When Good Sam members Judith and Arden Johnston of Sequim, Washington, weren’t reimbursed for a faulty refrigerator part that was under warranty, they contacted Action Line for help:
We own a 2009 Phaeton motorhome that we purchased new in October of 2009. In November of 2010, we had the Norcold refrigerator serviced as instructed in a safety recall notice. Then in December of 2011, the refrigerator’s cooling unit stopped working. It was during the Christmas holidays, and we were unable to contact a Norcold service provider. We were desperate and had a local mobile RV repair service replace the cooling unit. The cost was $1,276 for parts and service. After the holidays, we tried several times to reach the main Norcold offices via email and phone calls, and finally on February 10 we were able to talk to someone in Norcold’s warranty division. They said that our unit was under warranty for three years, but they refused to give us information on how to make a claim because a mobile RV repair provider did our service. Since circumstances made it impossible for us to do otherwise, we should be entitled to some compensation for the repairs. It seems our unit was faulty from the beginning because no way should it have failed in two years. Can you help us solve this problem?
Action Line received the following email from the Johnstons after contacting Norcold on their behalf:
We are happy to report that we have had a successful resolution to our issue and our experience was very pleasant. Our Norcold representative was helpful, friendly and easy to deal with. We were reimbursed for the cost of the defective part. Thank you for making it a great day!
Since 1981, the Good Sam Club’s Action Line has helped resolve thousands of disputes between members and businesses. If you have an RV-related consumer issue and would like assistance, contact Action Line.
Bruce Moore
I have a 2008 Daymon Daybreak and I have had issues with the LCI electronic leveling sytem since I have had it. I am now having seals leaking and electric board issues. I have been review searching and all owners have the same issues so why isn’t anyone doing recalls on this system?
Good Sam says: Good Sam gets updates from the National Highways Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). To submit a recall issue, you can contact them by mail, email or phone, listed on this webpage: http://www.nhtsa.gov/Contact.
Robert Cisco
Does anyone else feel they are being shafted by the RV insurance industry, Overly priced Rv parts, and extremely expensive hourly labor rates charged? I am referring to Camping World. I understand that people have to make a living, but it seems that it is at the expense of the customer . I had purchase my 2010 Itasca Suncuriser from a camping world and since it was not a new unit, I decided to purchase the extended warranty CW Care from camping world. Long story short, at present time, I am sitting in Flagstaff AZ, waiting for my basement A/C to be repaired. I already knew that a blower motor was going out so camping world quotes me a price of $121.00 to trouble shoot plus10% for shop supplies. $121.00 an hour is their labor rate. So I need my A/C fixed and they call my insurance. The insurance will pay for 3.2 hours labor, the blower motor and shipping, but Camping world came back and says, they can’t do it in 3.2 hours, it will take them 6 hours labor at a cost to me of $488.00, thats, $338 per hour and $100.00 for shop supplies, very expensive shop towels. So on Tuesday the parts man orders the part, so on Wednesday I call him to get a tracking number so I can see where my part is because they said it would take 7 to 14 days to get the part from Indiana. Finally on Tuesday of the next week he gets back to me finds out that the order was never placed. Now would you not think that a good parts man would get a tracking number so he knows the status of every part he orders. He tells me that he put in a request to have the part shipped overnight, like he is doing me a favor for not charging me the extra shipping charge. Hopefully I will get my A/C fixed soon, but from this moment on, I will drive a million miles out of my way to avoid doing business with rip off world, My new name for Camping world. I don’t know if anyone will read this, but I feel better venting my frustrations.
Kenneth Wilkerson
We have had all kinds of problems with our Norcold refrigerator.Finally got it to freeze again and now it will not work on automatic and the ice maker has quit. Several times have contacted Norcold always a computer answering service.
RJ Marquette
John Orr: This is standard fare for some (all?) insurance companies – they quote you a best-case scenario rate before doing the full underwriting process, then after you get hooked, they go through underwriting and discover any tickets you have, special situations, etc. Then your rate goes up!
glen
in the summer of 2009 we replaced the small refer in our motor home with a Norcold 1210 which cost around $4700.00 to do with labor. 11 months and 26 days later the cooling unit failed. we were unable to get into an authorized dealer until after the 12 month parts and labor warranty expired. After some arm bending by the dealer, Norcold finally agreed to pay for the labor, the parts warranty was still in effect. several weeks of hanging there not knowing if Norcold was going to cover the $1000.00 or so labor charge was very un-nerving and while i appreciate Norcold finally coming thru, the experience was not a good one. On the day repairs were finially made we were sitting in the waiting room comparing notes with other customers. of the six people with Norcold refer problems, five were cooling unit failures on models 1210 or similar. i still wonder if Norcold has a significant problem with 1210 cooling units, but is not willing to address it.
John Adams
I too had a similar occurrence with my gmac rv quote….
while discussing the cost and coverage it was one figure and when I said let’s do it (during the same phone call !), all of a sudden it came back higher….
Should I also email Chester ?
Good Sam
John – we would like to look into your situation further. Please email [email protected] along with your membership information and we will check into this right away. Thanks for your patience and for being a Good Sam member!
John Orr
When i was moving to a new state, my Motorhome insurance carrier said I would have to be insured by a carrier in the new state. I then contacted carriers in my new state as well as Good Sams Vehicle Insurance Plan whose carrier is GMAC. I provided the information requested and received a quote from the GMAC carrier and given a quote of approx. $1100 for six months of insurance. When I contacted the agent, telling this person, I wanted to proceed with the insurance coverage. It necessary information was confirmed and and the agent gave me a cost of approx. $2300 for six months coverage. This amount to an approx. $1200 increase over the original quote. This would appear to be deceptive quoting by GMAC. This occurred today and I have obtained insurance from another carrier.