Your Experience with Repairs Under Warranty

[Phoebe3]

In another tread, cruising7388 brought up issues with various warranties so I thought this might be something we could look at.

If and ONLY IF you have had an issue with the UPFITTER portion of your rig while it was still under warranty, please post your experience. Presumably, chassis issues fall under the chassis manufacturer's warranty and that's not what we're looking for here.

It would be helpful to know:

1. Manufacturer and age of your rig at the time you needed service.

2. Where did you go for the service?
a. Dealership from which you bought your rig?
b. Different dealership?
c. Or did you go back to the factory?

3. How long did you have to wait before you could take it in?

4. How long did the repair take?

5. Any other issues with getting warranty work?

[Phoebe3]

I've posted this before, but for the sake of having it in one place...

Coachmen (Forest River), 2 months

No authorized repair shop within 80 miles (didn't buy locally) would look at the rig within 90 days.

Got the component manufacturer (awning) to send part and then got pre-authorization to take rig to repair shop of my choice and was reimbursed for the expense.

Private repair shop had it completed in four hours.

[eric1514]

I bought my coach in NM and am currently mostly in ID. I've had two warranty issues, a propane leak and an electrical short.

The first was dealt with by CW who at the time sold Travatos. They had no problem with me bringing in the van and eventually the mechanic did a good job. I had to wait about two weeks for an appointment. The service manager was a jerk (not because of the warranty claim) so I looked elsewhere.

For the intermittent and difficult to find electrical short, I went to a dealer that sold Winnebagos. They didn't sell Travatos because they were also a Roadtrek dealership. They were very happy to have my business and although they couldn't find the problem during my scheduled appointment, the service manager said to bring it back the next time it acted up. About two months later I showed up at their door unannounced with the problem. They took it in immediately and were able to find the pinched wire.

So I guess to answer your question, I've had no problem getting my van serviced by two different outfits neither of which made the initial sale.

[avanti]

On our old Airstream Interstate, the electric ignitor on the stovetop never worked reliably on one side. Took it back to the selling dealer. They said "they all do that". Took a big argument and multiple trips to get them to replace it.

The side window shade was missing velcro tabs needed to keep it in place. Instead of replacing it, they tried to fix it themselves by sewing on new velcro. Never did line up.

At this point, I realized that it was much less work and time to fix the innumerable small issues myself, rather than to go to dealer. That got me off onto the DIY repair track. I have never looked back. Given that all the big stuff is covered by the various manufacturers' warranties, I now consider coach warranties as all but worthless.

[eric1514]

Originally Posted by avanti

... I realized that it was much less work and time to fix the innumerable small issues myself, rather than to go to dealer...

This is absolutely true. There have been a few "annoyances" like drawers that wouldn't latch or a screen door wouldn't track or seal, etc. that were really Winnebago's responsibility to address but I fixed then sooner and probably better than the dealer would have.

[booster]

On our 07 C190P Roadtrek, bought new in Oct of 2008, the warranty and service from our totally useless dealer, Roadtrek, and even a component vendor were almost useless.

The unit had bad coach batteries from sitting. Dealer said talk to Roadtrek, Roadtrek said talk to Exide, Exide turned down claim because the said the one year warranty started when Roadtrek installed the batteries and had expired before we bought the van. We had to pay for new batteries.

Bunches of other quality stuff from a graphic on upside down, bad paint, etc same back and forth finger pointing. We finally got the graphic and paint fixed by going to the factory.

We had miswired surround sound speakers and dealer had no clue how to fix, and Roadtrek wouldn't send us a wiring diagram so we could do it ourselves.

So like all the others, we just wrote off the warranty and did anything that came up ourselves and at our cost.

[mumkin]

I am on my third rig.

GWV (no longer exists)

My rig was the first that they had installed the rotating TV antenna. But they installed it before the AC unit and it couldn't be turned. Since I was in ND not far from Winnipeg, I took a little vacation to the factory and they fixed it. The first couple months I had two water leak issues. Both happened late on a Friday (of course). I called the factory in Winnipeg and both times, the owner of the company answered the phone... first one, he walked me through the easy fix. Second one he walked me through a search, but I couldn't find it. He told me to just get it fixed and send them the bill. Which I did with one of those mobile RV repair people one finds in RV parks down in AZ.

Leisure (2011-2015)

Since I lived closer to the factory in Manitoba than the dealer, they held my warranty. It came with the wrong window covering fabric, and the qwickie step was temperamental, so I drove it up to the factory the week after I got it and they fixed both (step was always a PIA), and also fixed the radio glitch where it tended to turn itself on which I had only noted once, but had thought it was "user error."

Roadtrek (2015-present)

My nightmare experience with the new lithium batteries in 2015 has been covered here, but my great dealer in MN (Lake Region) always got me in immediately and we did what was needed... eventually just ditching the lithiums and installing AGMs. Roadtrek covered all costs as far as I know. After my first year, the cheap cabinet latches all needed adjustment. Dealer got me in at my convenience and fixed for no charge. The only other warranty issue was that the Balmar controller of my underhood generator wasn't working properly. I talked to Balmar and they walked me through an adjustment, but it didn't seem to fix it. I made an appointment with La Mesa in Mesa, AZ... and it took a couple months to get an appointment to wait for it. That wasn't an issue for me. Not sure if they would have moved me up the list if I had bought it there. But I wasn't thrilled with how they tried to say that it took X hours and RT would only pay for X-2 and I would have to pay the difference. I just picked up my phone, called RT, was extremely lucky to get Leo answering the warranty line, told him the situation, he said to hand the phone to the service guy, and I paid nothing.

So, I have to say that warranty issues have never been a problem for me.

[cruising7388]

Originally Posted by booster

Bunches of other quality stuff from a graphic on upside down....

Dear Sir:

Our investigation of your complaint regarding the orientation of your coach graphic, has conclusively determined that the graphic was indeed correctly applied. It was either the striper or the coach that was upside down at the time of application. Regrettably, neither of these contingencies are covered under our otherwise comprehensive warranty.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by cruising7388

Dear Sir:

Our investigation of your complaint regarding the orientation of your coach graphic, has conclusively determined that the graphic was indeed correctly applied. It was either the striper or the coach that was upside down at the time of application. Regrettably, neither of these contingencies are covered under our otherwise comprehensive warranty.

Good one