I Just Can't Understand IT

11B

Advanced Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2007
Messages
95
I have a 2007 Friedship and have had good luck with everything. I take my unit to the dealer for warrenty work and have been treated like gold.

I have a hard time with people blaming GS for their wows with their coach and not the dealer that sold it to them. I own a new Jeep Liberty and if it needs warrenty work I don't call Chrylser I call the Jeep Dealer.

Two weeks ago there was a RV show where I live and I took my grandkids to thank the dealer for their new motor home, while I was there I had a chance to talk to The GS Western Region Sales Manager,
I mentioed to him all the dissatisfaction you hear about GS and their customer service, he said he had been with Tiffin for 10 years and then Monoco before going to GS and heard all the same arguments when he worked for them. He gave me a card and told me to should I have any problems with my dealer to contact him direct.

My point being can someone please tell me why most RV owners blame it on the manufacture and not the dealer and why they think it should be covered under warrenty forever.

I'll bet my life that each and every owner that comes to this site had a chance to go through the unit on inspection before they laid their hard earned cash on the line, why didn't they see the lose screws and lousy workmanship then? And if it was there why did you buy it or better yet if it shows up after the purchase why blame GS why not take it back to the dealer you gave the cash to and make him fix it? If he's no good why the hell did you buy it from him in the first place

I have not been RVing long and just don't understand that the RV manufactures are at falt for all the ills that befall an owner and his RV, and why most owners think it should be coverd under warrenty no matter how old it is.

I for one could not be happier with the coach "I" bought and the support I have gotten from my dealer ( Ray Citte RV a 70 mile drive round trip for me) and the GS Factory.

Would somone please explain it to me if I'm wrong!! :roll: :roll: :roll:
 
HI ????
Why would I go to the manufacture and not the dealer? Simply because the manufacture build the unit and warranted it. The dealer only acted as an agent. You may live close to your dealer, but for many of us that is not the case. I took delivery last year in September and have not been in the same state as the dealer since. We full time and are traveling around the country. All warranty issues that I find I notify Gulf Stream and they direct me to a dealer that is in my area at the time. Gulf stream reimburses the dealers for all warranty work, at least that is my understanding. All of the loose screws and improperly built draws and cabinets only show up as you use the RV. I don't believe anyone would discover all the imperfections during a PDI at the dealer. When you have a new home built, do you go to the Real Estate salesperson or the builder to get satisfaction for items that were not built properly.
Glad that you are happy with your dealer and your Friendship, or is it Friedship.
 
Arthur, just so I understand what your saying is that you do take it to a dealer (directed by GS) to have your problems fixed? This just shows me that GS is doing the right thing by taking care of you no matter where your located.

Thank you for the reply and yes it is Friendship as you were so "kind" to point out.
 
We full-time in our 2006 Crescendo 8356 and have no complaints. We have owned coach for 2 years next month and have had little to no problems. The minor things were handled appropriately and expediately by our dealer. DH uses his favorite screw drive frequently, but he did in our stick house when we owned it also. We have made our home comfortable but taking out and adding things that we want. (TV, booth couch) People love to complain, however, some people have valid complaints! :roll:
 
The biggest problem we all have is when you repeatedly call and leave voice mail and also leave e-mails and no one returns your calls AND I AM SAYING THIS FROM EXPERIENCE!!!! :evil: Also I have had them tell me when I did get through to a live person that they will look into the problem and get back to me with an answer and that doesn't happen either! After making lots of calls and finally getting a live person they agreed to repair the coach if I drove it back to IN after no one in my area they recommended would because they told me that GS does not pay and they would not touch it for this reason so back to IN I went and it was not repaired right out there when I talked to a real person to complain they claimed that part of the coach was not repaired but I have a copy of the bill that says different, so there answer to that was to drive the coach back to IN and they would try again! The first time it cost me $1000. round trip for fuel and tolls so I repaired it my self and solved all of my problems with help from this forum . So that's my story as to why I complain about there CS all it would take is just for some one to give people a return call and show us they care a little after they take our money!!!! :roll:
By the way I checked the repairs and all looked good all the rubber seals were replaced and it wasent untill I used the MH about 2 weeks later did i find that it leaked worse than before it was repaired!

Earl
 
GS is there for us

I did not have much luck with dealer after the sale. I'am happy GS is helping me were the dealer was unable to. I too have had to bear a great cost of getting there, more times than I can say. But GS is taking care of us . I think GS should have some say to the dealers that don't take care of us after the sale. I thank I had GS to go to when I had no one at the dealer calling me back. I call GS they call me back in 24 hours if not the SAME DAY :D I wish things would go a little faster, but I'am sure they do too :)
 
I have found that the dealer network is terrible. The dealers love to ask, "did you buy it here?" Which to me is an excuse fo bad service. That question should not be asked. If you are a Gulfstream dealer and I have a Gulfstream product it is their responsibility to check out my problem no matter where I bought it. If you cannot find a dealer and Gulfstream tells you to call a dealer and they ask that question you are in trouble.
 
