Warr. Service Center

[poormarky]

Resume editing

Just an FYI
I got a call back from Redwood regarding my e-mail request I sent in last week about making an appointment at the Topeka Service Center. I was told the new Warr. lady did the review and said this has to go to a dealer and not at the service center. I was told she would not budge even though this unit was at the factory back in June and now the wiring in the ceiling has to be gone over on the 12 volt side and pulled along with the furnace and several other items. I was told no more annual inspections will be done by the service center either. They gave me a list of 2 dealers to call and one doesn't even sell redwoods and the other is in Elkhart. I will give the dealer in Elkhart a call tomorrow.

[JerryL]

Why did they build a new service center if we can't take our units there?

[poormarky]

I don't know. They don't want to work on them and some of the dealers don't know how to fix things right so here we go!

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by poormarky

Resume editing

Just an FYI
I got a call back from Redwood regarding my e-mail request I sent in last week about making an appointment at the Topeka Service Center. I was told the new Warr. lady did the review and said this has to go to a dealer and not at the service center. I was told she would not budge even though this unit was at the factory back in June and now the wiring in the ceiling has to be gone over on the 12 volt side and pulled along with the furnace and several other items. I was told no more annual inspections will be done by the service center either. They gave me a list of 2 dealers to call and one doesn't even sell redwoods and the other is in Elkhart. I will give the dealer in Elkhart a call tomorrow.

Is the dealer in Elkhart, Tiara RV? That is the dealer where we purchased our Redwood.

I was just at the Factory Service Center in Topeka in September and nothing was said about discouraging having work done there. I have taken our Redwood to the service center for 3 years and have had very good work done there. It is much more convenient for me because it is an hour away whereas Tiara RV is 2 1/2 hours away.

It seems like the dealers must be complaining about the loss of work on the one hand, but, on the other hand most dealers seem to not be very knowledgeable and poorly trained and have a 1 to 3 month backlog of service schedule. Maybe the service center is just trying to reduce their work load even though they just expanded the service center by a factor 3 or more. Hard to understand their thinking about this........are they only accepting work that dealers just can not do?............customers just be damned to a terrible dealer network? Too, too bad. Com'on RV industry......whatever happened to very good customer service????

Please keep us posted about this.

[Dave&Ginny]

Originally Posted by hoosierguy

Is the dealer in Elkhart, Tiara RV? That is the dealer where we purchased our Redwood.

I was just at the Factory Service Center in Topeka in September and nothing was said about discouraging having work done there. I have taken our Redwood to the service center for 3 years and have had very good work done there. It is much more convenient for me because it is an hour away whereas Tiara RV is 2 1/2 hours away.

It seems like the dealers must be complaining about the loss of work on the one hand, but, on the other hand most dealers seem to not be very knowledgeable and poorly trained and have a 1 to 3 month backlog of service schedule. Maybe the service center is just trying to reduce their work load even though they just expanded the service center by a factor 3 or more. Hard to understand their thinking about this........are they only accepting work that dealers just can not do?............customers just be damned to a terrible dealer network? Too, too bad. Com'on RV industry......whatever happened to very good customer service????

Please keep us posted about this.

Well said Guy...Thank You

[atom ant]

I wonder if they are posturing to have to service all of the Redwood lines now and anticipate they will be overwhelmed.

[TNTBaker]

Maybe they are trying to keep the service center available for repairs that cannot be made at the dealerships?? I have no idea. They obviously built it for some reason. If that is the reason, then it's not exactly a bad reason. If I had a catastrophic problem with my Redwood that needed it to go back to Indiana, then I would really like it to take place right away and not be waiting for people to have minor service and inspections done. Just a thought... It makes sense that dealerships should be able to conduct minor service and inspections.

[Dave&Ginny]

When I was shopping for a RV in 2011, I was lucky to have a wife that said "get what you want, I'll trust your judgment". I looked and researched many brands and at times I almost gave up saying "we're not going to buy anymore RVs".

I had heard about Redwood and we ended up driving about 7.5 hours to the RV show in Kansas City. We talked with Andy (who is no longer with Redwood) at the show. Andy talked with us for a long time and the main thing that Andy had said was that this company was going to do things differently than other RV manufactures. We spent a great deal of time talking about service.

