Letter To Bob Olsen Longer Warranty for new coaches

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ct78barnes

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 13, 2010
Posts
108
Location
Bryan Ohio
Dear  Bob Olson, Chairman, CEO, and President of Winnebago Industries,

  We have been a loyal Winnebago customers since 2006. Our first coach was a 2003 Sightseer and we had such good luck with our used coach we special ordered this coach in March of this year and took delivery of our new coach on May 19 of this year.  We knew up front that we would have bugs to work out in the first year and if you run our VIN number you will see we had our fair share in the first four months of service. That said, we are still loyal customers and I just got sworn in as Vice President of our WIT club. The reason for this email to you is that we are part of the baby boomer generation, your future customers. We are the youngest of our club at 52; with our kids through college and on their own, and with our house paid for we bit the bullet and ordered our new coach.

  The problem with more of us younger boomers is your warranty is only 12 months.  I think you would sell more coaches to us younger customers if you would give a longer warranty. With the way the economy has been, a lot of people have had to postpone their retirement and keep working. I am still working and we live in Ohio. So from November 1st until April 1st we have to put our brand new coach in storage in a building at our local fairgrounds.  In essence, we lose 5 months of warranty.

  I think that if you want to grow your business with our age group you need to have a storage option like GMAC Insurance.  They allow us to put our coach in storage mode and just keep fire and theft until spring when we get it out storage.  You could require proof that our coach is in storage or out of service.

This is the letter I sent to him but Customer service got it. I think you should be able to talk or email him and not have Customer service determine what he sees. I wonder how many good ideas that he gets but never sees because some one thinks it is not worth his time.
 
Newmar used to have a three year house warranty which was extremely popular but it turned out to be too expensive for their business model.  Bob O will do what he needs to keep the company profitable while providing good and competitive value for customers, but nothing wrong with a wish list  :D.
 
I agree there should be a longer warranty for the hundreds of thousands we pay for Winnebago products. Why do we have to deal with all the problems during the first 12 months of service. (We northerners only have 6 months of warranty) I have been to Forest City,countless times,after I bought our new coach and have personally witnessed all the problems people have had with their new units and some of the aggravation they have to experience with customer service. I was a plant superintendent in a manufacturing facility and we had stringent "Quality Control" in place during the manufacturing process.

I believe if Winnebago had "Quality Control" in place and were committed to the quality phrase "DIRTFT" (do it right the first time) they would have a lot more satisfied customers and would definitely save money on service work. I have had the opportunity to talk to some of their employees in a non business environment and they stated the "Quality Control" they have has something to be desired. What they basically said that if there is a problem on the line that problem is ignored and they think it will be fixed at another work station. Winnebago should accept "Zero Defects" as a slogan for their manufacturing process and from their suppliers as well.

Quality starts with Bob Olsen and works its way down. Maybe that's why he didn't receive your letter but instead it went to customer service. Bob is probably to busy to talk to his customers and that is a "big mistake"

Its been stated on this thread that we have come to accept all the intiall problems we experience with new motorhomes. What is wrong with this thinking!!!!
 
I'm in agreement, too.  I am on my second Winnebago and have had a fair share of warranty issues.  I'm long out of the Winnie 12 month warranty, but tonight I am sitting at a Freightliner dealer in PA (I'm a full timer) with a failed alternator that Cat is going to replace under warranty for me tomorrow.  Cat has a 60 month, 200,000 mile warranty on their product and with my 07 Journey, I'm still in the warranty window until May 2012.  Cat stands behind its product.

Best Regards!
 
Maybe buy some chance he would check this site out and see what his customers are going through and a least read our post. That would be a step in the right direction.
 
Perhaps for those that wanted it, Winnebago could provide a "real" Extended Warranty by adding years to the warranty and covering every thing exactly like they do the first year, for an additional charge.
 
That is a good idea just like at Best Buy and buying a TV they ask you if you want a longer Warranty. A lot of people borrow money for there coaches so while getting the loan get a Winnebago extended Warranty.
 
And exactly who is really going to be bearing the cost of two more additional years of warranty? The people who purchase the new motorhomes. As notoriously bad as RV dealerships are at taking care of warranty items why would anyone want the price of their new RV to go even higher so they can get lousy service?

The smart move in my book is to never buy a new RV, then I don't suffer a gigantic depreciation hit, I never have to put up with a dealership and I never having to put up with lousy warranty work. I prefer to buy used and save a lot of money up front and a lot of hassle after I buy it. The money saved from buy used will more than pay for any repairs I ever have to make to the RV, including a complete engine and transmission replacement.
 
John Hilley said:
Perhaps for those that wanted it, Winnebago could provide a "real" Extended Warranty by adding years to the warranty and covering every thing exactly like they do the first year, for an additional charge.

I agree John
We would pay for additional coverage - but it has to full coverage / extended warranty!

regards, pdq
 
Jayco and Entegra have a 2 yr 24,000 mile warranty on their coaches.  Their prices are comparable with others.
 
soilboy said:
Jayco and Entegra have a 2 yr 24,000 mile warranty on their coaches.  Their prices are comparable with others.
And how much cheaper would the cost of these rigs be if they only had a one year warranty?
 
Dear Mr. Barnes,

Your email addressed to Mr. Bob Olson has been referred to the Service Administration Department for response.

