Is Dometic's warranty worth the paper it is written on?

[UncleTim]

Hey Guys:

Here with a little disturbing news.

In the month of October (10-22-21) of last year, my awning decided to unfold itself and extended into the branches of an oak tree. It turns out it only touched the tips of the branches and in no way did the branches interfere.

The reason I did not know this then, is because the motor died right there. It never twitched again. I assumed it was my fault.

I went into Escape Industries support and got two different messages, (one of which could have damaged the motor). I did manage to get it ratcheted back in mostly.

In the Denver northern metro area we have about 10 Dometic authorized repair companies. I think I called them all. The first few would not work on Dometic products at all. No real explanation was given. Then I ran into four or five companies that would do it but only on a Time and Materials basis. That means I pay for their time and all the materials.

The last company I called helped me and honored the warranty. Summit Adventures RV. They are very nice and honest.

In October they started the repair claim and Zen sat at their place for over a month. I picked her up and brought her home with the awning all strapped up, not entirely folded in properly.

In December the parts came in and after the first of the year, they were installed. The parts consisted of a new remote and mating receiver, and a motion sensor for the awning itself. When we installed them, they did not work according to the instructions. I actually blew away Rus's pairing work and redid it just to confirm. The instructions did not match the experience. Worse the awning still did not work.

I called Dometic and got totally shut down. They only talk to authorized repair people. Eventually they agreed to send a new motor, which is the most expensive part. When it arrived, Rus installed it for me and the unit worked again, although not the same way. Now I have to hold down the buttons, it does not continue to unfold unless I do. That is different.

Dometic's position is they will pay Summit Adventures RV one half hour of time, $62.50. For everything! And so far they have not been paid for the work they did in October. Why would anyone do this? They don't even sell new RV's.

Unofficially I am their last Dometic warranty claim. They no longer are willing to go thru this. It is not a wise business investment for them. They will not be paid any more than that amount either.

I asked them if they would be willing to handle the Dometic recall notice I received and they did not want to. They are done servicing Dometic, at least for now.

I paid them $125 for their trouble. I did not have to, I chose to. They did the work for me and I could not have done it myself. No one else was even willing to consider helping me without up front payment. I do not take advantage of people.

In a separate thread we recently heard from another former Dometic repair person that cited the same issues with their decision to no longer do repair work. I have heard this story before too.

When I placed my down payment on our 5.0TA, Escape Industries would perform warranty work and we had a safe option to get this done and a reason to travel to the annual rally.

Now they no longer allow you to bring your precious camper back in. That was, in my opinion, a drastic change to their value statement and a change to the basic structure of our relationship.

It also means unless they will still do repair work at the rallies, we have no recourse. My oven still hangs from one clip only, just the way it arrived. I am wondering if I will ever see Osoyoos.

I am not quite sure how to feel about all of this other than scared to break any Dometic appliance, which seem to be prone to breakage. I feel like I am on my own and their warranty does not mean much. Mine is almost up anyway. I had one repair and it took almost half the warranty period to get it fixed. And I am not sure why it unfolded on it's own in the first place. I do not feel like I am part of a family.

In the end it did get fixed. But now I see why no one was willing to honor the warranty. I don't want to go thru that again. And now I got an oven recall issue and this one involves propane.

[Greg A]

Very sorry you’re having to go through these experiences, Tim. Takes the shine off a big investment.
Only warranty work on my 19(two minor items), I had Reace send me the parts and I did the work. Probably, the best solution on ur oven recall and fix. Not sure what hanging by one clip is, but shouldn’t be much involved to reinstall the oven properly with maybe some hardware store solutions, or Dustin sending you the parts. Dometic will supposedly send you the recall kit, and doesn’t sound like it’s too involved. A good Mobile rv mechanic could probably take care of those items if ur not mechanically inclined.
On my trailers over the years, most things bomb when ur in the field and warranties don’t help you out there anyway. Hoping for a satisfactory resolution for you, but you may have to take the “bull by the horns.”

[Donna D.]

You are not alone. I'm on a massive Keystone Facebook group and an OutdoorRV Facebook group, they're ALL screaming about the awful Dometic warranty service. It's very, very sad. Seems like when anything breaks, they're pretty much all changing appliance brands... on their own dime.

[escape artist]

Hi: UncleTim...What a situation!!! With Dometic buying up the competition it's really hard to avoid dealing with them... and they know it!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Mike G]

Yikes, what a mess!

What are all the items from Dometic on an Escape? So far what I can think of is:
stove
refrigerator (maybe not all of them?)
power awning (but not manual awning)
air conditioner (maybe not all?)
some/all cooktops?


What other brands is Dometic the owner of?

[WillyB]

Wow! Sorry to hear of your troubles.

[kavm]

Sorry to read about your troubles, UncleTim! Seems like Dometic stinks to high heaven!

[kavm]

Originally Posted by Mike G

Yikes, what a mess!

What are all the items from Dometic on an Escape? So far what I can think of is:
stove
refrigerator (maybe not all of them?)
power awning (but not manual awning)
air conditioner (maybe not all?)
some/all cooktops?


