When we acquired our new motorhome and headed out for places unknown we knew that RV service would be a major factor in our travels. At home this had never been an issue. We enjoyed extremely good service from our local Alpenlite dealer, Valley RV in Mt. Vernon, WA. We had purchased both our fiver and a truck camper from them, and they always provided both good service and an accommodating schedule. But we were about to be everywhere except "at home", and we would be nowhere near either the selling dealer or the manufacturer, both located in Junction City, Oregon.
We were pleased to learn that when service issues did arise, we could always contact the Country Coach factory. They have designated persons whose job it is to assist owners with any service or parts requirements they may have while they're on the road. And this isn't just fluff -- they're equally accessible via a toll free number or email; and they've proved extremely useful in locating a qualified service center.
But once the service appointment has been scheduled and arranged, our experience depends entirely on the service department of the dealer or other facility where we've been directed. We've now accummulated a bit of experience with RV service on the new rig, as we iron out the inevitable things that one needs to address with any new rig, and do a bit of aftermarket shopping for a few bells and whistles we decided we really wanted to have. In one or twe cases the service center experience was in some respects disappointing. Whether this was because we somehow failed to communicate effectively concerning the items requiring service, or simply because the items were not fully addressed, we can't be certain. However, we've also had some favorable experiences which we think deserve specific comment. In so doing, as with our usual practice we do not intent our comments as an "endorsement" of particular RV service centers. We mean only to report on the favorable experiences we've had, and to identify a few persons with whom we had a positive experience.
1. Guarantee RV -- Indio, CA area mobile service unit. Preliminarily we'd note we've not had any occasion to use the main service department of Guarantee RV in Junction City, OR. However, while we were spending a week in Palm Desert we were quite surprised to see a service van with "Guarantee RV" labels on the outside. Apparently a handful of the service techs from Junction City winter in the Palm Desert area, since there are a large number of their units (as well as RVs from other dealers) in the area during the winter months -- a time when RVing in central Oregon is not overly popular. In our case, we were fortunate to find the van piloted by Scott Charter, an over-wintering Guarantee service technician from Junction City. Scott was quickly able to do a small add-on for us, and at the same time review a few items we hadn't fully understood about our rig. We were extremely impressed with Scott's extensive knowledge of both chassis and house issues, and we'd certainly ask for him by name were we to have the need for Guarantee service -- whether a winter issue in Palm Desert, or a summer matter in Oregon.
2. Beaudry RV -- Tucson, AZ: We'll have to confess our initial impression was that Beaudry was more of a high volume sales entity than a service facility. So when Country Coach set up an appointment for us in Tucson, we were a bit concerned. After all, we hadn't purchased our motorhome from Beaudry. Would we somehow get second rate service? While we can't speak for the experience of others, ours was quite positive. It's a very large and busy shop -- especially during the peak Snowbird months. There are several dozen service bays, one side dedicated to chassis service, and the other specializing in "house" issues. The administrative heart of the operations is the cadre of "Service Advisors". One is assigned to each incoming rig; and that person is the primary contact for all issues during the visit. We found that certain of the service techs have primary responsibility for what Beaudry dubs the "highline" coaches. We felt fortunate to have two very capable service techs assigned to our unit. Larry Everhart was our chassis tech, and we were very positively impressed with the scope and depth of his knowledge about the chassis of our specific unit. We observed as he worked through an issue, making multiple calls to the factory as he proceeded. We couldn't help but feel as if he was very much our "advocate" with the factory in getting approval for the prescribed fix. We subsequently met Fred Brooks, who works on "house" matters, and who was addressing an issue we had with one of the appliances. Here again, we were affirmatively impressed with both his knowledge and helpfulness. Our Service Advisor, Scott MacNeil, also deserves special mention. It