RV maker BLAMES customer

they appreciate us reaching out to them as a valued customer uh going on to say we regret to inform you welcome to the channel I'm Liz I have been rving since the 80s and I've been making videos about the RV industry helping people especially who've had problems with their new RV it's through the power of social media the Power of this channel I've been able to get people the help they need including fact repairs compensation and even BuyBacks when you watch today's video with Susan and Russ you're probably going to be shaking your head I just cannot believe what has been going on with the RV industry lately it's almost like they don't even want our business be sure that you watch to the end so that you can see the RV company's response to Susan and Russ's problems this is the story of our tale with our 2021 Riverside in trepid so we've owned six RV units in our camping experience and we've been camping 45 plus years that doesn't tell how old we are but that's how long we've been doing this we picked it up September 16th of 2022 and from the beginning we started to notice some issues with the trailer finishing trim was not attached looking at the dining room table it's not Square to the wall and you look at it then how can that be but Russ was able to fix that it's a an RCA TV but they gave us an LG remote control it'll turn it on to try and switch to HDMI it won't let me go there I have to go actually to the TV use the buttons on the TV at the back when we used the shower the first time I was sitting in the living area and I'm looking and there's water flowing underneath the floor the bottom wall was loose obviously it wasn't going to keep water from getting behind the shower wall it had never been sealed on one whole probably a quarter of the shower wall so I sealed that seemed to work all right and then one day again sitting there Susan's having a shower and I see water coming out the bottom again only this time it's coming from underneath the shower and the connections underneath were loose as well I tightened them all back up again the kitchen sink they had hot and cold water ver it wasn't like a normal tap where you turn to the left to get hot turn to the right to get cold now I've crawled underneath that and change those over as well you wonder why did it happened in the first place and why it wasn't caught much sooner than me or us finding it anticipation of a big trip that we had planned in March of this year was a 30-day tour the Baja and prior to leaving home we took our unit into a local RV place to to have them check the brakes and bearings just as a precaution the letter that came back for him telling what he found there were a lot more than we had anticipated so he repacked the wheel bearings and cleaned and adjusted the brakes found out there's no power to the driver's brake the wire was loose and he had to go in underneath the cover that's underneath the trailer cut it open and go in there to find the connection it was never done from the manufacturer and never found by the RV dealer the brake drum itself rather than being round was oval so he was spinning the drum around and it would go half a turn and then it would stop another half a turn and it would stop he mentioned that these drums were probably Chinese manufactured a little bit of heat on it probably from breaking and it just went into oval rather than to round so I just had him replace it it needed to be done before I left when I was having the repairs done I just asked him to have a look at the seals all the way around on the roof the repair man when he was looking at this actually called Russ to come and have a look at the trailer because he he couldn't believe what he was seeing he said there's an issue here it's a Beal tape that they put in there to seal it and it's got paper on both sides that paper is supposed to be removed because it then sticks down to what you're applying it to and seals it off that paper backing was never removed so we have no seal and that caused it to leak now it wasn't soaking wet but it certainly was damp on all four corners so I had him repair all four corners and he also had to take the fridge vent off because he was trying to get to the the seal at the back of the trailer found out the paper backing had also not been removed from the tape that was used to seal that the insulation then had fallen and they look down and here's this piece of insulation sitting over the burner real fire hazard they repaired that which quite pleased that they had found that before we had like a fire we were hopeful that our trip down to the Baja would be a safe one without having any more issues we left home here uh February 18th heading towards Hemet California with our plan to stop and stay there rest up before continuing on to the Baja near crestwell our nette ceiling fell out of the slide frame and Russ had to find a hardware store find some screws to get that fixed and then before reaching Hemet our Blackwater pipe shattered we uh had a repair man come right into our Campground for what was termed a temporary fix he replaced the pipe and we wrapped foam around that because and to our dismay that pipe is running between the axle and the bottom of the trailer the foam we hoped would allow us to continue on the trip so we crossed into the Baja all the way down to the end and on our way back day 21 in retto we discover our two rear tires are worn down to the metal cord there are no repair shops but through Word of Mouth we were able to find two used trailer tires to get us home at that time Russ suspected that the axle might also be bent another thing that happened was the left side of our bed would no longer close at this point the wall board on the outside was loose and now Russ is running around in in Loretto on the Baja trying to find a hardware store to get an L bracket to pull the wall back to square so that bed would actually close on that corner there was only one screw and it was screwed into about a qu inch panel on the back and that was all that was holding the side of the bed frame day 28 which is gona Bay on our way home our blackwat pipe shattered for the second time we've had several repair people when they crawled under the unit and saw that they ran both the black and the gray water pipes between the axle and the bottom of the trailer a couple have said to us you know that's just not the way things should be done this forced us to cut our trip short by 3 days this happened in the afternoon and we drove all the way to El Centro that day arriving 11:30 at night next morning we were lucky to find an RV place the gentleman there was very good he came out crawled underneath and said yeah I think we can do that type of a repair for you agreed to to get to work right away on rerouting the Blackwater pipes I knew that it was going to be expensive but it was something that needed to be done they crawled under the unit again and discovered yes in fact the rear axle was bent but I also noticed underneath the trailer that the tires were hitting uh up into the top of the wheel well and that's when he and I had a look at the springs and the Springs rather than being curved and they're a fourleaf spring they were flat the only issue that I could see that had caused that was just poor quality Springs that the steel hadn't been tempered properly and therefore was not holding the trailer up so all four Springs on both axles had to be replaced to have them go flat after two trips the first big trip we made was and we went down to Tucson and back but other than that it's just