Am I Being Unreasonable ?

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Tom,  I think we share the same passion for customer satisfaction.  Maybe because we were both exposed to customers in or previous lives.  I think we both are well aware of the importance of customer satisfaction and what it can mean to the success of a company.

A happy satisfied customer will send many new prospective buyers to the door but one dissatisfied customer will send 10 times as many prospective away from the door.

I worked for a company that was considered second in to none their business when it came to customer support.  I know of several cases in which their customer support reputation was the deciding factor in wining multi-billion sales. 

A company that fails to provide customer satisfaction is a company that is sure to fail.


 
Tom,

At the dealership where I work we have one salesman who seems to always be off on the day any of his rigs are delivered. There have been many times when there was a problem and I had to find someone else to address it. There is also a salesman who comes in on his day off if he has a delivery. Now guess who gets anything he wants from service!

BTW, he's the only one that brings coffee and donuts to the service department when he's had a good month in appreciation for our help.
 
Jim, sounds like the conscientious guy you mentioned understands that a little bit of appreciation goes a long way with most folks.

The other guy - I don't understand why he wouldn't want to be around at the time of delivery, although the guy who sold us our coach didn't show his face either.

A car salesman once told me "I view this as just another piece of sheet metal; I'll sell it and move on to the next one". OTOH the day we took delivery of the Burb (we'd factory ordered it) the sales guy, who lives 45 minutes away, came in on his day off although he was clearly very sick. Something had been left off the order by the fleet guy, but we were leaving the next day for a 3 month trip. The sales guy followed up and made sure the parts were ordered and painted, then he called us to bring the Burb back after our trip. I could have fitted the parts myself, but he insisted the dealership had to do it right; He had the Service Manager make room for our job on the day we drove in and, although the job took less than a couple of hours, he gave us a loaner car so we didn't need to sit around in the waiting room.
 
PancakeBill said:
Paul
Your rep was at the rally, won't be in till Monday AM.? I'll see him about the time he gets the questions.? Matt is a great rep and does wonderful follow-up.? Generalizations on sales reps only caring about the sale is not always the case, so, please don't let this color your impression.? Let Matt get things sorted out.? ken Ware is a great guy, as is the sales manager, but talk to Matt first, just have to let him get back here.?
Click to expand...

Sorry Bill but IMHO Matt blew it as far as customer relations go.  When he knew he was not going to be there it was HIS responsibility to inform the customer and at the same time introduce him to the person he had arranged to take care of the customer in his absence.  IMHO to not be present and not have made arrangements and introduction to the customer to his stand in was negligent on Matt' part.  Sure would fly if he was working for me or the company I retired from.  As Tom mentioned trying to patch up after the fact is not an acceptable procedure.  I wonder how many Customers Lazy Days may loose over this one incident.  Hopefully this will be a learning experience and futureers will be treated better. I will now turn the soapbox back to Tom or whoever feels the need.
 
I'm off my soapbox Ron, but customers and suppliers always knew how to get hold of me. In addition to my home phone number, they had my always-on 2 cell numbers and pager which all had international access. I was virtually always online with one more ways to send/receive email. One of the kids' spouses used to call me "Mr. Reachable"  ;D
 
;) Hi UK-RV(Paul). I have only just noticed your thread about your new RV. I sure am sorry about all the problems you are having. I mentioned on another Forum that no RV New or Old ever gets delivered without one or two problems. I can never understand an Industry that supplies things that are not fit to use in the delivered condition. I was made aware that Lazy Days have a servicing problem. Great with the Sales but fall down elsewhere. Name and Shame is the Game Paul. I hope the rest of your time in the USA goes according to plan.  ;)
 
Same here Tom customers always knew how to reach me in addition if I was going to be away there was always a reliable person on site to take care of them. ?Take care of the customers and your business will grow let the customers down and if the responsible party is not properly trained and shown the error of his ways or replaced the business will suffer or expire. ?End of soapbox.
 
Paul...... I just got around to reading your story... And all I can say is I wish us both luck

In my case most of the problems have been taken care of quickly and easily by either my dealer back home or the one here in Vegas. however my Damon Intruder has the optional self-removing windhsield, this is due to a defect in manafacturer the glass man here in Vegas pointed out to me, I've had the wireing to my towed (tail lights thankfully) go out (had to be replaced) I've had a few screws loose (IE: windshield wiper retainer) and now the dash air-conditioning is out (Coolant leak it appears. not electrical, i checked electrical)

Oh yes, 4 burned out light bulbs in six months too

Tons of fun.  Still, I"m enjoying my rig

Now to answer your question:  I do not think it is unreasonable to expect your rig to be as ordered and as advertised when you pick it up, I also do not feel it is unreasonable to expect them to fix it promptly when it's not as advertised.

What I do feel is unreasonable is the modern "Ship it and let the customer get it fixed under warranty" mentality of so many companies today.... But alas, we both got the short end of that thinking
 
I talked to Ken Ware today and he said he was confident the issues would be addressed and that he had talked to Paul.  Ken ask Paul to call him if things were not being taken care of by 16:30.  Ken had not yet received any call so hopefully the issues are being addressed.  Hope to hear from Paul to see how he feels things are turning out now.

