Terrible Service from Cyclone Dealer and Heartland RV.

[CrazyRooster]

Bought a new $99,000.00 Trailer July 28, 2015, immediately identified several thing wrong that the dealer assured me would be taken care of. we used the trailer 2 time before we got it in to have the items repaired around Labor Day. We were told it would be 4-6 weeks. the first week of November I called the Dealer and they told me they were waiting on parts and would be another 4- 6 weeks. I joked with the wife and told her maybe we will get our new trailer in time for Christmas. Never heard nothing from the dealer. I called on January 12th and was told the parts were still on order. I told them it was time to find out where and how long, got no response, I called Heartland to see what the hangup was on the parts and get a very unconcerning not our problem, your dealer never submitted the request for parts until 5 January. This is not what I expected from Heartland RV. My Trailer is going on 6 months old, I have used it twice and the dealer has had it for 4 and half months. Over my life I have had several trailers and two motorhomes and have never experienced this kind of crappy service. I wish I would have known. right now I would do anything just to have my motorhome back I traded in and be rid of this Cyclone Trailer. I am interested If any one else has experienced this crappy service from Heartland.

 

[jimtoo]

Hi CrazyRooster,

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

From your post your dealer is the one giving you the crappy service. If he had your unit and did not order parts when he said,,, how is that the fault of Heartland. I would suggest you call your dealer, ask about parts, when ordered and what parts. Then call Heartland and check on the info your dealer gave you. Heartland has no way of knowing you need parts unless the dealer orders them. Stay in contact with your dealer on regular basis until your unit is returned to you. Also,, you might in the future if more repairs are needed contact a regular service shop. A lot of independents will do warranty work for Heartland. But you need to get approval first from Heartland.

Please let us know how it goes.

Jim M

 

[cookie]

Another thing to consider is that if the dealer claims to be waiting for parts why not use the trailer and have them call you when the parts are in.
There is no reason to leave your rig at the dealers for four months.

Peace
Dave

 

[Shortest Straw]

You cannot blame Heartland for this at all if the dealer did not even order your parts. I am curious how involved you have been in this process. If you just dropped your rig off at the dealer and took them at their word, then you and the dealer get the blame not Heartland. How often have you called the dealer to get a progress report? My rig is in for warranty work as we speak. The dealer calls me sometimes twice a week to give me updates. I have a 14 item punch list that is almost complete and my rig has not even been in the dealer a month yet.

 

['Lil Guy']

You might want to post the dealers name for others.

 

[danemayer]

we got it in to have the items repaired around Labor Day. We were told it would be 4-6 weeks. the first week of November I called the Dealer and they told me they were waiting on parts and would be another 4- 6 weeks. ... I called on January 12th and was told the parts were still on order. ...I called Heartland to see what the hangup was on the parts and get a very unconcerning not our problem, your dealer never submitted the request for parts until 5 January.

Hi CrazyRooster,

Since the dealer seems to be at fault for not ordering the parts for over 4 months, why don't you ask the dealer to pay for expedited shipping and handling to get the parts delivered faster.

 

[Lynn1130]

I think I would be looking for a repair shop in my area that Heartland would authorize for the repairs and forget the dealer. Once authorized most all repairs can be done there and most of those shops do warranty work for various vendors such as Dometic. Once authorized you can take the rig in, the shop will make a detailed list of repairs, fax the info to Heartland for authorization, order parts and get the repair done. You will probably have to pay the shop and submit the receipt to Heartland who will send you a check. It is a little slower getting payment back but beats months of waiting for the dealer to get to the repair.

When I have ordered parts from Heartland it has never taken more that two weeks to get the part to me. Your dealer muffed this one up and Heartland is not to blame.

 

[Jv75353]

Hi CrazyRooster,

We purchased a Cyclone in June 2015 and had very similar problems with our dealer not getting things done. We did several things that helped make things happen. First we picked the trailer up and told the dealer to contact us when the parts had arrived. Second I called the dealer about every 8 days to check on the status of the parts on order, this did not seem to have much effect with our dealer. Finally got feed up and contact Heartland Service Center and filed a complaint with the BBB. Since then I've been contacted by the dealer twice a week and the dealer has been contacted by Heartland who is guiding the dealer on how to resolve our issue that pertains to some of our furniture. Good luck with your trailer, hope you can get things resolved.

