I am corresponding this evening in regard to my recent, and what I have determined what will most likely be my final interaction with General RV of Brownstown, Michigan. My wife and I bought a new Forest River / Primetime Tracer 274BH RV from this dealership in 2018. When we bought the unit, we decided to purchase the warranty thinking that it would be an asset in the event of some unfortunate accident or component failure. Needless to say this too has been a huge and costly disappointment and seemingly isn't worth the paper it's written on.
Within the first year we had a wall that bowed out between the kitchen and bedroom, so much so that we could hardly slide the door into the open position without removing the wallpaper. It took about a month to get an appointment. We brought the RV in from approximately 62 miles away and made liaison with Adam and Amorette who took down notes regarding the area of concern, this seemed like a straightforward approach and felt that this would be remedied in short order (about a day or two). While there, they discovered that the issue was not fixable within the time frame they had estimated, nor with the materials on hand, and therefore would be required to order additional parts. They proceeded to tell us that we needed to come get our RV and get it off the lot immediately. Unfortunately by the time we were notified of the need for removal, we were out of town due to a family illness and not in position to immediately return. We were then told if we could not remove it that they would impose lot storage fees. Clearly had this been stated to me beforehand, I would have made it a point to be available for at least a week till the parts came in. I was dumbfounded to say the least and felt this was just an attempt to compensate for them having to do warranty work (a shameful money grab to say the very least). Fortunately the Manager Jason intervened and put an end to that nonsense in short order and for which we were grateful.
Unfortunately this year the DRIVE wall mount10A / 12V. DC, AM/FM Radio, DVD, USB, Bluetooth unexpectedly quit working in late June or very early July. I finally had time off from work to address this issue sometime between July 20th and July 27th.July 27th at 14:08 initiated conversation with Amorette (attached a photo of the radio). Initially, she forgot to follow up on the issue so it didn't get ordered.The next correspondence from her was August 14th, at 17:48 wherein she stated the radio was ordered and was a direct replacement for mine, she would let me know when it arrived.On August 24th I asked for an update at 17:05.Amorette responded on August 25th, at 0922 stating she was going the parts department to get an estimated time of arrival.
On August 26th Amorette stated that "the factory is still trying to find the part??" Needless to say I was confused given that she had previously stated it was ordered and pending shipping.
Today, September 28th, 2020 we received a phone call stating that the radio was in and ready for pick up pending of course the payment of $100.00 deductible for a $140.00 radio. Upon my arrival I asked to speak with Dean the service manager. I waited for approximately 10 minutes while he concluded some business with another individual. Upon being invited into his office clearly we were not alone, there sat before me Jared, another individual who we had recently had a phone conversation with that was equally unproductive. I didn't expect to be meeting with Dean and Jared, just Dean, but nonetheless I proceeded and got right to the point and stated that I was displeased with how long this has taken for a simple radio, being told that it wasn't initially ordered, to the radio was ordered, and ready to ship, then they had to find it.
Per the common excuse these days, Dean went right to the COVID-19 excuse, citing disruptions in logistics and such and said that was "the only story." I thought I would come unglued. As the coronavirus initially spread in the United States, we witnessed the commercial effects, such as supply chain disruptions and the like. Does the coronavirus excuse non-performance under the relevant agreement by lying to the customer? The short answer is "no it does not." I am willing to bet my service / warranty contract for that RV does not have the specific terms of a force majeure clause? You know, the clause that excuses non-performance typically where circumstances make performance impossible? Nothing in this endeavor was impossible.
Moving on from that I proceeded state our "conditions of satisfaction," I requested that Dean waive the $100.00 deductible at which time he balked and said "no" I told him that given the lack of integrity on their end as of late, being without a radio all summer, the countless emails and phone calls that we made (our time is valuable too) that my request is not unreasonable. read more