Warranty claim going nowhere, any thoughts?

[Jimbee]

Hi All,
The wife and I purchased a 2026 Avenue 32RLS which we absolutely love! The GE tankless water heater bit the dust on our second trip and it's been at the dealer for 2 months awaiting repair. We're still waiting on a shipping date from Alliance for the replacement unit. Week after week after week go by with no info on shipping the replacement water heater.
So frustrating because I know I can get a new heater shipped to my house in 3 days if I were willing to buy the replacement myself!
Is this typical for the way Alliance handles warranty issues?

Thanks,
Jimbee

 

[BryanValRox]

Hi All,
The wife and I purchased a 2026 Avenue 32RLS which we absolutely love! The GE tankless water heater bit the dust on our second trip and it's been at the dealer for 2 months awaiting repair. We're still waiting on a shipping date from Alliance for the replacement unit. Week after week after week go by with no info on shipping the replacement water heater.
So frustrating because I know I can get a new heater shipped to my house in 3 days if I were willing to buy the replacement myself!
Is this typical for the way Alliance handles warranty issues?

Thanks,
Jimbee

Congratulations and welcome to the forum!

Do yourself a favor, call Alliance directly with your Vin number.
Ask them if there is a open warranty claim on your VIN and what the status of the replacement parts are.

This would not be the first time that a repairing location didn’t follow thru and is using parts delay as an excuse for not getting to your repairs in a timely manner.

It is worth the call.

 

[RoadJunkie]

Email "service@alliance.com", with your last 6 VIN numbers. Give them your story and ask them to see if your dealer has even ordered the water heater.

 

[Jimbee]

Thanks so much for the advice,
very much appreciated!

Jimbee

 

[Lantley]

Yes most likely your delay is with the dealer not Alliance. But you can do an end around and check in with Alliance directly to see if the dealer has made a claim.

 

[Bozo]

I really do not understand why a dealer would drag their feet unless they charge you storage. Your rig is taking up space on their lot.

 

[Lantley]

I really do not understand why a dealer would drag their feet unless they charge you storage. Your rig is taking up space on their lot.

I agree its taking up space, but the dealer prefers to take the paying (non warranty, more profitable customers first vs. the low paying, low profit, red tape warranty work.
Space on the lot is not as valuable as money in the pocket.

 

[Oregon_Camper]

Do yourself a favor, call Alliance directly with your Vin number.
Ask them if there is a open warranty claim on your VIN and what the status of the replacement parts are.

This would not be the first time that a repairing location didn’t follow thru and is using parts delay as an excuse for not getting to your repairs in a timely manner.

 

[rvdude]

When I had my KZ Durango Gold 5th wheel, another KZ owner had a problem with his Suburban water heater. His trailer was under warranty and he went to a Suburban dealer that got his unit taken care of without having to deal with the dealer. He said that was easy to get done with no hassles. Going to a GE supplier/dealer might be an option if you can't get anything done.

 

[Midnight Rider]

What ever happens get your camper back home IMHO, I never leave at dealer?
Make appointment
Diagnose issue
take camper home
take camper back when parts arrive.

I hate leaving at dealer baking in the sun for two months letting batteries die and rodents to get in. Do they have it locked? Who knows?. Then at least you know what’s going on with it. Trailers left on dealer lots for months get damaged and ripped off. Protect your investment.
Roll On Jimbee! Time to kick ass at the dealership!

 

[Oregon_Camper]

@Jimbee Did you call Alliance? Love to hear some follow up on this post to see if it was the dealership or Alliance causing the delay.

 

[ktdtx]

In my humble opinion and limited experience....it is the dealer causing the problem

 

[Flyer32RLS]

I really do not understand why a dealer would drag their feet unless they charge you storage. Your rig is taking up space on their lot.

Really Bozo? It's hard these days to get good quality workers. Everyone wants things given to them and are not willing to put in an honest days work. Not sure what the take is on the hourly wages that the dealer charges but hopefully its a good chunk of their hourly rate.
One word comes to mind, incompetent!! It's in all phases of the wrok force.

