RV Owners Rights Group


sepisllib

New Member
Is there one - that one may join that serves to assist the owner of RV's in cases when the dealers and companies seem to walk away from their responsibilities?

I certainly have found issues that should not exist.

I have the 1993 Tourmaster with the Sparten Mountain Home chassis. I discovered a swaybar link broken off. A phone call to Gulfstream resulted in the old thing - that's Sparten's problem - call them for the parts.

Calling Sparten I was connected to a young man who rather rudely asked for the last part of the VIN number. I gave it to him and then he put me on hold for a couple of minutes. He returned and told me that the swaybar was not installed on this chassis at the Sparten factory prior to shippment to Gulfstream - that it must have been installed by Gulfstream or an aftermarket dealer. He then hung up.

I called Gulfstream back and the state customer service rep called me and advised me that Sparten did indeed install the swaybar - that I should call back Sparten and ask for a specific customer parts person. I was told that the parts person I had gotten hold of was a little less than intelligent and could care less about the customer.

I called that person - within minutes he faxed me the exact swaybar system that was on my unit - (it even had Sparten written in on the part numbers) - and I called him back and ordered the partd. They arrived 3 days later.

Passing the buck is something that happens all too often - frustrates us customers and irritates the living daylights out of us. I believe that the design, common sense, and relationships between customers and dealers and companies could be improved by formation of a groups rights bunch.

Some of the designs I see out there defy common sense and intelligence.

Input - thoughts from any one and everyone.

Oh Yes - I wrote a complaint to Sparten Company about that first customer service person - I advised them that as a businessman myself - had I learned of a customer rep that did this to one of my customers - that young man would no longer be an employee of mine. I never have received so much as a acknowledgement. That's sad!

God Bless

Bill & Judy
 

ARCHER

Senior Member
RV Owners Rights Group

Bill & Judy, Sorry to hear about your issue with Sparten. I think it is the exception rather than the rule. As with "Any" business out there, there are people who are not customer friendly and need some lessons in such. I think they are better handled on a case by case basis by the people involved, with guidance sought out from people like on this web site.
I have had bad experiences and great experiences, with the great ones out weighing the bad ones, so I don't get too rattled when a bad one comes along. Life is too short to focus on the negative.... :)
 

sepisllib

New Member
RV Owners Rights Group

Archer - thank you for your input and I agree that MOST of the issues people run into out there are handled ok.

But - the fact remains that in general terms the industry has a history of shuffling off some issues (usually out of warranty ones) to the maker of a particular part or system of that unit.

My issue was resolved simply because I handled it where-as some people (especially older) would become frustrated over it. All it does for me is irritate (and as I stated - my employee and I would fire that employee). Yes - I have fired an employee for that reason!

I feel that IF you manufacture a product - that product (in it's entirety) becomes YOUR responsibility - regardless of the systems, machinery, processes, etc that it may contain. It should be the company's responsibility to maintain parts availablilty and customer services for that product as long as legally required.

In addition to these thoughts - I feel that in order for companies to produce a better, more viable, and more friendly RV - that they need to be taking into serious consideration the needs and desires of the ultimate user. All too often I see products that are designed by someone (engineer or otherwise) - and the end product is something that simply is not user friendly.

My position - and I could give you numerous examples of designs that simply make no sense and are user un-friendly. In each case the re-design would be simple and result in a better product.

God Bless

Bill and Judy
 

Kirk

Senior Member
RV Owners Rights Group

sepisllib

I think that you might be interested in the RV Consumer Group located at www.rv.org. They are working to get more responsibility from the industry, as well as other issures.
 
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