Our 10 day delivery saga

[ksaltman]

Well we now own a brand new 38FL after an 10 day delivery adventure. Long story, so if you don't have a drink you might first want to get one before reading on.

Let me say for starters that I know for certain now that I will under no circumstances ever pay for a RV w/o being completely satisfied that all major issues are resolved. Maybe it's a peace of mind thing, maybe it's not wanting the dealership to loose the sense of urgency in getting things done, but my sense is once all the paperwork is done I am on their schedule not mine and that probably won't work in my favor especially for larger issues that might be discovered.

Here's our story, luckily it has a happy ending, at least we think so.....

We arrived in Tampa last Tuesday. Having planned on spending the night in a hotel before taking delivery of the RV onWednesday, I head to the hotel and check in. My wife had to stay back and wouldn't be arriving for a few more hours so I decide to take a chance and head over to the Lazydays RV dealer and see if I can sneak a peak of the RV before hand.

Boy what an operation! I would bet 1,000 coaches easy, probably more like 2,000 - 3,000, 2 pools, 2 restaurants run by the dealership, a 200+ site campground + a Cracker Barrel, Country Inn Motel and a Flying J at the gate.

On arrival at our scheduled appointment at the dealership Wednesday morning for the PDI we are asked straight away to go to finance/delivery and do all the paperwork, then someone will take us to the coach and we will do the walk through. When we said we would rather do the walk through first, then if all is well do the paperwork there was little if any pushback. No surprise here, I expected this given what I read here and knew the right choice was to check the coach first.

As we went around the coach we found a few, maybe 1/2 a dozen cosmetic issues, and one major issue. The major issue, or at least we thought, was that one of the bedroom slides didn't open completely so we could not open all the drawers in the dresser. When the "delivery specialist" came to review the punch list her reaction was basically "I don't see any problem the slide seems to be sealed" and she didn't really want to do anything about it. When we showed her that we couldn't open the dresser drawers she recanted and said OK I'll get it looked at. They pulled the coach from the delivery lot to one of the service bays and started working on our issues.

Some time later, very much towards the end of the day, we headed over to the service area to look things over and were happy to learn the slide was a straight forward adjustment and many of the other issues were already worked out. We were told by our "delivery specialist" that since its late we could stay in the coach in the service bay overnight and do all the paperwork in the morning. Seemed good as we were told there would be full hookups so we could test the washer/drying, dish washer, etc etc. Sounds like a good plan we head to dinner at a local restaurant but when we return, no water, no sewer and no way to open the slides because the coach was too close to polls and other things to open them. Since we won't be able to sleep in the coach we head over to the hotel on site and check in for the night. UGG!

The next day we let them know about the snafu and let them know we still need to test out the plumbing and would like them to move the coach from service to the campground. They agree and by Thursday we are able to test out most of the appliances and are told no worries if we wish to spend the night. All I can say is good thing we did because by about midnight it got to the point where we were freezing and could not turn the A/C off in the bedroom. The only thing I could come up with is to throw the breaker and that did turn everything off.

Friday morning we let them know of the issue and they sent a tech over to look at it. Note, we still haven't paid yet.

After about 30 minutes the tech determined that the back A/C unit was wired to the front thermostat and the front A/C unit was wired to the back thermostat. This yielded shall I say less than optimal conditions and ultimately made the coach unlivable.

The tech explained the issue and said he would have to submit a report to Redwood and find out how to fix it. This mind you was on Friday morning.

Friday night we again stay in the unit testing everything we can and since we know what the issue is, throw the breaker before we go to sleep and sleep with out any A/C, but at least we aren't in a hotel.

Saturday we are a little unhappy because we figure not much will happen for the weekend, but we continue to look things over and start setting things up. About noon our sales guy knocks on the door and asks how things are going. He tells us that he just came from his manager and since we haven't paid for the unit we can't continue to stay in it. We understand the issue but aren't going to pay for it until we are satisfied with the A/C operation and agree to pack up some stuff and head back to the hotel. Saturday night, hotel, sunday night hotel.....

Monday we continue to shop for stuff we need for the camper, everything from towels to forks & knives, dishes, pots pans, you know how it goes. We load more and more stuff into the rental car because we can't off load it into the camper while we await a response about the A/C issue. About mid-afternoon I get a call from our "delivery specialist" that she spoke to Redwood Customer Service and they replied "well that's the way we built it so that is the way it is". What she didn't do though and what they said she should is call a Redwood product manager to see what can be done. She just came back to us saying it is what it is and I guess expected we would accept the unit as is. It is amazing how 1 individual in an organization of 750 people can destroy a customers purchase experience.

Luckily for us I met the product manager on our factory tour and my response to her was well that just won't do and I'd get back to her. Long story short but I knew the product manager happened to be in Tampa for the week and I gave him a call on his cell phone. I explained the issue to him and after a little bit of "well that shouldn't be a problem because all the A/C ducting is connected together", I explained that there is more than a 20 degree difference between the front and back of the coach and it wasn't livable. He said OK, let me make some calls and I'll get back to you.

About 10 minutes later he calls back and says he spoke to the plant manager and understands some of the coaches were built this way but they stopped doing it that way because of the problems they have and our unit needs to be fixed. He agreed to coordinate with Lazydays to get it done and apologized for the confusion. We decided to postpone our flight back to Nashville until Friday because we didn't want to leave with things up in the air. Ouch a $350 ding for changing the flights, oh bother!

We continued to stay in the hotel Monday and Tuesday night as they worked the problem and by Wednesday we were really getting tired of it. Nearly all day Wednesday we stayed close to the dealership checking in with the service tech to gauge his progress hoping not to have to stay in a hotel another night. It really got down to the wire but by about 6pm were we able to check out the A/C and it worked as would be expected. We also asked one of the finance people to stay late, which he did by about 1.5 hours to help us finish up the paperwork and we were able to stay in a service bay Wednesday night. Not the best night sleep but better than if we were in limbo in a hotel again......

Thursday morning we wrapped up all the loose ends and can you believe it had our flat tire on our rental car fixed by AAA. (I Love AAA!)

Thursday night we were able to stay in the campground, full hookup, good A/C and enjoy our new home. IT LOOKS GREAT! We talked with another couple that also has a '12 Redwood and not only got some great tips but also helped us build some more confidence in the coach.

As the sun sets and we polish the last of the celebratory bottle of sparkling wine when the washing machine kicks into spin mode and POW everything goes dark. A few choice 4 letter words and some puzzled looks exchanged between me and my wife I get up and start to diagnose the issue. First thought electrical fire, no smoke good thing.... Next thought main breaker blown by short, check all fuses and they are fine..... Work my way outside to the shore power and also, 50 amp circuit looks good. I turn off the shore power breaker to be safe then look around and the entire camp ground is black. Slowly everyone starts to climb out of their rigs all with about the same puzzled look on their face as me.

Not a localized event. A large area, including both onsite restaurants and the Flying J are in the dark. Except for perhaps during the summer when I was about 13 and with one of my first girl friends can I remember another time I was so happy for a lights out power failure! We waited it out, maybe 3 hours, the power came back on and the washer spin cycled completed no worries. PHEW.....

Today we closed things up and Lazydays will be storing it for us until we get the TV and can get back to Tampa to pull it back to Nashville in about 5 weeks. I didn't want to leave it there, would have preferred to drive it down the road and start to enjoy our new home. Unfortunately not having the TV yet and other obligations don't allow that just yet. Sometimes life just gets in the way I guess.

The good news is that the truck dealer here in Nashville expected our F350 to arrive this week so I could get it early next week. Also I did decide to go with the external protectant for the coach and Lazydays has time now to get that done before we pick it up next month. Since we went with the stock paint, not a full body paint job I don't think it needs to cure before applying the protectant. Hope if works as good as everyone says it does.

As a final note, there are some things in this model that have been changed that address some of the concerns raised in the other thread about Feedback for Redwood at the 2014 Rally. I will get those out over the weekend. I'm glad to see they've changed things and are listening to us.

