2019 Price Increase - TARIFFS

[NW Cat Owner]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

I think my friend Howard got the spruce for his plane out of the pacific NW, USA. The tree grows all the way from Redwood Country in Northern California up into Alaska all along the coast. We were in the redwoods a couple years ago and saw a couple signs pointing out the Sitka Spruce. They are huge and the really big ones are pretty old.

I was recently staying at Beverly Beach, near Newport OR. Lots of spruce there. In the visitors center they have old logging photos and mention how it was used during WWII (maybe WWI; can't remember now). Many of the stumps from the huge trees are there. quite interesting what happens with 'em when trees start to grow on them and form roots. The nurse tree disappears and then the roots form bark. Very odd looking.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by NW Cat Owner

I was recently staying at Beverly Beach, near Newport OR. Lots of spruce there. In the visitors center they have old logging photos and mention how it was used during WWII (maybe WWI; can't remember now).

WWI. Fascinating history lesson...
In Great War, Allies flew planes made of Oregon spruce | Offbeat Oregon History | #ORhistory

[Chama]

The biggest Sitka Spruce in the US is located at the east end of Lake Quinault in Washington state. There is a small campground there at Rainforest Resort with W&E. Old growth forests in the area with lots of hiking and scenery to see. Good fishing in the lake but you need a boat. Long way to anywhere with city amenities, however.

[citabria90]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Wasn't the Spruce Goose built that way also?

We toured the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville about two months ago, and during the tour they told us the Spruce Goose was constructed mainly of birch.

The Evergreen Museum is a "must visit sometime." Very big, and very nice. The SG will floor you with its gigantic size!

Chuck

[Greg A]

I don’t really follow stick built trailers, but aren’t most of them using aluminum sticks now?

[Hilola]

Originally Posted by Greg A

I don’t really follow stick built trailers, but aren’t most of them using aluminum sticks now?

Yes, I think they are made from aluminum trees:

https://www.amazon.com/d/Christmas-T...christmas+tree

[cpaharley2008]

OK folks, we are really out on a limb here.....lets return to the trunk and stick to the subject matter of tariffs and price increase.

[Iowa Dave]

Gives a whole new meaning to the term driftwood.
Iowa Dave

[sclifrickson]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

OK folks, we are really out on a limb here.....lets return to the trunk and stick to the subject matter of tariffs and price increase.

Or...poutine?

[Greg A]

Well, if they do use aluminum sticks those would be subject to tariff's perhaps. So not so far off the topic perhaps.

[gbaglo]

And, an ingredient in poutine is cheese, which has also been subject to tariffs.

[scottsady]

So we were shopping trailers and leaning toward escapes pretty heavily when they posted the price increase on their website. That was all I needed to convince my wife as she does love a bargain. Honey, if we do this all before December 1 we can save $1200!!!! So we did, and guess what, I just put in a deposit and signed my contract and then got my build sheet info and the last line item on my build sheet costs, right under the importation fee is TARRIF SURCHARGE $500! This was never disclosed and actually we were told over the phone that we could avoid this by finalizing everything by dec. 1. I have sent 2 emails and gotten no response. Planning a phone call tomorrow, but wondering what gives. Anyone else experience this? We were given a copy of a build sheet from another person who purchased and Escape 17A within the last year and that charge is not existant. Kinda upset about this sneak charge.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by scottsady

So we were shopping trailers and leaning toward escapes pretty heavily when they posted the price increase on their website. That was all I needed to convince my wife as she does love a bargain. Honey, if we do this all before December 1 we can save $1200!!!! So we did, and guess what, I just put in a deposit and signed my contract and then got my build sheet info and the last line item on my build sheet costs, right under the importation fee is TARRIF SURCHARGE $500! This was never disclosed and actually we were told over the phone that we could avoid this by finalizing everything by dec. 1. I have sent 2 emails and gotten no response. Planning a phone call tomorrow, but wondering what gives.

The announcement in the original post of this thread, and on the website (which are both dated October 31 and are generally the same text) said

Originally Posted by Tammy and Escape Office

Effective December 1, 2018 Escape Trailer Industries will be increasing the base price of each Escape Trailer by $1,200.00cdn. This increase will affect any Trailer Sale received on or after December 1, 2018. Customers will also see some changes to Option Prices, the new pricing will be applied to new orders, as well as those customers who have not yet selected their options.

