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This site and its usefuleness....

Yahoo Message Number: 20973
I have been reading the various posts recently about banned folks and the content posted here and have refrianed from posting but feel an obligation to say something since the thoughts about what a forum like is about are in many ways very misguided.

My wife and I started looking at this forum about 2 months prior to buying our 2005 Inspire. We were primarily looking at this site to learn about the Country Brand of Class A's and what issues they might have. This included issues but also included the CCI's ability to support the customer and the ability to be supported by service centers.

What we found was very little information and many posts about how great CCI and its products were compared to other brands.

This is where I think so many on this board are misguided. This is not a place to promote CCI it is a place to exchange real information about real problems, not to protect CCI's image or brand.
For example, once I posted the initial issues (which are still going on) we had with our 2005 Inspire I was flamed by many on this board.
It is almost a year later

and we are still having issues and yes CCI has helped but these issues are unacceptable and the service by the service center is the worst I have ever seen of any product I have owned in my 45 years of being alive. Now there are many more posts today about issues that my wife and I were looking for and you cannot believe the flood of private e-mails I have received about issues once I posted that no one will ever see. I am not saying I am the reason for the new posts just that I know I have encouraged others to post and this grass roots movement has helped post real information. There are unfortunately many of these folks that are afraid to post publicly because of the attitudes of this group and also because they are worried about service centers and CCI seeing their displeasure with how issues are handled and resolved.
Unfortunately this behavior is self defeating and will never amount to anything useful and this forum cannot share the real facts about these coaches. I belong to many forums on many topics and this one by far is the least willing to share real information regardless of the situation. This is my opinion is very sad.

Re: This site and its usefuleness....

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 20976
The ALFA owners group is the most protective I have ever encountered. So much that I dont even subscribe any more.
In my opinion, if you have a certain model, and are proud of it, but it has issues with maintenance, why not let others know about it so they can be aware of a pending problem in the same area. Does that DE-VALUE your brand? No, it protects the owners and lets them band together and get it resolved.
So many RV owners bury their heads in the sand after they buy their unit and WILL NOT LISTEN to anything negative about their brand.

Thats life.

john in boston

Re: This site and its usefuleness.... my 2 cents after inflation...

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 20978
First of all, everyone is entitled to his "opinion." But just because some of our experiences are different from yours, does not mean we are to be written off as "cheerleaders" for Country Coach or be accused of "promoting the brand." If it is okay for someone on this forum to bash and complain about their experiences with Country Coach, it is only fair that another owner who feels they have had a different experience to be able to tell their story. When an owner comes on this website to share their grievence, there is no way to know if they are presenting all the facts. We don't know you(them). And in all fairness, Country Coach's side is not represented nor would they be at liberty liberty to discuss th situation, even though the "owner" can come on here and bad mouth service to kingdom come with no consequences.

So forgive me if I am skeptical of the pattern of these often overheated emotional rants, by people who will not identify themselves or use aliases followed by other curmudgeon types on this forum who like to prod them on with more general irresponsible "hurrah's" because they have some other personal grievence against Country Coach, even if they wouldn't have a clue about the "facts." While some people have legitimate complaints or problems, some folks like to feel important by just getting others worked up into a froth.
I have owned my Magna for 4 years, fulltiming and I have been through many service experiences in many locations around the country, including JC. (That is the fact of life for everyone who owns and drives a motorhome I don't care what brand you buy.) Even with my frustrations, there are VERY few places I found that I would have more confidence overall in resolving problems, than in JC. There are only a couple others I found reliable. I try to let people know which ones they are. ONLY TWO all over the US is not a good record. I increase my chances of getting better service by contacting Country Coach( or the other vendors) ahead of time to get advice.
But to make a general statement, both CC service and most all service facilities have room for a LOT of improvement-- Don't we ALL... With ownership of these complicated beasts, comes the responsibility of the owner to become knowledgeable about their coach systems and the proper maintenence etc. An owner's OWN incompetence, ignorance or lack of understanding can be the cause of issues that CC gets blamed for. How often have you heard people 'fess up to mistakes THEY made???

This forum's best "usefulness" is to educate owners.

