End of (most) factory service

[Steph and Dud B]

Just received from OTT in email (partial text):

"As our service team will be working with the dealer's service departments on location, we feel it is prudent to discontinue most service work here at our location in Tennessee. However, we will continue doing major repairs, including fiberglass and aluminum, at our Plant Facility."

Having needed to have a Forest River trailer serviced at the their factory once because of the inability/unwillingness of the selling dealer to address the issue, and knowing the willingness of other top brands like Grand Design and Airstream to do factory service on a wide range of issues, this makes me uncomfortable. Yes, we would probably go to the local service center anyway, but it was nice to have the factory service as a backup.

[aaronorange]

Is there a list of authorized service centers? 

[Steph and Dud B]

10 minutes ago, aaronorange said:

Is there a list of authorized service centers? 

I think I saw one but I wasn't able to find it quickly on the main website. OTT should update that quickly with a "Find A Service Center Near You" tool on the Service tab of the website. Not just for current owners, but also to assure prospective buyers that there are multiple options.

[Steph and Dud B]

Found the list of dealers here, under the sales area of the site:

https://olivertraveltrailers.com/dealers/

[MobileJoy]

Oliver's website now has a Travel Trailers / Find a Dealer page where you enter your address and a search radius.

[ScubaRx]

22 minutes ago, aaronorange said:

Is there a list of authorized service centers? 

https://olivertraveltrailers.com/dealers/

[johnwen]

Hmmm...Sounds like my appt in September may be nixed.  Will have to talk with them tomorrow.  This was a surprise.  We'll figure something out.  A/C cleaning and lubrication of the 3 jacks... I'll need to study up on :)  ARGGG!  Hopefully the new service centers will be up to Oliver's standards and it will be in for only 1 night as it was with Oliver.  Should have ample feedback to tell before the end of the year.

John

 

[ScubaRx]

6 minutes ago, johnwen said:

Hmmm...Sounds like my appt in September may be nixed.  Will have to talk with them tomorrow.  This was a surprise.  We'll figure something out.  A/C cleaning and lubrication of the 3 jacks... I'll need to study up on 🙂 ARGGG!  Hopefully the new service centers will be up to Oliver's standards and it will be in for only 1 night as it was with Oliver.  Should have ample feedback to tell before the end of the year.

John

 

Jason Essary will be calling any customer scheduled out past July to explain canceling the appointment. They currently have just a few appointments scattered from August to November. 

[johnwen]

1 minute ago, ScubaRx said:

Jason Essary will be calling any customer scheduled out past July to explain canceling the appointment. They currently have just a few appointments scattered from August to November. 

Thanks Steve.  I believe Oliver did much research when selecting the new centers and for now I'll have to trust them.  (fingers crossed)

[Ollie Ollie in Free]

This is indeed disappointing. I certainly hope the dealer network will be expanded. At the moment, there is nothing remotely close to Southern California.

[Gliddenwoods]

Not what Oliver told me when they took my money...sad.

[GreenFlash]

The beginning of the end.  One of the reasons I chose an Oliver - no dealers. Before I bought my Oliver I owned three Airstreams.  I still have nightmares about every Dealer and service experience with them. Who better to fix them than the one that builds them?

[Rivernerd]

1 hour ago, Steph and Dud B said:

We feel it is prudent to discontinue most service work here at our location in Tennessee.

The best part of buying an Oliver has been the Service Department.  Will owners still be able to submit service tickets online, and get a response from the team in Hohenwald?  I hope the response to service tickets is not:  "See your local dealer."

[Steph and Dud B]

The way I see it, there are 2 reasons to buy a "luxury" RV: the product and the experience.

Oliver makes a fine product, one of the best, but there have been some compromises over the years. Early Oliver trailers were custom built units with almost unlimited options available for the customer. As sales rose, OTT scaled up production. To do this they needed to streamline manufacturing. The days of having the factory add an extra outlet to your trailer are over. I'm not saying the newer units are worse, in fact they've continued to upgrade many of the systems over the years, but the product has become less personalized. Oliver trailers are still above the average, but there are others in the market with products of equal, or perhaps better, quality. Bowlus and Pebble come to mind.

However, it's not just the product. Oliver also offered a top-tier buying/ownership experience, as good or better than any other manufacturer. Being part of the "Oliver family." Impressive access to the factory and it's experts.  I would say, on balance, the value of an Oliver became more in the experience than in the product. There may be "better" trailers to be had, but no better customer experience than we were used to.

OTT is now making changes that could diminish that experience: a dealer sales and service network. This has proven to be a more efficient and profitable model for many RV manufacturers. However, for many of those manufacturers, the system tends to be less responsive to individual customer needs. As an owner, I hope Oliver has a handle on this and can make it work better than other manufacturers have. I fear they're drifting into dangerous waters if the experience no longer warrants the price.

[SeaDawg]

With all new changes, and methods, there is definitely  a risk.

