Interesting experience with extended warranty

When we bought our Cy 3010 we also bought a 7 year warranty, Route 66 from United Service Protection, Inc. Bad service experience from the dealer we purchased from, All Valley RV in Acton,CA, prompted us to wait for factory warranty to expire, then seek help from a local independent shop, C&S in Oxnard,CA. Went to see them about flat springs and bad shackles (Lippert) and water tanks falling out. They submitted an estimate for repairs to Route 66, $1050 for new springs and shackles,( I asked for a Dexter easyflex with wet bolts) and $850 to resupport the water tanks. Route 66 sent out an adjuster to inspect. No problem with the springs and shackles, flat rate pay of $850, (Dexter easyflex was not covered as an upgrade, didnt expect it to be) Water tank problem was not covered. Adjuster claimed that since they were still in the trailer and functioning (barely!), it would be preventitive maintenence and not repair! I responded that I will wait for them to fall out then resubmit. Adjuster responded back that now that problem is documented, it wouldnt be covered if I dont take proper preventative maintenence action first!
Well, I got the new springs and easyflex system installed for less than the cost of the easyflex system alone (big difference, they work great) and since I'm not working now, took the trailer home to fix tank problem myself.
All done and enjoying camping again.

Sounds to me like you bought a "LIE." My next thought is what was the purchase date of your CY?? Next...why in the world did you not contact HL and Lippert while you were still in warrenty. Did you contact HL about how your dealer treated you?? I'm not an attorney..or want to be one...but me thinks you have some money coming from someone. JUST SAYING

Bought my 2010 Cyclone in Dec of 09. Noticed my springs going flat about 6 months later. Contactad Heartland with pics and was refered to Lippert. Kept Heartland in the loop with copies of all emails between myself and Lippert, but Heartland basically said that it was a Lippert problem and they would do nothing. Took my trailer to my purchasing dealer in Sept of 2010. 5 weeks later, lots of phone calls and emails between dealer and Lippert, result was that according to my dealer, everything was within Lippert specs and they would do nothing unless I agreed to have the old stuff shipped back to them in Elkhart for testing, and agree to pay for the new parts and shipping and repair labor should their testing prove the parts not defective. Heartland thought this was an acceptable option. I did not and decided to wait for my warranty with Heartland to expire and see what Route66 would do, having decided that I would need to fix the problem one way or another for the safe use of our trailer. Both C&S RV repair and the Route66 adjuster took less than 5 minutes to declare the springs and shackles bad. While it was there we noticed the sagging water tank problem.
Basically I felt abandoned by Heartland and disgusted with my treatment by them and my purchasing dealer. Now I would just like to move on and enjoy my camper.

I'm not sure if HL abandoned you or not. HL buys the frames from Lippert and can only do so much with them. There have been numerious posts and threads about Lippert spring failures....one was mine. The "catch 22" is that Lippert makes the frame and suspention. It has a 1 year warranty...but that being said. Lippert has stepped up and made repairs even when out of their warranty.

Is the selling dealer still in business?? If it was my high$$$ coach...it would have been parked in their office come monday morning. To refuse to repair anything under the HL warranty is fraud and a violation of their dealer contract with HL ( I think). If you are a happy camper now thats great....but to be told that you have to wait "until its out of warranty" to get it repaired by some "mickey mouse" warranty company??? You might also contact the warranty co. and demand your money back for the policy. Then look at the Good Sam policy. BTW, that policy probably cost the dealer about 1k and I bet you paid alot more than than for it. Anyway good luck in your travels.

Thanks for your advice, Bob and Patty. Yes the dealer is stll in business and they didnt tell me to wait, they merely said that everything was within spec and sent me on my way. This was the 3rd trip to them for warranty and all three trips left me with unresolved issues. Personally, I was glad to be rid of them and happy that Route66 at least paid for something that I knew needed fixing. Mostly, I prefer to fix things myself, but DW insisted on the extended warranty. I'm sure we will get some more use out of it before our 7 years is up. As it is, we got a little more than half our money back already.
I dont really blame Heartland, but it seems they could have pressured Lippert some and helped more than they did. Glad you were able to get some satisfaction out of Lippert, I read all the posts here and there seems to be no rhyme nor reason why Lippert honors some warranty requests and pans others.
Bottom line, DW and I have a trailer we love, are proud of, and does more than we expected when we bought it.
Good luck in your travels to you also.

