Lazydays to perform our final Warranty work

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UK-RV

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 25, 2005
Posts
822
Location
UK
Hi Guys

You will recall all the hassle we had when buying our new Expedition from Lazydays (LD) in early 2006 (see HERE).

Well, as you know, we have endured problem after problem whilst on the road over the past 12 months, visiting dealer after dealer for repairs, and have now passed the 28,000 mile mark on the RV.

As we approached 15,000 miles (the maximum covered under the Fleetwood warranty) in September, we made a list of outstanding problem areas and sent it to Fleetwood.

They agreed in writing that we could get the work done by January 2007 at the latest - this WAS very good of them as we ARE 13,000 miles over that warranty limit now.

Anyway, we knew we were going to be in Florida but didn't know any dealers in the State other than LD - who we know have full service repair facilities to handle the varied aspects of our outstanding work.

Despite my concerns at the way we were dealt with last year, LD staff repeatedly told us (on this forum) that our experience was rare and we should give them another chance to put things right.

So, in December we called LD to arrange for our Warranty work to be done.

We were informed that the earliest they could fit us in was February (19th) so we contacted Fleetwood again and they kindly agreed to extend our Warranty to the end of February - so we are now booked at LD for February 19th 2007.

If you dont mind, I want to keep a log on the forum to detail how we get on with LD this time around.

Below, are a list of the items being handled under the Fleetwood Warranty, the indicator problem from last year and an Insurance Claim we lodged last week :-

Warranty Items

LEAKS TO BEDROOM AND DRIVERS WINDOW
NAILS STICKING THRU WOOD BEHIND DINER
PAINT DAMAGE TO SURROUND OF WATER HEATER
FAULTY LATCHES/LOCKS TO SEVERAL BAYS
BAY DOORS ARE BADLY ALIGNED / REPAIR DAMAGED DOOR
MAIN SLIDE RETRACTS AT AN ANGLE
FRONT SIDE OF COACH HAS DROPPED CAUSING MOULDING CRACK
DAMAGE TO RUBBER DOOR TRIM
BADLY WARPED CLOTHES RAIL
WATER PUMP STRUGGLES WITH FLOW
RIGHT WINDSHIELD NOT SECURE
OVERTEMP PROBLEM

Insurance Claim

Whilst driving back from Key West, we suffered a large crack to the left-side windshield and also a small dent to the front of the RV and a stone chip to the front side.

Progressive took a look at the RV and authorised LD to perform the repairs.

The bill is $1700 and we have to pay $250 of that.

The replacement windshield was ordered by LD last Friday (February 2nd)

Amber Indicators

You may recall that we need amber turn indicators for the UK.

When LD fitted the wrong lights last year, Matt (our salesman) stated we could buy the correct lights and they would fit them free of charge and refund us for the wrong lights.

We emailed Matt in December and he asked us to "remind him" what he had promised.

Im keeping my fingers crossed that this won't prove to be a problem when we get there !!


Over this weekend, Im going to email our list of repairs to LD and detail each one separately so they are clear as to the problems.

Im going to remind them of last years issues (for which Ive NEVER had a reply from them despite writing) and let them know Im keeping this log for all to see.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us that LD have indeed improved their service facility and all goes well.

Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, I can report a very positive LD experience !!

If not, I'll post it here warts and all.

Regards
Paul

PS remember that last year we didnt have a toad whilst stuck at LD and had to sit in their waiting room for day after day? - well, we've just sold the toad, so will once again be stuck in their waiting room - hopefully it wont be day after day this time  :)





 
Paul,

You could always rent a car while at LD. The rental company will be glad to pick you up to take you to the office to get the car and take you back to LD at the end of the rental period.
 
We're thinking of booking a 3 or 4 night cruise (or should we go for 7 or 10 ?  ::)).

The benefit is that LD will have full access to the RV whilst we're away.

The drawback is we may get back and find they havent done anything whilst we're away.

But, yes, their concierge can arrange a hire car too.

Paul
 
We were booked in for 8:45 at Lazydays today.

Last week, we were passing the Dealership so decided to call in.

Reception Staff

We asked if it were possible for someone to "write up" our work schedule at ANY time during the week, which would allow us to drop the RV with them (on Sat 17th) for a week whilst we went on a cruise.

This would have meant LD had free and easy access to the RV without having to work around us fulltimers.

Unfortunately, we were met with a total wall of "no ways" - "we're too busy".

Matt Sibbick

We wanted to see Matt (our salesman from last year) to ensure he had remembered the agreement to refund us for the incorrect lights they fitted last year.

