Dealerships, warranties, and work

I really wish forest river would force dealerships to do a better job. I personally have a good relationship with mine. But it's only thru luck that they happen to be a good dealer. I think it's terrible that every dealer doesn't cover customers that bought elsewhere. It only ends up making people hate the manufacturer, not the dealer. It would be nice to be able to know that no matter where you buy, you have a reliable dealer nearby, even if you bought elsewhere. I know it's not only forest river dealers that do this, but that's who we care about here. We should ask them to fix this this issue for people who are trapped with crappy dealer service. I think when people come here to ask about r-pods, we should tell them to FIRST check out how good the dealer is, and we should be able to share our dealer reviews with them. Just my opinion

+1, this forum supplies a forum to add dealer comments, good or bad. The interweb has numerous sites that provide comments on dealer performance, Dealrater, Ripoffreport.com, etc. Agree not all retailers work like the auto industry, but end of the day almost no one runs a commercial site without a feedback option. Even if you are using the BBB, it's there if you want to find it. I think a lot of folks are to nice when poor service is provided, when that is the time for some action. Squeaky wheel gets the grease and I think sometimes you will get what you accept.

Agree the system is poor and I wish it was like buying a car.  But I have posted a number of times that if you are handy buy anywhere for the best price but if you only have two thumbs buy from the closest dealer regardless of price and even brand.  I could have bought a Jayco Hummingbird 15 miles away instead of a RPOD 100 miles away.  Fortunately we found a local RV rental place that does FR warranty work and is happy for the extra money as he does not sell RV's.  I am fairly handy but not enough to replace the water heater which we needed.  And since the dealer is really the final step in the assembly line you need a good dealer to inspect, fix and clean the RV before delivery. Some dealers just ship them out and wait for people to bring back the ones that really need to be fixed.  One mechanic at our dealer told us the prep work for RPODS and Surveyors is the most of the FR brands they sell.  They all need work before being released.  But the Coachmens come from the manufacturer with the fewest issues.

Originally posted by jato We were fortunate that the dealer we purchased from (Hilltop RV in Escanaba), even though he was 4 hours away, did a bang up job in prepping our 177 as well as spending a few hours with us on our walk-thru.  We could have gotten our 177 by driving less than an hour (Cadillac) but the dealer wouldn't work with us on price or ever answer our calls, probably because we weren't interested in a big expensive fifth-wheel or similar priced item.

We had some if that when we were shopping too.  As a result when we are ready for a diesel pusher motor home I know where I will go.