Sloppy Workmanship
- Thread starter CaptTPT
- Start date
Let us know how that goes
, but i suspect they will not take responsibility down the road. Hope all goes well for you.
Just make sure you get everything fixed before warranty runs out. My slides have never worked right and they keep sending roller upgrades. Now after warranty has run out they tell me its motors which I called Norco and they are replacing 4 motors -2 controllers and do you think I could get Alliance to foot the labor- NO I am on my own. THANKS Alliance
Midnight Rider
Well-known member
There is never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over?
Check your spam/junk mail. I have sent requests to Alliance and I found all three of their replies in my "junk" email folder.
It took almost 2 weeks before Alliance responded to my email request to discuss the proposed method of repair. I told them I had major concerns about their suggested repair technique, which was to jam a crow bar between the floor and frame and pry up until the wire could be pulled back under the flooring. Turns out they took the entire week off for a July 4th celebration. Happy 4th! Once they got back, the service tech said he was confident the recommended method was proper! Really. That’s what he said. In the mean time, my dealer service tech said that was ridiculous. He dropped the under belly. Then unscrewed the flooring from the frame. Then placed a carpeted 4x4 several feet long on the flooring and gently jacked up using a floor jack 1/8” until the wiring harness could be pulled back in place. Made sure the harness was ok. Then screwed flooring back down. Re-secured under belly. Job properly done. Thanks. Appreciate that. Door placed on stretcher frame to straighten. No 4x4’s and jumping, as suggested by Alliance. Happy about that. Now we have been waiting more than a week for warranty approval (don’t have it yet) to repair a gouge in the flooring where an ultra-conscientious Alliance employee left 1 of 2 loose screws on the floor. This one under the slide-out flooring. Nice work guy! All the other items repaired properly and no big deal. Overall happy with the repairs done so far. No thanks to Alliance. Is It less expensive to do these repair jobs than to hire and appropriately pay good employees? Must be!
"Is It less expensive to do these repair jobs than to hire and appropriately pay good employees? Must be!"
You are catching on. Overall the RV industry is not concerned with perfection. They are more concerned with large scale production at a cheap cost. Part of the process is to let the dealer handle the mishaps and details when they happen. This is not an Alliance issue but it is the game plan across the entire RV industry.
The amazing thing is that the process works for the most part. It doesn't work efficiently or quickly, the approval process is just unnecessary red tape that slows everything down. However as in your case the wire was removed and the unit was fixed.
In the end. RV's are hurriedly assembled at the plant. Shipped to dealers that take care of any details and mishaps.
There is no real effort by anyone to change this process. What has happened recently as a result of the pandemic is a large influx of new buyers have entered the RV game. Those new buyers are unfamiliar with the RV buying, PDI, and warranty procedures.
They think of the RV industry in terms of the auto industry which it is not. ( By the way it took the expansion of the Japanese auto industry in the 70's to reform and force the U.S. auto industry to build a better mouse trap
These new buyers are wanting and expecting more of the industry. Maybe these new buyers can demand and get change but I doubt it. At this point the buying frenzy has ended and the RV industry is returning to its mediocre self.
It will take foreign competition to bring changes to the RV industry. Unfortunately there is no such competition on the horizon.
As a result there is no real competition or reason for the RV industry to change its ways.
You are catching on. Overall the RV industry is not concerned with perfection. They are more concerned with large scale production at a cheap cost. Part of the process is to let the dealer handle the mishaps and details when they happen. This is not an Alliance issue but it is the game plan across the entire RV industry.
The amazing thing is that the process works for the most part. It doesn't work efficiently or quickly, the approval process is just unnecessary red tape that slows everything down. However as in your case the wire was removed and the unit was fixed.
In the end. RV's are hurriedly assembled at the plant. Shipped to dealers that take care of any details and mishaps.
There is no real effort by anyone to change this process. What has happened recently as a result of the pandemic is a large influx of new buyers have entered the RV game. Those new buyers are unfamiliar with the RV buying, PDI, and warranty procedures.
They think of the RV industry in terms of the auto industry which it is not. ( By the way it took the expansion of the Japanese auto industry in the 70's to reform and force the U.S. auto industry to build a better mouse trap
These new buyers are wanting and expecting more of the industry. Maybe these new buyers can demand and get change but I doubt it. At this point the buying frenzy has ended and the RV industry is returning to its mediocre self.
It will take foreign competition to bring changes to the RV industry. Unfortunately there is no such competition on the horizon.
As a result there is no real competition or reason for the RV industry to change its ways.
Midnight Rider
Well-known member
Use your new Rig a lot the first year and get the bugs worked out of it on Alliances Nickel!
Unfortunately for consumers it's a numbers game. The manufactures know only a few owners will use there RV's religiously.
Many RV's will sit unused for a huge portion of there life. The bean counters have figured this out and have strict limits on the duration of the warranty.
As mentioned it key to sort things out during the warranty period. Finding out after the warranty expires means the repair is on your dime.
To be fair I have heard of Alliance making a few goodwill gestures after the warranty expired.
But this is on a case by case basis and not something a consumer should rely on. Once your warranty has expired you are on your own. Make an extra effort to use RV while the warranty is active.