Matt has now been promoted to work in Crown Club, but came over for a chat.

We explained that we had tried to get the "write up" done early and explained the reasons for it.

Matt took us into the service area and arranged for the SPARE service advisor to write our schedule - it took all of 10 minutes, so Thank You Matt !!

However, we later decided that we were uncomfortable leaving the RV with them - fearing little would have been done during the week - so decided to stay at LD each night.

More to follow

Paul



 
Monday February 19th

Our Service Advisor - Justin

We arrived at 8:45am today for our appointment - scheduled since early December.

At 9:50am our Service Advisor, Justin, was finally ready to see us - OVER 1 HOUR LATE.

We took a deep breath as this was not how we wanted our first day to start.

I had taken the time to write 2 pages detailing the issues with the RV and also attached copies of emails between us and Fleetwood authorising the work, which we gave to Justin.

We then left Justin to get on with the work and tried to sort out a rental car thru the Concierge desk (we had been trying since last Thursday without success as the stand-in girl didn't know what to do).

At 10am we were told Enterprise would collect us within 15 minutes - we were collected 75 minutes later, and managed to go for a drive at 12 noon (and noticed the RV parked where we had left it).

Shortly afterwards, we received a call from Progressive Insurance to say LD had asked them to re-inspect the insurance work and that Progressive were writing an extra check for nearly $300 of extra labor charges - no problem for us, just a courtesy call really.

We got back to LD at 4.50pm and went to find the RV.

Hector - our Technician

We found Justin inside the RV going over the days work with Hector, our technician.

And, I have to say that I was both impressed to see Justin there checking on things and also at the amount of work Hector had completed - he really seems to have his head screwed on and took an interest in what he's doing.

So, to sum up today :-

We had a VERY poor start to the day, but it ended with us feeling much more positive for the days ahead (fingers crossed).

Paul






 
Paul,

If you get a chance pop and see Rod Nichols at Lazydays,he was the British salesman we spoke to at length in Sept last year. Tell him we are just as keen and hope to come and see him with our order this year. :) :)
 
Mick

Ive been trying to find Rod, but he's never in his office.

I want to extract any info about a certain dealer who was over here a couple of weeks ago - you know who !!  ;)

Paul
 
Tuesday February 20th

We were parked in the service bay for the night - very bright lights on all night and someone throttling an engive at 5am (!!) this morning.

At 8:00am we were up and out ready for Hector to start work. He appreciated the extra 30minutes in bed this morning as we had asked if we could stay in the RV until 8:00am.

Anyway, we spent a fantastic day at SeaWorld (discount tickets from LD concierge).

We got back at 5pm and got a thorough update from Hector.

Out of our list, the following have now been completed :-

LEAKS TO BEDROOM AND DRIVERS WINDOW - leaks found and fresh sealant in place
NAILS STICKING THRU WOOD BEHIND DINER - wood replaced
FAULTY LATCHES/LOCKS TO SEVERAL BAYS - all but one door has been "tinkered with"
MAIN SLIDE RETRACTS AT AN ANGLE - slight adjustment made and slide comes in better
DAMAGE TO RUBBER DOOR TRIM - original wasnt even providing a seal, so a new one has been fitted
BADLY WARPED CLOTHES RAIL - extra wall fixings and diagonal strengtheing bars installed
REPLACE REAR AMBER INDICATORS - done and working as they should for UK use

He even did a free fix on a cupboard door that refuses to stay closed - it was annoying him as he tried to close it each time he passed.  ;D

We spoke with him about our ongoing OVERTEMP PROBLEM but he was concerned it didnt fall under the Warranty, so would check with his boss Mike.

We had a chat with Justin, showed him the emails from Fleetwood and he simply stated they would sort the problem and then sort it with Fleetwood, so it wouldn't cost us anything.

All together, we are actually having a MUCH better (well, a million times better actually) experience than we had last year - although you just would not believe the number of people here who are having real problems and getting really frustrated with LD (been there and done that).

Tomorrow, after the fan has been installed into the inverter bay, we are off the the glass department.

Fingers are still crossed !!

Paul
 
Does anyone at Lazy Days read this forum?  What are they thinking if they do?
Joe Bee
 
Paul,

I have been following the HORROR story of your Lazydays experience and feel very sorry for what you have been through.

I am embarrassed to know that a visitor to our country has been treated this way.

I certainly hope that your time away from Lazydays has been a better experience.

