Originally posted by OldNeumanntapr We bought our 180 brand new this year, mostly to get a warranty. Nothing major. We bought Locally, and our Local dealer REFUSES to answer emails or return calls. The service manager is ALWAYS out when I call. It's kind of ridiculous.

My sincere advice to you or anyone else who is experiencing a problem with your dealer is to call The R-Pod reps that handle warranty claims directly. There is no reason why you should put up with any dealer treating you that shabby. Take some time and read through the Warranty, Service and Recall Bulletins thread in this forum. Familiarize yourself with your state laws concerning RV's and warranty repairs which varies state by state. Also many independent RV repair shops will do warranty repairs and file the claim for you with your RV manufacturer. You might have to pay the difference between what the manufacture shop rate for the repair is and that independent shop rate charges but IMHO it can be more then worth it.

I often wonder why the manufactures of RV's don't realize that by not requiring their dealers to adapt to warranty system like car dealers they are just shooting themselves in the foot! How, well for instance would you be more apt to buy brand X RV if you know any dealer in the country will honor the warranty or brand Y RV under the present warranty repair system that is in place now? Lastly I would say if you get the chance complain to your State Representative about the abysmal warranty repair laws on RV's. 

We have had a different experience with our dealer. The day we picked it up they gave us a very thorough walk through that took almost 2 hours. They also spent around a 1/2 hour to 45 minutes going over the intricacies of the WDH and brake setup. I wasn't happy with the after-market (Teconsha) brake controller, but that was mostly esthetics, and they took back that brake controller without a fuss. I installed the Ford OEM brake controller myself and am happy with the way it fits right into the dash.

We had a couple of minor issues with the WDH, and the service manager gave us his personal cell number. He's given me advice, and met us on the lot one afternoon to verify that the WDH didn't have an issue for us.

So I guess everyone and every dealer varies quite a bit.

Every owner and every"dealer" has a different story and approach.

 We bought a used pod from a local dealer.  There was no warranty and we knew it and were well aware of the potential problems. The dealer prepped the unit very well and gave us a thorough walk through and demo.  Everything worked when we picked it up.

shortly after purchase, our refrigerator died completely.  both circuit boards were bad.  We don't know the cause -power surge, lightning, bad boards, corrosion??????? Regardless, we had to replace the refrigerator.

We went back to our dealer and I think they did the very best that they could.  They scheduled us immediately, ordered our new refrigerator and installed it within a week.  we paid for the refrigerator and they"absorbed" the installation cost. I think that was a fair deal.

I feel like the dealer took care of us as best as they could.  sure, we had a failed component on a used 2015 unit that we owned for a month.  I was not happy with Dometic, but I have no issues with Forest River or the local dealer.

I understand what the dealers must do in order to stay in business.  I think the most important thing is to work with a local dealer, be honest with each other and do business in a business like manner.  check out the dealer for all aspects of the business, not just the lowest price.  a bargin price  is not always the best  long term solution. A relationship matters.

Vann

Nothing major. We bought Locally, and our Local dealer REFUSES to answer emails or return calls. The service manager is ALWAYS out when I call. It's kind of ridiculous. We payed $19,800 for ours brand new which was list price. They gave us $750 in trade for my '89 Coleman Sequoia tent trailer with EXTREME dry rot in the roof. (sight unseen.) Plus they gave us a $350 voucher for their parts dept for various things; a group 27 marine battery, a new ball hitch and bar, towing mirrors, and a brake controller. (I had to pay the installation $ for the brake controller.)

I thought at the time it was a fair deal but we could probably could have gotten a better deal in hind site. (Knowing from the past it is always harder when you have a trade in, especially one that the dealer doesn't want.) It still bugs me that they won't take care of the few small repair items we found. All of these items were noted the week that we bought the unit. 

I sure wouldn't recommend Pacific RV on the CA Central Coast. I count myself fortunate that nothing major was wrong with the trailer. It was sure a different experience when buying a new vehicle. Is this par for the course when it comes to RVs? I have always purchased my campers used before. They don't hide the fact that they really only want to sell new RVs. 

We had a friend who bought a used cabover camper from Pacific Coast RV and he is NOT happy with them at all because they refuse to honor their written warranty. 

With a used pod, the warranty items should have been fixed or the problem should be obvious and the dealer should disclose un-repaired warranty items.  Most people really don't use their new rPods so much that significant wear and tear will occur.  Quick sales after purchase occur because either the owners realize that they are not using it enough to justify the investment, it's too small for their needs, or there are problems that they can't get fixed.  If it's the latter, it's fraud to conceal them.  Ask the seller whether there are any known defects or open warranty matters and confirm in the sales contract that there are none.

On the other hand, my first R-Pod (New 2016 171) was bought locally and I had it in three times for the same problem, so not not all local dealers have similar skill sets in repairing items. The same local dealer gave me (a first-time RVer in 2016) a 15-20-minute walk-through, set up an E2 WDH with a Honda Pilot about as unlevel as can be (because they used the wrong shank, I discovered later), and made it a hassle to get any work done even under warranty. This is all to say, local is better only if it is, and you really can't use a broad brush in giving answers to this problem. 

Responding to several posts here: It sounds like the Pod was bought in WV and taken either on a vacation or a move to Oregon.  Why it's no longer in WV doesn't really matter.  All camper trailers are meant to be moved from place to place, often over great distances.  That's really kinda what their all about.  So buying in Ohio and wanting warranty service at home in Florida isn't the issue here.  The guy bought at home in WV (although that close to Crouch's... maybe he did buy it there.  But that's not what he said, and I think the assumption should be that he bought it at home and took a trip with it to the west coast.  Again, that's what one does with travel trailers.

I agree and want to emphasize that this isn't a Forest River problem, but one that's industry-wide.  It's really kind of ridiculous that a travel trailer made by a company with the dealership network Forest River has can't manage warranty repairs anywhere but at the selling dealership.  That doesn't change the reality of the situation for the OP though.

And another thing, what the heck is the deal with keeping a camper for 2.5 months for $118 in repairs.  From what I've heard, that's not too atypical.  If you took my truck in for warranty repairs and they kept if for 2.5 months there'd be hell to pay.  I know people often don't use their trailers for months a time but they also have issues with them while they're on the road....

$118 for repairs that weren't covered under warranty...  Well, I guess I might be a little miffed at having to pay, but I'd be frigging outraged that they kept my rig for over two months to do probably less than two hours work on it.  (There were probably parts and materials, right?)

I got my Pod used, without a warranty, and, knock on wood, I haven't really had any big issues that were beyond my abilities to take care of. 

It seems to me the OP has a legitimate complaint.  Given the reality of the situation, his complaint probably should be directed at the dealer who sold him the Pod, but, bigger picture, the industry needs to do a lot better about honoring warranties beyond the selling dealer and they need to do better about service in general.  Seems to me...

TT

Camping World does often times sell R-Pods, as long as they were a certified Forest River service center you might be able to contact Forest River and have that bill taken care of for you.