It should have been a sign to us—that man lying in the floor at Camping World’s front door. He was popping nitro while waiting for the ambulance. But not being believers in signs, omens, or horoscopes, we continued on about our business. As news progressed from bad to worse concerning our slide out problem, Gene kept saying, “Things could be worse. At least neither of us is lying on the floor waiting for the ambulance.”
Clearly, our slide out issue was a major mechanical repair requiring a whole lot of parts, a whole lot of labor, a whole lot of time, and, undoubtedly, a whole lot of money. Our best guess is that the high winds we experienced at Carlsbad which rocked the slides about knocked the gear mechanism off the rail. We knew the wind had destroyed the slide awning and when the slide did not come in smoothly when we were preparing to leave Carlsbad, we attributed to the awning no retracting properly. We put the slides out a total of 4 times from the day we left Carlsbad until we had the awning replaced at the rally. No many, but enough to destroy all working parts. Although it could be argued that we caused this problem, our dealings with Camping World had no bearing on who was at fault. We were not asking for the repair to be done under warranty. We were willing to pay; we just wanted the work done.
In all fairness, I must say that Camping World was swamped with business following the Rally. However, if they expected a successful rally, then they should have anticipated the extra business and made provisions to accommodate the customers in the store, the showroom, and in service. That being said, shall we get on with our story.
On that first day, we arrived early for our 1 PM appointment to have the wheel bearings repacked and were pleasantly surprised when they pulled our Montana right into the service bay. I have come to think that is just a customer relations technique. They hide your unit in the service bay and you only think they put you at the head of the line. Gene is not one to wait indefinitely, so after several hours he went to check on progress. That was when we found out no one was working on anyone’s rig. The service department was sent to Expo New Mexico to take down their booth and bring back the rigs which had been on display. Well, great. After repacking the bearings, they checked the slide problem. Too bad, we might have saved $275.
Over the next 2 days, we waited for an estimate for parts from the slide manufacturer, Lippert. Gene had spoken to a customer representative on the day after we had had the slide awning replaced and we realized there was a major problem. That representative had been very positive in his analysis and we felt somewhat better. However, the service department at Camping World was not so optimistic. Every time we talked to the service personnel at Camping World, the labor costs rose and they blamed Lippert for not providing a rapid response. The whole problem was exacerbated by the fact that each day someone else working on our problem either had a day off or called in sick.
On the third day we decided to seriously look at trading for a new rig. Now, we add the sales department to our “new friends”. We had been told by the service department that Shannon was the best sales representative. Shannon was eager to help; Shannon was eager to help everybody. We never had Shannon’s undivided attention. On the 4th day, Shannon was off. In his place on that day, we dealt with a very nice gentleman, who did not quite know what a 5th wheel was. He was a big fan of motorhomes and pronounced the greatest advantage of a motorhome was the fact that if, while your driving down the road and feel a bit thirsty, you can just go back and get a soda. Well, great. In the end, Shannon managed to take care of us between dashing hither and thither and about a thousand phone calls. At least, whenever we needed anything, we were confident that Shannon would answer his phone.
When our new rig was finally cleaned and ready for our walk thru, the issue of too much work for too few people came to a head. For every new problem we discovered, we found a different service representative in our rig.
Today, we took the Everest in for a couple repairs. Our “appointment” was for 8:30 am. We were there only to wait and wait. Gene, who is not one to wait indefinitely, after several hours went to see why our rig was still sitting in the parking lot. That was when he learned that there really are no “appointments”. The policy is to get everyone finished in one day. The service department just works until all rigs are out of the service bays. Well, great. We could be here till dark. At the very end, about mid afternoon, when the service writer came to tell us our rig was ready, Gene asked if he needed to sign something. With a bewildered look on her face, she asked if she had forgotten to have him sign the work order this morning.
Oh, that man on the floor at the front door—we saw him a couple days later, at Camping World, of course. Apparently his condition was not as dire as ours.
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