General RV leaves a bad taste in my mouth

[BulletproofPJ]

So we bought a 2020 Windsport 35M with their online special and home delivery and that I think was a mistake.


We could not do a walk through as a third party driver delivered it to our house. There were a few things that needed addressing and two days after purchase General RV reopened. We were in Virginia and after 8 days of no returned calls, finally got an appointment in Richmond to have the issues addressed. Richmond charged me to repair all the items that were "unable to duplicate" so for all the questions I had about the operation of something I was charged $85 each.



I would avoid General RV at all costs...


Calling Thor directly to address the remaining issues. Has anyone dealt directly with Thor in Elk Hart???? Good? Bad?


Thanks all


John

[JamieGeek]

Originally Posted by BulletproofPJ

So we bought a 2020 Windsport 35M with their online special and home delivery and that I think was a mistake.


We could not do a walk through as a third party driver delivered it to our house. There were a few things that needed addressing and two days after purchase General RV reopened. We were in Virginia and after 8 days of no returned calls, finally got an appointment in Richmond to have the issues addressed. Richmond charged me to repair all the items that were "unable to duplicate" so for all the questions I had about the operation of something I was charged $85 each.



I would avoid General RV at all costs...


Calling Thor directly to address the remaining issues. Has anyone dealt directly with Thor in Elk Hart???? Good? Bad?


Thanks all


John

If you can make it to Wakarusa, IN for factory service you'll be very pleased. Dealing with Thor is great they are very courteous and will address every problem you bring up (even little complaints so if you do call them and arrange for factory service do make an extensive list).

The only issue you may find is that they are busy so scheduling is a few months out from when you call; usually.

There are some cases where Thor will send you the parts to make the warranty repairs yourself (They sent me a new windshield washer motor--I just replaced it and sent back the old one under warranty).

[Travelin' Texans]

Buying a RV is not the same as a new vehicle! No dealer is obligated to do warranty work on any RV they did not sell. If you bought online (NO Way would I buy any big ticket item this way) from dealer X & took it to dealer Y then they are not obligated to work on yours so they will most likely charge you. Take the receipts to the selling dealers GM, sales manager & service manager & demand a reimbursement.

[BulletproofPJ]

We bought it from General RV, the issue is I bought it from their Tampa office and tried to have it serviced at their Richmond office and they don’t acknowledge each other sales....I guess

[BulletproofPJ]

By the way, I saved $60k plus with online.... still worth it

[Judge]

First thing you should do is call General RV's Corp HW in Michigan (248) 349-0900) and tell them about your experience. I would get they would work to get you refunded if you explain your problems and the situation with the dealer. They are one of the larger dealers in the country.

I purchased my 2020 Magnitude SV34 from General RV in Canton, OH last October. One of thing that attracted me to General RV was their "Keep You Camping" service where if you have a major failure / issue (water, electrical, appliances, etc) that keeps you from being able to use the RV, you can just take it to any General RV location without an appointment to have it evaluated same day. They will fix it if they can or order the parts and get you scheduled for service.

I have an appointment in a week to have several Warranty Issues resolved and so far they have been good dealing with via phone and email.

That being said, I did take it to the Thor Service Center in Wakarusa late last October because I had already had an appointment for my previous coach and they let me keep it to bring in the new coach to have a few things addressed.

Dealing with the Thor Service Center is the way to go in my opinion vs any dealer.

My opinion is that most dealers are not very good (there are exceptions)... they may talk a good game.... but they have a lot of unskilled, inexperienced and marginally trained personnel because of high turnover rates. They care more about selling than the service after the sale.

The people who are going to know Thor products the best.... have a significant amount of training... and immediate access to parts is the Wakarusa Service Center so that is the best place to go.

I'm willing to give my dealer a chance to fix the ~8 items on my list because my wife is going in for some surgery in about a week so I can leave the coach with them for a few weeks and they will hopefully get everything fixed. If not, I will work to get an appointment with the Thor Service Center to get it in there before the warranty expires in October.

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by BulletproofPJ

Richmond charged me to repair all the items that were "unable to duplicate" so for all the questions I had about the operation of something I was charged $85 each.

John

Probably not going to be reimbursed for "operator error" issues. But, $20K can buy you a lot of training.

[Judge]

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

Probably not going to be reimbursed for "operator error" issues. But, $20K can buy you a lot of training.

I'd still argue that the PDI is supposed to be part of the buying process and it needed to be handled someway.... even with COVID.

If it was two different Thor dealerships, I'd agree. But the fact or was General RV and bother dealerships fell under their umbrella I would think General RV Corp would not find it to be very good customer service.

