Yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus . . . or a light at the end of this tunnel . . . or whatever applies.
Melissa, another service rep from Bish's, has contacted me several times in the last 2 days with updates, progress reports, and other things we've waited for months to hear. I think I've already said that for whatever reason, she seems to be the person who's having to take over, put the pieces together, and get our RV rolling again. She's a good customer rep, too--calls when she promises to call, returns calls, has definite info for us, and does it with a "it will be taken care of" attitude.
She called this morning to tell us that Carefree confirmed that it has the awning order; production will take up to 72 hours, probably. As soon as the awnings arrive at Bish's, they will be put on immediately. As for the sink/counter replacement--it's FINISHED and has been finished for some time. The "waiting on the supplier and Keystone" report we received December 30th was incorrect. The work was already completed at that point. (I still think our rig was confused with another customer's rig for a while, especially when we were told that ours had been hauled "to Pocatello, as requested." Pocatello?")
Melissa said our July work order with all the needed repairs listed shows that everything but the awnings has been done. However, she asked me to fax a copy of what I'd given to the service department so that she could double-check my list against what the service order listed. If there are omissions or discrepencies, she said they would be taken care of so that we can (deep breath here) pick up our rig ASAP.
If this truly is the last stage of our journey to get our rig fixed, we will be some very happy campers, both literally and figuratively. I believe that Bish's and Melissa are doing their best at this point to make up for all the problems we had in getting service for those (mostly) minor tweaks and repairs we needed. Even though it's taken half a year to get the work done, if it's done completely and correctly, we can live with the delay.
Some final words (until I can post the news next week that we've been called to pick up our Montana
): We shopped several dealers and one other brand of RV before deciding that Bish's was the best place to buy the best RV--a Montana. The salesmen were patient and knowledgeable, never pushy. The dealership was clean and well-stocked and the inventory of RV's was staggering--more models and more of each model (Big Sky, Montana, and many others) than we found anywhere, including at a big RV dealership in Houston, Texas. Our salesman, Jerry Beck, was helpful from start to finish. When we had to bring the rig back for a minor fix about a month after we bought it, he handled everything--putting in the service request, meeting us when we arrived, calling us when the work was done, and being sure that we approved the repair before we left the lot with our RV. We were even invited into the service bay to look at the progress of the repair and get an explanation from the technician working on the rig. (If Jerry weren't off for the winter, I know he would have stepped in and we would have had our rig back months ago.)
With our expectations sky high, after our buying experience and first repair experience with Bish's, this July to January service experience was a huge disappointment, along with at least a temporary loss of faith in the dealership. However, if the repairs on our Montana go smoothly in the next week, and if we really can go pick up the rig, we'll chalk up our experience as an anomaly, something that normally doesn't happen at Bish's. It's been a shocker, for sure, but if Bish's is still the dealership we thought it was when we decided to buy there, I have a feeling that a "falling through the cracks" situation won't happen again to us or anyone else.
Carolyn