Help return my Montana . . . PLEASE! - Montana Owners Club

Wayne and Carolyn Mathews · 01-15-2009, 02:29 PM

Hey, Keystone--I want my Montana back! It's been at the Montana dealership for 6 months (since July 24th, 2008) for relatively minor warranty work. I miss it. It misses me. It's supposed to go with me to the MOC rally at the 7 Feathers RV Resort in June. Can't you please send the parts my Monty needs to the dealership? Please?????????????????? I'll be your best friend forever . . .

Carolyn

clutch · 01-15-2009, 04:53 PM

Now that is what I call service after the sale. Wow, 6 months of free storage. You sure can't beat that.

I guess Keystone gets a

for that one.

eeoski · 01-15-2009, 06:04 PM

Holy smokes! That's just WAY to long! I would have driven up to the factory by now and picked the parts up myself...I have to admire your patience!

Robin

Mrs. CountryGuy · 01-16-2009, 01:33 AM

I would be calling Keystone Customer Service, NOT the dealer.

Be sure the parts have been ordered. Yes, that is just what I mean.

old turbo · 01-16-2009, 01:58 AM

I hope you kept a paper trail on this one. I would be on the phone every day to the dealer and Keystone. Keep a list of everone you talk to and the date. I would say at this time getting parts should be no issue as the rv industry is in the tank and it is also the slow season. If it is minor things you think they would use another rig as a parts trailer and fix yours.You need to put this Dealer on the SAD and BAD list. I would also snd this one into RV Action Line of Trailer Life Magazine.

cmp-shooter · 01-16-2009, 07:23 AM

I would call the bank that I have my loan thru and tell them why you ain't going to be makeing anymore payments on it....done this b4 with great results.

Wayne and Carolyn Mathews · 01-16-2009, 09:54 AM

I do have a paper trail that is nearly an inch thick--date, time, person, what I asked, what I was told. Actually, I have two files, one for the dealership and one for Keystone. The Keystone one kicks in after a call to the dealership: "Oh, that darn part STILL hasn't arrived. You know, times are tough in the industry and lots of suppliers are out of business, so Keystone can't get the parts to send to us." Then I call Keystone and learn that "Hey--they didn't even send in an order for it. I'll take care of it for you." Usually, that works, but I have to do it over and over depending on which part "hasn't arrived." But I am TIRED of having to do all the work as a middleman in this mess. We're not talking major or difficult repairs, either.

I left two messages with the service manager today but didn't get a response. So, Monday, I'm calling Keystone again. I have someone whom I think is a decent contact there in customer service. I hope he is, at any rate!

Carolyn

nailbender · 01-16-2009, 02:54 PM

Have you considered taking your Montana to another dealer for the repairs? Probably not a lot of dealers to choose from in Montana, but there must a better one. If it was mine and I had the time, I would take it to the Keystone service center and have the repairs done there.

Okie Guy · 01-16-2009, 03:03 PM

Some of these dealers are out of control. It is unacceptable to have someones trailer for that period of time. Why do they think they can keep our units for several months for minor repairs?

Wayne and Carolyn Mathews · 01-16-2009, 03:13 PM

Yep, we have considered that, but you're right--not many Keystone/Montana dealers in these parts. The nearest one is in Missoula (Bretz), which is a good 3+ hours away, However, if you've read the MOC thread about dealers, good and bad, you may remember that Bretz is great in the sales area, but a bottom feeder in the service department. We've been to the Bretz dealership many times and agree that the showroom and sales staff are great. But after reading all the comments about the service department both here and on other RV sites, I just don't want to risk having my Montana held hostage there, just like what's happening at Bish's in Idaho Falls.

If worse comes to worse, which it may, I'll hit Keystone with a request to find another service facility AND to assume the burden and cost of making arrangements to have my rig taken there. (Well, I can dream, can't I?