 
Ron,
My name is Matt, I am the so called irresponsible salesman you are speaking about. As I read the comment's about the situation at hand, I only wonder why people would comment on a situation that they do not have all of the facts on.
#1 I was called to work a Rally on very short notice.

#2 I asked a veteran salesperson here to handle the delivery. That person to my knowledge showed himself to Paul and also tried to help to get the items repaired in a timely fashion.

#3 I am and always try to take wonderful care of my customer's before and after the sale.

#4 I do not work for Ken Ware. Although I have much respect for his position in our company I have contacted him and will use all assets here to help all of my customers.

Having said all that, I did let my customer down. I was unable to receive Mobil phone calls at the Rally because of bad reception. I learned of the issues at hand on Monday morning when I arrived back to work. I promptly phoned my customer and asked about the concerns I heard on my mess. and read on my e-mail. I do not build the coaches and I will never claim to know how to service them. I do have to rely on our service department to diagnose and repair the items that need repairing.

After speaking with Paul it sounded like the items we spoke about were Numerous but minor. He did not seem upset at all and I have sent all of his requests to the service manager. I will continue to do everything I can to help Paul as long as he allows me to. I sure do not want to be kicking rocks down the road.

Ron, if you are ever here at Lazydays, I would love to meet you so you can see I do care about my customers before, during, and after the sale. I would also like to give you the names of all of my past, and present customers so that you can accurately judge me with all of the facts in front of you.

I am sorry that I have a unhappy customer. I am also sorry for venting on this forum for one persons comment's about me.


Matt
 
Hi Matt,

Thanks for showing up here and thanks for your comments.

You're right that we may not have had all the facts, but we had your customer's first hand account of them from his perspective. Paul asked if we thought he was being unreasonable in his expectations and, to my knowledge, nobody thought he was. Several folks chimed in with their own similar experiences of service support at the dealership and one reported reading similar reports on other forums.

I have no experience with LD, but my experience with another RV dealer was nothing short of disgraceful and I've been approached by others who purchased at the same dealership saying "I got the same treatment".

I don't wish to extrapolate from these experiences to all dealerships because some folks report very good support from their respective dealer. But there are enough negative reports about enough dealerships that would suggest this is a broader issue than one customer with "minor items". So much so, folks here normally recommend taking factory delivery on new coaches. Having observed factory deliveries first hand, I have no doubt that this is what I'll be doing next time I buy a new coach. I really do not wish to have a repeat of my or other folks' prior experiences.

Having run manufacturing operations, implemented quality systems, been the guy who met with customers, and often the guy who had to solve the problems irrespective where they existed, I understand your frustration when you say that you didn't build the product and that you have to rely on the service department to diagnose and repair items. The sales person's role in dealing with such issues is as a conduit, which is why I prefer to deal directly with the service manager and even the service tech.

Having read your message, I truly believe that you care about your customers and have learned something from this experience. Let's hope that Paul comes away a happy camper and that LD will take appropriate steps to rectify whatever is causing the negative perceptions I've read about. After all, customers are paying some large amounts of hard earned $$$ for the product and have a right to expect things to work or be fixed promptly. Detroit learned the lesson the hard way from Japan in the 80's, so why is it taking the RV industry so long to learn the well-documented lessons?
 
Matt,

I'm glad to see you here and want to welcome you to the RV Forum.  First I will offer apologies if I made comments in error.  Having been in Customer Support Organization for several years in my previous life I have a very strong  position on how customers should be treated.

The bottom line is the customer suffered and had concerns as to the possible outcome after laying out a substantial amount of hard earned dollars.  Whether it is your fault or managements fault or somebody Else's fault the customer should not have been put in this position.  Now if this event can be interrupted as a learning experience and all those concerned at Lazy Days have learned from it then it can become a positive thing for Lazy Days.

I was one of many that recommended Lazy Days and I did this based on our own experience we had when we purchased the Eagle.  I felt and still feel that it was a very good positive  experience.  When I make a recommendation I get upset if things don't go as good I experienced.  When things were not looking good I made contact with the person I felt could get things turned around.

Hopefully Paul will come out with a positive feeling about their experience at Lazy Days.

Am I passionate about customer service?  Yes very much so to the point I am currently working on a letter to a corporation commending one of their outlets which happens to the most customer oriented stores I have ever done business with for several years.  Some of the forum members probably have an idea what store I am talking about since they have been there.

Again I apologize if I upset you or mis-represented the facts.  But remember this the customer is the most important asset a business can have followed by a staff that is fully aware of this and take the necessary actions to let the customer know how important they are.

Welcome to the RV Forum and I hope to see your continued participation here.
 
Hi Matt,

I'm happy to see Bill led you to the forum. From what you have stated there seems to be some circumstances of which we were not aware. I don't know who is at fault for Pauls problems but I do believe someone in delivery should have pursued it more vigorously. We have purchased two coaches from Lazy Days and the first was not a stellar experience but the second was fantastic. In both cases, though, we had a person in charge of delivery to whom we could go to resolve any problems. It wasn't the sales person. I believe Lazy Days may have changed this policy. If so, they might want to rethink that position. When a rig of any value is delivered, someone should be in charge of overseeing the complete process.

