Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowman
I'm glad y'all started this tread as I will share the story of our purchase. We were first time buyers looking for a travel trailer. We walked around CW in Raleigh for almost 2 hours one weekend and not once did anyone ever attempt to assist us or ask us if we would like to see anything. Several salesmen drove right passed us but didn't bother acknowledging us. I had already done my homework and was pretty sure we wanted the Passport 2920BH but really just wanted to see it and hear the "sales pitch". So after being ignored we left the dealership that day with no contact, a couple of weeks later my wife called the dealership to inquire about the trailer they had on the lot. The salesman was very smug and arrogant over the phone and actually made the comment to my wife that she just needed to get her husband and come down to the dealership. (If you didn't already guess this is the absolute worst thing he could have possibly said to her).
We then called a dealership in Richmond that had the same camper, turns out they were a very large dealer that had just been acquired by CW (we should have run the other way!!!). We called and talked the sales team and were blown away by how great they were to work with. So we basically bought the camper over the phone with the understanding if we got there and there was something crazy wrong with the unit we would back out. The sales part was pretty smooth and we went away happy.
There were 2 or 3 minor things that needed to be fixed under warranty that they could not do that day due to the need to order parts. The sales team came up with the great idea that they would schedule the repairs with the CW in Raleigh and would take care of everything for us. That was great until we drove off the lot, then I could not get anyone from the dealership to answer my calls or call me back. Finally after about two weeks of calling one of the receptionist called me back and told me to just call the CW in Raleigh and schedule it myself.
I called CW Raleigh and was told it would be 3 months before I could drop my TT off, it would then take 2 weeks for the mechanic to physically go out and look at it and another 2-3 weeks for them to get parts in and make the repairs. These were very basic repairs, relocate a fire extinguisher that was mounted in the path of the bedroom door, fix several blinds that were mounted incorrectly, and replace a warped access cover.
After this my patience with CW had run out. I called Shaw RV to see if they could do the warranty work. They had me bring the unit in the next week and had everything approved by Keystone and fixed the next week. Their staff was extremely professional and helpful. I received several phone calls letting me know the status of the repairs, and walked away very impressed with the company.
Needless to say I will NEVER buy anything from CW again, and will likely make our next purchase from Shaw.
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A couple of thoughts on your experiences;
My CW does not generally come out and run me down if I'm looking at trailers, and that's the way I want it. I've told them that in the past. If I need assistance from a sales person, I go ask and they are johnny on the spot. As I told them on my initial visit years ago; I know what I'm looking for, I want to view the trailers without a salesman chirping at me every 10 seconds telling me all kinds of stuff I don't want to know and asking questions that irritate me. To me, on this point they were doing the right thing. They figured if you needed help you would ask....you didn't.
The rest of the experiences sound to me like a combination of a dealership(s) in disarray due to a buyout, a lack of ownership by a dealer and not taking all the necessary steps while dealing with a dealer or dealers. Some of the issues are going to be the dealer but the buyer has to take responsibility as well.
My dealership was a private company that had just been acquired by CW when I bought my existing trailer. It WAS chaos because the changes for the dealership are dramatic. It required a LOT of my time and attention to get things done right and guide them where I wanted them to be. Today I couldn't be happier and get superior service. I was in there about 3 days ago. CW had purchased another large dealership that was next door to the existing CW. I was unaware of the purchase but knew something was up when I tried to pull my trailer in for service and saw so much disruption. I sat down and visited with them for over an hour about the changes and their challenges; and there are a lot of them. With all that going on, new units and units in for repair backed up a mile etc. due to the huge increases in sales and the subsequent repairs required, including the PDI's for all the new trailers, it is easy for a person to get lost in the melee if they don't try to take care of themselves.
I'm not a spokesman for CW and I had some issues with them initially. Now, that's not the case but it took a LOT of my time and attention to get us all on the same page - and I've had good luck at every CW I've been to. Just trying to point out there are two sides to every situation and we have to be aware and take that into consideration. That's not to say, as we've seen from many posts on this forum and others, that there aren't bad dealers out there - we just need to do everything we can as potential customers to identify that problem before we step into the "snare". YMMV