9/28/2018 – Flagstaff
We’re both little surprised about how far along we are on our trip. It seems like just a few days ago that we left. When we started, Albuquerque seemed a long way off but here we are now just a week away from the Balloon Festival. It’s been a great trip with lots of individual adventures. It’s been a bit of a hassle moving so much (we were warned about our aggressive itinerary) but the reward has been the number of “signature places” in the US we have been to, and the many individual and unique adventures we have experienced, in such a short period of time. While it’s been well worth it, we both want to have a less aggressive schedule next time. We’ll try to stay a little longer at each location and do day trips (and/or some overnight trips) from our home base locations.
Back to today…..this morning we re-packed Alice and headed back to the RV repair facility to get the new replacement topper installed. Remember, this is the second time they had to order the replacement…………they sent the wrong part on Wednesday and had to re-order the correct one (or so I thought). Also, since I didn’t have 2-3 weeks to go through the warranty approval process, I told RV service department to go ahead and get the slide topper and install it so I could get on my way. I figured the manufacturer, Carefree of Colorado, would cover it under the warranty program when I explained my situation. However, in fairness, they did tell . me Carefree was difficult to work with.
So we get there at 8:30 as scheduled and after a 1 hour wait, they told us that once AGAIN, they sent the wrong size topper. You can’t make this stuff up! I had to make a decision – either use the one they sent that was about 6 inches too long, or wait and try to do it somewhere else. It didn’t look bad so I told them to just go ahead and install the one that came in. It took until 1pm for them to get it done and check me out. Again, I had agreed to pay the bill and work with Carefree to get reimbursed. Since I had paid someone $1500 for all three toppers including installation, I expected to pay somewhere between $500-$600! They charged me $907 for one replacement topper. Obviously that really jacked me up. So far, trying to reach Carefree and get something done has been a nightmare. I’d say the chances of getting reimbursed are 50/50.
This is the part of RV’ing that really sucks. If you need RV service on the road, it’s a pure crapshoot – you may get decent service or you may get screwed. And based on my discussions with others waiting for service, that is the norm. In this particular case, the RV dealer service center was awful.
But I know tomorrow will be a better day. We’re moving to Camp Verde, AZ.