Please accept my apologies for what you have been through.
 
Does anyone at Lazy Days read this forum?  What are they thinking if they do?

Good question.  One of our members works in sales at LD, but there is no official participation, nor any feedback channel that I am aware of.

My take is that LD management believes so strongly in what they THINK they do that actual reports of less than stellar service are considered an aberration. In fairness, they also get numerous positive letters too, so they have some justification. And I believe they honestly try to deliver a top notch customer experience and I know their employees are continually trained and enjoined to give outstanding customer service. The problem seems to be that they are almost always stretched to their limits or beyond, resulting in sometimes lengthy delays and incomplete repairs.

Like Paul, we have had some excellent experiences at LD and also one extremely poor one.
 
I am embarrassed to know that a visitor to our country has been treated this way.

Thanks for your kind words - however, I don't think LD are that fussy who they upset.

Whether you're British, American, canadian or whatever, you are going to get the same LD treatment - sometimes good sometimes really bad.

Paul

PS Yes - we've had 12 months of adventure - and thoroughly enjoyed at least 90% of it.
 
Wednesday February 21st

We vacated the RV at 8:00am this morning and left for our 2nd day at SeaWorld (2nd day free with 1 day purchase  ;)).

Arriving back at 5:30pm, we drove around to the Body Shop bays expecting our RV to be there for the night, but it was missing.

We found it where we had left it this morning, and Hector had already gone home so we didn't manage to get an update from him today.

LD had told us Hector was to look at the Inverter/Batteries this morning due to the Overtemp problem we were (still) having.

You will recall we have already had a totally new inverter fitted in October and 4 new batteries on January 21st this year - so we thought the next step was to install a fan into the inverter bay.

The RV would then go off to the Body Shop or Glass Shop around noon.

However, I noticed the windshield hadn't been replaced nor had any of the body work been started, so I went to see Justin, our Service Advisor.

Inverter/Overtemp

He explained that Hector had taken a look at the Inverter and didn't think (but didn't want to say 100%) it had ever been replaced - all the fixings etc suggested it was the original part. He said the circuit board was bad and the fan was not working, causing the Overtemp.

Now, it seems, we have a problem. I believe the Inverter WAS changed at Sullivans at Decatur - it certainly looked like a new Inverter (it was missing the dirt, dust and mud from the Top of the World Highway), and the fan was working.

This poses the question, Is there a problem with fans breaking on Xantrex Inverters as this would be our 2nd in a row or are we just unlucky to have progressed from an Inverter with broken fan to a new one with broken fan and bad board?  :'(

Hector did fit a round plastic vent into the bay wall, leading to a small external air gap between two bays.

He is due to take another look at it in the morning.

Well, I'm wanting to believe this all took 8hrs work today, but TBH my positive outlook has taken a tiny step backwards today.

Damage to Bay Door

You will recall that I had previously left one of the small (2ft wide) bay doors open one day and then tried to close the main slide.

The door itself remains straight but the curved bottom is now not as curved as it should be.

A previous dealer suggested using a round steel pole to pull the bottom of the door to it's proper curve - but that it "may" cause the paint to crack.

So, I asked LD to prepare a written quote for me prior to starting the work - AND I AM GLAD I DID !!

They have given me an estimate of $962 !!

Now, I don't know much about body or paint shop work, but that seems rather high to me.

$693 labor @$99/hr
$84 color match
$28 cut and buff
$10 waste fee
$63 tax
$962 TOTAL

I'm tempted to get the iron bar myself and try to bend it into place - the worst that could happen is I don't manage to do it and the paint cracks - which is what they propose to charge me anyway.

Paul

PS They have confirmed people will be working Saturday morning, which is suggesting we will be here at the start of next week too.

PPS Fingers are still crossed but are getting a little twitchy.
 
Thursday February 24th

Today, our Service Advisor called in sick.

But, Billy (the spare Service Advisor who wrote our work schedule last week) was handling his work.

We vacated the RV at our usual 8:00am and waited around for anyone to show up.

Hector arrived at 8:30am and we chatted about the inverter problem.

He said that he had left the Inverter running for 3hrs yesterday and had replaced not one but THREE bad boards inside the inverter AND the fan.

He also installed a plastic vent into the bay (but no fan).

We spoke with Billy who confirmed the RV was waiting for a spare slot to go into the Body Shop and/or the Glass Shop.

We went off shopping and came back around noon, to find the RV had been moved to an overflow area.

