Waiting for microwave - Event Date: 21 Jul 2014

Originally posted by NormanHill Mark,  I do agree that dealer is not great, but I wouldn't let FR off the hook so easily. Sure the fridge is made by someone else, as is the axle, brakes, Air Conditioner, tires, etc. But FR pulled these together to sell us a complete package and we had the reasonable right to expect that everything would fit together nice and work. My last camper was a 1978 Argosy and the fridge still worked. Am I setting the bar too high for the campers sold today? (I'd really like a rep from FR to weigh in on these Quality discussions) Norm

The fridge in our '79 Airstream still works fine.. (but it has zero electronics and isn't a 3-way )as do MOST of the Dometics out there.. but bad fridges happen. Last year, a 5 cent control board in many of the Dometic 3 ways was an issue.. happens.

FR builds about a hundred different brands, and they order fridges 1000's or probably 10K at a time. If a bad one, or series of them, gets into the line.. well.. it happens. It's in how they handle the warranty claim that they prove themselves.

I agree you have every right to a perfectly functional pod from the dealer.. but it IS the dealers responsibility to do a PDI, and make sure all IS well with it. If they don't, not a thing FR can do to make them. In your case, everything you listed was/is a PDI issue. Hound CW to make it right.

As far as setting the bar to high.. and since you bring up Argosy.. To a point, you get what you pay for. The R-Pod is the least expensive, fully equipped, hard sided camper in it's size range. The most expensive (in the USA) is a Airstream Bambi. Go over to AirForums and read the comments about the exact same issues, in a camper that costs 3 times the money. That would really chap my a$$.. unless I had a dealer who was dead on it and took care of it right away.

I will say this about FR's customer service, I have personally seen them do 1000's of dollars of repairs on trailers   l o n g   out of warranty, because they felt it was the right thing to do. Go to the International Rally in Goshen IN, or talk to people who have. I guarantee you the reports/stories will amaze you. 

As far as I know, FR has never commented directly/officially on these forums, nor on the FB group.

Mark you hit the nail on the head. The dealer is 95% of your satisfaction with your RV.

I can appreciate your frustration.  The dealer I bought my 178 from, Camping World, didn't check out the camper before sending it home with me and the fridge didn't work on AC.  They didn't believe me and it took two trips to convince them, then they ordered a part that took 6 weeks, and as of today they told me they ordered the wrong part.  Nice design, but quality from Forest River is very poor.  I suggested that Camping World inspect and reject non-conforming campers and they gave me the equivalent of a shrug. Bought the camper in May.  I like the design, but at this point I couldn't recommend someone buy a Forest River product.

With the prices we pay, you expect a) things to work and b) if something doesnt work, fix it fast!!!