Warranty issues

CliffP

Well-known member
Just curious how many of you have had warrany issues and how North Trail is at taking care of them. I've heard all manufacturers have problems from time to time. Stuff happens. I talked with a guy who owned a Forest River TT and had to haul it from New York to Indiana twice before the issues were resolved. They must haven taken good care of him. He said he'll by the same brand again next time.
 

jimtoo

Moderator
Hi CliffP,

I think you will find Heartland is the best. The factory monitors this forum, not every post, but the ATF area and responds as necessary. The Heartland warranty service is the best. Following proper channels, pre-authorization, nice phone calls, the factory will in some cases authorize individual repair centers who are not dealers to do warranty work if needed.

Enjoy the forum and hopefully see you in a North Trail down the road, or at a rally.

Jim M
 

RollingHome

Well-known member

Cliff, we’ve owned several different brands of RV's. All new units have warranty issues. My Horn had a couple and HL took care of them rather quickly. I also, know of problems where my and other coaches were out of warranty and HL STILL helped by intervening between OEM and end user or meeting the owner half-way. I would have to say HL is better than average. You may or may not know this, many RV makers make it almost impossible for an owner to contact them directly. They hide behind a myriad of obscurities to insulate themselves from customer problems... I wonder why they do this ? HL on the other hand is available to any customer. If you wanted an answer direct from HL you could have it in less than 10 biz days in most cases.

A weak link in the chain of ALL RV makers appears to be the dealer/s. HL or any other RV maker have little control over what and how the dealer/s AND their disgruntled employee/s treat the customer with a problem. The customer’s first experience is with the dealer. Then the customer judges the entire brand by how the dealer’s unhappy employee treated him or her. Some RV's buyers try to save a buck by purchasing their coach from an (almost) wholesaler or volume dealer, buyer beware ! Then they whine when a local dealer who made zero profit on their coach doesn't put them at the front of the repair line in front of loyal customers when their new toy breaks. I know of one buyer who did this then wanted the local dealer to give him a "FREE" walk thru on his new RV. He balked when the dealer told him " sure, it will cost $ 96.00 an hour 4 hour minimum".

By reading this forum one major complaint is - LAZY dealers or dealer employees who don't even take the time to contact HL. They just say "
HL said it ain't covered". After the customer contacts HL the story changes... it's a revolving ground hog day type of thing. In the end the one advice I would offer is, regardless of brand RV you purchase, become your own advocate or rep. and get involved top to bottom. Buy locally where your repairs are close – how much is saved when you have to drive several hundred miles to Indiana one or more times (unless you live close to Indiana – I don’t) ? Also learn your rig inside/out, this helps keep everyone honest and gets you the best response or action. A great place to learn your rig is right here on this forum. I have been RV'ing for years, yet I have learned more from others on this forum then all those years combined. We even have fun while doing it... sometimes things can get quite lively here too ! This is good, but it gives the mods heartburn.:eek:

 

Invizatu

Senior Road Warriors
CliffP... Welcome to the forum! We bought a new North Trail TT the end of Feb. 2010 (a 2011 model), and it has never been back to the dealer. We have used it a lot and the only issue we encountered was the tires. We did contact the service rep for the tire manufacturer and they replaced them with no hassle (the tires had app 6000 miles on them but we had only had the trailer for 8 months). I really can't vouch for how the warranty dept. responds because we never had an issue (that's a good thing). I can vouch for the quality of our trailer though and we are extremely happy. Good luck with your search!
 

TeJay

Well-known member
You will get good advice on this forum. Read what the owners have experienced. That will be one of your best sources of good information. We also purchased a NT last February. We did have some issues and headed back to the dealer (120 miles) for repairs. On our next concern I called HL and discovered that we had a dealer only 20 miles away. We had stopped at the dealer but they had no NT units on the lot. We didn't ask and nobody offered the info that the units were in KC at an RV show. In April when we took the unit to the dealer we saw several NT's on the lot. What should we have done???? We should have called HL once we decided on a unit and asked where the dealers were located. Next we should have contacted the dealer and asked for a list of customers for references as to the quality of the dealer. At the same time we should have been researching this forum. Hind sight is 20/20. We came out OK and we are happy with the unit and the service from the local dealer.

TeJay
 

2psnapod2

Texas-South Chapter Leaders-Retired
I really like the idea of being able to contact the Manufacturer directly. You can even call and talk to them directly. This is priceless. I like to work on my own rig (so far found the only one that does it correctly is me!), and being able to call HL and get parts directly is PRICELESS! And if you are a Heartland Owners Club Member you even get 10% off. That said I have had to call a couple of times and have received Warranty parts directly from them also. You can beat this.
 

9-larry

Active Member
we just bought a 26brss and on the second trip we were in a heavy rain. the ac was leaking in side trailer. i took it to dealer the next day and told them i needed trailer the following week to go to illinois. they got on trailer two days latter put a new gasket under ac. i deffinetly will send them anybody that ask where to buy a Heartland trailer!
 
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jimtoo

Moderator
Hi 9-Larry,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge if needed.

Thanks for the great service report. Could you give us the name of your dealer so we could give them a little applause?

Enjoy the forum and your new Heartland.

Jim M
 
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