South Bay Airstream in San Martin, CA

[giantfuton]

I thought for quite some time before deciding to post this, but I wanted to caution anyone who might be thinking of using South Bay Airstream in San Martin, CA for service. I don't like bashing businesses and I'm a big believer in providing feedback to them when I have a negative experience so I'll preface this post saying that I have already spoken with them about the whole experience as well as their parent dealer Bay Area Airstream.

I'm moving across the country this month...like in 5 days. I stopped by South Bay because it was much closer than Bay Area Airstream for me. South Bay has just opened so I wanted to see if they could do some general service items and warranty issues for us on our 2017 25ft Int'l Serenity. The service manager assured me that they could take care of the items I brought up and would be done in a week. I said I'll give them two weeks just in case. Prior to picking up the trailer two weeks later, I called the service manager to see if it was ready to which I got an "affirmative." That's when the problem started.

I arrived to pick up the trailer and the service manager said they couldn't find anything wrong with the inoperative awning and couldn't find the propane leak I asked to be fixed. I asked her to walk out with me so I could show her these issues. On the first try, the Zip Dee awning failed to function at all. Second try, the rear tilt extended to its maximum while the front deployed as usual. Closing the awning the rear armature failed to come back in forcing me to manually stop the awning before it damaged itself.

The propane issue was more worrying. They told me I didn't have a leak. How did they know? Well they tested it by soaping the line. I feel bad for the technician because after he pointed this out to me I showed him that he was testing an empty propane tank on a leaking line...so why would there be any bubbles if there is no propane? hooking up the full tank to that side of the regulator brought on a strong propane smell. Understatement of the year followed, "well this is a safety hazard" said the manager. I definitely agreed.

Anyway, I didn't make a fuss about it and told them I would be back when they fixed it. They offered to move it to Bay Area Airstream's service department to fix the things that they should have. Ok fine. I have to move in two weeks at this point so please get it done.

Bay Area fixes the awning and propane leak and sends it back to South Bay. I return to inspect and receive the trailer only to find that South Bay's techs who cleaned the trailer must have power washed directly into the A/C's up top because I have puddles of water on the floor dripping out of my A/C vents on the ceiling. At this point I couldn't really maintain a courteous demeanor so I simply closed it up, hooked up the trailer and left without a word.

I called Bay Area Airstream on the drive home and laid out my concerns and the lack of communication between the two. I wanted the Bay Area Airstream service department to know that in light of South Bay being so new, they may want to give their techs and department a little more time to get set up before taking service accounts.

All in all, I think I really just caught them on a "bad day" type of scenario where they were trying to do too much before being ready. I wouldn't have been so upset but the back and forth with them put me in a bad position while packing my house since I haven't been able to get the trailer ready until the last minute.

I'm sure that once they are really up and running then they will provide better customer service, but for those who considered going there for service I would wait a bit.

Have a great day!

GF