Stress fest: An RV pickup experience and cautionary tale

Hi there,

I would like to say we had a wonderful experience pickup up our Winnebago Ekko RV from La Mesa RV in Albuquerque. We did not. It was a comedy of errors that very nearly had us walking away from the purchase.

After purchasing our RV, we waited about three weeks to get the financing and insurance in order. When we arrived for our pickup and orientation at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning, we sat in their service department waiting. We noticed through the front glass doors that an RV that looked like the one we had bought was being driven back and forth in front of the dealership. Its driver parked in front of the building to speak with the assistant service manager through the driver’s side window. Not. A. Good. Sign.

In a few minutes, the assistant service manager talked with us about our brand-new-to-us RV going into “limp mode.” This is a safety feature that stops the vehicle when the alternator is overcharging the coach battery. He told us it was a “known problem” with the Ekko that meant we would be unable to charge our lithium battery on the road. We were crestfallen. We let him know that we had paid a lot of money for what we had been told was an RV that had gone through all the recalls and was in great condition.

After an hour of negotiating, we decided to go ahead with the purchase under a new contract that included La Mesa and Winnebago paying to fix the limp-mode problem. We tried test driving the RV to see what limp mode was like, but it did not repeat it with us driving it. Isn’t that always the way these things go? OK, we were ready to do the orientation after that heart-wrenching decision. Or. So. We. Thought.

You did what?!

As we were about to get started with the orientation, we saw the assistant service manager approaching with a sheepish look on his face. What now? Someone had broken the bathroom window. He explained they were putting in a new window as we spoke. We had already grappled with the decision of whether to go ahead, so we stuck with it. You know you’re in a bad situation when the salesperson jokingly offers to buy you a shot of tequila! We drank margaritas later that evening with our kids at our favorite New Mexico food restaurant, but still are not finding the experience funny.

We are can use our RV, but there is no charging the battery from the road, which hampers the functionality and our dream of boondocking. The rest of the orientation was informative and helpful. Tip: Make videos, you’ll forget much of what they tell you.

Picking up our RV was supposed to be a happy experience. Instead it turned into a stress fest. Yes, we did ignore online advice to not buy from large dealers. Nonetheless, La Mesa is the Winnebago service provider in our area, so we figured we would need to develop a relationship with them anyway. While it was a stressful pickup, we felt the assistant service manager handled the situation fairly, so that we had what we needed to trust that the problem would be fixed and we wouldn’t end up paying for it. [Update: It’s now Dec. 31, and the assistant service manager left us a voicemail while we were out camping. La Mesa has been fair in its service work, fixing some other problems free of charge. Winnebago, if you are reading this, we are hoping you’ll make us whole!]

I find in life that when bad things happen, time passes and they make for funny stories later around the campfire. Are we there yet? Not yet. But I expect that our tale of our pickup will at some point entertain us. And, if it saves you from a similar situation or gives you a laugh, all the better.

Until next time,

Heather