeks later.

The single largest problem was the slide. It would jam while opening or closing. All random. It would work 10 times then jam. I took it to my local dealer twice each for a week or two, but nothing changed.

List of repairs made at the Lance Factory.

1. Replaced all mechanical hardware including motors for slide-out.
2. Repair shower drain. While taking shower, water would pour outside of camper.
3. Both sinks leaking under cabinet.
4. Antenna signal strenght wire broken and replaced.
5. Awning bolts would not tighten
6. Fresh water tank indicators reading incorrectly, no fix made.
7. Left outside rear skirt seperated from storage compartment.
8. Slide drawer under couch falls off.
9. Trim throughout camper peeling off.
10. Outside fiberglass cracking.

This is just the items that Lance dealt with. I fixed many other small concerns prior to this trip.

So far it seems much better. No more leaking water to outside the unit while taking a shower. The slide-out appears to operate much smoother than before. I won't be convinced its fixed until using it under a varity of conditions for a few months.

The service folks at Lance were nice but thats it. Never once did anyone apoligize for my troubles. It is a completely different building then the assembly plant. The service shop just "bills" the Lance factory just like any other dealer. I think that's why no one cared I was having all these problems.

Its been an emotional roller coaster owning this camper so far. I wanted to post all my experiences with my truck suspension tuning and camper, but this has been such a drain I have not posted until today.

I still like my camper, just wish it came to me without the bigger problems.

[hedge]

An Apology is useless to me, it just seems phony and like I'm being 'handled', I think it would just upset me more. I want action not words.

[skipbee]

These a large complicated machines. Some times a mistake develops as a result of human error which can be repaired. When the problem is a design flaw we often are forced to live with it. Thankfully when we went to the Lance factory with a slide problem it was successfully fixed. We were treated very well. Your problem was also evidently fixable, it could not have been.

We had an excellent stay in Lancaster and are pleased with the results three years later.

[Freedom_49]

HMS Beagle wrote:
There is something I would much rather have happen in a situation like this than an apology:

Have someone in a managerial capacity from the production floor come over, make a bunch of notes, take a bunch of pictures, and describe his plan to make sure it never happens again.

Unfortunately, my nearly universal experience (in these situations) is an apology along with assurances that I was the very first person that this has every happened to, followed by the complete absence of any attempt to document or understand the root causes; leading me to believe that nearly every customer has had this experience and the collective memory of the company is but a few hours....

EXACTLY! That's the way companies improve their product and gain customer loyalty. As you say, sadly lacking in the RV industry.

[HMS_Beagle]

There is something I would much rather have happen in a situation like this than an apology:

Have someone in a managerial capacity from the production floor come over, make a bunch of notes, take a bunch of pictures, and describe his plan to make sure it never happens again.

Unfortunately, my nearly universal experience (in these situations) is an apology along with assurances that I was the very first person that this has every happened to, followed by the complete absence of any attempt to document or understand the root causes; leading me to believe that nearly every customer has had this experience and the collective memory of the company is but a few hours....

[tommykelly]

billsnp5 wrote:

Travelon wrote:

mdpay wrote:
Items were fixed under warranty. I corrected post. My 4 days of travel, $550 fuel, $280 bank payment were not reimbursed.

Why would you expect Lance to reimburse you for travel expense and loan payment for doing warranty work at the factory? Is there a RV manufacturer that would do that, one does not think so.

Sorry for your troubles but it will all work out in the end, just get out and enjoy your rig.

Travelon

Like he said he let the dealer work on in several times but the dealer still could not fix it. After so long you need to do whatever it takes to try and get it fixed so he had to take to factory on his own dime. The way some of the manufactures are he could have keep taking it to the dealer and still not fix the issue and when the warranty expired they could have said sorry your rig is out of warranty.

I bought a new Lance 825 in 2010 and had no major issues with it for the 3 years I had it so they can make them good at times. I bought a new Arctic Fox 990 last year and I have had a few issues with it that I had to fix myself. I sent a e-mail to them about the issues, received a reply back with no apology just a thanks for your comments, we will let production know. So I'm guessing all the manufactures are about the same.

