Saturday, March 10, 2012

The Red Bay Saga Continues…

Enjoying the Tiffin Factory Tour

Well the “service guy” showed up as our first contact with the service department two days after we got here in Red Bay, Alabama. He pulls up in a beat up old red station wagon and rolls down his windows and asks a question?

“Are you in a hurry?” We said what do you mean? His reply was “Well, if you are in a hurry we can put you in the express bay and if not we can get to you in about two weeks?” We say enthusiastically- “The Express Bay!!!!”

The off he went without even coming into the RV to see what specific issues we wanted to address. I had several items I wanted to ask a technician about but I guess we will have to wait till later to speak with one.

Then we didn’t hear anything from anyone again…We are definitely on “Tiffin time”.  I finally decided to visit nearby Bay Diesel to see about getting some preventative engine maintenance done and have them look over my front driver’s side brake that had overheated when we drove through Birmingham Alabama.  The were able to set me up an appointment for Tuesday morning.

Back in the land of the Tiffin Service Center another day rolled by without any contact so we initiated contact with the Service Department Friday afternoon after the bays had closed for the weekend. I asked if they had any idea where we were in the queue since we had a diesel appointment for Tuesday. After shuffling through some papers on his desk he said we were next and would be seen Monday at 7:00 am… Great we thought!!! Then we wondered when they were ever going to tell us that since they had closed for the weekend??? Strange way to do business… but at least we are likely to be seen Monday and may still be able to keep our Tuesday appointment also. After these plans were made at last, we decided to make the short half hour drive northeast to Tuscambia, Alabama to visit the Rattlesnake Saloon. This place was said to be a cave with a bar built into it so we just had to check it out. Once we found our way to the entrance had caught the “taxi” down the hill to the saloon we finally saw what all the hoopla was all about… we had found another Road Treat! To read more about this place check out our blog about it on Road Treats.

14 comments:

  1. So much for the great service from Tiffin, sounds like you found a dud, good luck with your repairs.

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  2. You are making me glad I don't own a Tiffin. What a poor way to treat your RV owners. Guess they think they don't have to worry about your good opinion. I thought this was a family run operation? Wonder if the CEO knows what's going on here. You will have been there 5 or 6 days before they get to you??

    You guys are nothing if not patient. Glad you found a great place to have a good time.

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  3. Just went to road treats. Didn't see a link for it on your blog. So I went to your profile. Did I miss it on the blog??

    When I got to Road Treats the last entry was in October 2011. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong here.

    Sherry
    www.directionofourdreams.blogspot.com

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    1. yep apparently lots of blogs were queued up in Road Treats but all is well now and the new one along with many older ones now show up...

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  4. Yes, being at a service center is being in another time/space dementia . . . wait . . . dimension! :)

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    1. yes indeed... they call it Tiffin time here...

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  5. Interesting. Seems most everybody raves about their Tiffin motorhome and the service they get. However I've also read about some people who contact the President of Tiffin himself to get their service. Sounds a lot like those who rave about their MAC computer...maybe it's because they paid so much for it they can't justify saying anything bad about it!

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    1. yep I am jsut publishing our experience as others may have had different ones... but from the people I talk to this is the norm. The work they perform here is considered to be top notch but the process to be seen is underwhelming...

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  6. Interesting experience ... will continue to see how it goes out there in Tiffin Land since we'll be heading that way early in 2013.

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    1. Make sure to call in early and get an appointment if you can it will save you the grief on getting in the express bay queue...

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  7. Geesh! Now I'm not sure if we want to go to Red Bay, but we have to at some point! Guess we'll just plan to have lots of time to wait for them to get 'er done!

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  8. Isn't all this so sad?! I researched for 2 years before buying an Allegro....heard all the glowing reports on the work donw there...about how good they were at standing behind their product. Well, we called ahead, then waited several days onsite...the the "service guy" came by with the same questions....then informed us that he could send us across the street to a guy "who used to work for them" and then went out on his own...we could get the problem taken care of and be on our way before we were scheduled to be seen at Tiffin. We decided to go for it....the people were friendly enough and we thought thorough. Then we get to our destination in Pennsylvania, have some rain and lo and behold, we have water coming in on our bed. Seems this great ex employee did the work ok, just didn't check on whether or not it was sealed. Soon as the weather permitted, my husband and his brother climbed on the roof and took care of the problem...which is what should have been done in Red Bay. I still love our rv but am not happy at all with the service. I felt like since we didn't have a "new" rv, they didn't have time for us. Really sad compared to all the wonderful reports I'd heard over the years. Hope it all works out better for u but words of wisdom are, check it out BEFORE u leave. Good luck!

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  9. I simply don't get it, customer service is dead, I'm convinced of that. When I dropped off my RV the guy at the desk acted like I ruined his day but he took my keys and we left. I wanted to ask the guy if he wanted me to take my business elsewhere but for tires, there isn't that many places that handle Class A's out here.

    The owner is always nice but you're not always dealing with the owner. Tiffin has a reputation of good service but more and more I read blogs that mirror your experience and it makes me wonder if it's even worth it keeping Tiffin on our list for the future.

    It's sad that it works this way and I fear that there is no RV builder that really cares about the customer.

    I hope it gets better and they start next week better than they ended the last one.

    Good luck,

    Erik

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