seemed obvious to us that the staff of Service Advisors is asked to handle a heavier daily schedule than can reasonably be accomplished. There are simply too many rigs and RV owners with their own set of problems -- and too few Service Advisors to handle the load even under the best of circumstances. Nevertheless, in this hectic environment somehow Scott managed to keep the status of our rig in mind, and kept us in touch with progress. Actually, at Beaudry the owners can pretty much do that themselves, since both the house and chassis bays are served by a long corridor which RVers are invited to use to see what's going on with their rigs at any point in time. We did miss on one item, which Scott later said resulted from his failure to write it down. However, not only did he take responsibility for that item, but he later sent a mobile unit to the nearby park where we were staying in Tucson to try to remedy the situation. All in all we think our initial belief that Beaudry is primarily a sales oriented dealership was misplaced. Their service center is an incredibly busy place, and their Service Advisors have more on their plate than they can reasonably accommodate. But we thought Scott did a good job for us, and we were favorably impressed by the service techs who did the work for us. (Addendum 01/02): We subsequently had occasion to return to Beaudry for another service item. Getting a timely appointment proved difficult, and this time the "intake procedure" was not well organized. Instead of an orderly way for signing in RVs at the beginning of the service day, it became a "free for all" with anxious RV owners cutting in front of each other unfairly to get in sooner. Moreover our own problem was diagnosed as taking more time than they had that day, so it was not fixed and we were charged for their time in making that diagnosis.
3. Once we'd worked our way through the items which were primarily "punchlist" issues, we found our interest in RV service related less to a few "clean up" items, and more to our interest in adding a few conveniences from the world of the RV aftermarket. It was in this context that we were referred by Country Coach to Pro-Tech RV Service Center in Seguin, TX. Seguin is a delightful town located about 20 minutes east of San Antonio, and just off Interstate 10. This was our first time sampling RV service from other than a dealer. Pro-Tech is purely an RV service center. It does not sell RVs; and its service agenda does not have competition from an inventory of RVs offered for sale. We found the entire experience quite refreshing.
Our introduction to Pro-Tech was done via three-way conference call initiated by Country Coach's DynoMax Chassis team. We were introduced (by phone) to Thomas Milligan, who was to become our Service Advisor during our visit to Pro-Tech. Once the chassis item was explained to Thomas, we picked up on the conversation with some "wish list" items we'd wanted to consider adding to our new coach.
Our stay at Pro-Tech (which has ample overnight sites with power) turned out to be a bit longer than we'd anticipated. But that was due to parts we'd ordered not arriving on time. We had a good chance to sample the attitude of service patrons in the comfortable RVers lounge, and the reports seemed to be uniformly positive. These folks are able to handle everything from routine service to major reconstructive surgery. We noted a framed "Award" from online acquaintences Ron and Barbara Hofmeister, thanking them for their outstanding efforts in restoring their damaged rig.
Our own service tech was "J.D." -- a very professional RV service technician who had recently completed a service program at the Country Coach manufacturing plant. J.D. kept us posted on the progress of our unit as it went through the various services we'd arranged, including it's first lube and oil appointment, our carefully planned-for extraction of the ice maker, and the installation of a Heart 458 panel to give us far more information about the status of our house battery bank. We ordered up a special service which provided precise corner weights on the coach, after it had been "prepared" by emptying the waste water, and filling both the water and fuel tanks. Based on this information, they provided specific recommendations for tire pressures at each corner.
This seemed like a bit of a "family operation". The attitudes were positive. And while our experience was generally satisfactory, we were disappointed to learn after we'd been back on the road only a short time a leak in our slider which they'd "fixed" for us hadn't solved the problem. (Addendum 01/02) On a return visit we were fortunate to again have JD as our service tech, and he quickly diagnosed and addressed the issues we brought him on this return visit. Still a quality shop...)
