I am presently 3000km from home. We have had several things go wrong with our trailer and stop working etc. I only worry about the things that stop me from moving safely. I have put several posts about our propane gen not running, I also had a hot rear wheel on the door side of the trailer. My e-mail to CS resulted in being told to take it to my dealer and have him look at it I was also told to call Lieppert. This would require me to pull trough several mountain passess. Who in their right mind would do that. this all happened prior to the independence day holiday. I called liepert and was put on hold for 20 minutes. when I called back I got voice mail, I subsequently called again only to findout they were closed until Monday July 5. heartland was closed Friday and Monday FOR INVENTORY.
I called Cumminins in Eugene Or to have them work on the gen set (as per Heartland CS), booked in for tuesday July 6 10:30 am.
when I arrived was very amazed to findout that this location only deals with RV's doing everything RV.
I explained the thoughts and ideas about why the gen didn't work. The service writer (Vince) was pretty much condecending (I was just a dumb old RV operator) who told me they have the best people here.
Please bear with me this is a long story with a moral to it.
While I was waiting I called Lieppert 25 times (about the hot rear wheel), could not get though. I then thought what the ****, call HL CS the worst that can happen is I will get voice mail, which I did, the difference is I did get an almost imediate return call (I did ask that they not again refer me to my dealer 3000km away.) I had explained that the wheel was 30 degrees hotter on the hub than my other wheels.
As I said I got a call back from a gentleman who then called lieppert and found out they had phone issues. The HL CS rep conferenced the lieppert guy (Dave) in and I was authorized to get Cumminins to remove and repack the wheel, I got a refence number and called cumminins to get them busy on that.
When the dust settled they changed the regulator but did not fix the problem with the gen set, the wheel bearing was loose causing the over heating. After I paid $630.00 I got the trailer back. I asked for a break down of the bill so lieppert could pay me back and Heartland could pay their share. It turns out they charged me 2.5 hours for the bearing. about $300.00 a little steep I thought. The gen was running when I went for the trailer so I thought it was fixed.
Next day the power went out at our camp ground, tried the gen (thats when I found out that the gen did not work yet).
I called customer service at HL and got the same guy, I told him what I had learned about propane hoses on this web site and said I had a bar b hose and could get the conections to test the system. He said go ahead and call him back when I know whats going on.
I did the first start up, when the gen stoppped I looked at the regulator and it showed red not green as before. I should mention that all propane stuff in the trialer work perfectly. I made the new conection before the regulator (between the tank and regulator) . I turned the tank on, got green and fired the gen, it ran for 15 minutes, then I turned on the door side tank, after which I turned off the main tank. The gen continued to run. I then shut down the gen and tried to start using the door side tank, no good. I switched to the main tank (the one with the bar b que hose) The gen fired up and ran for 15 minutes. I did the same as before and when I tried to restart The gen would start and run 10-15 seconds, and quite, when i check the indicator it red. Assumption, when the gen starts it demands so much fuel that the hoses think it is a leak and shut down.
I should mention that I race a ragster that has a 500 horse NOS fogger system on it, I know very well how to work safely with high presure fuel systems and did so.
I did call back to HL CS and got vioce mail but recieved a call back from someone else who realy chewed me out for doing my own warranty work ( I had mentioned other warranty stuff I had done ).
Moral of the story, all CS reps are not created equal so do not judge the company for an isolated issue. I always use the 3 strike rule. I give everyone 2 shots at what ever they are to do, I NEVER ask the third time. You know fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. I will always give CS anywhere 2 shots at looking after my needs. We all get irritated from and by small things, sometimes they really accumulate and then its the old last straw thing. We should always make sure that when we get really iritated with CS that is is over something that is really important.
In the business that I own we deal with amny manufacturing companies and the one thing I have learned is, that all CS department have managers, and the copnaies have presidents and or general managers. I am sure that you have all heard what runs down hill. So, if you need to vent and or get someones attention, this forum is not the palce, go to the source and deal with it in a none whining way, state the facts without creative licence .
Anyone who thinks that that the above diatribe suggests that I suffer fools without regard would be wrong, I have just found that giving some the opportunity to help first is better than eating crow latter on.
thus ends the sermin, excuse the typos, I cannot find a spell check here.