Ive had the same problem with Heartland and Lippert but everyone here just thinks its exceptable for Heartland to bow out. I'm sorry Chevy, Ford or Dodge doesnt tell you to call Cummings, Isuzu, or international when you have motor problems or any other component problems, they deal with it.

mtnranger said:

Ive had the same problem with Heartland and Lippert but everyone here just thinks its exceptable for Heartland to bow out. I'm sorry Chevy, Ford or Dodge doesnt tell you to call Cummings, Isuzu, or international when you have motor problems or any other component problems, they deal with it.

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I'm wondering how it would have worked out for the tens of thousands of owners of SOB whose manufacturer went out of business if the manufacturer had been in charge of the entire warranty. With current practice in this industry, if the manufacturer goes out of business, you still have vendor warranty coverage on a lot of stuff. The RV industry is not as stable as the auto industry, and even there it took Gov't backing to keep GM and Chrysler from having their assets sold off, leaving owners out of luck on warranty.

I think the larger problem is the weak relationship between manufacturers and dealers in this industry. The dealer is the warranty focal point and all these issues should be invisible to us. But when the dealer gives the problem back to us, we see what goes into the sausage (so to speak) and it turns our stomachs. In the auto industry, the dealer contracts are much stronger and dealer compensation is tied to metrics set by the manufacturer.

So before I asked Heartland to become the warranty administrator, I'd ask them to start working on stronger contracts with dealers, to the extent that's even possible in this industry.

I believe that with the big 3, most of the components are bought from sub companies that they own anyway.

2psnapod said:

I believe that with the big 3, most of the components are bought from sub companies that they own anyway.

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That ended years ago (the ownership part). Many of the component parts suppliers are supplying to the entire industry, not just a single auto company. But if something goes bad, the auto company takes the lead on resolution. They don't tell the customer to call someone else.

I stand corrected then, thanks John for squaring me away.

"NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N) is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit over a suspension problem on more than 400,000 Chevrolet Impalas from the 2007 and 2008 model years, saying it should not be responsible for repairs because the flaw predated its bankruptcy."

I guess even a government bailout doesn't protect consumers.

danemayer said:

"NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N) is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit over a suspension problem on more than 400,000 Chevrolet Impalas from the 2007 and 2008 model years, saying it should not be responsible for repairs because the flaw predated its bankruptcy."

I guess even a government bailout doesn't protect consumers.

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That's a bean-counter legal manuever for the court to decide. I don't agree with it, but then I'm from an older GM where groups monitored warranty and failure claims, and we (the lab I was in) got involved with failure analysis and taking it to the vendor if we found it was their product or process at fault. If it was our (plant or engineering) fault, changes were made.

I just want to put in a good word for the dealer mentioned in the opening of this thread, All Valley RV, in Acton, CA. We live about two miles from them and bought our BigHorn from them. We had been in there so many times in the last three years, that they knew us very well. There was never any pressure at all from them, and they knew we would buy when we were ready. We custom ordered our BigHorn because they did not have what we wanted on the lot. Since we bought our BigHorn in November, 2010, there have been warranty repairs. The service department has been there for us with everything. I do know that the service department has to document everything, including photos, to send to the manufacturer (in this case Heartland). They can't do any repairs, or order parts (under warranty), without Heartland's approval. Sometimes, that takes a bit of time to wait for.

We ordered the seven year extended warranty too (not Route 66). So time will time what happens then. Just want to say that we have been very pleased with our service from All Valley RV.

To be fair to All Valley, our purchase was pleasent and non-stressful and I have reccomended them to others. Our service experience was less than satisfactory, with unresolved issues with each of our three attempts. I'm glad they worked out for you. They must be doing some things right or they wouldnt still be in business. Now that our 1 year is up, I'm mostly glad to have someone closer, though I havent had any issues since, knock on wood.

I agree with you about having someone closer. We had thought of buying from a dealer several hundred miles away, but found out that the local dealer was also a Heartland dealer. That really helps for the "little things".

P.S. We also warned them that if they didn't fix our problems, we would be on their doorstep every day till they did. Haha.