Ask the factory

[GeneF]

Just curious as to why there is a forum called Ask the Factory?

All of the questions seem to be answered by other camper owners.

Seems that if a question is answered directly by the factory, much confusion could be avoided and a lot of guess work .avoided.

Example is the question about how to manually operate the slide.

Posters with different types of slide mechanisms were second guessing. It was not noticed by some that this was a pulley system.

Posters referred to an outside hole to crank in the slide on the outside of their trailers.

Some posters didn't know about the flexible tool.

I learned that I didn't have one by reading some of the posts. (Had the dealer get me one).

Yes, the facia has to be pulled off to get to the slide motor. I learned this from the dealer as I watched in horror as he just reached up and tore of the small square facia. Then we tried to figure out how to get the wand to the motor. In order to do that, we would have had to tear off more of the facia. Decided to let it go as I now had an idea of what to do.

I did contact Heartland and really couldn't understand what they were talking about. Not sure the person I was talking to did either. He sent me a link to a manual on the slide and that was about worthless also.

Anyway, if we have a forum called Ask the Factory, why doesn't the factory post an answer on it?

Although I haven't tried it, it appears that if you fill out a form on that forum, they might answer you question by email.

This is not a rant but an honest question.

 

[Bob&Patty]

To answer your question. HL does not have someone sitting by a computor answering questions. If the plant is busy, and managers are all busy....it may takes a few days to answer any questions. The "ask the factory" part of the forum is only a tool for an owner....not a direct link to a person. Your best bet...always is, your dealer, asking a question on the forum with details or calling HL direct. Have you tried the WIKI section on the portal page ...top right corner? Lots of information there.

 

[GeneF]

Bob

Thanks for the info. Being fairly new to this forum, I haven't figured all the ins and outs yet.

My assumption about Ask the Factory title was not correct.

 

[jbeletti]

Gene,

Your question is a great one and Bob provided a great response. Let me add my response too. In the beginning of the forum (2004), Heartland had a single brand (Landmark) and were a much, much smaller company. I asked them if they could answer questions directly in an Ask the Factory (ATF) forum/format. They agreed and it worked out great.

As Heartland got larger (more brands, more units being produced, fewer management people doing more work), the responses by the factory to ATF questions took longer. Then product owners started to chime in with responses. Guess what? In most cases, product owner responses were accurate.

Heartland continued to grow (even more brands and more units). As more product owners were answering questions than the factory was, I questioned the need for the ATF forums. Heartland upper management asked me to leave them.

I hear you on the varied responses one can get from other product owners on a question asked in the ATF. This can happen for a variety of reasons. Often, the OP (original poster) is not super clear in their question. They know what they mean but they don't always effectively communicate this in writing. So product owners make some assumptions to fill in the information gaps and provide their responses. Then the OP comes back and provides more data. This can spawn a new round of responses based on the additional data provided.

The factory (brand manager) does see the initial question and all the responses. They see this via email each time a post is made in the ATF forums. They are rarely the first to respond, but they do try to respond if the product owner responses are off-base.

I once envisioned limiting respondents to ONLY the factory. This idea didn't gain much traction at Heartland so I did not implement it. Product owners are the experts in my opinion. The factory designs and builds the product but product owners use the products - hence my comment about who the real experts are.