Going direct to Airstream for resolution

[thurmanlinda]

Long story short- we're so disappointed with our purchase we're considering our options: how we can unwind our deal or proceeding with legal action if necessary. But before we do, has anyone found AS corporate amenable when the entire purchase process has turned out bad?

[kendrick.l.j]

You didn’t mention exactly what the problem or problems were but calling Airstream in Jackson Center is usually a good option. Many, including myself, have found their customer service excellent. If it is a technical issue they will help you with that, if it is a warranty problem they are there to help. I also suggest you post a detailed message here of the forum about exactly what your problems may be. You will find that other members are extremely helpful and welcoming to new members. Good luck and welcome to the forum.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

"Unwind the deal" can mean a wide range of things. At one extreme would be "we don't like camping at all and want to get rid of the trailer" at the other extreme might be "the trailer split into 4 large pieces while sitting in the driveway" . One end of this is pretty much straight financial. The other end is a snarl of warranty / repair / replacement / refund discussions.

Looking at your other posts, have you even taken possession yet? (at one point you mention a December pickup date). If not then "unwinding" is a very different process than if you have. Just as with a car, things change once you pull out of the lot with the vehicle.

Bob

[thurmanlinda]

Originally Posted by kendrick.l.j

You didn’t mention exactly what the problem or problems were but calling Airstream in Jackson Center is usually a good option. Many, including myself, have found their customer service excellent. If it is a technical issue they will help you with that, if it is a warranty problem they are there to help. I also suggest you post a detailed message here of the forum about exactly what your problems may be. You will find that other members are extremely helpful and welcoming to new members. Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Ok, well here's what's happened so far... to start with- we bought our first one at an RV show. Several days later we were called by the finance rep saying that we needed to sign again because the VIN was wrong on the contract. When we went in we started looking around we found something on the lot that we liked and would really prefer and not wait 2-3 months to receive our ordered one. So we made a new deal on a completely different size and style AS. I asked what was next and they said it would be sent out for service and prep= should be ready in about a week; so 10/27/17? Great! One week came and went, we hadn't heard anything, called our salesman and he was off that day but would call me back the following day. He never did call. Well we were busy anyway, then(11/02/17) we get an email from their concierge person saying a service coordinator should be contacting us soon for the walk-thru. We waited a week- no call from the coordinator. So we contacted concierge (11/09/17) said we hadn't received a call- she said she'd look into it. Now it's 3 weeks after signing- we get our first statement- payment due (11/11/17) but we signed papers on the 20th? Now this one we didn't notice at signing and it was never mentioned that this was a pre-dated sales/finance and extended service contract (as of 10/12/17) which was the previous sale date on the original unit (at signing the contract/program was malfunctioning and the finance person printed it at least 5 times)but I see it now- so I contacted concierge 11/13/17 and run down the list of concerns and told her I wanted answers and a resolution to the contract, etc. asap. Yesterday (11/17/17)she emailed that the hold-up in service was due to waiting for a broken part on our power awning to arrive, and they receive parts on Friday only, so it had not arrived and it will be another week, sorry for the delay. I mentioned that legally our objection to the "borderline fraudulent" sales/finance & service contract can be easily fixed if they want to rewrite the contract. She told me she will look into it too. Looking over everything now that I have some time, I want to cancel the extended service contract and surface protection too. I'm so over all of this poor treatment, poor communication, run-around, and unprofessional performance on their part- I just want out. I'm fine with going to another dealer, even if it's over 50 miles farther away, my wife and I just want to either start all over with a fresh professional AS dealer or we'll just get more legal council on what to do next. My wife and I are getting pretty stressed out dealing with all this when we're supposed to be happy. Again, sorry for the rant-

[Airtandem]

This sounds like more of a legal issue than Airstream ; but I would keep Airstream in the loop . Keep a log of dates and issues !!!!