4. Country Coach Factory Service -- Our primary reliance for service during our warranty period was on the Country Coach factory. There are really two distinct types of "service" involved here. One is a toll free number we could call (or an email address we could use and know it would be read promptly) that put us in touch with a team of service advisors, working under the general supervision of Jim Cooley. These tech advisors were often able to diagnose problems (some of which were really "non-problems" reflecting our own lack of technical expertise) we encountered wherever we happened to be in the country. Where they couldn't talk us through an immediate fix, they were able to assist in setting up a service appointment nearby. And they were available as well to the service personnel working on our coach wherever we went for service. It seems most service centers we visited had a high regard for Country Coach -- especially in relying on their reputation for paying fairly and promplty for the work they'd do for us.
The other aspect of service is the factory's own service center, where we took our coach on two separate occasions. One was after a couple of shakedown trips, and was for the purpose of coming up with a punch list of items which needed adjusting or correcting. The second was a scheduled year-end warranty service appointment to address any remaining issues we had just before the one year factory warranty expired. On both occasions we were impressed by a number of factors. First, we concluded that Country Coach's success in selling new units was such that it had begun to put a great deal of "demand pressure" on owners of newer units returning for precisely the same types of service requests we had. As a consequence, their overnight parking spaces were usually completely filled -- even when they added about 10 additional spaces during the course of the year. A second consquence, which was especially evident at the beginning of the year, was that they really seemed to be understaffed in terms of their ability to complete repairs on a timely basis. A third factor was that all owners were treated with the utmost courtesy and respect, even where some owners were obviously frustrated at the time required to complete the scheduled appointment.
At our year-end visit, the volume of service work had increased still further, but we saw signs that Country Coach was taking serious steps to attempt to improve its factory service. One obvious sign was their going to a ten hour work day. This meant that service patrons were asked to be out of their coaches by 06:45 AM; and they would not see them again until the drivers returned them around 5:30PM. Our impression was that they were still strained beyond their capacity -- but gaining on the problem. One procedural change seemed to be extremely helpful. In addition to having the assigned service advisor (in our case Loren Cassidy) review the list of items to be done, a second review was set up to include both the service advisor and the "Team Leader" (in our case Chris Snyder). Each service "team" is comprised of 6-8 persons with different specialties (house, chassis, etc); and each team has certain of the coaches in for service assigned to it. So the same folks work on your unit each day you're there. The second review, which involved both Loren and Chris, gave me the opportunity to ensure that everyone -- especially the folks who would be doing the work -- had as much information as I could give them about what the problems and needed solutions were. While this extra step probably slowed the process by an hour on the first day, I'm certain it resulted in an overall speedup on getting our service list accomplished -- and in a truly quality way. When we took our unit in we knew one of the items was a very small leak in the top outside corner of the slider. We'd had that "fixed" before -- but like so many "fixes" it hadn't stayed fixed -- and we still had a slight leak. What we really didn't know, and could not have known, was that the water intrusion was far more extensive than was visible to us. Chris had seen this one before, and said it would be necessary to have the rig overnight for two nights so they could take the slider completely out, and practically rebuild the walls from the inside out -- which is precisely what they did. We were greatly impressed with their discovery of this issue, and of the quality of the repairs which followed.
5. Carrier & Sons, Eugene, OR. We'd had a number of reader recommendations to this family operated service center, and after our warranty period had expired we had occasion to give it a try. We were not disappointed. We found both highly competent service technicians and highly a highly professional approach to ensuring each customer's needs is addressed with care. We found overnight facilities here as well. For many seeking RV service of any type while in the Eugene area, this may be a place you can get into on shorter notice than local factory service (Safari, Monaco, Country Coach) -- and you won't be disappointed with the results.
The bottom line here is we're confident that no one in the RV world has been able to achieve the distinction of being the "perfect service department". This is due to many pressures, some of which are controllable, and others less so. It's also due, in our view, to imperfect communications on the part of RV owners, and on occasion to their impatience -- whether deserved or otherwise. There are still far too many service centers where things just plain don't get fixed correctly the first time -- resulting in delays and costs -- some of which will be reflected in the price of new RVs.