Camping World blues.

chiefneon

Well-known member
Howdy!

So our Cyclone 4000 is almost a year old and we've had very few problems with it as fulltimers. Most of the things I've fixed myself. But warranty about to run out and I had a short list of things so we scheduled a approjntment for early Monday morning. We arrived on Sunday evening and spent the night on the parking lot at Katy, TX Camping World.

Checked in Monday morning and they went to work. Almost everything was completed that day and ghey pulled it out and plugged us into 50amp service. Then things ground to a halt. They had to order a new fireplace bad plug. Hairline cracks int the tub (waiting on Heartland). TV in the TH room had snowy picture from the getgo (we waited two day for a call back from Heartland to tell CW how to fix it). I finally complained to the CW manager about the TV problem and he also was upset as to why they could not dignose a TV problem and had to call Heartland. We finally got TV fixed. Then we got the real blues. The third day Wednesday when they pulled it out for another over night stay I noticed they had damaged out 5er. I immediately reported it to CW. A service manager and asst store manager came out to look at the damage. The damage was to the storage bay door on the road side, and had been caused by them raising the bay door up to high and the door cought on the bedroom slide when they brouht the slide in. Damaged the bay door breaking the latch and cracking the fiberglass, and also damaged the lower part of the slide lip. The first thing CW stated was "are you sure you did not do this damage yourself". I almost could not contain myself. They did finally agree to repair the damage they had caused. So we finally left CW late Friday afternoon. We now have to return to CW for fireplace install, tub repair, and damage repair as they had to order a new bay door. They also stated howed it would not be a big problem due to the full body paint we had as they don't see many with full body paint Cyclones.

"Happy Trails"
Chiefneon
 

Possum51

Well-known member
Sorry about your CW troubles in Katy. I could have warned you about them. We had so many problems with them that we traded our trailer in somewhere else because they made me hate my trailer! Then we went to Holiday World next door and that was bad too!! Finally ended up st a very good
dealer ExploreUSA. We are very impressed with them. Hope things go better for
you!
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
I would buy parts and supplies at Camping World, but I would never allow them to work on any part of my trailer. Over the years I have heard some very bad events happening..

BC
 

dbbls59

Well-known member
I had bad experience at Camping World getting slide toppers installed. I agree, do not use the service department at CW.
 

Westwind

Well-known member
With so many Camping World Service centers having such abysmal reputations you wonder how long the Camping World franchise will be able to continue, it will have to catch up with them sometime. At some point the light bulb should light.
 

ksucats

Well-known member
We are now the happy owners of a LM365 thanks to Camping World. Their inept repairs to our 2006 SOB 1.5 years ago and their lack of follow-through on the sale questions on a new one of that brand caused us to go up the street to look at Heartland products. As was mentioned above, at some point their inept repairs should catch up with them. Unfortunately, every time we stop by our closest CW they are packed to the gills, mostly new / newer rigs waiting for delivery or immediate repairs following delivery. What I'm trying to say is that there are so many new campers out there that CW will continue to survive with their same business model for a long time. Oh, sending a letter (certified mail) to their headquarters about the repair I mentioned above resulted in phone call back advising us to take the coach back for review and repair. It was returned in worse shape. We ended up going to another RV repair and paying over 500.00 to get the screwed up slide rails fixed right.

My recommendation: Use them for parts and camping supplies, find another place to get your work done.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
With so many Camping World Service centers having such abysmal reputations you wonder how long the Camping World franchise will be able to continue, it will have to catch up with them sometime. At some point the light bulb should light.

Most RVers DON't check service reputations like on RV ServiceReviews.com before selecting somewhere to go for service. They think that just because Camping World is a BIG RV seller/servicer/accessories seller, they MUST do good repair work. Most dealers that SELL RV's depend on profit from that activity to mainly fund their business, and service is usually a break even operation that they MUST have in order to sell RV's. The bad service reputation won't cause Camping World to close up. There is a continuing supply of newbie RVers who ASSUME the dealership that sold them their unit would never do them wrong on service. They trust the service department like they trusted the personable salesman who sold them the RV.
 

Mburtsvt

Well-known member
You bring up a great point. The 600 pound guerrilla, (CW), is not going away any time soon. I believe that holding ALL service center’s feet to the fire will only result in a better service experience. The best manufactures became the best manufactures by listening to, not only the customer, but the service personnel as well. A superior product it will sell itself. With superior service the customer will buy again.
 

chiefneon

Well-known member
You all get that CW is the largest reseller of Heartland products…. right?

Howdy!

We are fulltimers and one reason we purchased our RV from them was due to their network of dealers across the country. On our first trip after taking delivery of our new Heartland Cyclone 4000 we stopped over night at a campground only to find we were locked out due to a defective lock. Thank goodness we had two entry doors. When we contuined on our way we stopped at the nearest Camping World. All I asked for was a lock to replace the defective one and would install it myself. The service manager was very helpful in attempting to locate one as they did not have one and called other Camping World loction on our way which knowone had. It was at this time I was told " YOU NEED TO GO TO A DEALER THAT CARRIES HEARTLAND LINE PRODUCTS". I then informed her that I was at a Heartland dealer one of which I had pruchased from and pionted out to her all the Heartland RV's including Cyclones on their lot for sale. Long story short they may be one of the largest dealer of Heatland but not much help, I had to have the lock shipped to me from Heartland.

"Happy Trails"
Chiefneon
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
It is my opinion that Camping World makes most of their profit off of the parts that they sell. We have found many parts other places for less money. One place is Tweety's.com As far as their service goes I would rather have a mobile RV repair servicer come to me even if I have to pay for a service call. BTW there is something call Route66 network of RV Repair Centers of which many dealers are part of. In order to become a part of the Route 66 system you have to agree to treat the service customer the same as you would if you sold the rv to that customer. Check it out and I know Ron Hoover Houston is part of the Route 66 system.
 

whp4262

Well-known member
RV repair places like camping world are no different then many others. I was a test pilot for a popular aircraft manufacturer and one would think, as many did, that the manufacturer's repair station would be the best place to get your sky sled fixed. But most of the time it wasn't. They did not have the best mechanics because they didn't want to pay the wages that a good mechanic would want or need to work for them. My guess is camping world is no different. And yes the money is in selling the parts, the manufacturer that I worked fore marked up the retail price 300 to 500% over the production cost. So the next time you find a really good tech just remember he is worth more then $7.25 an hour.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

ksucats

Well-known member
Here Here to that being worth more than 7.25 per hour -- I really have to wonder just how much of that 90 to 140 per hour labor cost goes to the tech that works on our coaches. I say that knowing that I could ask, and get some off the cuff answer, but I'm sure that the CW (or any other) franchise has to pay the parent a sizable portion of their profits to be able to carry the name. Even so, that does not excuse the local store/shop from having employees who do not know the products they sell, who can't give reliable estimates of when something will be ordered and arrive, and more importantly, RETURN CALLS when they promise a call back within a short while with information concerning your repair / question.

Long story short - If I promise someone a call back with an update, and I fail to do so, they often call my boss(es) who get with me stat and have me return the call. I have yet to see that happen with CW even though we elevated our SOB issues to management and final corporate. This lack of concern on their part is a major reason why we jumped to Heartland - it was the service care we heard of, and that which we have witnessed to date.
 
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