Winnebago Industries regrets any difficulties you have experienced with your 2011 Sightseer.  Our sincere desire is to provide quality products and service to all Winnebago owners.

Maybe a web cast where Winnebago could take questions and they could buffer which questions Bob could or would chose to answer.
 
Warranties cost money and that extra cost becomes part of the selling price. Until customers stop buying a brand with a 12 month warranty and choose a slightly more expensive brand with a longer warranty, things won't change much in the industry.  As it stands right now, more people choose an RV based on styling than anything else, so that is driving the industry. Buyers jumped onto full body paint schemes at an extra cost of $7000-$15,000 and every single RV manufacturer now offers them, either standard or optional. Getting prospective customers to pay and extra $1000-$2000 for an additional 12 months of warranty seems to be a tougher sell.
 
As a 20 year plus owner, I remember John K Hansen (Winnebago Founder) walking around the grounds at GNR asking owners about their rigs and directing the owners with problems to customer service, real customer service.  Profit being the bottom line,I deplore what the company has done to WIT, it's staff as well as the lack of control over dealers and the cavalier attitude toward customers and more importantly those left with a poor taste in their mouth who want to buy another rig but turn from Winnebago to SOB's.

Is my present rig a lemon, pretty darn close with thousands of dollars out of pocket for repairs that should not have been and numerous items that are wrong I just  put up with.

Don



 
I too have been a long time Winnebago customer.  My first coach was a 1998 Minnie Winnie DL (29').  I had served as our WIT chapter President (San Juanderers) and DW did a term as secretary (for a different Prez.).  I had to bob and weave like crazy to keep from getting elected as state president.  We didn't want the commitment as we had plans to travel first.  Little did I realize when we bought our current coach we would go fulltime.  Now I feel the need to upgrade to suit our new life.  The problem is the "built in obsolesce" of the Winnebago product and the need to upgrade occurred at the same time.  I know there will be great debate about the term built in obsolesce vs. wear out. I use a great dealership (Roy Robinson of Marysville, WA) and they do want they can with warranty and repairs.  I have even been back to the factory for service.  Outside of the multiple GNR trips. Always satisfaction in the 90% plus range.  Never 100% satisfied with the quality of the workmanship at either location.  Now I am contemplating an upgrade and laying out close to 300 grand (if not more)  and with all I have read and the changes WinnegaboInd. has made to their product line I find myself hard pressed to remain "a loyal Winnebago" customer.  A longer warranty on their AND standing behind their vendor products may go a longggggg way in keeping them in consideration.
 
If Winnebago Industries would put in place a Total Quality System, their manufacturing and warranty costs would decrease dramatically.  Typical savings in manufacturing costs alone run in the 25-30% range.  With this type of program they could afford to offer extended warranties.  All of the problems I had with my new coach would not have been present if they had a good quality program in place.  I was in manufacturing for 40 years and have reaped the benefits of TQC and similar programs.
 
It's good to see mercoupe50 has had the opportunity to work in a great system that involves TQS. The manufacturing division of our company committed themselves to Phil Cosby's philosophy of Total Quality Control and I was picked to attend Cosby's Quality College and to become the instructor for teaching the management team.

To read these threads that they can't afford to offer more extended warranty and if they did it would add more cost to the motor home itself. If you look back a few years to when the Japanese cars offered more warranty coverage than US built cars it was because the Japanese built a more sound car and they did this by not accepting any defects in the manufacturing of their cars. It took us (the US) awhile to realize the US consumer was not going to accept poorly built cars with limited warranties and to win the American consumers trust again, the the auto industry would have to change. I personally feel the U.S. auto worker has exceeded  expectations.

Before I wish the Japanese would come over here to show us how to correctly build a motorhome lets give Winnebago one more shot at allowing their employees to take "Pride" in their work.
 
I have had to replace the bed room TV the rear monitor a slide motor and board all in the first four months of ownership. Most of the vendors also only have a 12 month Warranty. I also have not got the levelers to work in auto. These where all covered with the warranty but I think Winnebago should work with there vendors to give a longer warranty . Most of my problems are with Winnebago,s vendors but it is Winnebago who picks the vendors and we get to deal with them.
 
If the Winie is so unreliable why buy one?
Reliability is a qualty that consumers want, as clearly demonstrated by the Japanese car posting. When companies recogise they are losing custom because conumers know they are unreliable and they have no responsibility to make them reliable then they will change. One important reason for buying a Chevrolet was that it offered a 5 year powertrain warranty. If the product is good the warranty will not add anything to the cost of manufacture. Our Chevy warranty cost Chevrolet nothing - because the product was good and nothing went wrong with it.
As I mentioned in another thread, U.K. trailers (AKA caravans) used to have a bad rep for water ingress. The leading caravan company - Bailey, now offer a 10 year water ingress warranty (with small print caveats of course, like keeping service records), however changes in their build technology now mean that the warranty will cost them very little.
It's not a nice thought that a company knows that it will cost its customers on average $2000 in repairs within two years of production. Perhaps its time Winnie went the away and had a rethink.
 
fastrak100 wrote: If the Winie is so unreliable why buy one?

I agree and we have taken Winnebago off our shopping list.  And yes the next brand may not be any better, but it's worth a try.
 
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