 

[Kbvols]

My dealer pulled the same crap. The dealer was less than 5 miles from the plant and couldn't get a part in 3 weeks BS...that dealer is no longer in business for whatever reason I don't know but in my opinion crappy service will eventually catch up with them.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[JohnD]

I just picked up our Prowler today from getting warranty work done . . . would have been 10 weeks tomorrow since I dropped it off.

Was told three weeks tops when I dropped it off.

I got the same old "waiting for parts" line several times, and most of the items were fixed right, but a few things were not done very well, if at all.

Rather than leave it there longer, I've decided to just fix a few things right myself instead of the band aid job they did.

As an example, there is a gas strut attached to the entrance door that is a poor design from the factory as it ripped out of the screw holes on the door and the outside wall of the trailer the second week we owned the trailer and was bending the top of the door trim.

Their fix . . . they put a new strut back up there (there was nothing wrong with the original strut) and used the same screws and screw holes and the screws are barely holding it in place and are halfway pulled out already . . . and I only opened and closed the door once today!

They were supposed to put some kind of a brace there to make the strut mounts stronger.

 

[donr827]

The old saying, the squeaky wheel gets oiled first, comes to mind.
Don

 

[danemayer]

As an example, there is a gas strut attached to the entrance door that is a poor design from the factory as it ripped out of the screw holes on the door and the outside wall of the trailer the second week we owned the trailer and was bending the top of the door trim.

Their fix . . . they put a new strut back up there (there was nothing wrong with the original strut) and used the same screws and screw holes and the screws are barely holding it in place and are halfway pulled out already . . . and I only opened and closed the door once today!

They were supposed to put some kind of a brace there to make the strut mounts stronger.

John,

I think the process that most dealers follow is to have a service writer document your issues, and then have the tech inspect and determine what repairs are necessary. The dealer's warranty coordinator takes the tech's write-up and submits to Heartland. The obvious weakness in this is that by the time it goes from you to the service writer to the tech to the warranty coordinator to Heartland and back to the dealer, quite a bit can be lost in the communication.

At the dealer who did our warranty work, the service writer and warranty coordinator were the same person, which helped. But on some repairs I had to talk with both her and the tech, and also talk with Heartland and in one case Lippert, and in one case Dometic to make sure we were all together on what would be done. If I had left it to the normal process, I'm pretty sure repairs would have taken more than one trip to the dealer.

If you ask Heartland, you might find that the dealer didn't ask for approval to add a brace.

 

[kowAlski631]

We never just drop off anything, be it auto, RV, jewelry, appliance, pet, clothing, etc, and rely on receiving a response or progress update. We check regularly via phone or in person. It's unfortunate that people don't keep their word and even lie, but it happens. You have to be your own advocate these days.

 

[lynndiwagoner]

Jv gave some of the best advice on how to settle this thing....file a complaint with the BBB against the dealer. It's easily done on-line and in every instance that I've had problems with a company I've gotten positive results and resolution. The dealer is clearly at fault. I hope you get your rig repaired because that 4200 is really nice looking.

 

[OEFVET]

As many of us here have stated, you must be proactive if you want repairs completed in a reasonable amount of time. Not the answer we like but it is unfortunately the way it is today in this industry. Another option would be to cut out the middle man (dealer) and use heartland's new service center. Although I'm not sure if it's up and running yet.

Good Luck!