11B said:
I'll bet my life that each and every owner that comes to this site had a chance to go through the unit on inspection before they laid their hard earned cash on the line, why didn't they see the lose screws and lousy workmanship then? And if it was there why did you buy it or better yet if it shows up after the purchase why blame GS why not take it back to the dealer you gave the cash to and make him fix it? If he's no good why the hell did you buy it from him in the first place

Well, those screws don't come loose again and the electronics and such don't fail until they are usually exercised on the initial trip off of the lot. Mine for instance was the trip from the dealership in Jacksonville Florida to Oklahoma, by that time all of the componenets had been excercised and the flaws emerged. I could easily tell some screws has been re-inserted from the delivery trip to the dealer so the obvious factory errors were laid out.

I now know why I got such a good deal on the coach in Florida because the dealer knew that they would not have to honor the warranty. They could pass off the problems directly to GS and it would be their customer service circus that I would endure. The extra 5% off I got was for the dealer not having to perform the customer service that they build into the sale for the call-backs and minor maintenance.

You will find out that unless it requires a little caulk or a tightening. the dealer must get approval from GS to do the work under warranty. I can tell you from experience that the standard answer on most issues in No on the first try. That's why some dealers just build in those repairs into the purchase price. (This is standard in many business practices).

This is why some dealers who are GS dealers won't do warranty work on units not sold by them.

One example of this: GS realized a problem in My Air Conditioning. They asked me to bring it to Indiana to have their preferred service center make modifications and add an additional unit on my coach. This was in August of 2006. I picked up the coach in October and in February of 2007 GS still hadn't paid them for the work that they (GS) ordered to be performed by their chosen vendor.

I still like my coach and will consider GS when I buy another. but you must understand that just because your experience or mine doesn't create the exception of the norm.

As you read the posts on this forum, and take into account the content of the posters across all of their contributions, you will find that your experiences are not common in posters' dealings with issues related to the responsibility of the manufacturer beyond the dealer's control or desire.

Please understand that I'm not ranting on you. RV Owners are at a service handicap over automobile dealers. because of the sheer numbers of units produced create a better service network.

This is why when I have Freightliner or Caterpillar issues, the service procedures are more predictive and committments are for the most part quick and definitive. They service tens of thousands units in warranty not merely hundreds as Motorhome manufacturers do. As a side note, this is why manufacturing quality mirrors the same effectiveness.

We are customers of a specialty market and as such must roll with the tide of the markets productivity and effectiveness.
 
We bought an 03 Friendship in 05. We have had only one problem with the coach and that was a roof leak. We think we have that solved. We love the coach runs good everything works as it should. We had an accident in April 07 (see met a Peterbuilt) Parts were ordered on May 9th. The dealer said that it would be a month before the front cap would be ready. Took the coach in to the shop in late June. Parts wont be in until July 17th. WE couldn't get any information from GS only the dealer. Left many phone messages and E mails were unanswered. Took the coach back to the shop on July 13th. Called the dealer parts will be in on the 17th. Ooops parts will be in on the 30th. More calls unanswered as our E mails to GS. Parts will be in on Aug. 1st. Finely after refusing to be sent to a message phone or put on hold I was allowed to talk to a real person who said "they were working on it" The parts came on Aug 17th. (most of them) We were with out our coach from July 13 until Mid Sept. When we finely got an E mail from GS there were internal E mails att. Stating that they "sat" on the parts order for a month before starting to put them together. We didn't get the left head light until late Sept. that was ordered on the 9th of May. The fog light they sent didn't match the ones on the coach. The shop was able to repair the mount on the old one and ordered the housing for it. The housing they sent didn't fit the original lights or the one they sent. This is one of the reasons owners bad mouth GS parts and customer service. The diagram for the fuse blocks under the drivers seat were ruined by water coming into the compartment where the truck hit us. GS says that that is Fraightliner, Fraightiner says it is GS. So we have to guess what fuse does what. We are frustrated with GS but love our coach.
 
Still waiting

Molly at GS says I will be happy. But is going to take some time. I am still praying for a good end. I have serivce comming up on 12NOV07. This Forum has help me hang in there Thanks :) Bob
 
Our experience has been much like Earl's.

I haven't posted here much since we got our 2007 GS Sun Voyager. I still absolutely love the floor plan in that coach, but for the last 9 months we have had nothing but problems, the worst of which seems to be a design defect which caused the rear end of the coach to drag on the road. The mud flap is permanently damaged, the sheet metal in the rear is torn up, causing the rear cargo doors to be jammed--it even bent the generator pipe.

I left numerous voice mails, first to our dealership and then to GS in Indiana. I also sent multiple emails to both places. No response.

What finally worked was we reported GS Indiana to the Better Business Bureau. I had contact the next day and they're taking care of all the problems. But it shouldn't have been that way.
 
Apparently, the really do care about the BBB. I threatened it with both the local dealer and GS, but still got ignored until I actually did it. I reported only GS, because this was a manufacturing defect and I didn't think it was appropriate to report the dealer, even though they had also ignored us. But as soon as I told the dealer found out I'd reported them, I got contact from them as well.

So if it's not too late, I suggest you try that--it sure got us instant action.
 

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