Chaos in RV land

[stiles watson]

My repair dealer in Wichita Falls is not a Montana dealer, but seems to have a good reputation. The manager is pulling his hair out trying to get parts. Even with the model and Vin numbers, he has to take pictures to send to Keystone and Lippert to get parts. Lippert has to manufacture replacement parts for the slide mechanism. Today is two weeks since the incident causing the damage and not a bolt has been turned because of The difficulty of the supply chain delivery system.

[ole dude]

Lord, give me patience, but hurry up. :-)

[Ozz]

Maddening, I feel for you brother. Been there with my truck ordeal..

[CORattler]

One would think that in today's age of computers, databases, digitized photography that this information would be readily available especially for people whose livelihood depended on it. Never ceases to amaze me as to how some businesses survive.

[Parts Ed]

Call me old and sentimental, but it was fun going into a parts store in Custer, SD and having the guy hand write my receipt for my purchases. But then again, I work in that "field"....

[DonandBonnie]

My local independent auto repair shop says that the automobile companies are giving a lot of grief and delay when they order repair parts. They are trying to force the repair business into "authorized dealerships". Wonder if the same thing is happening in the RV business?

[Trailer Trash 2]

That is the way Keystone can control the parts and repairs on there products, in a round about way of forcing you to go through there autherised dealer, if I need parts, I usually call keystone and get the part number first and give it to the autherised dealer, of course they override my part numbers, and still ordered the wrong parts which ended up taking 2 months to do a 5 to 8 hour job. what gets me mad is they know of the problem and say that they have had many complants about the service from there autherised dealer, so it just goes to show you, its all about the money and the power it gives a dealer. if they cant sell the stuff to a non dealer for the price the autherised dealer gets it for, then sell it for 10% more that way the autherised dealer cant say they are getting under cut.

[richfaa]

Our Honda Car dealership told us that due to the problems in Japan parts are in short supply. We were also told by a RV vendor that there are price increases on parts becaiuse of shortages.
The Honda dealership s id that execpt for Honda's orderd and are enroute do not expect any for a while.

[Phil P]

Hi

Your “Chaos” starts in the production facility. After having had a look at the way they build the trailers you find that the production people have “Free Choice” of parts to build the units with. Unfortunately that leads to Keystone not having any way to tell what parts went where. The big items like frames, and appliances they have a record of. That is where the record keeping stops. All you have to do to confirm this is call Keystone with your VIN and ask them what 115 V to 12 V converter you may have in your trailer. They will tell you it could be one of four makes and each make has several different models.

As for Lippert it has become apparent from just reading the post on MOC that they have no production control at all.

Phil P

[mail2us]

Stiles, while visiting the Southwest this past winter, I had a discussion with a non-Keystone dealer of a medium size city. He indicated he had received either an email or letter from Keystone that indicated he would not be able to access parts from them for repairs to Keystone products. He has been in business for 17 years in this city and a very close friend of his during this timeframe is the Montana authorized dealer in the city. He also indicated that to his recall his friend never had a Montana on his lot to sell but was an authorized dealer. He is not bitter nor overly disturbed but it could be one small element that Keystone and it's dealers are circling the wagons to further support dealers down to parts and repairs. For us the consumer, while I am a loyal Keystone Montana owner and use my authorized dealer for repairs, it limits our ability or choices to get the best in repair support and costs. Just an opinion. Dennis

[DHenry]

quote:Originally posted by mail2us

Stiles, while visiting the Southwest this past winter, I had a discussion with a non-Keystone dealer of a medium size city. He indicated he had received either an email or letter from Keystone that indicated he would not be able to access parts from them for repairs to Keystone products. He has been in business for 17 years in this city and a very close friend of his during this timeframe is the Montana authorized dealer in the city. He also indicated that to his recall his friend never had a Montana on his lot to sell but was an authorized dealer. He is not bitter nor overly disturbed but it could be one small element that Keystone and it's dealers are circling the wagons to further support dealers down to parts and repairs. For us the consumer, while I am a loyal Keystone Montana owner and use my authorized dealer for repairs, it limits our ability or choices to get the best in repair support and costs. Just an opinion. Dennis

This really disturbs me. Are we not supposed to travel our great country with our Montana's? Do we have to stay within reach of our selling dealer?

This is one of the reasons I went to the other side. My motorhome manufacture allows me to take my rig to anyone I feel comfortable with and have it repaired. All that is required is that the repair facility call the manufacture prior to making the repairs. If the repair facility does not want to bill my manufacture for the warranty work, I will pay them and send the invoice to the manufacture for reimbursement. I get my check in about 2 weeks from when I send it to them. So why can't Keystone do this same thing? We surely would start getting better service on our rigs and weed out the lousy service departments at the dealers and Keystone's reputation would soar.

[mail2us]

from DHenry in part,

quote:...Do we have to stay within reach of our selling dealer?

I believe the key word is authorized instead of selling dealer Doug. Dennis

[DHenry]

Dennis you are right the key word is authorized, but most times when I needed work done the authorized dealer I was closest to did not either want to do the work or wanted to put me off for several weeks to do it because I did not purchase the Montana from them. Really irritated me, but now with this SOB I can get the work done where and when I want it to be done. I just do not know why all the manufactures do not adopt that type of service for their customers.

[stiles watson]

This Dealer, Patterson RV, while not a Montana dealer, is apparently straight forward and reasonably honest. His problem is supply from manufacturer. He says that the problem is not unique to Keystone and Lippert, but almost universal in the industry. That is why I entitled the thread "Chaos in RV Land."

I do not believe that the problem is because Patterson is not a Montana dealer, rather because of the manufacture's inconsistencies. Example: when I had the LevelUp System installed, the techs said that every Big sky was a challenge because everyone of them were different even if the same year and model.

This Service manager has gone to the trouble to show me every communique between him and suppliers evidencing his due diligence in trying to get me on the road. This is beyond normal protocol.

[mail2us]

I accept the notion that many dealers are fine just because they are not Keystone. The guy in SW US I referred previously had alot of business and actually took time to explain to me his dilemma. He was in the business of servicing many brands. He just found it troublesome not to be able to get parts from Keystone. Stiles, it maybe what your non-Keystone dealer is faced with. It's not the end of the world, no doubt because of this, but some Keysone dealers can sell and cannot service. To me that is where Keystone seems to toss the coin! Keystone should recognize that if indeed their product is good or great, they can and should demand from their dealers better service at the bay doors!