Oh, I guess I'll add my 2¢.
In the past, there has been one fairly long thread concerning the speculation if Keystone monitors this Forum. I have talked with Keystone about the Forum and have learned that they are aware of this Forum but no one at Keystone is assigned the task to watch it, monitor it, or given the "work opportunity" to view it. I was told if the Forum is being watched, it is on a Keystone's employees own personal time. So, the broadcast "messages" hoping to reach Keystone via this Forum are for naught. Only Forum members and Guests are here! Along with us chickens!
In the mass production world of RVs, each RV has a set amount of time to be "located" at any particular "build station". When the alloted time has ended, the RV
must be moved to the next station. Thus if something happens that not all the tasks are completed at one station, the workers have to hope that someone at the next station might find the time to complete the task or the RV rolls out the door with that task incomplete. If something is not completed, oops, the RV must advance along the line no matter what. Once that RV is off the production line, it waits in an adjacent lot to be towed to the designated RV dealer - there is no one with a QC checklist. If you use Google Maps and StreetView, you can look at the Keystone complex in Goshen, IN and see the assembly buildings and waiting-transport RVs.
It is my understanding that Keystone and most other RV manufacturers provide a certain "credit" to each RV dealer to quality check the RV, fix anything not done at the factory or any transportation problems, to prep it for the customer, and provide the PDI (at no charge to the customer). If anything is wrong, and is caught by the customer, that problem(s) is to be fixed by the dealer once approved by Keystone warranty (customer service), and once corrected, delivered to the customer. Note: even if "everyone knows the problem", the problem should be fixed before acceptance. Once accepted, then the warranty chain becomes longer - schedule warranty service call with dealer, dealer sends warranty request to Keystone customer service, Keystone customer service either disapproves or approves the work, but if approved, the labor and parts charges have a limit placed upon them. If Keystone must furnish parts, those are scheduled and shipped. All this has been well discussed on the Forum before. However, notice that Keystone Customer Service is in place to interact with the dealer, not the ultimate Keystone RV owner. If Keystone Customer Service is contacted by the ultimate Keystone RV owner, the solution revolves around contacting a dealer. And Keystone is neutral on dealers - it's up to the owner to decide. About the only thing I have observed is that Keystone Customer Service
will send new graphics to an owner - but it is up to the owner to either apply the graphics or find someone who will.
However, Keystone Customer Service is
very picky about modifications within the one year warranty period. They will repeated tell you that modifications will void the warranty on what ever item you are modifying. For that reason, personally, I would encourage anyone considering any Keystone RV modifications not to do those mods until after the one year warranty period has passed. Keystone wants any and all work on the RV to be performed by a dealer's service department and at the quoted Keystone reimbursed rate. Note: owner might incure additional charges. (I didn't follow this advice, I had to fix my own fresh water fill problem. Thus, my fresh water system from fill to pump dropped off warranty.)
Now, if one purchases a custom built or near-custom built RV, that still doesn't assure "no problems". Yes, these are more expensive RVs than the Keystone and other manufacturers RVs. Purchasing a New Horizons fifth wheel will not assure you of no problems, but you might have to return to Kansas to get something fixed! Purchasing a DRV will not assure you of no problems, but it seems like there is more acceptance between DRV dealers to quickly work on DRV fifth wheels that were not sold by that dealer. These RVs are more expensive than the Keystones, etc. But they too have problems.
Now, let me defend Keystone for a second on their furniture, then I'll be finished. Most of the Keystone RV furniture I have personally seen has been manufactured by Flair Industries. Flair Industries just is not the highest quality furniture one can find on the market. I would rate them quite a bit below Lazy-Boy in comparisons to S&B furniture. RV furniture is built to be disassembled and tranported in/out the RV door. Problems with the furniture comes back to the furniture manufacturer's warranty, just as all the other appliances in the RV do. I know, I had a poorly built sofa - just search for it on the Forum! But the furniture cannot be top line Bradd & Hall or FlexSteel, etc., and still be in line with the price point of the assigned Keystone RV level! Example: do the search of my comments on the Flair Industries sofa, and then look at the FlexSteel sofa I replaced it with. You can find the Flair sofa for around $460 on the Web - my fix of a replacement FlexSteel was $2K. (By the way, I kept the FlexSteel!)
As others have said, if you are an RV owner, just like a boat owner, etc., you have two choices - if you are handy with tools, you will be fixing a certain amount of problems yourself; if you are not handy with tools, you will be paying someone to fix something.
Ron