Forest River Inc. makes a change in warranty parts policy for dealers.
According to a press release, dealers will no longer be required to procure warranty parts through Forest River. The company now encourages dealers to procure parts in “the most expeditious manner” in order to get the customers’ coach repaired and back on the road in the shortest time possible. The release stated that Forest River is paying for the part and parts markup regardless of where it is purchased through its revised warranty policy.
“Our industry needs to do a better job of meeting customer expectations after the sale. Meeting those expectations requires us to make the warranty parts ordering process easier, more efficient and customer focused, with an end goal of getting these parts to our dealers faster in order to expedite customer repairs,” said Forest River CEO Peter Liegl. “Forest River is excited to announce improvements aimed specifically at these objectives.”
According to Liegl, the move represented an effort initiated by Forest River which suppliers stepped up to support. “We have eliminated a great deal of waste, hassle and commotion as a result of last year’s warranty parts policy change regarding must return parts and holding parts,” he said. “Now our dealers can focus on taking care of the customers rather than wasting time and resources on storing, tracking and returning defective parts.”
Well we have purchased a 33bh Shasta revere last year. New! It came from the warehouse with a flooring patch job by the door. The bedroom door fell off of the hinges and the shower has no caulking around it. Our dealer did not tell us about the warranty repairs it needed before we signed the papers. So, after last season, we pull the trailer back to the dealer where they ensure us that they will be changing the entire living space with new flooring, fixing the. DVD player that didn’t work and a few other issues ( that a brand new trailer should not have). So, when this work was “done” they told us to come and get it. At that point we did not see the inside and parked it for the winter. Well 2.5 weeks ago we opened it and the patch job was worse then when we took it back! So we took it back to the dealer and have now missed 3 weeks of camping. I just think this is a funny senerio after reading how that changes have been made to make the process of warranty work faster. I am really not impressed with the dealer or shotty craftsmanship of my trailer. To some people $32,000 may be chump change but to my family (4 kids), this was to be our family investment and we are missing out on memories due to ill decisions made by Forest River.