I hope you will visit this forum more often. It is a very informative place and input from the "other side" would be welcome. BTW, I think Lazy Days should pick up the tab for the campground for Paul. He should not have had to pay for that.
 
Hi Guys

I'm finally back online after spending a few days at Thousand Trails Orlando, with no internet access.

We're now staying at Lazydays RallyPark for 3 nights, whilst we get work done.

Firstly, I should respond to a few points :-

Matt was at a Rally during the time of our delivery. As he repeatedly told us to relax as all would be fine, we didn't think it would matter if he was there or not.

If he got the impression that I was not that upset when we spoke this week, then he was WAY off the mark - I was LIVID.

Anyway...

Matt asked an English Sales Rep (Rod) to assist us whilst he was away. We did meet Rod and he answered various questions about our planned shipping to the UK. However, at the first sign of trouble on our delivery day he couldn't be found (and you could hardly blame him for not wanting to get involved in everyone Else's mess).

We spoke with Bill (from the Forum) and he promised to speak to Matt on his return, so thanks Bill.

We also spoke to Ken Ware (thanks), who passed us to the head of the Delivery Team - another Ken (cant remember his surname).

Delivery Ken arranged for us to visit Lazydays today (8th) between 2pm and 4pm so we could meet with Tobius, the person appointed to handle our service issues (we had stated we did not want to deal with the previous service person as we were getting nowhere).

This meeting today would allow us to walk thru the coach and discuss exactly what what wrong so they knew everything for first thing on our scheduled service day (9th).

So, we arrived at around 3pm today - and Tobius wasn't available to see us. Delivery Ken was with customers, so couldn't see us either. This was not the start we wanted today.

We then met with Matt, who arranged for another service person (2 actually) to come and cover the coach with blue tape, highlighting exactly which areas needed attention.

As I said, we are booked into RallyPark for 3 nights - and Matt has covered the cost of this stay (thanks).

However, every silver lining seems to have a cloud. The service guys have told us we will probably have to spend the time in the service bay and not in the rally park.

We have also been told that it is highly unlikely the work will be completed in 2 days (remember, they only scheduled us in for 1). It will be interesting to see just how long things take, and what Lazydays do to relieve our boredom whilst being stuck here (remember, no coach and no car).

It was very interesting to meet a guy next to us at TT Orlando, who had the same female service person as we did, a year earlier. He was so fed-up with her, he actually asked where her broomstick was - I think that gives you an idea what we were up against.

Tonight, I also got talking to the guy next to us at RallyPark, who stated he was stuck at Lazydays for around SIX WEEKS when he took delivery of his Bounder last year.

I do think Lazydays need to wake up and see how much damage bad service does - I have little hesitation in being honest when explaining to anyone who asks about our experience. I have been known to compliment good service too.

I'm just hoping things will get sorted quickly and professionally whilst we are now here.

Paul
 
Paul,

Welcome back and thanks for the follow up. Personally, I can't say I'm surprised, although I know you'd prefer not to hear that. Why LD employees would come here criticizing us for commenting on your situation and then have you continue to go through this nonsense is beyond my comprehension.

I'd really be interested in how this all pans out, but I sure hope you're not stuck there for 6 weeks like the other guy you mentioned.
 
Paul,

Good hearing from you.  Was wondering how things were working out.  If things are not getting done don't hesitate to get hold of Ken Ware again.  I am sure that if things are not going well after he talked to the people he will work to make it right.  Ken is a good guy and I am sure he can and will do everything to make things happen.  Having said that and since reading Matt's post here you might want to let him have another crack at getting things sorted out.  Kinda like let him redeem himself.  By all means please keep us informed as to how things are going.  Good luck.

 
BTW before cell (mobile) phones we used pagers (some still do). Before pagers we used phone/call boxes. No such thing as "poor reception" with a call box. They do still have them, right?

A few years ago we had a sales rep in India with a customer in a remote location. He explained that the remote area had no phones, so it was difficult to talk to his customer. We told the sales rep to get off his butt and go visit the customer in person. We didn't hear from the rep for a week or more and, when he got back to the office, he explained that he'd sat in a train for 3 - 24 hour days in each direction to reach his customer. So that's 144 hours of travel time, a little longer than a 5/10/15 minute walk to a call box.
 
Guys

I didn't mean to give the impression that Matt is the bad guy here.

Yes, he did lead us to believe our lazydays experience would be a good one, but it wasn't his fault he was called away at the time of our delivery. He could have done more to ensure our particular concerns were being followed thru in the weeks leading upto our purchase.

Our major problem rests with the service team.

Paul


 
LOL.  At least when we had to visit a customer we had the luxury of air transportation.

Paul,

If there is a problem in the service department then in my opinion Lazy Days has a problem and Lazy Days and their employees need to take what ever action necessary to get it resolved.  By all means give Matt a chance but if he can't and Ken can't then there is another step that can be taken.  Hopefully They get it resolved to your satisfaction.  Please keep us updated.

 

 
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