Bob Buchanan
Well-known member
There is a Camping World in Rocklin, CA that has been close whenever in NCal - which is where I am most of the time. So when in need of repair or whatever I sometimes use them. Have had good experiences and bad. My latest I thought was worthy of a post here.
My furnace was intermittent - then stopped altogether. I did all the usual stuff such as checking for wasps nests and blowing the dust out of the blower - plus took the plug from the main board and cleaned the leads. I didn't want to pull the unit so drove over to CW to see what kind of charges they had on trouble shooting and repair.
They quoted $75 trouble shooting if they didn't have to take the unit out, and $125 if they did have to take it out. So I figured my worst scenario was $125 plus parts. Their hourly rate here is $125/hour. So perhaps another 1/2 hour to fix it. Wrong. They wrote up a service order for $208.00. And it only read, Trouble Shoot.
They wanted $75 to trouble shoot just taking the front plate off. If they then needed to remove the unit, that was an "additional" $125. "Then" they would begin fixing it at the rate of $125/hour plus parts. With a smile approaching laughter, my comment was something like, "You gotta be kidding".
Normally, I would drive into Sacramento just off the freeway on El Camino and have the work done at AAA RV Appliance Repair. They have been handling my RV appliances while in the area for the past 15 years. But CW was only 5 miles away vs. the 25 to 30 or so to AAA.
I made an appointment for the following day, drove the 30 miles and found a different scenario. The repair guy trouble shot the unit from the outside within 10 minutes - and within the next 1/2 hour had the unit out, on his bench for testing, and was explaining to me what the problem was. Seems the igniter was bad.
My total bill was 1.5 hours labor at $96/hour plus $32 for a new igniter and a few dollars more for the gasket for the plate over the igniter housing. Or, probably about half of what it would have cost through CW. Of course, I did spend some extra money on gas to get into Sacto.
My furnace was intermittent - then stopped altogether. I did all the usual stuff such as checking for wasps nests and blowing the dust out of the blower - plus took the plug from the main board and cleaned the leads. I didn't want to pull the unit so drove over to CW to see what kind of charges they had on trouble shooting and repair.
They quoted $75 trouble shooting if they didn't have to take the unit out, and $125 if they did have to take it out. So I figured my worst scenario was $125 plus parts. Their hourly rate here is $125/hour. So perhaps another 1/2 hour to fix it. Wrong. They wrote up a service order for $208.00. And it only read, Trouble Shoot.
They wanted $75 to trouble shoot just taking the front plate off. If they then needed to remove the unit, that was an "additional" $125. "Then" they would begin fixing it at the rate of $125/hour plus parts. With a smile approaching laughter, my comment was something like, "You gotta be kidding".
Normally, I would drive into Sacramento just off the freeway on El Camino and have the work done at AAA RV Appliance Repair. They have been handling my RV appliances while in the area for the past 15 years. But CW was only 5 miles away vs. the 25 to 30 or so to AAA.
I made an appointment for the following day, drove the 30 miles and found a different scenario. The repair guy trouble shot the unit from the outside within 10 minutes - and within the next 1/2 hour had the unit out, on his bench for testing, and was explaining to me what the problem was. Seems the igniter was bad.
My total bill was 1.5 hours labor at $96/hour plus $32 for a new igniter and a few dollars more for the gasket for the plate over the igniter housing. Or, probably about half of what it would have cost through CW. Of course, I did spend some extra money on gas to get into Sacto.