Buying an RV at a RV show

[Glide rider]

Hi all. Sorry about the long post. We purchased a Torque T331 at the rv show in Hershey this past Sept. I came to the conclusion that I will never but an rv from a show again. It seems like they are slapped together to get ready for the show. We got to use it twice and found all kinds of things wrong with it. All the screws holding the bedroom slide and floor were loose. Seal missing on bedroom slide missing. Caulk on roof looks like the caulk tube exploded. Toilet in main bathroom does not let solids go down. These are just a few of the things we found. There's more. It's been at the dealer for 5 weeks now and they only repaired some of the things. Dealer is an hour away from my house so it's kind of inconvienient to run there. I did go there to get a few things out the camper. 1. They had to bring it up from a lower lot far from the service area. 2. The camper was unlocked. 3. The front grab rail would not stay against the door like it did when I took it there. I told them about all these things and got a bull sh** story about the camper not being level and that's why the grab handle wouldn't stay in.??? I said so everytime I go up an incline, the handle is just gonna flap in the breeze??? He just stood there and looked dumbfounded. I don't think I'll ever buy another Heartland product due ti the fact all this BS left a bad taste in our mouth.

 

[Dahillbilly]

call Heartland customer service, warranty department, have your VIN number handy & ask about any warranty claims submitted from dealer. Talk nice & see what answers you get. I did this & things worked out very well for me.

 

[cipwood]

Sounds like so many stories we hear about the lousy QC on currently manufactured RV's. And yet we keep buying them?

 

[Glide rider]

I am going to call customer service after work tomorrow

 

[donr827]

This post brings up the old walk-through must-do before signing the papers

 

[Glide rider]

This post brings up the old walk-through must-do before signing the papers

Big problem was I guess I should have looked in the toilet with a flashlight to make sure the pipe wasn't obstructed. Also, never go to pick up when it's raining. It makes the outside inspection a little rough to find things( It rained for a couple days). Didn't know about slide seal until we were going to make the bed and found water stain on plywood.
I called Heartland's warranty department. The woman I talked to was very nice and helpful. All the issues are covered under warranty. The service manager at the dealership said he was trying to get a few things covered. Another BS story? Tried to call him today and his phone went to voicemail and he never called back. I'm giving him until tomorrow then I'm going to personally talk to him. Just tired of all the lies. They've had it longer then we did.

 

[cipwood]

Maybe you should post the dealer's name, just to give them a little free advertising.

 

[sengli]

We have taken plant tours for pretty much every brand made in northern indiana. And honestly regardless of price point they are all made by hand one at a time by people who seemed to be in a terrible rush. I know when we bought our new fivers, the entire first year was all about fixing all the little things that werent right. Luckily we didnt have any major issues that I couldnt fix. Relying on the dealer is great, but any repairs takes weeks to months to be fixed. I called heartland and had the parts sent to me directly.

I do remember seeing the units they had at the factory, they were making to be shipped to the Hershey show. A lot of last minute changes and updates according to the sales guys.

 

[ATP]

Hi all. Sorry about the long post. We purchased a Torque T331 at the rv show in Hershey this past Sept. I came to the conclusion that I will never but an rv from a show again. It seems like they are slapped together to get ready for the show. We got to use it twice and found all kinds of things wrong with it. All the screws holding the bedroom slide and floor were loose. Seal missing on bedroom slide missing. Caulk on roof looks like the caulk tube exploded. Toilet in main bathroom does not let solids go down. These are just a few of the things we found. There's more. It's been at the dealer for 5 weeks now and they only repaired some of the things. Dealer is an hour away from my house so it's kind of inconvienient to run there. I did go there to get a few things out the camper. 1. They had to bring it up from a lower lot far from the service area. 2. The camper was unlocked. 3. The front grab rail would not stay against the door like it did when I took it there. I told them about all these things and got a bull sh** story about the camper not being level and that's why the grab handle wouldn't stay in.??? I said so everytime I go up an incline, the handle is just gonna flap in the breeze??? He just stood there and looked dumbfounded. I don't think I'll ever buy another Heartland product due ti the fact all this BS left a bad taste in our mouth.

I would demand a new camper or a full refund if not satisfied. Good luck.

 

[Bogie]

We have taken plant tours for pretty much every brand made in northern indiana. And honestly regardless of price point they are all made by hand one at a time by people who seemed to be in a terrible rush. I know when we bought our new fivers, the entire first year was all about fixing all the little things that werent right. Luckily we didnt have any major issues that I couldnt fix. Relying on the dealer is great, but any repairs takes weeks to months to be fixed. I called heartland and had the parts sent to me directly.

I do remember seeing the units they had at the factory, they were making to be shipped to the Hershey show. A lot of last minute changes and updates according to the sales guys.

