Worth time and effort to get Norcold to respond warranty claim?

[A J Gordon]

For the second time in less than a year our Norcold 1210T refrigerator has shed the coolant all over the place and stopped working. Last December the dealer replaced the cooling unit. Now we have the same problem again and trying to deal with Norcold has become infuriating. They don’t answer the phone. They have suggested that we should probably just wait until we get back to the east coast in the fall to have the problem addressed, they concede that their dealer/servicer list on their website is out of date and useless, and now have had us on hold for close to an hour while they “transfer us to someone who might be able to authorize a mobile tech to diagnose a problem which is already obvious from the coolant all over the place.

Does this company ever authorize a warranty repair, or does their corporate service department just see how long they can stall customers before they go pay to fix the problem themselves? Their business ethics suck.

[howson]

For the second time in less than a year our Norcold 1210T refrigerator has shed the coolant all over the place and stopped working. Last December the dealer replaced the cooling unit. Now we have the same problem again and trying to deal with Norcold has become infuriating. They don’t answer the phone. They have suggested that we should probably just wait until we get back to the east coast in the fall to have the problem addressed, they concede that their dealer/servicer list on their website is out of date and useless, and now have had us on hold for close to an hour while they “transfer us to someone who might be able to authorize a mobile tech to diagnose a problem which is already obvious from the coolant all over the place.

Does this company ever authorize a warranty repair, or does their corporate service department just see how long they can stall customers before they go pay to fix the problem themselves? Their business ethics suck.

Seems to be the norm in the RV business. Hope you get this figured out soon.

[AZMike]

For the second time in less than a year our Norcold 1210T refrigerator has shed the coolant all over the place and stopped working. Last December the dealer replaced the cooling unit. Now we have the same problem again and trying to deal with Norcold has become infuriating. They don’t answer the phone. They have suggested that we should probably just wait until we get back to the east coast in the fall to have the problem addressed, they concede that their dealer/servicer list on their website is out of date and useless, and now have had us on hold for close to an hour while they “transfer us to someone who might be able to authorize a mobile tech to diagnose a problem which is already obvious from the coolant all over the place.

Does this company ever authorize a warranty repair, or does their corporate service department just see how long they can stall customers before they go pay to fix the problem themselves? Their business ethics suck.

With the price of these fridges, I would keep on them. Maybe it would be worth a call to your dealer (stop laughing) or Grand Design Customer Service to get them involved and on the record.

[A J Gordon]

Seems to be the norm in the RV business. Hope you get this figured out soon.

Probably true, but in fairness to GD, they at least open a claim when we have called with an issue and sent pictures. They’ve never just flat out refused to open a reported claim unless we agreed to bring the RV into one of their dealers or hire an independent RV tech to take them. The AH we talked to at Norcold suggested that we just live without the fridge until we got back to our dealer in SC in November or December. Also warned us to preserve the coolant mess until one of their dealers could look at it.

[A J Gordon]

With the price of these fridges, I would keep on them. Maybe it would be worth a call to your dealer (stop laughing) or Grand Design Customer Service to get them involved and on the record.

Agree, and we are going to stay on them. We have advised GD Customer Service. Good thought on advising the dealer. Thanks.

[A J Gordon]

Quick update. I will never again buy a Norcold product. I will never again deal with an RV manufacturer that uses Norcold products, and if that means giving up RVing, so be it. The company is unethical and its business practices are unconscionable.

Norcold refuses to cooperate in any way. We went down their list of dealers to find one anywhere in this area (Oak Grove, WA) who could look at this and get the process started. We called four dealers on their list. Two are out of business. One could not get to us till late August (by which time we will no longer be here) and the fourth flat told us that while they are an authorized Norcold dealer and service center they will not under any circumstance do Norcold warranty work because Norcold fails to reimburse them for labor costs they incur. They would happily handle this if it were on an extended RV warranty, but not on Norcold’s factory warranty. Norcold acknowledges that its dealer/service center list is unreliable, out of date and useless, but won’t help identify other Norcold dealers in the area. Need to analyze our next steps.