)

Carolyn

sailer · 01-16-2009, 03:26 PM

if it was mine i would have pulled it out of the state by now to a rep able dealer , call keystone and ask about a good service dept 500 miles away and get on the rd , miles are cheep but no sleep is hard on the body,,, sailer

HamRad · 01-16-2009, 10:49 PM

Carolyn,

Work with Keystone. They have found other facilities to get the job done and probably would do the same for you. It isn't too many more months before you will need to be on the road to CA! So get them to find someone who will actually fix your rig and not just store it!

Good luck and see you in a few months.

Dennis and Mary Kay

hookman · 01-17-2009, 04:03 AM

I understand that Blue Crick RV in Spokane is suppose to be quite good to deal with but is about 350 mile drive

kwolff7 · 01-17-2009, 04:29 AM

We had this situation in the fall of 2007. We had purchased our 2008 Big Sky and was having it serviced by Orangewood RV on Bell Road in Phoenix. They had our RV for months - 4 to 6 anyway, never seemed to be successful at getting things fixed correctly and based on a suggestion from the Southwest rep took it to another dealer in Mesa. I can't be more positive about the experience we had at RV Traders. It was like night and day. I would suggest talking to Montana and finding a better place to take it. There are excellent dealers and repair facilities out there.

racerjoe · 01-17-2009, 07:13 AM

If you have a good paper trail, I would be sitting down with an attorney about how to get a refund. It is TOTALLY unacceptable in this day and age that they are giving you this type of service, At this point you would of thought the factory could have pulled something out of a new unit,or something new, like their computer network of parts inventory sent to dealers throughout the country. You have way more patience then I will ever have...

helmick · 01-19-2009, 05:57 AM

After 78 days at Mike Thompson in Fountain, Ca. and still problems we contacted Tim Nusbaum at Keystone Customer Service. Keystone picked up our Montana RL3400 and took it to the Keystone factory at Pendleton, Oregon. The supervisor in charge of ours was Bob Payant. In a week our problems were solved. We went to Pendleton and stayed in the KOA for four days to make sure things worked. Bobs crew were all great guys and solved in a week what Mike Thompson Service never solved.

kerry · 01-19-2009, 12:17 PM

What kind of problems are you having that your dealer seems not able to get fixed ? Kerry

Wayne and Carolyn Mathews · 01-19-2009, 05:01 PM

Kerry, at this point we don't even know for sure what finally was fixed and what is still in the same condition as when we brought the rig in in June. One thing we do know is that as of December 30th, according to the service manager at Bish's, is that "Keystone still hasn't sent the replacement countertop sink unit . . . you know how things are going with suppliers now . . . " Most of the repairs were the usual little things that are more of an annoyance than a real problem: couch drawer broke (with nothing in it), remote for TV never was located (since the day we bought the rig), faucet unit in bathroom fell apart and couldn't be fixed, etc. The awnings and the countertop were the only two major problems.

I called the service manager at the dealership today and was instantly flipped to her voicemail. I left a message. Then I called back and asked to speak to the manager. I was asked "Like, what manager? I'm not sure who you want to talk with . . . " I said, at a loss to explain myself any better, "You know, the big cheese, the boss . . . " Again, I was sent directly to someone's voice mail. I left another message. No one returned my call. (I was polite, calm--pleasant, actually--but I still didn't hear from anyone.) By the time I realized I wasn't going to get a return call, it was too late to get anyone at Keystone, so I sent a fax to the customer service man there who helped last September when we were getting a runaround about why the awnings couldn't be replaced. I hope I'll hear from him tomorrow. If I haven't heard from him or someone else from Keystone by 1:00, I'm getting on the phone and calling Keystone until I can get a live person and, hopefully, a promise of help.

As the repairs dragged on last fall, I joked about losing my Montana in July and sure hoped I had it by the June rally in Oregon, ha ha. Well, that's not funny any more. It's been 6 months, and the end still isn't in sight.