I would also add that shy just maybe 1 or 2 people and/or policies both Lazydays and Redwood personal were great to work with. Not only helpful and professional but appeared to really want us to be happy with our purchase. If they are reading this THANKS.

Thanks everyone here also for your help. What I've learned over the past 3 months or so was very helpful during this process. I'm sure more great things are to come.

[Oriana]

Congratulations and hoping all goes well with the truck so you can get out on the road.

[0nTheRoad]

Glad you finally got your coach, too bad you had such a terrible time with the AC issue but in the end it all worked out!!

We went to Lazydays/Tampa this past winter for a rally, the size of that place is unbelievable!!! Their service area is HUGE, 4 buildings, something like 60-70 bays!!! While we were there I spoke with several people staying in the regular campground [not the delivery, swap/trade or Crown Club parts] about their experiences with Lazydays, most everyone I spoke with said the same things...will take their shirt off their back for you during the sales process but once you sign the check they aren't quite as accommodating.

I winter in Florida and Lazydays is the closest Redwood service location so I'm away from my home dealer when my annual is due, I'm in a quandary as to what to do???

[usaf1949]

I'm sitting at Lazy Days as I type this and am thankful I had a great delivery in LD Tucson, Az with just minor items. This is a big location with a total of 260 service bays. I have had some questions and the techs were always helpful with their advice. I really appreciate that from them. I will be back here in Nov for my first annual inspection. I am also from TN just down from Nashville in Shelbyville.

While here I purchase a new F350 from Gator Ford and what a deal....best I have ever had and what a truck! I pick it up today and then off to Wilderness RV Resort in Silver Springs. Looking forward to seeing and meeting everyone at the 2014 Rally! Have a great weekend!

[TNTBaker]

I just want to say a huge, heartfelt THANK YOU to ksaltman for this generous sharing of their delivery. Those of us who are waiting for our delivery are extremely grateful. Thank you!!!! So glad its working out.

[Blue Dogs]

Congrats on the new RW! I'm sure you will really like it. We are on Day 4 of our 5 day maiden voyage and so far so good. A couple minor things but no big problems. It's very quiet and comfortable!
I'm sure you can't wait to pull her home and start on your new adventure! Safe travels!

[Foxfire]

congratulations glad it's all worked out and your happy.

[JohnEileen]

So happy it all worked out!!

[b41wright]

We too live in south florida during the winter. Took our coach to Lazy days with an appt. and they charged us $85.00 for our annual inspection. I was happy as they sealed the roof in a couple of small areas and all was finished while I waited for the rig. great experience.
Bill

[TNTBaker]

Oh MAN ksaltman! We are hopping up and down on one leg waiting to hear about the "changes"! I (selfishly) hope you are recovering from your stressful 10 days so you can revisit us "window lickers"! Hahaha!

[ksaltman]

Thanks everyone for the congrats. We are really excited. Can't wait to get back and drive her down the road.

The changes that I noticed are these:

- We didn't order a water filter but it was delivered with one. Perhaps it is now a standard feature.

- They did improve the access to the water filter by putting a trap door in the wall. They could have done way better thou. It's inly about 6"x12" just barely enough to get to the filter. With all the other stuff back there it could have been much larger. It's also still only attached by 1 screw. Will see how long that lasts.

- All the lights in the outside bays are back. Every bay outside has a 12v light.

- I think all the lights inside the are now LED. I have to double check that when I get back to it.

What they didn't change in my unit is the sound system. In the FL area we have 5 really bad speakers in the ceiling wired to an LG Blueray system that is a POC IMO. Would have preferred one of the sound bars people have been talking about. Just bought a Bose Solo TV speaker today on sale for $279 and it will sound much better and sit just above my TV. Now if I could figure out how to get the TV of the bracket so I can clean up the cable mess they left and connect an optical cable.

Hope his helps.

[0nTheRoad]

Sounds like the water filter hasn't changed, my 2013 FB has the same arrangement, even had the one screw holding the filter in place.

Hopefully they'll change that someday!!

[atom ant]

Congratulations and glad it all worked out!