Unhappy Montana owner right now!

[richfaa]

We had posted this before right now the RV industry is booming, at the fall rally every manufacturer was producing Rv's as fast as they could the delivery lots were full and they could not be delivered fast enough. IMO when this happens quality and service goes down. In 2008/2009 The RV industry was in the pits due to the economic downturn. Montana was producing their entire line in one plant on the same line. The Elkhart area was a ghost town several RV manufacturers went belly up during that time. The manufacturers know that may happen again and are producing RV's and selling them while they can. The consumer pays the price.

[Golfmedik]

I spoke with the service rep that has my case this morning. The cause of the flex has been found. It was a frame weld under the nose(above the generator) of the camper as most of us had thought. The weld was being rewelded and plated today. Also, there are three 'tubes' in the nose of the camper that are aluminum, but are supposed to have wood stuff the entire length of the tube to give the bolts something to adhere to. Two of the tubes(these help support the nose of the unit) had no wood in them and allowed more flex in the nose and pulled out bolts. That is also being repaired. I specifically asked this morning was the broken weld on the Lippert frame and was told yes. I've been told that I will receive pics of before and after the repairs are made. They are also trying to get the unit back to us before the week of 4/10. I will update as I know anything else.

[sambam]

This is good news. It sounds like you are finally (finally!) getting the attention you deserve. I hold out hope that all will fall into place for you and you will be trouble-free in a few short weeks! Best of luck......

[richfaa]

We had both of those problems on our 06 3400 corrected by Keystone with no problems .We had this problem repaired by Keystone at the fall rally in Oct 16 on our 13 3402 big sky .Not much has changed since 2006 has it.


" Also, there are three 'tubes' in the nose of the camper that are aluminum, but are supposed to have wood stuff the entire length of the tube to give the bolts something to adhere to. Two of the tubes(these help support the nose of the unit) had no wood in them and allowed more flex in the nose and pulled out bolts. That is also being repaired.

[John Neeley]

Originally Posted by richfaa

We had posted this before right now the RV industry is booming, at the fall rally every manufacturer was producing Rv's as fast as they could the delivery lots were full and they could not be delivered fast enough. IMO when this happens quality and service goes down. In 2008/2009 The RV industry was in the pits due to the economic downturn. Montana was producing their entire line in one plant on the same line. The Elkhart area was a ghost town several RV manufacturers went belly up during that time. The manufacturers know that may happen again and are producing RV's and selling them while they can. The consumer pays the price.

This might be abit off subject, but how can these RV manufactures keep building more and more, when every sales lot I see is full of units, and majority arent moving it seems. Are my eyes going bad or just what is the deal? Sure you see some new units in parks, but the majority are older than a year or two. These sales lots have units jammed into them, they cant even open up the slides and are stack 5 deep in rows. I dont know, I just dont understand it. Same goes with new cars....where do they go when the model year is up?? No one will give you a truthful answer to that question. I suspect they ship them off shore at bargain prices to South America, etc....but I could be wrong.... a prying mind wants to know what the deal is.

[richfaa]

Originally Posted by John Neeley

This might be abit off subject, but how can these RV manufactures keep building more and more, when every sales lot I see is full of units, and majority arent moving it seems. Are my eyes going bad or just what is the deal? Sure you see some new units in parks, but the majority are older than a year or two. These sales lots have units jammed into them, they cant even open up the slides and are stack 5 deep in rows. I dont know, I just dont understand it. Same goes with new cars....where do they go when the model year is up?? No one will give you a truthful answer to that question. I suspect they ship them off shore at bargain prices to South America, etc....but I could be wrong.... a prying mind wants to know what the deal is.

There are plenty of sources for that data ,Use your favorite search engine and look it up..here is but one http://www.rvia.org/?ESID=mdandt

[Golfmedik]

I've called and emailed each week since it's been gone and today was no different. However today I didn't get a reply. Will keep trying.

[mlh]

These people could care less. Yours is one camper out of thousands but to you it's 100%. People do vote with their pocketbooks. Maybe just maybe they should think about that, NAW.
Lynwood

[richfaa]

Originally Posted by Golfmedik

I've called and emailed each week since it's been gone and today was no different. However today I didn't get a reply. Will keep trying.

