RV Outlet USA, Heartland, and Lippert

beasleyrl

Well-known member
Over the last few months, I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about their experiences with their dealer, Heartland, and Lippert. So, I’ve decided to share mine. However, instead of being disappointed, we’ve have been amazed at the support these three companies have given us.

First, let me say we bought our Cyclone in February 2008. Our warranty is clearly up now from Heartland and I would actually expect the same from the dealer. It is my understanding that Lippert does have a 2 year warranty on the frame so that should still be in play.

Last January (2009), we found a leak in our bedroom slide. The dealer took the unit in before the warranty was up and tried to fix the unit. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they were unable to get the unit to leak (could be it was 20 degrees most of the time they had it). In May, we had the unit out again and had the same problem. It leaked. So, we took it back to the dealer and they tried again. This time, they worked on it and said the leak was fixed. Since it was in before the warranty was up on the prior visit, they did not charge us for working on it. In June, we were back out and guess what? It leaked again. So, back in the shop in July. This time, they tried a few more things and said they didn’t think it would leak now. Again, no charge for the service (remember, the unit has now been out of warranty for nearly 7 months). Well, we went on a vacation in August and sure enough, it leaked again. At this point, we were pretty frustrated but we knew we were going to the Heartland VA rally in September so we thought we would talk to them about it at that time.

Now, during this same time frame, we had 2 other significant issues. In May, we broke a leaf spring on the way to the Outer Banks. Some of you may have seen my post on being careful driving through Norfolk. Thinking this was simply a maintenance issue, we had the spring fixed ($600 plus 24 hours) and continued out trip.

Fast forward to the trip down to OBX for the VA rally (September). We got down into NC and noticed smoke coming from the back of the trailer. We pulled over and saw the tires were rubbing each other on 2 of the axles. Believe it or not, another leaf spring had broken. Again, we fixed it and continued to the rally.

I won’t mention the name of the Heartland rep that attended the rally (it wasn’t Jim). After speaking with him, he said we should contact him on Monday when he got back to the office and he would have someone help with the leak. He also said we should contact Lippert for the leaf springs.

On Monday, before we could call them, someone from Heartland customer service called us. We were very surprised. Unfortunately, we had a couple of scheduled trips so we couldn’t afford to give up the trailer until November. They understood that and encouraged us to get it in to the dealer as soon as possible.

In October, we got another call asking if we had been able to get it into the dealer. We again explained the situation and they said okay. We did however go ahead and confirm the date of service with the dealer for November. We also told the dealer that we didn’t need the trailer until the week of Christmas so there was no rush.

Now, fast forward to this week. The leak is fixed (we are in Florida now and had plenty of rain to test it yesterday). All 6 leaf springs were replaced (including the 2 that I had fixed on the side of the road. In addition, the dealer fixed a couple of other minor issues that I would have considered normal maintenance on my part. The only thing that I paid for leaving the dealer was a cleaning on the brakes that I asked them to do.

Clearly, all of the parties involved stood behind their products. While it would have been nice to have not had to deal with this, nothing is ever perfect – especially something with as many moving parts as an RV. However, it is critical that the vendor provide good service after the sale. In this case, I can clearly say, RV Outlet, Heartland, and Lippert have done that! Thanks to all for getting us back on the road.

Roger & Kelly
 

beasleyrl

Well-known member
Rodger...any indication as to why the leaf springs failed?/QUOTE]

Unfortunately not. Before Lippert agreed to replace any, they had RV Outlet ship one of the broken springs to them for inspection. Apparently their analysis indicated they might have had a bad batch so they agreed to replace the remaining 4 that had not been replaced by me. I wasn't comfortable with that since they had been replaced by road side service companies. Frankly, I had no idea what kind of spring they had put on. Lippert then agreed to replace all 6 (I have 3 axles on the Cyclone).

After 2 breakdowns several hundred miles from home, I'm just happy to have them all replaced... And it is even better to know that Lippert stood behind their frame! Given some of the stories I have read about their warranty service, I am very pleased!
 
Top