...and the flip side... My experience in being at these service facilities also includes the observations of and discussions with other coach owners. I have seen the other side of the "facts."
Anyone who has worked in customer service has experienced unethical, unreasonable customers and Country Coach service is no different. Some have legitimate problems but others try to use this forum and the customer lounge to play to asympathetic audience. Maybe they hope that CC will be embarrassed enough and the pressure will cause them to "cave in" to their demands. It has the opposite effect. Anyone with any intelligence should know that this technique is a non-starter.
Often the frustrated, bad mouthing customer gets more angry and vents it on this forum or others and someone who doesn't hear about the satisfied customers believes the lie or thinks Country Coach is a lousy organization and builds a crappy coach- which is NOT true.
Can some owners be totally irresponsible, unreasonable and ridiculous from Country Coach's point of view? YES. Can Country Coach be incompetent and unfair from the perspective of a coach owner? Yes. Not being a referee hearing both sides and cross-examining both sides makes it difficult to know which perspective is more "fair and balanced" and this forum cannot solve that problem and accomplish anything useful for the vast majority of people who come here looking for information. I do not believe that CC monitor's this website. But either way, it would not serve as an APPROPRIATE way to use this forum to bring about change or resolution to their problems with Country Coach. That is what face to face, telephones, letter writing, negotiation and lawyers are for. Any savvy person would understand that as well.

For the record, I have presented my issues on several occasions to Country Coach in reasonable terms without public bad-mouthing outbursts in the lounge, swinging baseball bats in the service facility or threatening lawsuits and Country Coach has come through for me on resolving several issues fairly for the most part even though my coach is SIX YEARS OLD!!! How is THAT for standing behind a customer and their coach??? Sometimes the process has taken longer than I would have liked, but this is a business and there is a process.

I have also been very BLUNT and honest with the management there about expressing in PRIVATE or in correspondence, my grievances, and those I hear from other owners as well as suggestions for improvements, without mincing words. My experience has been that they DO respect that and they DO listen.
I support Herb in his efforts to keep this forum from being exploited that way. If this forum does not suit your purpose and you and others want to have a website about grievences with Country Coach, I suggest starting one for that purpose as this is not the mission of this forum. And you can all commiserate to your hearts content with anonymous identifiers. But on this website the owners want to know who people are for real because we have seen frauds with ulterior motives before. Mr beadhead, retiredwife2,suenash, whoever they are is obviously a fraud trying to manipulate the forum for their own purposes.
Motorhomes are very costly, complicated, highly technical and require a lot of time and maintenence and can be a source of frustration.
Let's get back to helping one another fix things, share information , safety issues, understand maintenence issues and explaining technical stuff to those of us who need help and information about important things related to our coaches and the travel we manage to squeeze in--in between service visits. ;-)
By the way, after four years fulltiming, I have a motto that everyone with a motorhome can relate to...

"There is always something wrong with your motorhome, you just may not know it yet, but when you need it most, you will find out." That'[s life with a motorhome, be it a Country Coach, Fleetwood, Newell or Prevost.

Life is too short to be angry all the time about everything and it doesn't solve the problems. That's my two cents. Now let's get on with it. I have a lot to learn.

Good luck and Safe travels.

Rosemary "magnamama"
2000 Magna #5798

Re: This site and its usefuleness.... my 2 cents after inflation...

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 20979
Rosemary,

Not bad, but not all correct!

One - the bat. You would not understand! Two - Paulette and Jack monitor this site, unless they lied to me.
Three - You have my name.

Four - Need your address in order to send my maintance records to.
Five - CC has refused to send some of them to me maybe you can get them for me.
Six - Sometimes bitching when one is wronged, and not allowing another to abuse you, we all benefit.
Seven - Nations have been destroyed when they did not stand up for themself.

Joe.

11876 Intrigue
2005

PS: This site has been very helpful. And just like you we all should be "free" to express the truth.

"Rosemary, Magna #5798" wrote:

Re: This site and its usefuleness.... my 2 cents after inflation...

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 20980
Rosemary,

PSS: And I did not bash you. Just wrote fact.

Joe