Quote:
Originally Posted by Cgjersvik
Thanks, good advice. Fortunately we are dealing with a small family owned dealer who goes out of there way for their customers. I've reached out to them.
- Charlie
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A "small family owned dealership" is great when it comes to one on one relationships and service, but the truth is a small dealership doesn't get the "volume of trailer traffic" to have personal knowledge of the features in trailers that have never been sold by the dealership and that, in reality, the sales force has never seen or walked through... So, a "double edged sword" in dealing with a small dealership that has 3 or 4 trailers on the lot and deals mostly in special orders to survive. At a "gianormous dealership" ask the question about which outlets are inverter powered and the response would be, "Give me a few minutes and I'll run out to see and call you back"... But, when something breaks and you need service, that same dealership may well tell you, " We don't remember selling you a trailer and we're booked until June, but we'd be happy to repair you trailer then and we'll even put you on the cancellation list if an opening comes up before then, we'll call you."...
I bought my Holiday Rambler from a small dealership. It was the owner, one salesman (his son) one finance rep (his daughter in law), one service rep (his nephew) and one "lot runner" (his neighbor that lost his job last winter).... There was always coffee and a personal greeting when I walked through the door and I could always get "first hand information" from the service tech by walking into the shop to ask him what he did.... On the other hand, if I needed anything more "exotic than a screw or a light bulb" it had to be special ordered and would be in "next Tuesday if the warehouse has it in stock".... A "far cry" from the Camping World dealership in Shreveport, if you needed parts, they had them or could overnight them for you, but for the life of me, they never remembered me, my trailer or my problems and forget ever talking to anyone but the service writer who didn't know if I was a customer or someone looking to buy a used trailer..... Good and bad with any size dealership.
There's good and bad with both small dealerships and large dealerships....