So, as we sit here waiting for an appointment date to have our brakes looked at and some other warranty work done, I got curious: How long does it take you to get an appointment at your local RV shop?
It all depends on how much desperation they hear in your voice when you call for an appointment. The more desperation, the longer it will take to get an appointment. So the secret is to sound like you don't really care if it gets fixed in the next six months or so, and they'll fit you in tomorrow. As for warranty work...... if they can hold you off until the warranty runs out, that's even better. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
My experience has been..... wintertime, THEY ARE DESPERATE FOR THE WORK. Summertime, forget it, they are blasted with work. Also, if you purchased your RV at that dealer, they will fit you in somehow. If not, well, you get what you get.
Near our winter home in Florida, appointments for routine service take a while to get from about September to March - snowbirds either arriving or getting ready to leave. During the summer you can get an appointment almost at will - places pretty much are begging for work. I am getting ready to call later this week, and I am expecting a three week wait for an appointment. For non routine stuff, I have been able to get in much quicker.
I have the same problem as Joez on this item. I have called Cummins Power South for a small engine repair job and was told we will do the work tomorrow. Three weeks later motorhome is in the same spot. Talk to service people and hear other motorhomes come in off the road and need repair as well. OK do the work someday if you can find the time. The winter runs wild down here in Tampa. The Tampa RV show is a service killer as everyone is in town and needs service work or repair. In summer never a problem anyplace we use. Out on the road and only one time we had to go to a truck repair shop due to a bad air dryer leak. The shop moved MH inside ahead of other jobs and worked on the parts and problem to it was all fixed. The supply house send the wrong repair kit and shop send a driver over 60 miles one way to get the correct parts so we could get back on the road. Great service from all people who worked in that Con-way truck shop in Warrensburg, MO.
QUOTE(John Blue @ Oct 8 2012, 08:26 PM) [snapback]31481[/snapback] Out on the road and only one time we had to go to a truck repair shop due to a bad air dryer leak. The shop moved MH inside ahead of other jobs and worked on the parts and problem to it was all fixed. The supply house send the wrong repair kit and shop send a driver over 60 miles one way to get the correct parts so we could get back on the road. Great service from all people who worked in that Con-way truck shop in Warrensburg, MO. May I suggest that if you need any chassis work done, you bypass the RV repair places and check out the truck repair places like John did above. I take my motorhome to the same place my work takes their fleet of gas and diesel trucks and they are used to quick turn-arounds because if a truck is off the road, the busines is losing money. I had some exhaust work done recently and I dropped it off in the morning with no appointment and they had it done in the afternoon. They probably would work on small engines like the generator as well, but I haven't tried this yet.
Thanks for the replies. (Keep 'em coming if anyone else wants to answer.) We would like to bypass the semi-local shop, but since it's a warranty issue and might end up being rather costly, we're kinda limited. They wouldn't even let us make an appointment. When we were backing in at home (after the previous shop appointment to fix the A/C), we found that the electric brakes weren't working. As the spotter, you sorta notice the absence of that loverly hummmmmmmmmm sound. The next closest warranty repair facility is a couple hundred miles and since it's a brake issue we'd rather do this as close to home as possible with as little interstate driving as necessary. Nope, we didn't buy it from them. And, after having this much problem getting an appointment, we are unlikely to purchase our next one from them, as well.
Being a full-time RVer, don't have a local RV shop. As for traveling and having work done on stuff we can't handle. Really hasn't been to bad. So far. But nothing that was an emergency that couldn't wait. Would just call about a month before we were done with our workamping job and see if they could get us in. Did have where the cooling tower on the frig./freezer failed and I called a mobile service over taking it in because none of the dealerships in that area had a big enough lot for us to get and out of. The guy was over the next day to pull it out and take it in for repairs. Was impressed with him.
My biggest problem hasn't been getting it in, it's getting it back! They had it for 5 weeks in the summer, and they've had it since before Thanksgiving. Went to pick it up today, and the body work (on damage they had done to it in July) was not fixed properly, so it's still there... I hope I get it back before the season starts in 3 months.