How the announcement of this thread and the website applies would depend on the meaning of "any Trailer Sale received on or after December 1, 2018"; does that refer to receiving the final order (which scottsady has done), or receiving the trailer (which will presumably not be for months).

I think only a phone call or email to Escape has any hope of clarifying this. I suggest both - a phone call and a confirming email. It will probably be multiple phone calls, since various staff apparently are not consistent, and so you will need to talk to Tammy to get anything final.

[Seneca]

My experience--within the past couple of weeks--was a bit different.

In the first phone call or email, I was told of the tariff surcharge and the (longstanding) $200 import documentation fee. Since then I've put down a deposit on an Escape 19, have a scheduled completion date of early March, and so the build sheet is due in early December (90 days prior to build date). But I've been told I should get the build sheet completed a week early, by December 1, to get the current pricing. So, I'm hustling. Got the fabric ordered, it's shipped, and I hope to finalize the build sheet this week. FWIW, the total additional cost of options for me seems to be running about 15% or so of the base price, maybe a little more.

So far in the process, I haven't had any sense of anything sneaky and there haven't been any surprises. Of course, I ask a lot of questions along the way.

One more general observation: I am old enough to remember the justifications that sales people gave back in the 1970s for price increases, and the explanation I am getting from Escape for their increases is eerily similar. A manufacturer faces price increases from its suppliers, so protects itself by increasing the prices of its products (adding a margin of safety). Well, its suppliers are facing the same situation with their vendors, and that's why they increased their prices. And so on down the line. It was called cost-push inflation back then, and next year, maybe the push comes from wage hikes, and the year after that the push comes from higher interest rates raising the cost of capital. You can't blame Escape, or its vendors, they are just rational business people protecting themselves. But it's what the tariffs set in motion.

I didn't take the tariffs too seriously when they were announced, and the inevitable responses came. What I read said both the U.S. and the Chinese economies were big enough to absorb them without much impact, and the rest of the world might get splattered, but wouldn't get hurt. Now I'm beginning to wonder. In themselves, the tariffs may be no big deal, but . . . . for the want of a nail.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Seneca

My experience--within the past couple of weeks--was a bit different.

In the first phone call or email, I was told of the tariff surcharge and the (longstanding) $200 import documentation fee. Since then I've put down a deposit on an Escape 19, have a scheduled completion date of early March, and so the build sheet is due in early December (90 days prior to build date). But I've been told I should get the build sheet completed a week early, by December 1, to get the current pricing. So, I'm hustling. Got the fabric ordered, it's shipped, and I hope to finalize the build sheet this week.

So far, this seems to be the same as scottsady's experience. It will be interesting to see if the surcharge appears on the final build sheet.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by scottsady

... I just put in a deposit and signed my contract and then got my build sheet info and the last line item on my build sheet costs, right under the importation fee is TARRIF SURCHARGE $500!

I just noticed that amount of this surcharge. It's much less than the $1200 announced by this thread, but double the earlier $250 surcharge.

[marsman]

We just completed our build sheet on our new 2019 5.0ta and there is a $500 tariff charge on our sheet which I was told has always been charged, I thought it was similar to the PDI you pay when you purchase a new vehicle, maybe I should dig a bit deeper? Would like to hear from others who have a new build in progress?

[EdColorado]

I signed the Build Sheet yesterday. February delivery.
$500 tariff, $200 import.

[sailjoe]

ETI has been great to work with. I have a completion date of March 25, 2019 on my 21. ETI told me up front about the 200 importation, 500 tariff and 20 tire levee fees. I was also able to lock in existing pricing on the travel trailer by ordering before Dec 1st. Same thing goes on options.....select by Dec 1st to lock in existing prices. I understand that some options pricing may be increased significantly.

[scottsady]

Well, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one getting a $500 surcharge as opposed to the $250 surcharge for folks who ordered a few weeks prior (per the posted .pdf from mid October.) I still am a little upset that I wasn't told about this upfront, especially since I specifically asked if we would avoid tarrif charges by completing everything before Dec 1. (for us this is less than 3 weeks from initial conversation to getting the money to them and build sheet finalized.) Avoiding the additional fees was a major motivator for us to buy now as opposed to next year as we had originally planned.