I have a record of every call I've made (a LOT of them), every call from Bish's (fewer than 4 of them), my calls to Keystone and calls from a service rep there . . . but honestly, I feel as though we have lost the Montana forever. It didn't help that a service person at Bish's assured me in October that there was no record of our bringing in the rig for service. It took a bit to get that straightened out; then we got a call saying the rig was ready and had been delivered to Pocatello as we'd asked. Pocatello? We never, ever asked that our trailer be delivered anywhere. We don't even know anyone in Pocatello. Ha ha, just a mixup--our rig was still in Idaho Falls, awaiting that replacement kitchen countertop. That's the LAST we heard, and that was in December. We had only one call between October and December, and that was only after I'd called the dealer several times trying to find our trailer and see if the repairs had been completed.

We're pretty discouraged at this point. There has to be a better way to handle customer service.

Carolyn

kerry · 01-20-2009, 07:14 AM

Wayne, I sent you a PM. Kerry

Wayne and Carolyn Mathews · 01-20-2009, 01:03 PM

Update as of 1/20: My dealer called today to update me on my awning situation. SHOCK.

My AWNING situation?

I was told two months ago that the awnings had been replaced in October. However, I learned that "Oh dear, oh dear," that awning order had "fallen into a crack" and the awnings were never ordered. By noon today, "they had been ordered from Carefree" and would be at the dealership by the end of the week, according to the Bish's rep. Right. Of course they will. I told the service rep that we'd been assured in October that the awning problem was fixed--and now I'm told that it's never been addressed? Apologies and excuses. Then I asked about the kitchen sink and countertop, and was met with a dead silence. Finally I heard, "Your sink and countertop? What about them?" I almost lost it at that point.

I went back through the documentation with the rep on the phone--dates, times of calls, whom I talked with, what was said, the date the replacements were supposedly ordered (last October), the "supplier failing to get the parts to Keystone, Keystone failing to contact the supplier," etc.--all of which I had no reason to doubt at the time. The rep took another deep breath and said, "I need to check on that. I didn't know you had a counter and sink problem. I'll call you back tomorrow. I thought your awnings were the only problem." I suggested she might take a look at my check-list of things that needed fixing or replacing, the one service department rep Leslie entered into the computer as I stood across from her at the service counter in July. I saw her do it--she even complimented me on having the problems listed clearly in a typed form so that all she had to do is transfer them from my list to her computer.

I suspect that my detailed fax to my contact at Keystone yesterday triggered a call to Bish's and then a call from Bish's to me today. What I do know is that if I don't get that promised call from Bish's tomorrow, or if I do get it and find out that nothing has been done on my rig after 6 months, I will become permanently attached to the telephone until I get someone at Keystone who will step up and get this work done for us. If the rig has to go 500 miles down the road to another dealership, fine. But if Keystone doesn't help, our plans to buy another Montana in a year or two (for full time living) will be a thing of the past. We have been extremely patient and, as it appears, gullible. We've believed everything we were told about the difficulty in getting parts, that this was done and that had been done . . . when it's now clear that a lot of finger-pointing has gone on with people trying to place the blame on others for the problems getting our rig fixed. I will continue to be polite, but I'm moving from being pleasant and passive to proactive and insistent. I want my 3585 back; I want to get ready to travel in another month or so.

We love/loved our 3585. Our salesman at Bish's was wonderful, even months after the sale. But he's on "furlough" now because of the slow sales during the winter, so that contact for us is gone. I can't help but feel some sympathy for the Bish's rep who called me today. She must be the 4th person who has had this dumped on her, and I could tell I really caught her off guard when I asked about the countertop and sink. My other "service reps" must be gone (or maybe they don't want to deal with the problem?). They were all nice, very nice, but nice isn't cutting it at the moment.

Dang it--love that rig, love it, love it, love it. But making payments month after month without being able to even set eyes on it hurts. You know, if you fellow MOCers were in charge of Montana service, my rig would be fixed and ready to roll in a heartbeat, I know it would. You guys with all your help, ideas, suggestions, and sympathy are WONDERFUL!

Carolyn

You may also like: