Local Dealer Stonewalled

[CarKath]

I personally live in Canada. I purchased my unit in the USA. I saved huge and have no regrets. I am stonewalled with local dealers.

Local dealers have come out and said ............"we do not work on USA bought trailers"

Keystone said to me "We heard this can be a problem" , and offered no more.

I for one am cool with this. I had hoped my local dealers would be more mature about it. Not so.

I will take it back to where I bought it to have a few things looked at. ( everything I am capable of repairing myself ) The dealer I bought from is gung ho to help. So my concerns I want them to deal with will be addressed.

I for one will turn this in to a positive and another road trip. I get to go for at least a 4 day trip ( could be done in 2 easily).

Further to this, I have another post I will update regarding Willards RV in Manitoba, and there ability to do warranty work. This turns out to be untrue. I'll update that thread soon.

[f6bits]

What, they don’t get paid if they work on USA trailers? Is warranty pay so bad that nobody *wants* to do warranty work? I don’t get it. Maybe your local dealers are just swamped with people who want to throw money at them all day.

[SteveC7010]

What, they don’t get paid if they work on USA trailers? Is warranty pay so bad that nobody *wants* to do warranty work? I don’t get it. Maybe your local dealers are just swamped with people who want to throw money at them all day.

It's becoming the prevailing attitude among a lot more than just RV dealers. We've got a place here that sells and services outdoor power equipment like snowblowers, lawn tractors, chain saws, etc. They've got several signs in the store like "We only service what we sell."

Frustrating that Keystone doesn't make their dealers toe the warranty work line.

[smiller]

This isn't that uncommon, happens with all sorts of other motor vehicles as well. There are a lot of factors that affect pricing in one country vs. another and the dealers end up in the middle just like the consumer, but still... when the exact same item is thousands of dollars less expensive 50 miles away (if it happens to be on the other side of the border) then you can't rationally expect people to not want to take advantage of it. And refusing to do warranty service is kind of self-defeating in that if that policy resulted in a local sale then it might make sense, but all that usually happens is that they lose the sale and future service dollars.

[jq1031]

When you here stories like CarKath tells it makes you wonder what ever happened to customer relations. Having spent my life running my own business I find it counter productive to turn away a customer because he (or she) did not do business with you in the past but now could use your help. Good customer relations always produces benefits.:thumbsup:

[Bob Landry]

I own a marine service business and am a Dometic dealer, and I can tell you, I don't care where they bought it.. I won't walk away and leave money on the table..

[jq1031]

I own a marine service business and am a Dometic dealer, and I can tell you, I don't care where they bought it.. I won't walk away and leave money on the table..

Bob, before I sold my business (two Funeral Homes, in the Buffalo area) I had the occasion of an aquaintenace of mine who's mother died & they called another Funeral Home to handle the arrangements. Strange as it may sound they could not find a suitable burial dress for this women. They had been to a wake at my place a week before and when they could not settle on a dress for their mom they decided that the dress Mrs Smith was in would be perfect for mom. I not only graciously agreed to let them look for the dress in our wardrobe selection but I gave it to them at no charge. I had every funeral in that family from that day forward...........Good public relations is the cornerstone of any business.......some of these RV dealers better wake up!!

[CarKath]

Good public relations is the cornerstone of any business.

No arguments here. As a business owner myself I can relate to this.

I can't say enough about how I agree with this......

I won't walk away and leave money on the table.. .

It is unfortunate that things are what they are here. Best thing I can do now is not support local Keystone dealers in any way. Be it parts or service. Parts can be got almost anywhere and service I can handle myself no problem. And spread the word.........

I want to share why I bought in the USA as opposed to local. It became a no brainer very quickly once I started shopping.

Wife and I had a 2009 Damon Daybreak. Bought that new as well. It just didn't fit our needs. ( We thought it would ) So we shopped for a fifth wheel. Back to where we came from.

We made many, many trips to local dealers and shopped every brand. We decided on Keystone as the brand of choice and perused things further. Lets talk numbers.

Local dealers for a lesser unit than we have now were in the $65000 to $75000 range. ( Montana ). Our trade was worth $20000 on a good day locally. ( Brand new motor home with 6000 miles ) Or they would not take a trade.

Here is deal I made.

We got our 2011 Alpine 3450RL. They supplied and installed a brand new Curt , sliding hitch in my truck, and we got a check for balance. $2000.

It was an easy choice to do what I did.

The local dealers have cut there own throat with me.

There is an ironic thing here. The one local dealer ( Winnipeg ) has a USA branch. They still will not touch my unit.

[Festus2]

Carl wrote: "It is unfortunate that things are what they are here. Best thing I can do is not support local Keystone dealers in any way. Be it parts or service. Parts can be got almost anywhere and service I can handle myself. No problem. And spread the word.....
The local dealers have cut their own throat with me".

It is common knowledge that Canadians pay more for cars, trucks , RV's and a host of other things - too numerous to mention here - than Americans do for those same products. Because of this, many Canadians, including myself travel into the U.S. to purchase items - both large and small. Although I did not purchase our Cougar there, I did buy our Chev truck in the U.S. at considerable savings. We both know the financial advantages of "cross border shopping". You are quite correct, it is a "no brainer" and "very easy to do".

