Service center visit - Montana Owners Club

richfaa · 04-15-2007, 04:50 PM

We are in Camp keystone along with 6 or 7 other keystone units although we were told there would only be 3 other units here. We are backed up against John ( Ontmont) and after a nice dinner out we played Mexican Train for a couple of hours.We are ready for a early wake up in the AM

Dean A Van Peursem · 04-15-2007, 05:13 PM

Rich,

Glad to hear you have arrived safely. Please provide a daily update on progress on your unit and equally important what you hear and see. O'm very curious as to what the Montana personnel attitudes are. Reports on what the other ownersd are there for would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Delaine and Lindy · 04-15-2007, 05:43 PM

richfaa, if they do the same at 6:00 am they will be out to get your list and mark locations of problems. Say Hi to Darrel and George, good luck on your stay. GBY...

richfaa · 04-16-2007, 05:59 AM

Darrell was knocking on our door at 6AM. They drug our camper into the shop shortly thereafter. Darrell had every E mail I had sent and my complete list of problems in hand. We sat down and went over every issue, including a couple of new ones, we discussed each problem and Darrell explained how they would address them. He introduced us to each member of our repair team, three of them. He asked us how much time we had and we replied that we could stay as long as he needed the camper. He liked that and we will be here for a couple of days.They will do a days worth of repairs, set us up out back in Camp keystone. We will test the repairs overnight and they will start again in the AM. He does not want us to leave till we are all satisfied that all repairs are completed.Looks like ontmont will also be here for awhile so a mini rally is in progress. These guys are truly "skilled crafstsmen"

sreigle · 04-16-2007, 08:09 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Dean A Van Peursem

O'm very curious as to what the Montana personnel attitudes are.

Dean, we were at the service center falling last Fall's rally in Goshen. Our experience was similar to what Rich and Helen are experiencing. Those people truly seem to want to help and take pride in doing a good job. They are not perfect, they are human. But we were very, very pleased with their service and their attitude.

I suspect they do their best no matter what the attitude of the rig owner but these folks work very hard to do a good job and, in my opinion, deserve our being nice to them. Firm is ok, nasty is not. I would never do well in their jobs. If some of the customers talked to me like I've seen a couple talk to them I'm afraid I would not have reacted nicely.

Dean A Van Peursem · 04-16-2007, 08:46 AM

Steve,

I suspect they are true professionals and are trained to deal with somewhat unhappy owners and are more skilled in the repair work they do. I sure wish we were not so far away from the factory as I beleive that we could get our issues resolved much quicker w/o some of the hassles of having to deal with dealers and their only contacts at the factory. In our recent encounter in Oregon trying to get some of warranty issues taken care of, I wasn't very impressed with the approach and attitude of some of the team Montana contacts. When one is facing a real safety issue one would think that all parties involved would go the extra mile to find and fix whatever the problem is or was. Unfortunately, we were stonewalled by the factory using inadequate testing methods to truly find the real problem. Was I firm in trying to get this problem resolved, you bet I was. Was I nasty, I don't think so. When the Team Montana personnel could not understand the difference between a static one time test and the diagnostics and thorough inspection required to find, locate and fix an intermittent issue, I must admit I got very frustrated. I doubt there was an understanding of what the stress is to hook up to and try to pull a 13,500 lb 5th wheel up and down mountain passes when you have recently had half the brakes fail and then are told Montana won't pay the dealer to pull the wheels and hubs to see if there is anything intermittent or marginal inside. That just don't cut it with me.

I had to take the Montana 3400RL elsewhere to get the inspection and repairs accomplished at my expense. And at considerably lower cost than what the dealer was quoting to remove the wheels and hubs. It is going to take me a long time to forget that. And it has very little to do with the financial issues. Safety and responsibility is not a financial issue.

Now we are trying to get the rest of the warranty issues resolved at our original dealer here in WA. The Apollo oven replacement s/b relatively straight forward but getting the super slide roof sag problem resolved permanently I suspect is going to be painful. I must say I am humored a bit by those I have talked to at dealers and the factory concerning this problem. The impression they try to give is this is a problem that is new to them and they have not seen this before. I know that is totally false information. So I am asking our WA dealer to contact the factory to see what the procedure is going to be after the first original fix has failed. My concern is Montana is going to hold the original dealer responsible for the failed fix and then a unhappy dealer will be working on my unit. The real problem is, Montana allowed a defective unit to leave their factory and now band aides have to be added. I would feel alot better if Montana accepted reposibility and replaced the whole slide with a good one. My present thinking is this is going to be a continuing problem and hassle. Hopefully I am wrong.

richfaa · 04-16-2007, 11:20 AM

We are back in Camp Keystone. Ontmonts problem was repaired today but they are staying over till the AM. We will be here at the service center through Wednesday. They repaired a lot of small stuff today and will pull our bedroom slide first thing in the AM. They did rewire the front cap RE our meltdown and dropped the underbelly and cleaned up the hydraulic mess under there.We are working our way through the "list" and are happy campers.

