Friday, January 18, 2013

1/18/2013 One Heckuva Day!

(Seffner, FL)

We were up and out early this morning so that our rig could be worked on.  Little did we know.

Today has been a long day of waiting, communicating, miscommunicating and waiting some more.  At 10:03 an email was sent to Lippert, the manufacturer of our axles and we waited for the warranty approval.  All day.  Yes.  All.  Day.

To pass the time I did take a Microwave/Convection Oven class from the Chef who runs the Exit 10 Restaurant here on the Lazy Days complex.  He made meatballs for us with raspberry jam.  To die for!  I did learn quite a bit about this oven in my rig.  It can do much more than I thought and I’m anxious to put some of what I learned to use.

Around four we learned that approval still wasn’t given.  I nearly hit the ceiling.  I got on the phone with Lippert myself to find out what the hold up is.  Well, it turns out that there are too many hands in the pot and in fact approval was given but that individual didn’t share the info with his fellow employees including the person who is our frontline contact.  That makes for some very aggravated employees and customers as you can well imagine. 

So we have approval and that’s a good thing.  That said, not everything is hunky-dory with our situation.  We need to have the parts shipped to us from Lippert rather than Lazy Days going out to the local economy to purchase the needed parts.  I asked about having them over-nighted but got nowhere with that.  The problem is, there is one part they don’t have in stock.  Lippert that is.  I haven’t been able to ascertain exactly what the missing part is yet but I will be on top of that first thing Monday morning.

Lippert did tell the people here that we should have the parts they have in stock by the end of the week.  Excuse me???  Did you say the end of the week?  Certainly you don’t mean next Thursday or Friday.  The missing part?  I’m hoping its not made in China and has to be shipped here via the ocean.  We could be here for weeks!  Monday is going to be interesting to say the least.

On a happy note, we’ve met some really nice people including lots of newbies to the world of fulltime RV’ing.  Some of them are so funny to listen to, they’ve been fulltimers for two months and are experts already.  We can really appreciate the ones who ask questions of those of us who have been at it for awhile.  The lounge here has three large sections with very comfortable seating and tables and chairs.  Everyone picks a place and conversations just flow.

We found out today that this RV service center has 200 service bays.  Two hundred!  Mechanical, body shop, woodworking and who knows what else.

I have to say, their customer service is top notch!  We have never seen anything like it.  The employees here bend over backwards to make sure you are comfortable in the waiting room, in the campground and in the service bay.

During the early course of the day Bob and I started keeping track of how many times we heard, “Congratulations Mr & Mrs So and So on your purchase of a 2013 fill in the blank with the name of an RV here.  We counted 39.  More than three quarters of them were high end motor coaches.  We’re not talking $100,000 here, we’re talkin’ three hundred to five hundred thousand dollar rigs.

The Tampa RV show is going on and Lazy Days took 200 RV’s to the show.  I can only imagine what its going to be like around here the day they bring them all back.

Oh yeah, did I tell you we have full hookups here?  Yep, we do.  I didn’t think we had TV but we get 39 channels just off the antennae without even putting it up.

So, here we are.  We’re going to go about our business as usual and instead of going home to our place in a campground or an RV park, we’ll return at the end of the day to Service Bay # 79,

2 comments:

Mike Volentine said...

Snookie: Sorry to hear of you alls problems. They do sell a lot of RV's at Lazy Days but I don't think it is like it used to be. Before the recession during the month of January, when the Tampa Super Show was going on, they would sell anywhere from 1,000 to 1,300 RV's during that month. Ask someone where Parksdale is so you may get the best Strawberry Shortcake made anywhere.

Allison said...

Argh, so aggravating. At least you have full hookups. After buying a used Class A, we spent quite a bit of time in their yard waiting for things to be fixed with no sewer. It was very nerve wracking. When we had the 5th wheel, none of our tires were truly vertical and none of the axles were 90 degrees to the coach. Pretty basic manufacturing stuff, you would think. It's always something.