The reasons why we pay more are complex and it is not simply a matter of Canadian RV dealerships not wanting to price match their units with those sold in the U.S. If they did, they would quickly go out of business. They can come close but the bottom line is they cannot match American prices.

To say that they are "cutting their own throats" by charging you more than their American counterparts is not only an unrealistic expectation but also economically and financially just not feasible. As a businessman in Canada, you should know that and you should not be surprised by the higher prices here. We pay more than we should but the bottom line is we are always going to be paying more.

In addition to the truck purchased south of the border, I have also bought numerous minor RV supplies as well as some major "accessories" such as slide out covers, a pin box, and a solar panel. I did visit several local RV suppliers and inquired about their prices but not could or would match U.S. prices for these items. Essentially, I was told if I wanted it for the lower US price, then go down there and buy it. I had no problem with this knowing what their response would be.

What would be gained by boycotting or not supporting these local dealers? They won't and can't change their pricing - other than the usual negotiating that goes on. I still buy some small items from them and parts if I need them in a hurry. If I had to take the RV in for some kind of servicing - which I have had to do because I was not able to carry out the servicing myself - I would take it to one of our local RV shops and support them.

Perhaps your frustration with them is the fact that your unit was purchased in the States and they won't touch it. Mine wasn't but I really don't think the local dealers here could care less where it was purchased. To be honest, I am not sure if their willingness to do warranty work is the same but they all want your business to do any after warranty work.

In my opinion, it is not quite fair to blame the dealerships in Canada for their higher prices. As I said earlier, almost everything costs more here so you would need to blame almost every retailer for charging us more than they would pay acrosss the line for the same item.

We all grumble and complain about having to pay more than our American cousins but no one is listening and besides, Americans like to see Canadians flooding over the borders, pouring into their malls and spending $$$$$. And we come back to Canada with our shopping bags full of goodies with a big smile. Happy because of all the money we saved. A win-win situation for both.

[f6bits]

Isn’t there some sort of import penalty for shopping across the border? You’d think that if you had two cross-border dealerships within 50 miles of each other, nobody would shop at the Canadian dealer.

[Festus2]

There are duty and taxes that Canadians to pay for RV's and vehicles bought in the US and taken back into Canada. Even with these fees (penalties???), we still save money by purchasing RV's and vehicles in the US. There is some paperwork and other "red tape" to go through but it is not onerous. It simply takes a bit more time and you might have to travel a fair bit depending upon how far you live from the border and where in the US you are purchasing.
Note: Don't get me going on the gas/diesel prices here in Canada. And you think your prices are high!!!

[f6bits]

Then why can’t a Canadian dealer compete with US prices? Is this an overhead issue?

[Festus2]

I wish it were that simple. There are a number of factors to consider. Since all of the RV's are manufactured in the U.S., there are additional shipping costs involved, border import fees, taxes, differences in dollar values, to name a few.
A case can be made that Canadian consumers are "getting ripped off" by our own retailers who are arbitrarily jacking up prices in order to made an extra few bucks. When our dollar is at par with yours, why do we pay more, for example, for the same book? It may have 2 prices on it - one for American shoppers and another for Canadian buyers. Hard to explain why we should be paying more when our dollar is equal to or pegged higher than yours.
But I digress. We are used to paying more. It goes with the territory.

[jq1031]

Like any other product, the market drives the prices, Canada or US. If I sell for less than you chances are I become the vendor of choice. No way in hell will I pay more for the same product when it's offered for less down the road, or across the nation. If it's a reasonable distance & I have the time & ability to drive that distance then why not. Yes taxes & fees factor in to a Canadian deal as do the cost of driving to a better deal. Keystone sells it's products to dealers at the same price otherwise there dealer network would be revolting at the discrepency afforded them. I've purchased a new unit & am driving from florida to ohio to save $4,000, leaving wednesday AM & excited about the adventure as the DW & I enjoy traveling so why not turn it into a vacation. We all worked (or are still working) hard for our money so a dollar friendly dealer gets my at:thumbsup:tention.

[CarKath]

Actually, the dealers get a break on exchange and fees. They still have customs broker costs, but generally equal to or less than we as individuals pay overall.

Importing a trailer was so simple. Almost to easy.

15 minutes of paper work at border. Including paying GST and excise tax.

On paper my trailer retailed at $50000. Exchange rate at time of import was to our favor. Around 1.03 I think. So that equaled around $48000 Canadian.

Gst on $48000 is $2400. Excise tax on A/C is $100. So we paid $2500 at border to import trailer. Then we had to have an inspection. Fee via RIV was around $260.
Inspection takes less than 5 minutes.
We applied for PST rebate on motor home from province. That was equal to $48000 x 7% =$3360. Received check in mail promptly.

Our only other cost was paying PST on trailer when we licensed it here. So PST was a wash and equal to rebate we got.

Bottom line, My costs are generally equal to what any dealers would be to import. All dealers are buying in US dollars from the factory.

So 2 things could at play. Keystone is dictating to there dealers there pricing, or they are being marketed artificially high here.

I personally saved huge dollars. Not every deal will have as big a savings as mine.

My deal at the end was more or less a lateral move from a financial standpoint. Nothing out of pocket.

Here is a link on importing to Canada, very informative........ http://www.riv.ca/Home.aspx