Lance did warranty work for me and they paid to haul it back from South Carolina back to Lancaster but that was in 2003..
the second is Lance has in their history picked some real losers as Lance dealers...and they were totally a joke..
They did a poor job with the slide support even back then...it was a bumpy ride..I traded mine in back in January..

I was hoping someone would hit mine like Sleepy.. and get a rebuild but that never happened.

I went to Lance last Thanksgiving to just have them look at my slide
however that was not to be...even after waiting 2 weeks..
the staff was ready to look at it and was over ruled by higher ups ..

all on my dime by the way...just so there is no confusion....

AS I have said in the past...I have high hopes for Lance but I continue seeing and reading disappointing reports..

[Reddog1]

mkirsch wrote:
... Second off, any apology is just plain meaningless to begin with. What you're getting is the same as the apology you gave to the kid you got in a fight with in grade school, with your mother staring icicles into the back of your head.

"I'm sowwwy...." ...

Maybe it is not meaningless. The meaning in the fight apology it means it is over, done, finished. Unfortunately, it may have the same meaning from many businesses. They have your money and you have their product working or not, sorry (is over, done, finished).

Wayne

[kerry4951]

There are a lot of civil suits that could of been avoided over the years with just a simple apology. Sometimes that's all that is required to make the customer feel satisfied and forgiving.

[HarmsWay]

It's an expression of empathy.

[mkirsch]

I don't know why it's so important to hear an, "I'm sorry." First off whoever's saying that to you had absolutely nothing to do with causing the problem at hand, so the apology is meaningless.

Second off, any apology is just plain meaningless to begin with. What you're getting is the same as the apology you gave to the kid you got in a fight with in grade school, with your mother staring icicles into the back of your head.

"I'm sowwwy...." Don't care. Just fix it.

[lincolnmatthews]

Sorry to hear about all your problems, that's terrible after laying out the bucks they want for these things. As previously said no manufacturer will hardly ever cover the travel expense's or ever cover the monthly payment.
We bought a new Lance 1050S in May (a 2015 model) so far knock on wood its been just fine. We love it!. I had to tighten up the outside shower fitting inside, they had crossed threaded it. It was in a tight spot, so could understand how they would have done this, but I was luckily able to get it on straight without wrecking it!. I noticed a little water coming down the inner wing area down the sheet metal.
We bought ours at Hills RV in Yakima who have an excellent rep. for fixing things, a good dealer makes all the difference I think when buying a new RV.
Anyway, good luck hope its all fixed now, & hope you get to use it without anymore problems!

[OH48Lt]

I would rather get the defective items fixed correctly and promptly, then get a phoney apology from somebody who really doesn't mean it. I hear the words "I'm sorry" in many places I go, and you can tell its just an automatic reply without any real meaning. Happened just last week at a Ford dealer where I had my oil changed. They were over 2 hours doing it (was told less than an hour when I checked in), and all I heard was I'm Sorry about 5 times before they took my money. Skip that, just give me the service I paid for.

[chalet05]

Totally understand your feelings! My first Lance was terrific, the 2nd not so much. Dealer was no help.

[bobndot]

HMS Beagle wrote:
The lesson is, you can't depend on the people who f-ed it up originally, to fix it. That's like trying to rethread the nut you just stripped with the bolt that stripped it

:C I like that .

[bobndot]

I am sorry you had problems like you did. I understand the frustration and how upsetting it can be. I was in your shoes in 2004 with another MFG. trying repair 30 structural broken / leaking items.
Who would ever have thought that poking a 10 foot hole in the side of a camper with a motorized wall that goes in and out would be a bad idea ?
If it makes you feel any better about the gasoline and bank payment , I had to take a $15k hit and say good-bye to my tc.
I paid and observed someone to strip down the camper and rebuild it correctly . I was not going to dump it some unsuspecting person.

Mass produced items ? There are some that hold up well and others that don't in all the brands. Buy the floor plan that fits your needs and try your best to maintain it, they are all basically made from the same materials that they mask with fancy terminology. HOW MANY dealers have the expensive equipment to perform 'vacuum bonded' repairs ??

Apologizing ? although it would be professional to practice it. They don't have to because the guy next door will not remember what happened to us yesterday and will buy one tomorrow because the "new brochure" shows something like a "new style nose cap" that some people actually believe is going to turn this whole thing around. Most people have to get burned themselves in order to wake up.