[EA37TS]

Did you frame it as something not working and they possibly mis-interpreting the issue as fault diagnosis rather than PDI familiarization? Who was the service advisor?

Richmond is the dealer I use for the Accolade. Sales and finance staff have a lot to learn but service has been great.

[dkoldman]

Originally Posted by BulletproofPJ

So we bought a 2020 Windsport 35M with their online special and home delivery and that I think was a mistake.


We could not do a walk through as a third party driver delivered it to our house. There were a few things that needed addressing and two days after purchase General RV reopened. We were in Virginia and after 8 days of no returned calls, finally got an appointment in Richmond to have the issues addressed. Richmond charged me to repair all the items that were "unable to duplicate" so for all the questions I had about the operation of something I was charged $85 each.



I would avoid General RV at all costs...


Calling Thor directly to address the remaining issues. Has anyone dealt directly with Thor in Elk Hart???? Good? Bad?


Thanks all


John

Why do you say you think it may be a mistake?

The way I see it you took advantage of online special plus had home delivery and save $60,000!!!!

You then documented presumably any and everything you noted, or thought was wrong. You then took it to another location other than where you bought it from and they FIXED EVERYTHING that was defective under warranty!!!!

So now you are berating the company General RV because they charged you for some work that you had their people look at to validate; but no issue was found? Wow? You didn't say how many questions, or how much they charged you in total. Was it 10 questions and $850? 5 questions $425? 50 questions $4250, or something a lot less?

You didn't state the nature of the questions? But let's make an assumption that you were questioning the way some electronics was suppose to work i.e Genset did start when you thought it should? To be thorough, they would have to go through the entire diagnostics. If they can't find anything, they still spent at least their minimum charge for any item raised. They can't file a warranty claim with Thor for the time they spent on something that was not defective.

A lot of RV places charge just to provide an estimate of some work if you don't get the work done with them. It makes sense because they have to pay the technicians. I get it may have been surprise to you that charges were being accessed, but I think I would be very very happy with EVERYTHING General RV has done I surely wouldn't burn bridges with them as you still have the balance of your warranty left.

At the end of the day you have ($60,000 - (X *$85)) = In your Pocket as Profit, and a coach with no issues and all of your questions answered!!! Plus if you paid Richmond with a smile, you now have 3 legit choices for future repairs Georgia, Richmond or Thor directly.

[BulletproofPJ]

DKOLDMAN.... for instance I had a question on the entrance handle, on my old RV it lit up and the new one does not. They told me it does not light up and charged me $82 for that... I was charged $82 on a question I had on the radio antenna...it looked bent, they said it was not. there was a broken drawer latch on the drawer under the oven...they charged me for the repair and parts. So yes they suck in my book...glad everything is working well for you....truck on!!!!

[Judge]

Originally Posted by BulletproofPJ

DKOLDMAN.... for instance I had a question on the entrance handle, on my old RV it lit up and the new one does not. They told me it does not light up and charged me $82 for that... I was charged $82 on a question I had on the radio antenna...it looked bent, they said it was not. there was a broken drawer latch on the drawer under the oven...they charged me for the repair and parts. So yes they suck in my book...glad everything is working well for you....truck on!!!!

Per my previous post... I would still call General's HQ Customer Service and explain all this to them. It is worth a shot and they may refund you if you politely explain what happened and your unhappiness with the buying experience.

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by BulletproofPJ

DKOLDMAN.... for instance I had a question on the entrance handle, on my old RV it lit up and the new one does not. They told me it does not light up and charged me $82 for that... I was charged $82 on a question I had on the radio antenna...it looked bent, they said it was not. there was a broken drawer latch on the drawer under the oven...they charged me for the repair and parts. So yes they suck in my book...glad everything is working well for you....truck on!!!!

I PM'd you the email address for a person that works in General RV's HQ Customer Service office. Shoot her an email and she will look into your issues.

[16ACE27]

Originally Posted by BulletproofPJ

By the way, I saved $60k plus with online.... still worth it

So was that $60K off MSRP of $161K?
Or $60K off their everyday "sale" price of $97K? 40% off MSRP is pretty standard.

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by ducksface

Funny thing:
I go to a dealer I didn't buy from and I'm treated really really well, every single time, usually walk away with a freebie, something silly like a travel bag or a keyrng dooddad.

We all know 98% is either the buyers attitude or the buyer not investing a moments time in swaying the attitude of the dealer. $10 worth of donuts, reaching something off the shelf for height challenged clerk in the retail section, making a joke of how you hate Thor owners and don't even like pulling up next to those whiners at a stop sign.

And you got off cheap.
Some people have been thrown out of warranty places entirely.

This individuals situation is different in that he is dealing with the same dealer, General RV, but in different locations. The money flows into the same corporate pot.