Ozzie · 04-16-2007, 01:16 PM

Hats off to the service people - they truly are the top of the line when it comes to having the skills to take care of things (I am one myself among other things). I'm so glad they are taking good care of you guys!

richfaa · 04-17-2007, 05:08 AM

Just went back and looked at our 3400.It is a jigsaw puzzle, pieces all over the floor, underbelly dropped, bed room slide on the ground and the , wires everywhere.I told Darrell." I don't think I wanted to see this" Don't worry, said he, we will get it back together somehow. Karen, one of the tech's working on our unit said that a couple of the repairs that we made were better that they could do as they have to use OEM parts and pieces and ours were better qualityt.

rvfirefighter · 04-17-2007, 07:31 AM

Rich, did you let them know they have an army of MOC'ers reading a play by play of the repairs? This is an email audience.

richfaa · 04-17-2007, 11:10 AM

Day 2 at the service center..Oh yes they know we are reporting and it is ok with them. We took another tour of the Montana plant today for something to do and the tour person recognized us from the rally.By the way ALL the tours start at the service center now..
Most of our list of 27 is completed. They repaired the bedroom slide and replaced the entire section of that black stuff..Why they even pumped up our air bed again.The cap wiring is done and they replaced a big section of that shinny stuff in the underbelly because it was soaked in hydraulic fluid as well as re routing cables and wiring in the underbelly. We know the hot water tank is firing on gas but not getting gas to ignite so they have a handle on that. We asked Darrell to take a look at our main slide to see if it sagged.He told me awhile ago that it did a little and they are going to tear that apart and repair tomorrow.He thinks that they will be done tomorrow....Maybe...By the way..I have to say this..on our tour of the Montana plant we noticed a increased level of..Quality control..yes that is not a typo..I said a increase in quality control.There were 3 units at the end of the line covered in red tape strips and red stickers. Our tour person said that these folks were hard to please. Hummm could Keystone be getting the message...I hope so..

adelmoll · 04-17-2007, 11:21 AM

Yahoo Keystone. We knew you could do it. We also knew that you would be leading the way for the rest of the industry.

Helen and Bill

Ozz · 04-17-2007, 11:23 AM

Great news Rich and Helen. Rich and Dean, I will be interested in feedback on the super slide, mine still leaks like he##.
I will be taking mine in to the dealer at Naylor after the Branson rally.
Good luck guys.
Ozz

richfaa · 04-17-2007, 11:53 AM

Ozz.. My super slide never leaked but we have the toppers. I did not like how it looked as that white seal looked wavy so I asked Darrell to take a look at it and offer a opinion. The result is they are going to tear, rip, prop up, straighten and re assemble the super slide. They seem to like to do these things.I mean the front end my camper was all over the floor this morning and we are now back in Camp Keystone and everythig is re asssembled....

fulltimedreamer · 04-17-2007, 08:06 PM

Rich,

Great report!! It is very encouraging that more Quality Control measures are being being implemented at both Montana and Big Sky assembly plants. It is also good to know that the Keystone Service Center is taking care of your "fix list'. Hopefully we will never need the Service Center but is good know that it's there if we do.

If we can ever sell this house, we want to visit the Montana and Big Sky plants.

Montana Sky · 04-17-2007, 10:23 PM

Rich,
I am happy to hear the great folks at Keystone are taking care of you and your coach!

indy roadrunner · 04-18-2007, 12:02 AM

Is it just me but are they spending more time to fix all the problems than it took to build it in the first place. Must be a lesson there somewhere.
Rich I am glad they are making things right for you.

Just my opinion and not intended to offend anyone.

richfaa · 04-18-2007, 01:20 AM

Phill..you read my mind..This will be the 3rd day that a team of " Certified RV technician's" have been working on my "list of 27" and doing a fine job but I don't think it takes 3 days to build a entire 3400. Anyhow with the Montana tour yesterday this was our 5th Montana plant tour since 2003 and we see a definite improvement in quality and attitude.

Jim Jarvis · 04-18-2007, 01:52 AM

Rich, I think you mentioned elsewhere they build 3 Big Skys a day so 3 days working on yours is quite an investment for Keystone. Doing it right the first time is the better alternative for everyone, you and Keystone.

Fire5er · 04-18-2007, 06:43 AM

Rich,

Thanks for the reports. This gives me a good feeling that we made the right decision to go with the Montana 3400RL. We just got our unit and hope that it was built with the new QC awareness. Pleas keep up the great reports.

Karl

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