It's unfortunate that although there are a lot of good dealers out there, I feel that there are just as many bad dealers. The RV industry suffers from bad service. Once you spend your money.....good luck.

Although I don't have any first hand experience yet on this......I sure hope Redwood doesn't go down the same path as the other RV manufactures. Redwood so far has been very kind to me and many others. Most of the dealers don't seem to have the expertise or care enough to get things fixed in a reasonable manor.

As I tell all of my people...."if you want the same results that the competition has, then do as they do". I sure hope Redwood decides to stay out of the "fray" and continues with good customer service.

[TNTBaker]

Very very well said Dave.

[Oriana]

Dave - excellent summation, couldn't agree more.

[poormarky]

Thanks for all of your thoughts. My wife and I also did a lot of researching when we where looking to buy. We had a new Crossroads Cruiser, but wanted a Redwood so we decided to upgrade even though it was a year old. Our decision was based on what we had already from the cruiser saw and by factory people at a couple of shows. My wife is an RV consultant for the industry and was impressed with what she had seen in both the Crossroad and Redwood lines. I am not trying to bypass any dealers but what warranty work that has done with my coach so far has been done at the factory based on what was wrong. I was told back in June if anything else happens keep us informed and don't worry about coming back here. Randy and his people do excellent work. As Dave said I hope they don't fall into being the same as all the rest of the manufactures out there. My wife hears it all the time about dealers as they can sell the units, but the service side doesn't always have the most qualified people doing the work so sometimes you have to go back several times before it is completed. The other issues are with the manufacture as they don't want to pay the dealers for the extra time it takes to fix the unit so it is a problem with the whole RV industry.

[piper guy]

Dave - I really think you should copy your post above and send it to Jim and Andy.

We bought ours for the same reasons. That is also the same reason we are looking at Entegra as a diesel pusher and based on talking with owners and seeing the factory will go with them when the time comes. Their service reputation and quality reputation in only a few years is stellar.

Redwood is rapidly running the risk of alienating their owner base. That, in my opinion, would be the death knell of a line of very, very nice coaches. We, as owners, are the best sales people they could possibly want as long as we are satisfied and happy with our units. I know for myself, I've been to the service center twice and was planning on stopping there next year before the Rally to have some paying work done. To lose the ability to schedule my coach in there, even if for nothing more than a good check over, would be a big loss.

My .02 and feel free to copy this also if you'd like.

[hoosierguy]

Originally Posted by Dave&Ginny

When I was shopping for a RV in 2011, I was lucky to have a wife that said "get what you want, I'll trust your judgment". I looked and researched many brands and at times I almost gave up saying "we're not going to buy anymore RVs".

I had heard about Redwood and we ended up driving about 7.5 hours to the RV show in Kansas City. We talked with Andy (who is no longer with Redwood) at the show. Andy talked with us for a long time and the main thing that Andy had said was that this company was going to do things differently than other RV manufactures. We spent a great deal of time talking about service.

It's unfortunate that although there are a lot of good dealers out there, I feel that there are just as many bad dealers. The RV industry suffers from bad service. Once you spend your money.....good luck.

Although I don't have any first hand experience yet on this......I sure hope Redwood doesn't go down the same path as the other RV manufactures. Redwood so far has been very kind to me and many others. Most of the dealers don't seem to have the expertise or care enough to get things fixed in a reasonable manor.

As I tell all of my people...."if you want the same results that the competition has, then do as they do". I sure hope Redwood decides to stay out of the "fray" and continues with good customer service.

Dave..........I agree with you completely. Thank you.

Guy

[johnboytoo]

Are we sure this is the companies final word ?

If so, then my question is why the change ?

Is it because the warranty claims are too high ?
or that new management thinks the exposure is too great?
or the actuaries have projected too much outlay in the future ?
or that they are struggling corporately ?

[Dave&Ginny]

Originally Posted by johnboytoo

Are we sure this is the companies final word ?

If so, then my question is why the change ?

Is it because the warranty claims are too high ?
or that new management thinks the exposure is too great?
or the actuaries have projected too much outlay in the future ?
or that they are struggling corporately ?

Thankfully, so far I don't have any "first hand" knowledge on this as I had posted earlier. I just really hope there's been a misunderstanding with what has been posted on this forum by others.