We decided to call a taxi and head off for a meal and a couple of beers, and returned at 8:15pm

Unfortunately, we found the RV in the same place - AND UNTOUCHED ALL DAY !!!

WHY didnt they send it to the Body Shop when a slot became vacant at the start of the week - they knew in December we were coming.

WHY didn't they send it to the Glass Shop when a space became available - as that was scheduled in December too.

Hector could have done his "bits and pieces" after the MAIN items were done.

Anyway, it now looks like we will be heading into WEEK TWO at Lazydays.

Paul
 
Ahhhhhhhh  the privelege of doing business with a big time dealer. 
 
Paul,

I think Shayne said it in a nutshell. Prior reports by others here have suggested that LD service is overwhelmed by the amount of work. They're not alone and I went through a similar experience with a different large dealership. After 3 weeks of trying to get my coach fixed, I finally drove to the place and stayed in someone's face until it was done. Clearly, they were overloaded and all the service writers could do was attempt to placate customers who were all trying to get their coaches fixed at the same time. Finally, it was the squeaky wheel syndrome that got our coach out of there.

Having a prior appointment, or the dealer knowing for months what needs to be done, often bears little relationship to what gets repaired on a given day. Lots of other coaches have had problems both before and after you made your appointment, and many of their owners are competing with you for the same limited technician time and the same limited body shop & glass shop time. Those owners are probably pleading their case for why their coach is more important than yours.
 
Paul,

I think you should print out every entry on this thread from beginning to end and ask for an appointment to see "THE MAN". There has got to be a person in charge of this company that needs to see your Horror Story.
He also needs to know that there are many many people on this forum that have been following your story, and feeling your pain by the way. And more than likely talking to their RV friends. I personally know that if anyone mentions Lazydays to me this Horror Story will come to mind.

I just feel so bad that a visitor to our country has to deal with all this.
 
It's no different than any other big dealership.  I'll give you another one. Tom Poper RV in Indian and Ohio.  Worst I've ever seen.  Wouldn't pay $5000 for a New any thing from him if he had to do all the Maintainence work. They suck big time.  Any one that buys from them deserve what they get.  Same as Lazy Days as for as I'm concerned.  We keep ssays don't buy or at least try other places, yet it falls on deaf ears.
 
Friday February 23rd

We left our RV at the agreed time of 8:00am

As they had moved us to a spot next to the Body Shop last night, we were confident of some action today.

We did some shopping and returned at noon to find the RV in the same place.

At 2:00pm we were told there was nothing being done to the RV now until Monday !!

So, they have had the RV for 6 business days and have managed to work on it for just over 2 of them - PATHETIC !!

Service Manager

I went in search of the Service Manager, Dana (surname?).

I wasn't expecting her to work miracles at 2pm on a Friday afternoon but wanted her to know how frustrating it is dealing with LD.

Well - I can tell you that I nearly drove the RV from LD after speaking with her for just 5 minutes - her attitude simply stinks.

When I explained I was keeping a log of our experience on the internet forums, she simply stated that "I know a few people have done that - we are used to it !!". It was as if I was writing a movie review, not exposing serious problems with HER department.

I asked her how many of the people sitting in the waiting room she had taken the time to speak with - as it would show her just how many upset people there are. At that point, a gentleman lost his temper with the Customer Service Manager across the hall, showing his frustration with LD.

She simply stated "they don't understand what's involved in the Service Department" - at which I asked whether anyone had taken the time to explain it to them, rather than feeding them bull**it day after day.

She then pointed to her chair and stated that if I knew any better, I was welcome to it.

Surely, there must be SOMEONE at LD who cares about the state of their business.

Don Wallace

Whilst looking at other LD complaints on the internet I came across the announcment that Don Wallace has now left the company, with an official leaving date in August 2007.

The article goes on to state the decline in revenue at LD, 5% during the main part of 2006, with profits dropping too - yet still they don't address the Service problems.

Paul





 
Paul,

Following our first visit to the US in Sept last year and an afternoon visit to Lazydays with Rod Nichols we were already to return to place our order with Lazydays for our Fleetwood.

Now having read your reports regarding problems with Lazydays when you first bought the RV and then now, together with details from Lindsay who also bought a Fleetwood around the same time ( NOT FROM LAZYDAYS ) and also had loads of problems with his RV, we are having serious thoughts on if a Fleetwood is a reliable make of RV to purchase or if Lazydays are a reputable dealer?

You would think after your problems at the beginning of last year when you bought the RV Lazydays would be bending over backwards to get everything right NOW
 
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