[denverpilot]

Well I got my call from Windish today.

On the nose cap leak. They said the tech found cracks in the Dicor and that led to the rubber roof bulging right behind that.

No mention at all of the screw that looked like it had stripped and the trim piece that holds that down being loose, which is all I saw when I took it over there. What do you bet it did that on the trip over?

Sigh. RV build quality = crap. But I knew that going in.

Keystone staying true to form, denied the claim saying it was caused by bad maintenance.

Windish recommended I call and talk to them because (so they claim), "customers get better service from them than we do". There's a nice summary of the industry these days. Sigh.

They want $2K to repair it. $1800 of that is labor. Im guessing the rest is a bucket of Dicor. Haha. Sad. But reasonable. They say they'd have to scrape and remove all of the Dicor all the way across the front seal, reattach the rubber roof and trim, and then reapply the Dicor all the way across. And as a belt and suspenders type of repair person, I think they're recommending the right way to do it. Most of the labor is to get all the existing Dicor off.

Trying to decide how many phone calls and how much time it will take to argue with Keystone. $1800 makes it worth a few hours I guess, except those hours have to come from my working hours and not after hours. Sigh. Maybe not.

Anyone want to pretend they're me and call them? I'll pay a percentage of the repair bill! LOL! Kidding of course. But sure would be nice if I had a "personal assistant" for this kind of crap. Oh and friends in high places. Don't really have either in this case. :-)Maybe a case of beer to someone at Keystone? LOL!!

Some of the other quotes from the wish list:

Over $2K to hardwire install a surge suppressor. I have ample electrical background so there's no way in Hades that I'll pay that. I'll be doing that one myself. Yeah, I get it that it takes a few hours to do it right. Not an awful price if you consider the labor time. Sounds like a good spring project when it's warmer as prep for the next camping season. I know a lot of folks aren't handy (or safe) doing electrical work, but I've got a long background in more dangerous electrical work (data center / telecom -48VDC battery plants and distribution) so wiring up the suppressor will be a no-brainer.

Slide toppers: Metal encased ones (they say metal "wrap", I assume they're talking about a cover they retract into? I've never seen anything that looks like it "wraps" anything in any slide topper photos I've ever seen) $2025 parts and labor.

Non-metal "wrapped", $1695.

Three slides.

Not awful. And not a project I want to tackle.

Could probably beat it at Camping World during one of their $25 installation sales. But even then, CW will get most of that back in price difference of "parts", I think. Anyone think that price is way out of the ballpark?

Installing 2nd AC in pre-wired bedroom vent: $964.

Also not awful. Have a friend who's done several who says we could do it for just over half of that on a nice day, but again... Takes a full day by the time I drag the trailer to his storage lot area where we work on projects, and set up, and hoist the thing up on the roof, etc. Not my idea of a fun Saturday.

I was not too surprised (thanks to this forum) when the rep told me they have zero clout with Keystone.

I can only imagine how angry that must make folks who buy stuff there and don't participate in online forums or educate themselves on the truly terrible customer service practices in the RV industry before purchasing.

I would be steaming mad if it weren't for going in with lower than low expectations. Even then, I still feel like I'd dump Keystone in a heartbeat for a manufacturer who charged a little more (not orders of magnitude more) and actually stood behind their products. I know, they do it because folks simply won't pay enough for these things.

But seriously, sincere thanks to folks here for the many warnings that "warranty" means almost nothing to manufacturers in this biz.

Oh I mentioned that we had an extended warranty from another place and he actually laughed. He said "no way" would an extended warranty company cover something the manufacturer won't. I also knew this was going to be the case from this forum, if only I hadn't been suckered by that thing before I read the fine print. That was just a timing thing. And I appreciate that the forum and members try to educate on those, too. I'll take my lumps on that one, and never do it again. No biggie.