[kendrick.l.j]

Ranting can be therapeutic, sometimes in the excitement of an RV show people make bad decisions. First question, is this an authorized Airstream Dealer? I assume it is since you made contact via an RV show but it’s not always the case. If the dealer was just some guy that sometimes has a few Airstreams to sell, well, that may be a different story. Jackson Center may not have any leverage with this dealer. The legality of the contract may be one to ask an attorney. If the contract isn’t legal then I would think there would not be a problem however, if you actually signed the contract, flaws, mistakes, incorrect dates, and all then you may indeed have a big problem because you did sign it. Maybe a wonderful opportunity to teach others the importance of actually reading every entry on any contract. What happened to the original contract that you signed at the RV show? Was it properly terminated? On the contract that you actually signed did it state that you wanted the extend service protection? Although I would love to be more sympathetic I am having a hard time. I am not an attorney but I don’t think there is too much you can do. It’s kinda buyer beware thing.
As far as the lack of service on your unit, if it had been me I would have made a few more phone calls, like daily to actually speak to the rep instead of emails particularly if I wasn’t happy with the way things were going. Now it’s Saturday, also a big Holiday Week and offices may be closed. I would not discourage you from calling Jackson Center but I don’t know what more they will be able to tell you except when the particular part was sent to your dealer. Unfortunately it is common of RV world and not an Airstream only issue. Many RV’s sit on the lot for weeks waiting for a part and then wait again until the one guy on the lot that knows how to install it is available. Which is why a lot of Airstream owners end up working on their on rigs instead of having to wait for someone else to do it. Just saying

[thurmanlinda]

Originally Posted by Airtandem

This sounds like more of a legal issue than Airstream ; but I would keep Airstream in the loop . Keep a log of dates and issues !!!!

I plan to. I just wanted to know if anyone in the forum had to get AS involved, for any reason and how it went.

[Lily&Me]

People here get Airstream involved on issues all the time, and often very satisfactorily, but I agree this seems to be more a paper issue rather than a product issue.

I would present myself to the dealership, all paperwork in hand, insist on speaking with the top brass, and not leave til it’s resolved.

Write everything down.

You may need an attorney.

Good luck,

Maggie

[Tombomb68]

Who are you dealing with? My experience with the dealer was less than satisfactory. They all seem very busy and disorganized.

[AWCHIEF]

Unbelievable. Based strictly on what you posted and keeping in mind that there are always two sides to every story sounds to me like you were conned or at the very least taken advantage of. Legal action might well be in your future. I would be talking to a trustworthy lawyer ASAP.
Now,
It would be fair to hear from the dealer. But we know that is never going to happen.
Good luck, I hope everything works out to your satisfaction.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Ok, based on your description you may not have taken possession of the trailer ( = since you don't have the keys / it never rolled off the lot with you in command). I'm not a lawyer and this is very much a point of law. In most states that I have lived in, you can back out at this point. That's true of a car, an RV or in one case that happened to me a house. Again, this is a state to state thing so my experience may have zero bearing on your situation. A call to a lawyer may be in order.

Your dealer experience does not sound very good at all. My dealer treated me *very* differently than what you describe. Every document was gone over in detail before the signing process began. All of the questions about this or that got worked out at least a week before anything was signed. Stuff all happened on time. Lots of contact went back and forth between me and the various people at the dealer. I would think that Airstream would not want their customers handled the way you describe.

I would suggest that taking your time and reading documents as you sign them is a really good habit to get into. If there are two of you signing things, both should read and understand the document..... If documents have been altered without your signature ... back to the lawyer part of things.

There are lots of twists and turns to RV sales. Some outfits have a block of units in "storage" and a group "on the lot". My dealer was pretty specific about which was which. In the case of a unit that was not on the lot, it had not been inspected. It also had not been cleaned up and made ready for a customer to view. That sort of thing may be part of what you have tripped over. That in no way excuses the lack of contact or them not explaining this to you ...

It's a crazy world ....

Bob

[turk123]

You gotta march on down there to get any results! Look them in the eye and tell them you are upset with everything so far.

Why are you trying to handle this through email?

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by turk123

You gotta march on down there to get any results! Look them in the eye and tell them you are upset with everything so far.

Why are you trying to handle this through email?

