I have only posted to Yelp twice before but felt the need to do so this time after getting outstanding service from Charley after a recent RV trip. When we unhooked our fifth wheel upon our return to Monrovia the trailer hitch on the back of my truck did not reset and the hitch clamps were in a "sprung" position. After doing some basic cleanup and maintenance of the hitch and even after working with the hitch vendor tech support person via phone, we were unable to resolve the issue. We brought the truck in to the Hitch Depot to see what they could do for us. Charley had his hands full with other customers but took time out to look at our hitch; his initial analysis was not good!
Charley identified a pin/connector on the underside of the hitch that appeared to be blocking the hitch arm from resetting; it most likely became bent when we were uncoupling the truck. Apparently the hitch manufacturer has a very strict policy of not allowing third parties - even their authorized support/dealers (which the HP is) - to maintain the inner workings of their units. As their west coast operation (located in Sacramento) has recently shut down, we would most likely need to ship the hitch back to their Texas location. Our fifth wheel was parked on the street in front of our house, and the city of Monrovia would not take well to the notion of us leaving it parked there for the next several weeks, and all of a sudden, here I am wondering (among other things) how I'd get the trailer back to our storage site, what the cost would be to ship the hitch back to Texas (let alone the cost to fix the out-of-warranty hitch), and whether it would be cheaper in the long run to replace the hitch rather than getting it serviced...
Charley came to our rescue when he suggested that, since he was on good terms with the hitch rep in the area, he would try to contact the rep and see if he could get any feedback on how he might be able to fix the hitch. When the rep didn't answer Charley's initial phone call, Charley took our phone number and indicated he would keep trying to reach him, and would call us back when he knew more.
Less than an hour later, we got a call from Charley. The rep agreed that the pin/connector was indeed the issue, and said that it wouldn't be a problem to manually straighten it. He assured Charley that it would not leave the hitch in any state of disrepair where the hitch might malfunction or create a hazard later on because of anything Charley did. When I asked Charley when he could work on the truck, he told me to just bring it in. We headed straight over to Hitch Deport, and twenty minutes after we got there we had a "fixed hitch"! In spite of my protests, Charley would not take any payment for his work, asking only that we keep his business in mind the next time we needed anything. We Certainly Will!
Quick summary, Hitch Depot (Charley) re-prioritized a busy work schedule to work with us on the fly, went the extra mile in contacting resources outside of the normal dealer tech support arena to get a solution, successfully implemented that solution, and then wouldn't take a dime for his efforts. If he had told me it would cost $300 for his services, I would have been making out the check, no questions asked. You don't see this kind of performance any more when dealing with most (read "any") service-oriented businesses! Thanks again to Charley and Hitch Depot for a Great Job Done! read more