been local trips so there hasn't been a lot of mileage put on this trailer that those those Springs would go flat they had to replace that rear axle two rear brakes four brand new Springs and also forced us to buy two brand new tires as well so we stayed in a campground for a week waiting for parts to come in and for repairs to be done luckily for us again these fellas came right to our campground to do it so we were able to stay in our unit while all this is happening we spent over $66,000 Canadian to have the work done that we needed to get done to even get back home because remember we were in L Central California and we were driving all the way back up to British Columbia and we couldn't have driven it with the bent axle and the tires worn to the metal cord and also you forget about the $2,000 we spent to have it looked at before we left it's a lot of money to spend on a new trailer that shouldn't have had these issues on arriving home we found that the wall board beside the couch had separated from the wall much to our maybe not surprise anymore because of all the other things that have G on nothing was holding it in place there were no Nails no screws nothing holding that wall the only thing holding it in was the plastic trim also the kitchen counter there is now a screw or a nail coming from underneath the counter and pushing right through the arbor I wrote a letter to the manufacturer and copying it to the dealership where we bought the trailer because of the anger and frustration that we have experienced owning this trailer you buy new you do not expect to have major repairs like this it's been one thing after another from day one I wanted to bring it to the attention of the manufacturer first of all I wanted a response from them saying acknowledging the letter and then also taking ownership of some of the what I think was poor design and terrible workmanship that went into this I sent the letter May 15th with a tracking number to know that they received at May 28th by June 15th I had not had a response from them so I sent an email the uh comment I got back from them that this was not a warranty issue they had passed the letter on to a manager and that he has sent a letter in response to my inquiry now why couldn't they have just picked up the phone and called their customers and let them know their response or even send them an email but no they're going to make them wait for a letter to come through the mail so frustrating I did receive that letter the next day they appreciate us reaching out to them as a valued customer uh going on to say we regret to inform you that your RV is currently out of warranty and that proper steps were not followed to receive payment for the necessary fixes repairs must be coordinated and pre-authorized through an authorized dealership I don't think that could have been found in L Central unfortunately the dealers ship you previously worked with is no longer a purchasing dealer they are still authorized for service and warranty well that's in Alberta Canada they suggested also I contact Dexter's axle warranty and reach out to them we could schedule an inspection with them if we ever plan a trip to Indiana where they may be able to address any of the issues and in this case the issues have already been addressed maybe not in the fashion that they wanted but we were required these repairs to be done in a fairly timely basis so that we could get back home and feel safe on the trip back well first of all our first bill locally for $2,000 was for safety reasons then like R mentioned the uh sewer black and gray water issues the axle and the rest of it was it was not drivable the quality control that the manufacturer should have in place before they ever send that unit away from their their site needs to be much better than what they're doing now some of these issues should have got caught at the manufacturing level not by us when we start using the unit I would caution others when looking to purchase an RV unit have some reputable person check out before they buy I'll just say buy or beware even though they say to you and I was actually looking at what they have on their website there's a little symbol and and it it reads quality assurance guaranteed but it's not you know it it's it's not guaranteed and that's really frustrating and makes you angry when you buy new and it's just been one thing after another and these issues I'm not sure when it'll stop I'm not sure we don't trust it we would like to be reimbursed for issues that we believe were that poor design poor workmanship may be being offered another unit but honestly after this experience with this trailer I'm not sure that would even be acceptable at this point I want to say thank you to you Liz for listening for being there for people like us who are not being heard by people that manufacture inferior products so in Us doll the money that Susan and Russ spent works out to about $5,000 and I reached out to Riverside and I said hey these problems are due to mistakes made at the factory poor design and poor components and I said what can you do for Susan and Russ I heard back from Bobby fish I asked a little bit about the company too I had never heard of Riverside and he says that Riverside has just under 40 employees they'll build appr approximately 500 units this year as they did last year but as far as Susan and Resco he says it's important to note they did not follow the correct warranty process within the allowed time frame in other words well the warranty was up so sorry and I feel like there should be no expiration on if you screwed up at the factory then you make it right what happened to ownership of problems what happened to standing by your product I would think that they would do that if they want to stay in business I don't know what is going on in the the RV industry today but it just seems like they don't even want our business and he goes on to say that many of these complaints should have been noticed at the time of purchase from a solid walkthr and a PDI at the dealer so now he's blaming the dealer yes this is why you should get an outside inspection because sometimes the dealer doesn't do a good walkth through but again they're not taking ownership of the problem they're blaming the customer they're blaming the dealer instead of standing up and doing the right thing I just asked for $5,000 that was it wouldn't it have been nice if I could have made a video saying guess what Riverside stepped up took responsibility gave Susan and Russ $5,000 and aren't they a great company for at least wanting to have their customers be happy but no that's not what happens in this case and I just I just can't believe it ah but that seems to be the norm for some of these companies and I really honestly don't know how they can stay in business if they're not going to stand by their product if you found this video valuable please like subscribe and definitely share we need to get the word out there so people know be careful when you're RV shopping make sure that you do your research what do you think Riverside should do for Susan and Russ let me know in the comments and also any tips that you may have for anyone shopping for a new RV thanks for watching and stay tuned

Channel: Liz Amazing

Views: 95,096

Keywords: RV life, Fulltime RV living, RV industry, RV inspection, buying a new RV, New rvs, used rvs, RV shopping, rv inspection, rvindustry, RV quality, Riverside RV, Intrepid, travel trailer

Id: A3wVqdq67F0

Length: 16min 40sec (1000 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 21 2024