Question:
Reading about Coleman's handling of a floor repair reminded me of a
question I had about warranty work. We returned our Coleman camper to
the dealer last spring for some minor warranty repair work.
The dealer, who no longer sells pop-ups, told me that he would do some
of the repairs at no charge even though Coleman refused to cover those
repairs under warranty. Why would Coleman not cover those repairs?
According to the dealer, I would have to prove that the camper was not
abused in order to get coverage. As I mentioned, these were minor
repairs--broken cabinet latch, broken plastic stop on a seat cushion,
broken keeper on the water line hookup cap, etc. All of the problems
were incurred during the normal use of the trailer or already broken
when we bought it (it was a new leftover '99 bought in '00).
Does this sound like standard procedure for Coleman? If so, isn't
this penny wise and pound foolish on their part? (I certainly won't
buy any other (and more expensive) Fleetwood products if this is the
way they operate.) Was the dealer telling me a story? When I take my
cars (and other consumer goods) in for warranty work I have never been
required to prove that they weren't abused. How exactly does one
prove a negative?
Answer:
I contacted Coleman and asked them why it would take such a
long time to fix. First of all they told me that was their decision not the
dealers to take in a Camper for repair. The dealer would probably been happy
to fix it but it was Coleman's call.
Second they are in production for new models and they have to pull people
from the production line to fix warranty items.
I will be happy to share the copy of the message from Coleman with anyone
that wishes a copy. One thing they did insist on is that they do monitor the
USENET NEWSGROUPS. carefully. they note each complaint and each line of
praise.
