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45 days in the refrigerator stopped working, after hours of troubleshooting inside with the special menu, and going back outside checking the back. Finally found the leak. Took a picture and a video, figuring this would speed things up. Took it to General RV of Ocala and showed everything, they said thanks no thanks we have to do our own song and dance to get it repaired under warranty finding the leak ourselves and take our own pictures. I guess a long stream of bubbling yellow liquid and high def video were not to be trusted. During the same weekend Grand Design had an owners get together, so we drove over to see if they could do anything for us and they said nope. They were there to do minor repairs and recalls. Didn't even offer to open a ticket for us. So we worked it out with General to drop it off on a Sunday on their trade-in yard hoping to get this fixed since we had other trips already booked. We opened a ticket on Monday with Grand Design as we were told at the Owner Meetup this would speed things up. That was useless as General didn't want to use the ticket and dealt directly with Norcold as far as we can tell, as every time we call Grand Design for an update they said no one contacted them and they will not contact the dealer even when provided the service work order number. They will wait for the dealer to call them.
We got our RV repaired. 3 weeks. From what i can gather, Norcold was contacted directly and they worked to get the part through them and installed it. Unfortunately, in the installation they have damaged the back wall of the refrigerator.
The RV was given to us, I opened the refrigerator and found the edges of the plastic fin opening clinging to the edge of the fin and thermistor dangling from the light. They assured us that the refrigerator was tested, as we sat in the parking lot the refrigerator did not start cooling until I attached the thermistor back onto the fin. I pushed the edge of the opening back to get it to look normal. The fin is positioned in a way where the right side has no room for the fins to be straight because of the pressure of the plastic on the fin.
After about an hour or so, the service manager for General RV came out and looked at it as we did not leave the lot when we went to pick it up after the repair and saw the damage.
After a long explanation of cracked refrigerators are a cosmetic thing and very common thing, he did question us as to how long we had the RV and asked where we had purchased the RV in the hopes in my estimation to find another person to take the blame, but unfortunately for him the RV was only 45 days in our possession by the time we drove it in for the repair and we purchased the RV from General RV. When left no other outlet he did concede that it was probably damaged during the cooling unit install and said this was common, but other than a discount on future service he was not going to pay for the damage and it was not an admission of guilt. His words were he was not going to replace a $10000 refrigerator. ( I know this does not cost 10k). I replied, why would I bring this back here. Next time you may bust a window or put a gash on the side of my RV and offer me another discount coupon in place of doing the right thing, taking responsibility for damaging my rig, and put it back the same way I gave it to them.
So now every time I open the fridge to get something on my brand new under warranty RV I see these cracks around the fins. Funny part is I watched a bunch of youtube videos on what it took to get it fixed to get an estimation of how long this was going to take and not a single one made the same damage. Novice handy man and women with no service guides were able to do it with no damage. I take it to one of the largest RV dealers, they put the fins on the cooling unit before installing it back into the refrigerator, then ram it through the opening damaging and cracking the opening.
I contacted Norcold to tell them what had happened and to ask if this affected performance plus I wanted it documented in case down the line something else broke they would not cling on "oh that was broken already by the owner". I wanted it documented it that is was cracked by the trained professional repair man. They said no it does not affect performance and left it at that. Grand Design was copied on the email, they didn't even bother to reply.
Now the service advisor was great, so I have no bone to pick with her. All was good until the service manager started insinuating that we had broken it, then started fishing for someone else to blame, then finished with "not an admission of guilt" but yea we probably broke it, but I am not going to spend any money trying to make it right. There I lost it. How else was this very specific area of a 36 foot RV get broken.
So document the condition of your rig when you turn it in for service, hope they don't break anything because unless the cost is high enough to get a lawyer involved Norcold and Grand Design made their money and will leave you high and dry waiting for the warranties to expire to get you off their books. If you've read this far thank you for the interest.
We got our RV repaired. 3 weeks. From what i can gather, Norcold was contacted directly and they worked to get the part through them and installed it. Unfortunately, in the installation they have damaged the back wall of the refrigerator.
The RV was given to us, I opened the refrigerator and found the edges of the plastic fin opening clinging to the edge of the fin and thermistor dangling from the light. They assured us that the refrigerator was tested, as we sat in the parking lot the refrigerator did not start cooling until I attached the thermistor back onto the fin. I pushed the edge of the opening back to get it to look normal. The fin is positioned in a way where the right side has no room for the fins to be straight because of the pressure of the plastic on the fin.
After about an hour or so, the service manager for General RV came out and looked at it as we did not leave the lot when we went to pick it up after the repair and saw the damage.
After a long explanation of cracked refrigerators are a cosmetic thing and very common thing, he did question us as to how long we had the RV and asked where we had purchased the RV in the hopes in my estimation to find another person to take the blame, but unfortunately for him the RV was only 45 days in our possession by the time we drove it in for the repair and we purchased the RV from General RV. When left no other outlet he did concede that it was probably damaged during the cooling unit install and said this was common, but other than a discount on future service he was not going to pay for the damage and it was not an admission of guilt. His words were he was not going to replace a $10000 refrigerator. ( I know this does not cost 10k). I replied, why would I bring this back here. Next time you may bust a window or put a gash on the side of my RV and offer me another discount coupon in place of doing the right thing, taking responsibility for damaging my rig, and put it back the same way I gave it to them.
So now every time I open the fridge to get something on my brand new under warranty RV I see these cracks around the fins. Funny part is I watched a bunch of youtube videos on what it took to get it fixed to get an estimation of how long this was going to take and not a single one made the same damage. Novice handy man and women with no service guides were able to do it with no damage. I take it to one of the largest RV dealers, they put the fins on the cooling unit before installing it back into the refrigerator, then ram it through the opening damaging and cracking the opening.
I contacted Norcold to tell them what had happened and to ask if this affected performance plus I wanted it documented in case down the line something else broke they would not cling on "oh that was broken already by the owner". I wanted it documented it that is was cracked by the trained professional repair man. They said no it does not affect performance and left it at that. Grand Design was copied on the email, they didn't even bother to reply.
Now the service advisor was great, so I have no bone to pick with her. All was good until the service manager started insinuating that we had broken it, then started fishing for someone else to blame, then finished with "not an admission of guilt" but yea we probably broke it, but I am not going to spend any money trying to make it right. There I lost it. How else was this very specific area of a 36 foot RV get broken.
So document the condition of your rig when you turn it in for service, hope they don't break anything because unless the cost is high enough to get a lawyer involved Norcold and Grand Design made their money and will leave you high and dry waiting for the warranties to expire to get you off their books. If you've read this far thank you for the interest.
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