My experience with the Oliver family is that those risks are weighed carefully,  and thoroughly. 

I was not excited,  initially,  about the new dealer plan, but I see it as a way forward for growth, and extended service, throughout the US, for them, and all of us.

Edited March 28 by SeaDawg

[Tom and Doreen]

19 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

The best part of buying an Oliver has been the Service Department.  Will owners still be able to submit service tickets online, and get a response from the team in Hohenwald?  I hope the response to service tickets is not:  "See your local dealer."

I cannot imagine that Oliver will want to play “middleman” when it comes to managing service appointments, that would be quite a headache to manage. Sadly I believe the response will be to see your local dealer. 

It’s unfortunate that service at the factory will no longer be an option, we really enjoyed going down to the factory for service; great people. 

Edited March 28 by Tom and Doreen

[MichaelE]

This took the wind out of my sails. My pickup date is April 11th.  I purchased thinking I had access to factory service and repair. Here’s hoping the nightmare dealer stories aren’t true!

[jd1923]

3 hours ago, MichaelE said:

This took the wind out of my sails. My pickup date is April 11th.  I purchased thinking I had access to factory service and repair. Here’s hoping the nightmare dealer stories aren’t true!

Make sure you camp there a few days upon delivery. Use everything, test everything and they should make all necessary warranty repairs at that time. You will receive a high-quality TT that should only need regular maintenance that can be conducted by any good local mechanic. Most of the work, so many of us do on our Olivers, are mods the factory does not offer.

On 3/28/2024 at 12:33 PM, Tom and Doreen said:

we really enjoyed going down to the factory for service; great people. 

I understand many of you do a regular pilgrimage to OTT, and we would love to too, if it were something we could afford to do in terms of 1000s of travel miles and service costs. When we purchased our used unit last summer, I was happy to see our hull had made two such service visits, through the years, with a lot of good work done.

We will all continue to love our Olivers regardless of service location! 🙂

[SeaDawg]

13 hours ago, MichaelE said:

This took the wind out of my sails. My pickup date is April 11th.  I purchased thinking I had access to factory service and repair. Here’s hoping the nightmare dealer stories aren’t true!

I don't blame you for questioning. 

But, Oliver has hand picked a group of smaller, family dealers, that have great reputations for setvice.

Jason and crew will be training. My guess is, service hiatus after July is to allow training from best if the best.

Let's give it a chance.

[Geronimo John]

I read the above with more than a little bit of anger and sadness.  Recall that on Dec 2, 2023 In the "Oliver Dealerships Now Active" thread, I posted the below:

QUOTE:   For some firms, the logical business next steps are what worry this owner: 

• Likely down side for existing owners is that the next step could be to reduce their Service Team. 
• That would over time impact our access to the Service Team's tremendous amount of institutional knowledge that Jason and his staff have garnered
• Doing so will reduce the feedback loop that they provide to the firm in general.  Just one aspect of this is the warranty and service info requests likely will have to be routed through the "local" dealers.  Feedback filters generally are not real productive..   UNQUOTE

If an inhouse Service Team is not actively be engaged with one's customers problems is so sad.  They certainly will lose their technical edge.  Then it is easy to cut them all off the Payroll.  

GJ

Edited April 1 by Geronimo John
Some Re-Thinks.

[HDRider]

17 hours ago, jd1923 said:

Make sure you camp there a few days upon delivery. Use everything, test everything and they should make all necessary warranty repairs at that time.

I cannot emphasize enough there is no way a person can use a couple of days to learn that trailer.

 

I made the mistake thinking that I could call and ask questions when I struggled with something.  That process is broken. 

Edited March 31 by HDRider

[HDRider]

8 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

I don't blame you for questioning. 

But, Oliver has hand picked a group of smaller, family dealers, that have great reputations for setvice.

Jason and crew will be training. My guess is, service hiatus after July is to allow training from best if the best.

Let's give it a chance.

That might work if the nearest dealer wasn't much much farther than Hohenwald. 

[HDRider]

6 hours ago, Geronimo John said:

OTT is on a slippery slope now for sure.

I am the one that feels like I am sliding. 

[ChrisMI]

Hopefully we’ll have a sticky thread on the forum devoted to service center experiences.  There will be one or two that will rise above the rest with the knowledge and desire to fix things correctly in a timely manner. 
 

For those taking delivery before July I’d highly encourage them to pick up at the factory and camp close to the factory for a few days +.  Use everything multiple times and head back to the factory to fix things before you head home. 

[KMF]

How could Oliver think that anyone is going to spend $100,00.00 for a trailer without a service center in place?

How could Oliver think that any Dealer could provide timely, efficient service without a minimal parts inventory, and trained mechanics, in place? When the manufacturing plant, and the service facility are arms length apart, there is never a parts, or technical know how issue.

This is the type of transformation that should have been phased in over time, in sections of the country.