I don’t know if our experience with purchasing an RV is typical but it was certainly not desirable. While we were driving to Elkhart I received a call from one of the dealership’s technicians. He stated they had been testing the water heater and found it was defective and needed to be replaced. They ordered a new one and it would arrive early Tuesday morning (the next day) and they would get it installed but it might delay my pickup, however they felt it would be ready by our 1pm pickup time. I appreciated the call and the fact they were replacing the water heater without any issues.
On Tuesday morning we hung out in the hotel while the kids worked on chemistry homework. We checked out of the hotel a little early and went to Culver’s for lunch. They actually have a gluten free option and our daughter enjoyed it. We then set out for the dealership. We arrived promptly at 1pm where we were greeted by a salesperson, not mine of course but one that was helpful. He called our salesman who was at lunch, you know since it was a surprise we arrived exactly at our set time. The salesman went back to our RV to let the technician who would go over the RV with us know we were here and to make sure the A/C was on. With my wife’s issues keeping her cool is very important. We took a seat and proceeded to wait until they were ready.
I had noticed the RV was back by the service center and the door was open, which lead me to believe they were still working on it. As we waited in the lobby we had several more people ask if we had been helped all were very nice and I was glad they were so friendly. Around 1:30pm our salesman showed up and told us they were just finishing up a few things and it would be ready in 10-15 minutes. Around 2pm he came back and told us it was ready, so we all proceed to walk back there to inspect the RV.
As soon as we walked in I could tell it wasn’t complete, some things had been done but not all of them. I had given each kid a list of the items we had requested be resolved, they set out to verify the items were taken care of. I began to go through the RV with the technician video recording the entire process. The technician (Lee) did a decent job showing how to operate the RV, but since it was a brand they don’t typically sell there were things he didn’t know how to operate.
During my walk-through we discovered several items that needed to be addressed. The kids also finished their lists and found several other items still needing to be addressed. Lee took good notes on all of the issues and said he would only be able to get one or maybe two completed today. Meaning we would have to wait until Wednesday to pickup the RV. Our intention was to pick up the RV on Tuesday and then spend the night in their campground so any issues discovered could be resolved on Wednesday. Now we would have to stay in a hotel again and then try again on Wednesday.
We met with the finance person who told us to pick a hotel and they would reimburse us for the cost. This was nice as we didn’t have to use a specific hotel and we could find a nice one we liked. We left the dealership with an understanding all issues would be resolved by noon the next day and I would get a status update by 10am. The biggest issue was the fact the new tires they put on were already a year old. They would be calling the tire company to find out what was going on with them.
My wife has been trying to get Wendy’s for several months and it just hasn’t worked out. So we found a Wendy’s in Elkhart for dinner. It was in a bad part of town and the food was horrible. None of us enjoyed our dinner, it was very disappointing. We then found the Staybridge Suites in Elkhart to stay for the night. The lady at the check in desk told me dinner was included and I really wish we hadn’t wasted our time at Wendy’s. We planned on staying at the hotel on Wednesday until the noon checkout time, hopefully then our RV would be ready.