Well..... just when I thought I might be on my way home from Wakarusa tomorrow with the coach all done and ready for next spring...... I ended up driving home tonight but without the coach.
First, let me say how terrific the Thor Service Center team is in Wakarusa. This was one of the best customer service experiences I have had in a very long time. They were assisting lots of other customers with their coach issues but they made me feel like I was their only customer in the building.
I have decided that while a 12-hour round trip for service is a long way..... I will only take my coach to Wakarusa for service if it is something I cannot fix myself. I don't think I will ever use a dealer again because this is the experience you should have at the dealer but dealers can't deliver.
Now onto the issue......
After feeling great about Dave pointing me in the right direction about my MobilEye issues and the Thor Service Team telling me they knew what it was and how to solve it, I thought the rest of my Punch List would be easy.
Then two hours later my customer service rep walked into the Customer Lounge and told me they needed to show me something. I knew that didn't sound very good......
When they were in the process of replacing the awning fabric, they found the top of the coach had body work and the paint job was not very good. Problem was it was fairly hidden by the awning when it was closed. When the awning was opened and you got on a ladder you could see an area near under the awning and near the awning mount had been poorly repainted.
I asked if that would have happened during manufacturing or at the dealer..... they weren't 100% sure until a light bulb went on.
One of my questions for them was that I received two bottles of touch-up paint with the coach.... but the coach is painted with four different colors. They said I should have received four bottles of touch-up paint in a plastic bag. Well my touch-up paint was not in a plastic bag. It was in a cup holder in the dinette and there was some tape around the bottles that was torn up.
One of the service techs then asked me.... are the two missing colors the same as the color where it was repainted..... and I said yes. We all looked at each other and said it had to be the dealer.
Needless to say I was not happy... especially with the dealer issues I have had in the first 6 weeks since buying the coach.
I asked if there was any structural damage and they all felt it was just cosmetic. They also said they would get it back to the factory finish for me and good as new..... but they would not be able to get it done this week.... and I could bring it back or leave it.
Given I winterized it and we are done using it until spring, I told them to keep it as long as they need to finish the repairs and to restore the paint back to a factory finish.
They helped me get a car rental.... which could not have been easier because they had the direct number for an Enterprise rental place not far away and Enterprise already had a car there that I could just drive off Thor's lot.
I'm in the process of writing a politically correct... but very pointed e-mail to the dealer about not disclosing there had been some type of body damage and a poor paint job to cover it up before I signed the paperwork.
I was supposed to take the coach to the dealer next week to have the Theater Seats installed we negotiated when we signed the sales agreement. I am now demanding that the dealer ship the seats back to Wakarusa so the Thor Service Center can install them.
They graciously offered to install them for me if I could get them to Wakarusa and I know and trust they will do a great job taking out the original sofa and installing the Theater Seats.
I am going to sit on my e-mail to the dealer overnight and make sure I didn't miss anything after I reread it in the morning. I am basically telling them if they get the seats to Wakarusa, I am willing not to take the documentation and pictures of all the issues I've experienced with the dealer and coach and send it to their corporate HQ and also to Thor's HQ.
I'm not threatening to call my attorney or anything like that. I just want to get everything fixed and addressed properly and then move past all this so we can enjoy the new Magnitude. I am confident the team at the Thor Service Center will make that happen but I have lost faith in the dealer at this point.
If the dealer won't ship the seats to Wakarusa, I will rent a truck, pick them up and take them myself and then have them installed before I bring the coach back home. I will send all of the documentation to the dealer's HQ's and Thor's HQ and I will request to be reimbursed for my travel expenses and two vehicle rentals.
Here's a few pics.... a lot easier to see it in person. You can actually see over-spray on the factory paint and you can feel a layer of paint over the original finish when you run your hand over it. If you look closely you can see over-spray on the awning mount as well.
Stay tuned......
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