Just curious why do you call and E mail every week

[richfaa]

Originally Posted by richfaa

Just curious why do you call and E mail every week

Knowing what the service enter looks like there are only so many bays for repair and it is by appointment so they know what the calendar looks like. When they are finished they are going to get it out of the repair bay and off the service enter grounds. I am sure the will let you know.....Just our experience,

[Golfmedik]

Originally Posted by richfaa

Just curious why do you call and E mail every week

I was asked to by them.

Also, got this reply today..

"
We are currently working on your banister wall at the loveseat area and will work on the list until our welder is free to weld your wall, we have the slide out pulled off the unit and the unit is prepped to have the welding started. We will weld the broken area and I will take photos and then, we will also weld some plates to reinforce the front area and then I will take photos of that so you get a better understanding of what we have done. I am looking at next week for the welder to work on your unit. I have physically went out to your unit with the technician and showed him the concern of the exposed wood on the rear wall also. If you have any other questions, please feel free to give me a call."

[mlh]

I would have called and emailed every day. Some days several times. They would have got so tired of me they would have fixed the camper.
Lynwood

[Golfmedik]

Well, after emails have changed servers, the result is they are still waiting on a welder, "their" welder to weld the thing and will hopefully get to it next week. She said the slide was completely out of the camper and they were working on the wall at the banister now. IF that is completed next week, it still has to be put back together, put in the heat bay for the AC units, that system trouble shot, repaired, and then the rain bay for leaks, clean up and then scheduled to transport. So I emailed back and asked if we still had a possibility of getting it back before our trip and the answer was "we'll try!" I am done with these people. There attitude towards customer service is PATHETIC!! I AM DONE! Seven months to get attention, four months to schedule it, had it now 6 weeks and can't tell me when we get it back. AND they knew this is in NOVEMBER that I had to have it by April. I WILL NEVER OWN ANOTHER MONTANA!!
Rant over for now.

[mlh]

For any honest business warrant work comes first. It's not something you do when you wont to, when the mood strikes you, when you get around to it it comes first. For the rest of us we pray we aren't ever in the same place, this is exactly how you would be treated. Don't kid yourself they don't give a dam about you either.
Lynwood

[sambam]

What a horror story this has turned into..........

[richfaa]

When it gets out of the service enter it SHOULD be completely restored however with your record and how you have been treated by Keystone it will no doubt be a disaster and will fail again. I do not see how you could have any confidence in that Montana .I would be waiting for something to fail every time we hooked it up.


I would sell it while it looks good and start over with Non Keystone, Non Thor brand. We have been on the MOC forum since 2005 and yours is the worst experience we have ever heard. I do not blame you a bit for being done with Keystone.

[dieselguy]

I fully agree with Rich ... and have stated the same before many pages back in this thread. Sell or trade it before the next shoe falls ... some things are just jinxed.

[Todd727]

I didn't find the forum until the day after I bought my Montana. I will tell you that I saw other units from SOB's that would've worked. If I had read all of this, I would've gone with something different.

I realize they could've had problems, but the way Keystone has treated Golfmedik would've been enough to dissuade me.

[Phil P]

Hi

The last week in February 2017 we spent the week at a private non commercial camp ground with about 30 other units. In this group was a 41ft SOB fifth wheel built by a high production facility that had been purchase new last march. They had had some problems with the unit as expressed here by myself and several others this is normal in any production line. However the treatment received by the new owner in dealing with the dealer and the factory resulted in very prompt and courteous service.

This is the complaint with Keystone they go out of their way to avoid correcting these production mistakes. They will not authorize dealers other than the selling dealer to work on the unit. I have met too many owners that have been treated like me and Golfmedik to establish that this kind of treatment is the norm at Keystone.

It is apparent to most of us the some posting here for whatever reason get preferential treatment by Keystone.

Phil P

[richfaa]

We did not note any difference in customer service or tech services at the fall rally 2016. We had a issue , tech services looked at it confirmed it was a problem and scheduled repair before we left the rally. That happened to many others as well


From reading this thread I guess I will have throw out all my Keystone contacts, E mail addresses and phone numbers. The last experience we had with ordering parts through our dealer was last May and everything was at the dealer holding tank, rear ladder in three weeks. We had scheduled a date for repair .It was taken in on that date and out of the dealership in three days.


We have had our share of problems over two Montana's since 2006 all of which pale in comparison in terms of service of others here. Selling dealer, Local dealers, Dealers over the country in our travels, The service center in Goshen and repair facilities suggested by Keystone.


We apparently have been among the fortunate in receiving service from Keystone and if we had received the service described here we would be long gone from anything Keystone.