Keep in mind the warranty was never going to last forever, repairs and maintenance issues will arise.
Keeping your RV in good shape is a never ending commitment.
The only way to get your monies $$$$ worth out of your RV is to use it.
The more you use it the more value you get! Leave it parked and you are getting no return for your money!
After a year of research we decided to buy a brand new 2024 Valor 36V11 Toy Hauler. It is our 3rd RV preceded by a Forest River Rockwood that we had for about 5 years and a Grand Design Imagine 2800 BH that lasted less than three years. Our first choice was Brinkley but their toy hauler was just too heavy for my F350 SWD thus we settled on the Alliance. I invested countless hours on YouTube, forums, reviews and whatnots trying to figure out what was out there that could be better than Grand Design - which was not particularly hard as our GD was (also) a never ending fixing RV. Surprisingly, the Rockwood was a very good one, almost nothing had to be repaired except torqueing up few screws here and there - may be because it was a 2015 model??.
We found Alliance has issues but the overall reviews were positive and some people even praised their customer service. We also found what a lot of people say in this forum and other forums, that the RV industry continues to overpromise quality and deliver abysmal products. Anyhoo, we went for "the new contender", the one aiming to be the differentiator of the mediocre quality of the RV industry, the one with the awesome factory tours and videos, the one with family focus and small shop mentality...and we got a very rude awakening.
We did two PDIs, the first one lasted about 2 hours and was focused on mostly cosmetic stuff. The second one was actually a full "turn on / off everything" PDI of about six hours. We found several issues, failed led lights, loose cabinetry, misaligned doors, a leak under the shower, stuck check valve, etc...all that solved by the dealership. The issue with PDI is that it shows stuff that has failed or it is about to fail in that particular test cycle, not two or three cycles later. For example, about half of the hydraulic hoses had to be replaced after one hose blew and then two other showed bubbling (swelling - see pictures) after about 5 cycles of the hydraulic system. Trims, leaks, tripping GCFIs appeared in the first trip after living in the unit for about a week. I had to change, torque up, re-insert, a significant amount of bolts/screws around after putting the unit on the road. I did fix about 90% of the issues myself but the whole experience basically RUINED the joy of having a new RV, ...Now we have a delamination in the rear panel, we will see how that one is solved.
This is a lot of BS for something that, granted it is complex, but it is exceedingly expensive - in our case north of $100 grand. The quest for profit is the only sensible conclusion on shoddy workmanship combined with lack of oversight on items that are indeed critical. I did wrote an extensive email to Alliance asking them to really fulfill their "differentiator promise" but I am not sure how far that will go. I guess the RV industry has a monopoly on bad quality so the consumer, us, will have to be happy on dealing with 10 or 20 so issues instead of 30 or more. Some class actions and a few unit buybacks won't be enough to challenge the current "RV quality culture". The dealers make more money on repairs than on selling, that is a fact!. At the end of the day us owners pay not only depreciation but for bad reputation that eventually settles in as it is currently happening to GD and was the trigger for us to move to Alliance. We changed brands thinking that it was the solution - we were wrong.
We found Alliance has issues but the overall reviews were positive and some people even praised their customer service. We also found what a lot of people say in this forum and other forums, that the RV industry continues to overpromise quality and deliver abysmal products. Anyhoo, we went for "the new contender", the one aiming to be the differentiator of the mediocre quality of the RV industry, the one with the awesome factory tours and videos, the one with family focus and small shop mentality...and we got a very rude awakening.
We did two PDIs, the first one lasted about 2 hours and was focused on mostly cosmetic stuff. The second one was actually a full "turn on / off everything" PDI of about six hours. We found several issues, failed led lights, loose cabinetry, misaligned doors, a leak under the shower, stuck check valve, etc...all that solved by the dealership. The issue with PDI is that it shows stuff that has failed or it is about to fail in that particular test cycle, not two or three cycles later. For example, about half of the hydraulic hoses had to be replaced after one hose blew and then two other showed bubbling (swelling - see pictures) after about 5 cycles of the hydraulic system. Trims, leaks, tripping GCFIs appeared in the first trip after living in the unit for about a week. I had to change, torque up, re-insert, a significant amount of bolts/screws around after putting the unit on the road. I did fix about 90% of the issues myself but the whole experience basically RUINED the joy of having a new RV, ...Now we have a delamination in the rear panel, we will see how that one is solved.
This is a lot of BS for something that, granted it is complex, but it is exceedingly expensive - in our case north of $100 grand. The quest for profit is the only sensible conclusion on shoddy workmanship combined with lack of oversight on items that are indeed critical. I did wrote an extensive email to Alliance asking them to really fulfill their "differentiator promise" but I am not sure how far that will go. I guess the RV industry has a monopoly on bad quality so the consumer, us, will have to be happy on dealing with 10 or 20 so issues instead of 30 or more. Some class actions and a few unit buybacks won't be enough to challenge the current "RV quality culture". The dealers make more money on repairs than on selling, that is a fact!. At the end of the day us owners pay not only depreciation but for bad reputation that eventually settles in as it is currently happening to GD and was the trigger for us to move to Alliance. We changed brands thinking that it was the solution - we were wrong.