Hi

Hard to believe, but we live in a world where many people are "email challenged". When asked "do you have the info I asked about in the email?", an amazing number of people at work would answer "I have 800 unread emails in my inbox ....". Take a glance and yes indeed they had emails going back for weeks. Roughly 90% of them were junk mail .... The only ones that got read quickly were the ones obviously from their boss.

Should this go on at any company? Probably not. In fact, it *does* go on quite a bit. If you run into an email moron, you do need to use other methods.

Bob

[thurmanlinda]

Originally Posted by turk123

You gotta march on down there to get any results! Look them in the eye and tell them you are upset with everything so far.

Why are you trying to handle this through email?

Because everything is in writing... no “he said, she said” happens when we email. Besides, I’ve spent the time driving over to talk with them, given-up on phone calls since I’m the only one who returns them, and I can’t be bothered with the vague, unresolved promises. I’m going in to the dealer on Monday to ‘hopefully’ settle this face-to-face, eye-to-eye. I’ll be back.

[Lily&Me]

Emails do provide documentation of issues, however, and if people choose not to read them the problem has still been documented as to date and time, and sent.

I would do both...the emails, and follow up phone calls if no response is received...keeping note of those, as well.

Maggie

[HeadWest]

Has any money changed hands (did you give them a deposit)? Also, is the financing something you secured through a bank or credit union or is it through the dealer? You might want to include your lender in the conversation if so.

From what you have presented, it sounds like the issue is strictly with the dealer, not really an Airstream problem (other then the choose to allow crappy dealers sell and service their product).

Face to face is the usually best way to resolve these types of situations or else a phone call. Document the conversation in a follow up email afterwards for your CYA.

Good luck getting things sorted out.

[AWCHIEF]

OP, After all is said and done please make Airstream aware of the happenings. They need to be know about unscrupulous dealers if that turns out to be the case.

[thurmanlinda]

Originally Posted by uncle_bob

Hi

"Unwind the deal" can mean a wide range of things. At one extreme would be "we don't like camping at all and want to get rid of the trailer" at the other extreme might be "the trailer split into 4 large pieces while sitting in the driveway" . One end of this is pretty much straight financial. The other end is a snarl of warranty / repair / replacement / refund discussions.

Looking at your other posts, have you even taken possession yet? (at one point you mention a December pickup date). If not then "unwinding" is a very different process than if you have. Just as with a car, things change once you pull out of the lot with the vehicle.

Bob

No we haven’t taken possession yet. This is an authorized dealer- selling only Airstream. It’s a small dealer that was part of a 3 dealer AS booth at a huge show (over 14,000 RV’s) at which we signed our first contract. Yeah, we admit we were psyched when we were signing because we always want an AS and they showed us how it was possible. I wanted to please my wife with a dream come true, but admittedly we got caught up in the thrill and it’s biting us in the butt. We still want one- just not this way- it’s become a huge disappointment so far. We now feel that our trust has been badly broken.

[thurmanlinda]

Originally Posted by AWCHIEF

OP, After all is said and done please make Airstream aware of the happenings. They need to be know about unscrupulous dealers if that turns out to be the case.

Absolutely. Thus the purpose of asking the forum for input. There are several reasons we chose to ‘invest’ in an Airstream, one of which is manufacturers support. I will update with my results. Thank you.

[thurmanlinda]

Originally Posted by HeadWest

Has any money changed hands (did you give them a deposit)? Also, is the financing something you secured through a bank or credit union or is it through the dealer? You might want to include your lender in the conversation if so.

From what you have presented, it sounds like the issue is strictly with the dealer, not really an Airstream problem (other then the choose to allow crappy dealers sell and service their product).

Face to face is the usually best way to resolve these types of situations or else a phone call. Document the conversation in a follow up email afterwards for your CYA.

Good luck getting things sorted out.

Yes, we put down $27,000. Bank of America will be made aware tomorrow- I’ve done my research, they’re referred to as “holders in due course” when it comes to the relationship in the contract of sale. I just sent a cancellation demand to the extended service contract administrator, and I’m notifying the “surface protection” provider to cancel that too. Pulling out all the stops.

I’m doing my best to take copious notes for CYA.

Thanks for your input.