La Mesa RV Service Center…

One of the main reasons we came to San Diego was to see if La Mesa RV’s Service Center would be able to repair our water leak on our city water intake line. After speaking with Tiffin’s Service Center we were advised that La Mesa was an authorized service center for all Tiffin Motorhomes and could do the needed repairs. So how did we get to this point?

Last year when we were in Red Bay, Alabama I had pointed out a pinched water intake line and the Tiffin service guys said that it was a Tiffin manufacturing defect. This defect occurred during the installation of the house shell upon the chassis. As a result Tiffin assured us they would repair it at no cost on our next trip back to Red Bay and felt pretty sure that it would not leak until we made it back in an year or so. Ooops!!! They were a bit wrong on that one as a leak appeared in August during our trek down the coastline of California, about as far away as one can get from Red Bay!

I called Tiffin Motorhomes and spoke with service who said La Mesa could handle the task. We made our first appointment back in September (they were booked almost month ahead) and took the RV over to the Service folks to have the repairs done .As it turned out that day was a bust as all the La Mesa folks accomplished that day was obtaining authorization from Tiffin to do the repairs.  Because of the time difference on the East and West Coasts along with the paperwork involved we were told they couldn’t fix it  that day afterall because it would be an all day job there was not enough time to repair it this same day.

Sigh…the rep at La Mesa promised to call us "in a day or two" to work us into the schedule before our planned exit date.  The two days went by and we called the third business day and the rep made our appointment while we were on the phone for repair October 10th. He told us to be there by 8:30 am since they needed all day to do the repairs. The day before we were our appointment Sharon called to verify our 8;30 appointment and it was a go. However that evening La Mesa service center called and said not to come in till 10:30 since they were all going to be in a meeting from 8 to 10:30. We agreed but began to worry a little about whether they would get the work done in time. We spent the day hiking in nearby Mission Trails Regional Park (another blog on that later). As it neared 5:00 pm we made our way back to the service center hoping the repairs were made.

Our service rep came out to the lobby just before 5:00 pm and informed us the repairs were done. YEAH!!! SO I asked him what the technicians did and he obviously didn't have a clue what work was done. Thankfully the paperwork outlined what was done and since we are still in the park for a week I figured I would hook it up to city water and watch for leaks. We have had it hooked up for two days but still don’t know if it was repaired since we have had intermittent rain showers for the last two days, the first rain we have seen in months!! But alas  two leaks appeared around the toilet as they replaced the full length of the water line. One leak at an elbow I was able to tighten but the other leak is a mystery and drips only when the toilet is flushed.

A call to La Mesa yielded no further clues (only denial from the service rep that it could have been their work). I guess he never read what was done because I had to explain to him that the elbow joint around the toilet was obviously brand new and the entire bathroom was rearranged to gain access so I said I'd really like to talk to the technician directly.  Once I spoke with the technician it was obvious they removed the plumbing from the toilet but he had no idea why there that leak other than a blockage may be causing the drip.He advised flushing the lines to dislodge the blockage. I told him if it didn’t resolve itself before we leave I expected him to look it over and he agreed. The problem I have is if they had pressurized the system at all and made sure there were no leaks after the reinstallation this problem wouldn’t exist. The service rep stated they did this but my guess is they only looked for major leaks and water pressure, not smaller leaks. So our future may include yet another trip to La Mesa RV… Sigh…

What did we learn from this? We still love and respect Tiffin Motorhomes for service over and above since once again they repaired our motorhome at no cost to us. They even allowed us to get the work done on the west coast without making the trek to Red Bay. We were however not impressed with the Service Center at La Mesa RV. Although it appears they performed the needed repairs they did so without ensuring our home had any leaks and our service rep was nowhere near as efficient or as helpful as the Tiffin service reps. So we learned that if at all possible we will return to Red Bay for any future significant repairs. And if we have any other water line repairs we will insist they hook it up to city water and we will inspect the work ourselves. Hopefully there won’t be another time…