A/C unit died tonight

[danemayer]

The owner of my local Heartland dealer called me this morning. He informed me that he is under no obligation to Heartland (or to me) to repair my Heartland travel trailer air conditioner.
If that is the way Heartland trains their dealers for customer support, I think that is bad customer relations.
The owner said he will only work on my travel trailer after he has taken care of all "his customers" that have purchased travel trailers from his dealership.
This is not like buying cars when it comes to warranties.
You are pretty much on your own when you buy from a Heartland dealer that is 1,000 miles away.
Of course I could make the 2,000 mile round trip and get it warranty repaired at the dealer where I bought it, but that doesn't seem like the best choice.
Is this just my local Heartland dealer, or all Heartland RV dealers, or all RV dealers (all brands of RVs)?

The local dealer said they might have time to look at it this week.
Or I can take it and get it repaired somewhere else if I want.

Hi Sailor Don,

This is an industry practice, not a Heartland training issue. Dealers are all independent and often carry products from multiple competing manufacturers. It's not at all like the automotive dealer business model. Some dealers manage busy times by refusing service to non-customers. Others treat everyone equally. Independent service shops make their living off service and don't care where you bought the trailer. Some dealers provide high quality service. Others low quality service. I have friends who bought locally here in Texas so they wouldn't have the problem you've run into. Turned out the extra money they paid bought them nothing but frustration because the dealer service was awful.

I've had all my warranty and post-warranty work done at a dealer that doesn't even sell Heartland products. They don't care that I didn't buy from them and they do good work and are easy to deal with, and are authorized by Heartland for warranty claims.

So I take it from this and your earlier posts that this is the same dealer who is not an authorized service location for Coleman A/C units and they want to charge you $90 for diagnostics. Now it's becoming clearer that what they meant to do by asking for $90 was to get you to go elsewhere. Their latest response should make that crystal clear.

AirExcel has already told you the location of the nearest authorized warranty service location. Sounds like you'll be going there.

 

[SailorDon]

AirExcel has already told you the location of the nearest authorized warranty service location. Sounds like you'll be going there.

The owner of the local dealership said they would probably be able to work on it this week. I'll let it go for one more week. It's not costing me anything. I don't have any travel plans.

As a backup plan, I have called a couple of RV service centers recommended by Heartland Customer Service. They are giving the same lead time of 3 weeks. So maybe that is the standard time for travel trailer A/C repair.

Maybe I could cut a hole in the wall and install a window unit from Lowe's or Home Depot. That would solve the 3 week wait time to get the A/C repaired.

 

[SailorDon]

Update: A/C unit fixed.

It took 4 weeks (minus 2 days) of waiting.
I've got my travel trailer back. They reported that the fan motor had burned out. They replaced the fan motor in one day (yesterday).
I picked up my travel trailer with fixed A/C today.
.

 

[Westwind]

Re: Update: A/C unit fixed.

I would look for another RV Repair facility in the meantime - not to jinx you but to be prepared just in case, why deal with that type of attitude when you don't have too.