Ditto......

When I purchased my current fiver, I made it clear with the dealer (over 500 miles away) that no paperwork would be signed until I inspected the unit. Spent the better part of 4 hours doing so. Yes, there were some issues. Mostly minor fortunately. But the majority were taken care of before we shoved off for home the next day. Had one major issue which we scheduled with the dealer for several months later. They met their commitment and performed the work expeditiously. So having a good dealer really helps. As is often heard of on this forum, many dealers don't perform well.

Since then, I tend to take care of any new issues that come up myself. Some were still what would be considered warranty related. But, spending a few hours fixing them was far preferable to driving 500+ miles each way so someone else could do the labor.

Anyone looking to buy a new unit should take a look at the pre-delivery check list in the Tools section of this Forum. Have that in hand and take your time inspecting before you hand a dealer any money.

 

[cipwood]

Made by hand or not there is no excuse for poor QC. And it's pretty sad that a buyer has to spend hours on a walk thru doing the factories job of QC inspections.
JUST SAD.

 

[Glide rider]

We heard from the dealer today. He said all the parts were in. They had to get a new tube that goes from the toilet to the black water tank. They at least winterized it for us. There were a few things that I did repair myself but I wasn't going to tackle the toilet issue. LOL
Anyway, he told my wife that they're going to get it in as soon as an RV is finished due to it's the only bay our camper would fit in. Unfortunately, we bought our RV from a small dealership. They have a small service garage.

 

[chaplady]

From my experience at the factory tour the QC that's being spoken of is after unit is built, i didn't observe any type of QC at the individual stations. At the end of the line outside I saw people inside with tape note pads doing mostly cosmetic inspections of obvious defects. Once built the hidden defects won't be seen.
Seems QC showed be done at each station of build with set standards to inspect too.

 

[Glide rider]

We picked it up today. Wife and I went to check it out. They never fixed/replaced the grab handle at the front door. We looked inside and it looks like they just dumped antifreeze in the shower and never cleaned up. The shower floor is now pink instead of white. I'm sure it will scrub up but the point is, they left a huge mess. We did go right back in and the wife let them have it. I'm not sure if the toilet plumbing is fixed and won't really know until someone takes a crap in it. I was ready to throw the keys on the service desk and tell them to go f*** themselves and give my money back. My wife and I were both furious. I ended up taping the grab handle fast, hooked it up and took it home. They are going to send me a new one and I'm going to switch it out. When they called and told us it was done, my wife told them to make sure everything was done on the list since we are over an hour away and they said it was. I took pictures of everything and I am calling Heartland to complain. I am definitely throwing them under the bus.

 

[taskswap]

From my experience at the factory tour the QC that's being spoken of is after unit is built, i didn't observe any type of QC at the individual stations. At the end of the line outside I saw people inside with tape note pads doing mostly cosmetic inspections of obvious defects. Once built the hidden defects won't be seen.
Seems QC showed be done at each station of build with set standards to inspect too.

It won't happen. There's a thread here from maybe a year ago where somebody from Heartland asked people to post positive Google reviews for them. It opened a can of worms with folks chiming in about all their bad experiences, and true to form, the Heartland employee didn't even reply.

There was a point where I had a long email conversion with the individual where I offered to share what we had found with our Milestone 386BH when we got it, and since I'm an engineer by trade, I even distilled it down to what I felt were very reasonable and actionable improvements they could make on the line that would not just make customers happy, it would also reduce warranty claims (which is good for Heartland, too). And this wasn't snarky comments like "do better," it was stuff that would take maybe 20-30 mins on the line to prevent potentially major issues for customers down the road. No response. Not even the typical corporate "thanks for your input, we'll pass it along to our team." That was 3 hours wasted.

Let's face it, Heartland is not really better or worse than many of the other brands out there. There are very few standards in the industry, and they don't have to comply with things like the IRC/NEC codes. And they have to keep churning. Car dealers make over 50% (depending on who you listen to) of their income on service, and over 3 million cars are sold just in the US every year. The last number I saw for RVs was something south of 400k units, and that's across all manufacturers. The prices per unit are roughly similar, but an RV is 5x the size of a car, and with all the custom floor plans, they can't automate the production the way Toyota can. And just delivering them is expensive. You can put 10 cars on a car-carrier, but every fifth wheel has to be transported on its own. And despite all this customers still expect low prices and to be able to haul something 40' long with a half-ton truck.

So it's no wonder that they cut every corner they possibly can. It's just a shame they won't even do the things that would help themselves. Warranty service is an expensive burden for manufacturers because the labor rates from the dealers/service centers are so much higher than they pay their own employees. You'd think an extra 20 minutes of QC at each step of production would pay off in the long run...