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Old 09-02-2020, 11:05 PM   #1
LHaven
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Location: Wickenburg
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Dometic warranty service from h*l

The furnace in our Cougar quit working in January. We used our electric heater for the remainder of the trip and got a mid-March appointment from our dealer. This was the third furnace failure we had since buying, and still within the Dometic 2-year warranty.

The dealer kept the rig two weeks (as long as it was there, I also asked for an annual wheel lube). When I went to pick it up, the service manager said they could find nothing wrong with the furnace; but I was expected to clean it out annually and hadn't, so they did that and charged me. Pickup day was at the height of COVID panic, so I didn't test the repair (it was already too warm for it to run anyway) and just wanted to pick up my rig and go back home to hide.

In early July, we took the grandson out on a four-day "distanced" trip to cooler country. The furnace failed off the bat, precisely the same way. In effect, instead of fixing my furnace free under warranty, the dealer had failed to fix my furnace and charged me for it.

I called my dealer to give them a heapin' helpin'. The (new) service manager protested that they couldn't test furnaces in non-winter months because it was too hot. I asked them why they didn't give the temperature sensor (in a port on the wall all by itself) a shot of freeze spray. They had never heard of freeze spray. I told them what it was and how to use it, and got another appointment (this time, a "same day repair") last week.

On repair day, the SM called us during our errands to tell us they had taken the unit out onto the bench, and it worked; then reinstalled it, and it still worked.

When we arrived for pickup, I asked the SM to walk with me to the rig before I even looked at her paperwork. I set the furnace on, then hit the thermo sensor with a shot of computer duster, can upside-down. In under 10 seconds, the thermostat registered an interior "drop" from 90° to 70°, and the furnace fan cycled on. I told her to listen — no ignition noises. I told her it would shut off in about 20 seconds, which it did. I told her the furnace had been doing exactly this since January, despite being in their shop twice.

She offered to change out the sail switch and the igniter. She said I'd have to leave the rig because they needed to order the parts. (How were they planning to do a same-day repair on my rig if those parts had come up bad?)

24 hours later, she called and said Dometic refuses to "replace non-failed parts under warranty." I told her that unless she came up with some plan to fix my furnace in the next few days under warranty, we were going to have a three-way with Dometic.

I had just about written off my dealer's service department before this all started, until I found out that apparently they are the only source of Dometic warranty work within a reasonable distance. Once the warranty period is over, I'm never darkening their door again.
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Old 09-03-2020, 04:30 AM   #2
flybouy
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That's very frustrating and unfortunately not an uncommon experience. The dealer we bought from was a family owned business. I knew the owner from childhood (Boy Scouts) but weren't close friends. His father/family owned a used car lot and a furniture store. Purchased from both and never got burned.

On our maiden trip the microwave became possessed turning itself on. Called dealer and they said unplug it and bring it in when got back. On our way home we stopped at the dealer expecting to drop it off. They are only a few miles from our home.

I told them that I needed to empty the fridge and they said "Why?, we'll have it replaced in less than a 1/2 hr." Now mind you as far as anyone knew that I'm aware of had knowledge that I "know" the owner. Everyone was treated that way. That was my one and only warranty or repair experience there.

Fast forward about 5 yrs and a Heroin addict broke into the storage lot and did a lot of damage. The dealer had sold out to a conglomerate on the west coast. Long story but it was a real s##t show. Took forever, I refused the repairs 3 times and they even backed a new fiver into the front of our trailer folding the jack under the new Husky remote control tongue jack.

Seems like finding even a decent (forget outstanding) RV dealer is rarer then Dodo Bird eggs these days.
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Old 09-03-2020, 06:07 AM   #3
SummitPond
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Quote:
Originally Posted by flybouy View Post
<clip>
Seems like finding even a decent (forget outstanding) RV dealer is rarer then Dodo Bird eggs these days.
I can't speak for them currently as I haven't been there in a few years, but Seacoast RV in Saco, ME treated me very well at the time. We purchased our Keystone RV in FL (from a CW) but had our converter die en route to ME. We had previously dealt with the closest CW (in Chichester, NH) and had no intent of returning to them for work. Reviews of Seacoast RV were good; I informed them of the problem, they said they'd work on it and I made an appointment. They pre-ordered the part and swapped out the converters the same day I brought it in. They even gave me back the old converter without asking (Why? Don't know.) They would be my first choice for work in the future when I'm up in this neck of the woods.
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