 

[Bozo]

Really Bozo? It's hard these days to get good quality workers. Everyone wants things given to them and are not willing to put in an honest days work. Not sure what the take is on the hourly wages that the dealer charges but hopefully its a good chunk of their hourly rate.
One word comes to mind, incompetent!! It's in all phases of the wrok force.

If I was running the business, I wouldn’t want customer’s rigs clogging up my lot or shop. I just got a recall for battery warming pad from alliance, it will not being taken to the dealer. I could only imagine what the warranty Dollars charged is for a 5 minute job, not to mention that it would cost me more to drive to the dealer than I can buy a warming pad for myself. Alliance would be better off shipping a new pad out. This also proves that alliance is like every other rv manufacturer, they do not know what goes into each unit….whatever parts are handy are put on and unit is moved out the door. Dealerships suck in general.

 

[Lantley]

If I was running the business, I wouldn’t want customer’s rigs clogging up my lot or shop. I just got a recall for battery warming pad from alliance, it will not being taken to the dealer. I could only imagine what the warranty Dollars charged is for a 5 minute job, not to mention that it would cost me more to drive to the dealer than I can buy a warming pad for myself. Alliance would be better off shipping a new pad out. This also proves that alliance is like every other rv manufacturer, they do not know what goes into each unit….whatever parts are handy are put on and unit is moved out the door. Dealerships suck in general.

For the most part I agree with your point. However is not as simple as dealerships suck. It's the Arrangement between dealership and manufacturer that sucks. In the auto world there is more of a desire to see to it that the customer is taken care of. The manufacturer set standards that dealerships must meet to take care of the customer.
In the RV world I don't think those standards exist. The manufacture often has approval and limitations that keep the dealers from taking care of the customer. The dealer's hands are often tied waiting on approvals and slow pay. In the end the dealers are reluctant to take on warranty work because it's a losing proposition for them. Dealerships can even refuse to do warranty work or units they did not sell. They refused because fair compensation for warranty work does not exist.
The net result is the consumer believes they have a warranty but it is so cumbersome and hard to use that often it's not even worth having.
RV's are big Bulky vehicles that hard store and move around and get into a work Bay. Even a minor repair requires 30 minutes of moving it in and out. Do the manufacturers pay the dealers a minimum service bay fee.
Furthermore the entire arrangement is sort of shady like the entire RV industry. Lots of smoke and mirrors But no true desire to service the customer after the sale.
This thread reflects the typical pitfalls with warranty work. Lots of finger pointing, Back and forth red tape and delays. But very little actual work being accomplished.
As you mentioned Bozo. I'll just take care of it myself becomes the most efficient way to accomplish what should be warranty work.

 

[RockDr896]

If I was running the business, I wouldn’t want customer’s rigs clogging up my lot or shop. I just got a recall for battery warming pad from alliance, it will not being taken to the dealer. I could only imagine what the warranty Dollars charged is for a 5 minute job, not to mention that it would cost me more to drive to the dealer than I can buy a warming pad for myself. Alliance would be better off shipping a new pad out. This also proves that alliance is like every other rv manufacturer, they do not know what goes into each unit….whatever parts are handy are put on and unit is moved out the door. Dealerships suck in general.

I want to highlight and repeat one thing you say. Alliance has no idea what they put on each trailer and sales continues to blast to all, that they do. When my brakes fell off on my first trip, they sent the wrong tire rims, because they didn't even know that I had the 8K axle option. I had to send the serial numbers to them. I have also needed to send them the serial numbers on my inverter, when it bricked. This heating pad, was not put in my rig, but I got a recall notice. Not knowing, just cost them a certified letter....

If they have a list of what is on each trailer, it may look like this...."Yep, we put on 4 tires! Yep, we put an inverter in it"....LOL! With scanners, bar codes, and software to accept the parts from the suppliers....then I am sure a person is pulling the parts to build each trailer and stage them for the installers...the base line knowledge should exist. Maybe it is a check to see if a warranty claim isn't some kind of fraud? If that is the case, what happens to the poor owner gets a trailer and the installer pulled a part meant for another trailer? Either way, they may need to take that out of their marketing pitch in my opinion.