Waiting for Repairs at the Dealer

[TnT612]

After more than a month of waiting for the dealer to make repairs...or should I say, install parts that were (and still are) on back order, I had to go retrieve our unit so we can prepare for our snowbird flight south. Mind you, we still don't have parts and are going to have them shipped to us, whenever they arrive.
While picking up our unit, there was a sense of "we got this one out our hair", coming from the service manager. Not a good feeling, as this repair is on the heels of a previous repair that was not satisfactorily completed on an extended warranty plan...yes I said it...extended warranty plan. That just may have something to do with the delay. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and understand the whole back ordered part thing from the supplier. However, there was never contact to update us on the progress, even though I expressed my concern with the timeline and my being "that guy" a couple...ok...multiple times.

Also, after picking the unit up and traveling a few miles down the road, things began to act unusual and began shutting down...back to the dealer AGAIN. The technician had an idea of the issue right away...low voltage...out came the tester. Low and behold, the coach batts were low (wonder if the disconnected them while the unit sat for a month?). He discovered they were not charging and a relay appeared to be bad...not a stock item, if you can imagine. Yet, I'm still not sure about the relay, since the tech pushed every breaker (thinking they had tripped because the little red button was way out) and failed to reset them. I informed them of how they worked and he seemed surprised...as was I at his lack of knowledge. We connected to a shore line and the batteries began taking a charge, sufficient enough to start the generator, so I could continue getting out of their hair. I was told I could probably pick up a relay at an auto parts store...another feeling of get out of our hair.
It would have been nice to have our unit setting in the drive for the past month when the weather was decent, so I could putz around on it and get ready for our trip.

I have discovered that there is a good amount of common sense to motorhomes and many times a person can figure out what the issue is and take care of the problem without a dealers involvement. Now I'm not a mechanic/technician and never will be. However, sometimes it feels as though they are guessing at the problem, much like I would. And I'm not comfortable when I ask a question and get a deer in the headlight look back, when it seems like the tech should have been on the same page.

Sorry for the vent session.

[TexasTom]

Why not let us know who these folks are?

[Mr_D]

Our '02 Dutch Star was at the dealer for 116 days out of the first 305 days of ownership. They said Newmar sent the wrong parts. Also, Newmar only ships parts out on the next MH headed to that dealer to save shipping. I complained to Newmar about the time and the dealer told them they had repeatedly called us to pick the rig up which was an outright lie as our phone recorded every phone number that called us even if we didn't answer. And there was not even ONE that was recorded. Finally had to take the rig to Nappanee (over 4,000 mile round trip). Luckily WA warranty laws required the manufacturer to pay for any transportation costs if the rig had to be transported over 100 miles one way for service.