[JRTJH]

In most areas of the country, RVing is a seasonal industry. In Michigan for instance, the "season" starts around Memorial Day and ends (for most) around Labor Day. There are a few RV'ers who use their trailer/motorhome past Labor Day, but even they tend to winterize after Deer Season.

So, an RV dealer has a "boom time" from the end of May through when school starts again. His business is literally "billowing out of the walls". Then, Labor Day comes, the kids go back to school and his service lot is a "ghost town". All of those service techs he hired to support "someone else's customers", all of those service bays he built to take care of people who bought elsewhere, all of the tools and parts supply he invested in to "service the competetion's sales profits" What does he do? Lay off workers, pay unemployment, pay taxes on the unsold inventory of parts, watch his newly constructed building sit empty and unused until next Memorial Day....

It's not like the Ford service department or the GM service department where people bring vehicles in for year round work, our RV's sit in our back yard from first snowfall until it all melts and the dealer's investment sits "dormant" as well.

I'm not justifying a "poor attitude" that some dealerships display when they tell you, "No, you didn't buy it here, I won't service it" I am saying that I can understand why he tells his customers that did buy from him that he will take care of them before he abandons them for an "outsider".

If RVing were a "year round" evenly distributed business, I would expect that there would be the same "ability to service" in January as in July, but it's not that way.

In fact, the two local RV dealerships close in early December and don't reopen until "the tax man cometh" on April 15th. The "big" RV center, TC RV in Traverse City also closes on the same schedule. They are now advertising their "Grand Re-Opening" on April 15th.

As frustrating as it is to feel as you do, you've also got to understand that most RV dealerships (from a service standpoint) have 4 or 5 months of "BOOM" and the rest of the year they can't justify keeping the staff on the payroll. To hire even more service techs to take care of the "potential that some other dealership's buyers might need service? It's just not a profitable venture.

This shouldn't justify a "I don't like you or want your business" attitude, but that dealership does have a commitment to service his own customers first, and if there's any time left to make "extra money" from someone else.... But to build a seasonal business on the "hope that someone else's customers will fill my service bays? I can understand why any dealership would hesitate to build a "new 50 bay service facility" and open his doors for that 5 months business season to all comers. What's he going to do with those employees come Labor Day??????