Yesterday we arrived at Sea Perch, coast of Oregon, yesterday where we'll be until Sunday morning. It's a great place to recover my good humour which I lost on Tuesday because of damn poor service at Cummins Northwest, in Coburg, OR.
In early March I had booked for an oil change and chassis lube on my F460 Winnebago Elandan, as well as a full service on my Onan generator, which is running well but was really overdue for service--like an oil and filter change, new spark plug, tweaking the carburettor and choke settings, etc. Oh yes, the date I was booking for was March 27.
When I booked, I asked mor ethan once, Do you folks work on gasolene MH engines? Yes, we do; no problem doing oil and filters on the 460. On the 26th I called to make sure that I was still on their books. I was, they said, and I asked what for: they repeated my requests correctly. That I took for a good sign.
I arrived punctually for my appointment. It took them half an hour mousing and clicking to get my work order printed so that I could sign it.
About an hour an forty-five minutes later, the service advisor called me to say that the techie had turned in the sheets and I was reszady to go other than paying the bill. He did not go over the detailed invoice with me, but as he was running my credit card through I had a look--and what did I see.
First, the fuel filter on the Onan not changed; they didn't have one in stock. Now to be clear, these folk are an Onan Certified establishment.
Second, no reference to any work on the 460. I asked about this; the service advisor went to check with the techie; the answer was, the techie overlooked this matter on the work order.
This is, at this point, annoying, but not a disaster. We agreed to hit the 460 after lunch whereupon I retired to the MH for my lunch. A coffee would go nicely with my sandwich so I thought I'd fire up the Onan to drive the electric kettle. Damn, wouldn't start from the switch in the MH; out to the generator for the local switch--cough, cough, belch sputter, but no run. Hmmmh--well, actually it was an expletive.
Back inside I had a look at the Hobbs; the hundredth of the meter had not moved--I'm anal, I keep a log of that info! Back outside to have another look at the genset: yup, a new filter--oil drip not wiped up; but, no evidence that the choke or "accelerator" arm (sorry, don't know the technical terms for these things) had been touched.
Not long after, the techie--a young man--shows up ready to take the rig for work on the 460. I tell him the Onan won't run. Says it ran for him when he tried it. In a clearly surprised voice I tell him the Hobbs meter hasn't moved and say, well let's try it together. Well, it takes him about a minute of intermittent "trys" to get it to run, with his finger on that accelerator arm.
He offers to shut it down and take the MH for the work on the 460. I demur and say I'm off for a chat with the service folk and ask him to return the work order folder to the service desk.
Back inside, I describe the situation--in my most calm voice--explaining that it seems that for them a full service on the Onan is only an oil and filter change, not even pulling the plug to see if it's fouled and perhaps needed a change. I wanted to suggest the techie needed an English language reading check even though he appeared to be of solid USA stock, but didn't. I closed by declaring my complete loss of confidence in Cummins Northwest and left.
The good news is that today I'm recovering nicely.
Ciao,
Doug
In early March I had booked for an oil change and chassis lube on my F460 Winnebago Elandan, as well as a full service on my Onan generator, which is running well but was really overdue for service--like an oil and filter change, new spark plug, tweaking the carburettor and choke settings, etc. Oh yes, the date I was booking for was March 27.
When I booked, I asked mor ethan once, Do you folks work on gasolene MH engines? Yes, we do; no problem doing oil and filters on the 460. On the 26th I called to make sure that I was still on their books. I was, they said, and I asked what for: they repeated my requests correctly. That I took for a good sign.
I arrived punctually for my appointment. It took them half an hour mousing and clicking to get my work order printed so that I could sign it.
About an hour an forty-five minutes later, the service advisor called me to say that the techie had turned in the sheets and I was reszady to go other than paying the bill. He did not go over the detailed invoice with me, but as he was running my credit card through I had a look--and what did I see.
First, the fuel filter on the Onan not changed; they didn't have one in stock. Now to be clear, these folk are an Onan Certified establishment.
Second, no reference to any work on the 460. I asked about this; the service advisor went to check with the techie; the answer was, the techie overlooked this matter on the work order.
This is, at this point, annoying, but not a disaster. We agreed to hit the 460 after lunch whereupon I retired to the MH for my lunch. A coffee would go nicely with my sandwich so I thought I'd fire up the Onan to drive the electric kettle. Damn, wouldn't start from the switch in the MH; out to the generator for the local switch--cough, cough, belch sputter, but no run. Hmmmh--well, actually it was an expletive.
Back inside I had a look at the Hobbs; the hundredth of the meter had not moved--I'm anal, I keep a log of that info! Back outside to have another look at the genset: yup, a new filter--oil drip not wiped up; but, no evidence that the choke or "accelerator" arm (sorry, don't know the technical terms for these things) had been touched.
Not long after, the techie--a young man--shows up ready to take the rig for work on the 460. I tell him the Onan won't run. Says it ran for him when he tried it. In a clearly surprised voice I tell him the Hobbs meter hasn't moved and say, well let's try it together. Well, it takes him about a minute of intermittent "trys" to get it to run, with his finger on that accelerator arm.
He offers to shut it down and take the MH for the work on the 460. I demur and say I'm off for a chat with the service folk and ask him to return the work order folder to the service desk.
Back inside, I describe the situation--in my most calm voice--explaining that it seems that for them a full service on the Onan is only an oil and filter change, not even pulling the plug to see if it's fouled and perhaps needed a change. I wanted to suggest the techie needed an English language reading check even though he appeared to be of solid USA stock, but didn't. I closed by declaring my complete loss of confidence in Cummins Northwest and left.
The good news is that today I'm recovering nicely.
Ciao,
Doug