The rv manufactures are in a tough spot. On one hand they have dealers that push either their products or their competitors product depending on ease of the sale and profitability. Yet on the other hand they have the end user who feels underserved by the dealers. If either of these groups goes away.....they're out of buisness yet both groups want opposite results. This could cause some sleepless nights. The only solution would be to create a tremendous following of their product which they can't do without their dealers seeing the rewards.

There's been a suggestion that I contact the company but there's really no point. We know that the company sees this forum because just yesterday, one of their sales team was on here clarifying one of the posts in regards to the leveling system. If they feel that they're being misunderstood, then it's up to them to clarify their position.

[usaf1949]

My 2 cents worth....if they are monitoring this thread why would they continue to let their customers talk in the dark and be very frustrated? Why not just provide the answer so all will have the correct information? Was a good answer though Dave!

[TNTBaker]

I am of the opinion that they read it much more than they share. While I can understand the hesitation to make an appearance and being swarmed by people with a thousand comments and questions and complaints, I think a "PRESS RELEASE" style communication from Redwood as a company would show consideration and recognition of the group. I agree they should participate in the forum at some level, just not sure what that might look like. Again, keeping the forum mostly owners keeps it's integrity at a high level, and that's actually more valuable.

[Enroute]

I wonder if Redwood is turning folks away due to some accounting rules/regulations?? I know with my previous Montana, I was enroute on vacation through Indiana when I experienced a bedroom slide issue. I ended up taking my coach to the Lippert factory to have the bedroom slide looked at as it would not close straight. Lippert was not able to make the proper adjustments so they contacted Keystone to see if they could advise on what to do next. Keystone said to bring it over to the factory and they would take a look at it to see what was going on. Once on property, the techs were curious as to why the slide was not closing properly as everything appeared to be in order. Needless to say, they asked if I could leave the coach with them for 3-5 days so they could investigate. A day later the factory called and stated they had to remove the slide out from the bedroom wall as the support bar that the slide room slide open and closed on had failed. Keystone made all the necessary repairs, plus a few other items they found to not be up to their standards - free of charge to me!! I could not believe that they were not going to charge me. I offered my extended warranty company information as I felt it should have been covered by the warranty. Keystone said no for two reasons. First: that coach was my 3rd Montana product at the time and they would not be charging me for a component failure and second; they were not allowed by Indiana law to have money/payment/financial transactions exchange hands for services at the service center. That facility was to be used only for repairs and warranty work that could not be handled by the dealership network. Upon my return I had asked them if they could do an upgrade on a part for me and I would be willing to pay for that out of my pocket. Again, they stated they would not be able to charge me for the upgrade and being it would not be covered under warranty, they could not service my request. They did recommend a few dealers in my area that could handle such a request. In summary: while I would rather take my coach to the factory every year or other year to have them "give it a once over" and make any necessary repairs, I am not sure it would be feasible for them to handle the volume of all the non-essential warranty repairs, nor might they be able to based upon some form of tax/financial law governing against it. Just a thought....

[Piper Guy's Gal]

One of the things we touted at the Rally was the excellent service provided by Randy and the gang at the service center. Frankly, with all of the problems we've been hearing about the newer models, the service center was their saving grace. Now for us, a 12-hour drive for servicing isn't practical and until very recently, we actually had a dealer here that did great work. But it was very reassuring to know that, if need be, we had a trusted place to go for service. Unfortunately, it sounds like that's being eliminated.

What I do not understand are the business decisions being made by this company. I get that for a corporation, it's all about profits and making money. But if you destroy your loyal fan base, aren't you shooting yourself in the foot? Redwood had it right in the beginning: a quality product, with a quality warranty and quality service to back it up. As they saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I fear that Redwood is heading down the same path as Tiffin. But the difference with Tiffin is that it's been around a whole lot longer and the name "Bob Tiffin" meant something. Redwood doesn't have that, not yet. And at the rate it's going, it won't be around long enough to acquire it.

For a quality product to remain that way and become a coveted purchase is a big accomplishment. For the first few years Redwood accomplished just that.
I fear with the new management and the desire to crank out more and more production they will lose that feeling. And along with it they will lose a dedicated owner base.

That, I fear, would be an unrecoverable situation.

[pmbrux]

Redwood needs to consider the unique needs of full-timers. By the time approval for service work is received, we need to be down the road.
Preston