What other brands is Dometic the owner of?

If your list earlier is complete - we might have escaped without any Dometic component in our camper - as our refrigerator is NovaKool, the cooktop is Dickinson Marine, the AC (to be added is RecPro Haughton) and awning is manual (hopefully it is not a Dometic).

[UncleTim]

Guys, don't feel bad for me. It worked out. But we got a problem going forward.

I am mechanically inclined and I have a reasonably nice shop. I can do what I need. I have the money to be fair. I just didn't think I had to. I think I'll take advice here and do my own stove repair. It's always better when you know your equipment anyway.

I still got a perfect camper and the time to enjoy it. I'll be out within a few days!

[oldwave]

unfortunately this is the American business model these days. From 50 years of deregulation. Corporations do what they want and seem to suffer no consequence. Outside of class action suits which are increasing limited in various states, there is not much recourse.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Mike G

What are all the items from Dometic on an Escape? So far what I can think of is:
stove
refrigerator (maybe not all of them?)
power awning (but not manual awning)
air conditioner (maybe not all?)
some/all cooktops?

What other brands is Dometic the owner of?

-Yes, stoves are all Dometic
-Refrigerators are Dometic including compressor fridge option to my knowledge (NovaKool’s were by request)
-Power awning is Dometic / Manual awning is Carefree of Colorado
-Standard air conditioner is Dometic / “upgraded” A/C was Coleman but has availability issues so was dropped from options list
-Cooktops are Suburban (but they have their own issues unfortunately) (Dickinson Marine cooktops were by request)
-You missed the furnace which is also Dometic

[brroberts]

Is Dometic's warranty worth the paper it is written on?

Nope, and hasn’t been for at least 20 years now since my first Dometic fridge recall in my Bigfoot.

[Eggscape]

I know if I were purchasing a new trailer I would not be selecting the power awning. To much out of my control to go bad and expensive to fix.

[C&G in FL]

Originally Posted by brroberts

Is Dometic's warranty worth the paper it is written on?

Nope, and hasn’t been for at least 20 years now since my first Dometic fridge recall in my Bigfoot.

Randy, I would have said it depends on the quality of the paper and where it was sourced. If we were comparing Dometic’s warranty to used toilet paper, I would say they are approximately equal in value.

[Mike G]

Originally Posted by oldwave

unfortunately this is the American business model these days. From 50 years of deregulation. Corporations do what they want and seem to suffer no consequence. Outside of class action suits which are increasing limited in various states, there is not much recourse.

It has more to do with human failures such as greed. A corporation is no different from any other form of business; its policies will be no better or worse than the morals and ethics of its leadership. What we're seeing is a downward trend in morals and ethics across the board in society, and business behavior is a microcosm reflecting that trend.

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by Mike G

It has more to do with human failures such as greed. A corporation is no different from any other form of business; its policies will be no better or worse than the morals and ethics of its leadership. What we're seeing is a downward trend in morals and ethics across the board in society, and business behavior is a microcosm reflecting that trend.

I agree.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by C&G in FL

Randy, I would have said it depends on the quality of the paper and where it was sourced. If we were comparing Dometic’s warranty to used toilet paper, I would say they are approximately equal in value.

Hi: C&G in FL... !!! The only thing worse is if your fingers go through it!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by C&G in FL

Randy, I would have said it depends on the quality of the paper and where it was sourced. If we were comparing Dometic’s warranty to used toilet paper, I would say they are approximately equal in value.

Dometic makes toilets too. So if you have one in your RV you can collect all of your Dometic appliance warranties and promptly flush them down your Dometic toilet. Don't break the toilet though because you will never get it fixed!

Apparently they are doing better in Germany...
https://www.dometic.com/en/se/news/e...all-categories

[Greg A]

Good one Dave.
The furnace in ours is an Atwood before sold to Dometic. It's a good one.
Fridge we've had no issues with, I guess it's a Dometic.
Don't know what the AC is, but it works fine.
Stove is good, but not too much can go wrong there.
No problems on the toilet, guess that's a Dometic.
Never wanted anything to do with an electric awning.
So the warranties have been excellent if you never use them.
Now if something blows we'll just get something that is not Dometic, if available.
Tim's on the right path now, break out the tools, use some good ol ingenuity and git er done.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Greg A

Good one Dave.
The furnace in ours is an Atwood before sold to Dometic. It's a good one.
Fridge we've had no issues with, I guess it's a Dometic.
Don't know what the AC is, but it works fine.
Stove is good, but not too much can go wrong there.
No problems on the toilet, guess that's a Dometic.
Never wanted anything to do with an electric awning.
So the warranties have been excellent if you never use them.
Now if something blows we'll just get something that is not Dometic, if available.
Tim's on the right path now, break out the tools, use some good ol ingenuity and git er done.

Yup the good ol' Atwood Everest Star 8012-II. Great furnace. Your stove is probably the old Atwood too. Fridge and A/C would be Dometic. Nothing wrong with the Penguin model A/C's except the noise. Your toilet is most likely a Thetford.