FWIW, I was sitting in General RV's Richmond Customer Service area waiting on my coach (warranty repair) and I started talking to a guy. He was delivering a new 5th wheel from Indiana and was then taking a used 5th wheel to Colorado to someone who. purchased the rig off the web and site unseen. The was not going to be a walk through and the only thing the driver was concerned about or checked was brakes, lights and tires.

I know I got all of the emails saying buy and we'll deliver. Since I was not in the market I never thought about the absence of a PDI during this COVID-19 sales process.

[ducksface]

Originally Posted by EA37TS

This individuals situation is different in that he is dealing with the same dealer, General RV, but in different locations. The money flows into the same corporate pot.

FWIW, I was sitting in General RV's Richmond Customer Service area waiting on my coach (warranty repair) and I started talking to a guy. He was delivering a new 5th wheel from Indiana and was then taking a used 5th wheel to Colorado to someone who. purchased the rig off the web and site unseen. The was not going to be a walk through and the only thing the driver was concerned about or checked was brakes, lights and tires.

I know I got all of the emails saying buy and we'll deliver. Since I was not in the market I never thought about the absence of a PDI during this COVID-19 sales process.

I have, due to the quoted post above taken the time to go back and read the OP's prior posts so I'd know more.
Seems they have owned an rv before and I would think should know the foibles of ownership, the dangers of not doing a walk through.
I'm going to pull my post down in which I suggested they might need to try a different and tactful tack.

I thought they were newbs who didn't understand how a service department works, the chronics the service department has to listen to and the chances of a customer wanting a roof torn off to address an ac unit mounted 3 degrees off of square.

They've been there done that and do not need my suggestion.

Have I read posts here before, or am I remembering from a sales agreement I saw:
PDI was a charge of up to $1,000 at some places?
I swear I've read that on the forum or in print.
It was called something odd: full tutorial learning experience, fundamental aspects?
Does anyone have a General purchase contract to see if PDI is a line item?
I KINDA thinking it might be.

[BulletproofPJ]

Well the sales guy said we could do a walk through as soon as we could get it to an GRV location.... not so

[EA37TS]

Originally Posted by ducksface

I have, due to the quoted post above taken the time to go back and read the OP's prior posts so I'd know more.
Seems they have owned an rv before and I would think should know the foibles of ownership, the dangers of not doing a walk through.
I'm going to pull my post down in which I suggested they might need to try a different and tactful tack.

I thought they were newbs who didn't understand how a service department works, the chronics the service department has to listen to and the chances of a customer wanting a roof torn off to address an ac unit mounted 3 degrees off of square.

They've been there done that and do not need my suggestion.

Have I read posts here before, or am I remembering from a sales agreement I saw:
PDI was a charge of up to $1,000 at some places?
I swear I've read that on the forum or in print.
It was called something odd: full tutorial learning experience, fundamental aspects?
Does anyone have a General purchase contract to see if PDI is a line item?
I KINDA thinking it might be.

We bought the Accolade from General RV in Richmond. There is nothing in the sales agreement or contract that mentions a PDI. I did sign an Entegra Customer Delivery Form where I initialed all items demonstrated to us during the delivery process. This delivery form is basically a PDI but it is specific to Entegra and is an Entegra requirement put on the dealer.

Also, nothing on General's web site mention a walk through after the sale. They say they will inspect specific items on the rig, clean it and deliver it.

I will also say that in dealing with General, if it's not in writing it didn't happen and we did have to go to HQ over camp ground reimbursements when they did not have the coach ready on the initial delivery date.

[momartens]

They're no better in person at the dealership!

[Banks732@comcast.net]

Originally Posted by BulletproofPJ

So we bought a 2020 Windsport 35M with their online special and home delivery and that I think was a mistake.


We could not do a walk through as a third party driver delivered it to our house. There were a few things that needed addressing and two days after purchase General RV reopened. We were in Virginia and after 8 days of no returned calls, finally got an appointment in Richmond to have the issues addressed. Richmond charged me to repair all the items that were "unable to duplicate" so for all the questions I had about the operation of something I was charged $85 each.



I would avoid General RV at all costs...


Calling Thor directly to address the remaining issues. Has anyone dealt directly with Thor in Elk Hart???? Good? Bad?


Thanks all


John

Avoid General RV. They are absolutely the worst! We have dealt with them and they are not people persons and even Thor did not think much of them or the work they do. We ended up at Thor in Elkhardt with our Miramar and had work done and were very pleased with the professionalism of the people we dealt with there. We were assigned one person to work with on our unit over the two days we spent there. We stayed on their property, had water & electric. Would go back again if we need to for repairs.