 

[steve8003]

CrazyRooster, I feel your pain I picked my unit up end of September and took it off the very next weekend and had a ton of warranty issues to deal with i e; no heat , no hot water......
the folks on the forum have given you many ideas and all of them are great with the followup on the dealer critical.....some great advice I got was to call the plant and check on my order and wouldn't you know it when I did the parts had just been ordered that morning......
My dealer unfortunately is / was Camping World.....it took 2 months for the first warranty bit of work to be done, however not all was done and they "were waiting on parts"now I just got a call the parts were in 3 1/2 months later (these were cosmetic repairs) so patience and a proactive approach is the way to go......I still love my unit and one day all the bugs will be out of it.....in fact headed to Myrtle Beach this weeknd

 

[JohnD]

John,

I think the process that most dealers follow is to have a service writer document your issues, and then have the tech inspect and determine what repairs are necessary. The dealer's warranty coordinator takes the tech's write-up and submits to Heartland. The obvious weakness in this is that by the time it goes from you to the service writer to the tech to the warranty coordinator to Heartland and back to the dealer, quite a bit can be lost in the communication.

At the dealer who did our warranty work, the service writer and warranty coordinator were the same person, which helped. But on some repairs I had to talk with both her and the tech, and also talk with Heartland and in one case Lippert, and in one case Dometic to make sure we were all together on what would be done. If I had left it to the normal process, I'm pretty sure repairs would have taken more than one trip to the dealer.

If you ask Heartland, you might find that the dealer didn't ask for approval to add a brace.

Hey Dan . . .

I noticed the inside trim and door-strut issue before I hitched up, but just shook my head in amazement and hitched up and hauled out!

I was reading the paperwork . . . and the dealership determined that the "strut was broken and needed to be replaced".

Not only did I show them the issue . . . they called me several times about it and still just replaced the strut!

Also, I discovered that after they did work under the trailer, they didn't reattached a complete wiring harness under one slide, and a main electrical wire on the other side under a slide.

Both were rubbing on the tires during the 40 mile drive home, and the wire was worn all the way through to the bare wire.

On the wiring harness, it just wore through the plastic brace and destroyed one of the mounting brackets.

I didn't discover these problems until I got home.

I fixed both of the issues to get us through the AZ Rodeo Rally next month, but that wire will need to be replaced as there were several broken bands of wire, but was mostly still connected.

 

[danemayer]

Hey Dan . . .

I noticed the inside trim and door-strut issue before I hitched up, but just shook my head in amazement and hitched up and hauled out!

I was reading the paperwork . . . and the dealership determined that the "strut was broken and needed to be replaced".

Not only did I show them the issue . . . they called me several times about it and still just replaced the strut!

Also, I discovered that after they did work under the trailer, they didn't reattached a complete wiring harness under one slide, and a main electrical wire on the other side under a slide.

Both were rubbing on the tires during the 40 mile drive home, and the wire was worn all the way through to the bare wire.

On the wiring harness, it just wore through the plastic brace and destroyed one of the mounting brackets.

I didn't discover these problems until I got home.

I fixed both of the issues to get us through the AZ Rodeo Rally next month, but that wire will need to be replaced as there were several broken bands of wire, but was mostly still connected.

John,

Now that we're in Colorado, you've left me very worried about the quality of service in this part of the country. I guess if I wanted a retirement 2nd career, I could get certified and open an RV repair shop. Of course, I'd only take the easy problems. You know - the ones that take 10 minutes to fix for $300.

 

[JohnD]

John,

Now that we're in Colorado, you've left me very worried about the quality of service in this part of the country. I guess if I wanted a retirement 2nd career, I could get certified and open an RV repair shop. Of course, I'd only take the easy problems. You know - the ones that take 10 minutes to fix for $300.

I'm going to wait a couple of days before I call them to report the bad service . . .

If I called them today, they probably wouldn't ever work with me again!

 

[Shortest Straw]

Don't let John's experiences scare ya, just do not go to that dealer. Ever. We warned him about how bad they are. My parents owned 2 different Airstreams and had Windish work on them. They received spectacular service from them as we are now as well. Before that we had purchased two rigs from RV America and had wonderful service from them too. RV America is a call you a couple times a week to give you updates on your rig kind of dealer. Windish is close to that as well. I would rather wait in line at RV America because I did not purchase my rig from them than ever go to Four Seasons.