I know I may raise some hackles criticizing Escape in this post, so let me offer that this has to do with the new ownership and how they react to issues and promises regarding those issues, not the trailers themselves. I also hope this will give them some pause and cause them to change their behavior. There are also many recent posts that are related to this issue, most notably Escapes response to solar panels detaching and flying off.
We placed our order for our Escape19 with the previous ownership (Reace and Tammy). Tammy answered most of our calls and worked over our build sheet with us. She identified options that we could not defer if we wanted them, and others that she said Escape would be happy to install later (extra solar panel, under carriage insulation, etc.) if we brought the trailer back. It was a great buying experience and we felt like we were joining the "Escape family".
Our pickup experience turned out to not be great (see my post from a couple of years ago "off the ball" regarding the trailer coming off the hitch), but it was under the new ownership as Reece and Tammy had turned it over just prior to our delivery. As I noted in that post, Karl's response on the phone was less than sympathetic. But Trevor and another employee stepped in and very thoughtfully took care of everything, so we chalked it up to an error to the guy who drove it across the border and showed us how to hook it up to our truck. However, I should have taken Karl's reaction as an omen.
A short time after delivery we noticed the drawer rails on two of our drawers were not working properly. I tried some adjustments, and finally got it so we could work the drawers but we had to be very careful each time to ensure they did not come off the rail and get stuck. I called Dustin at the Escape parts department and explained the issue and was told they could fix it as it was still under warranty.
We were in the middle of a move from Virginia to Oregon and could not make it up there right away then COVID hit and the border was closed. I called Dustin at least TWICE over the next several months to confirm this issue as was told "I've got it in the notes, we will take care of it after COVID". We had such a pleasant buying experience, that I did not give much thought to getting his statement in writing. After all, we were part of the Escape Family right? so I felt I could trust him and saw no reason to get it in writing.
Then two things happened that I think align with other signs of poor management (several regarding delivery QA, and a recent post regarding solar panels becoming detached).
1. Escape announced that it was no longer going to do after-delivery installation of accessories. I've mentioned this before in a post, and my objection is that they did not give any notice to existing owners like us who were told at the time of recent purchase that we could have some accessories installed later (we wanted an extra solar panel installed and possibly the under carriage spray insulation). I don't look at it as a promise made by Tammy, it was a promise made by ESCAPE, and in my experience new owners should be bound by the promises of the previous ownership.
I wrote Karl about this and received a polite but dismissive response where he spends his time ignoring my point and writing about how they had to expand production, and we can get most of that stuff installed elsewhere. I've posted the email at the bottom if anyone cares to read it. Essentially, I told him that current owners should be given a reasonable grace period to have options installed at the factory before the new policy went into effect. We also could not get back to the factory until the COVID travel ban was lifted. Nope - he does not care what promises were made. So Tammy did not lie, but Karl made it so by dismissing her promise.
2. I emailed Dustin in the parts department several weeks ago and said we were planning to go camping in BC sometime in October and we could bring the trailer by to have the drawer rails repaired. I received a email response that said, "we have no record of this and it is out of warranty". I know we are talking about a $10 set of rails here being the likely culprit, but the issue is that they promised to repair it. I was pretty upset about being so blatantly lied to that I called and asked to speak with Dustin's boss.
His boss was even more unsympathetic and borderline rude on the phone. He said flat out, "there is nothing in the notes sir, and it is out of warranty. We don't even carry that bracket any longer. You can buy new brackets at Camping World for $20 or so. We are not going to fix it, it is out of warranty and we are a manufacturing facility."
So either Dustin flat out lied or he was instructed by his boss to say there were no notes after all and it would not be covered. Either is unacceptable.
Let me be clear that it is not the few dollars it took for me to get this problem fixed that is the issue. It is the fact that they lied and over a small issue at that and refused to even work with me to come to a solution. Their solution was to infer you could not possibly have heard Dustin say that twice on two separate occasions, never happened so go away we never promised anything.
I do not have a problem with them trying to maximize production and make a profit. I don't care if they make 200-percent profit or more, we pay what the market demands at any point in time - fine. But don't promise me something and then lie about it.
We currently have a 21 on order that we made prior to all of this mess, but now I'm questioning that decision. Overall, they still make a good trailer but I cannot trust the management any longer and I definitely do not feel they are any part of an Escape Family. They are now a “Manufacturing Facility”. Anyone can be nice when things are easy, but you really get a sense of someone when they have to address issues (large ones like solar panels or small ones like drawer slides).
I sincerely hope that this post, along with other posts critical of the actions of Karl and current management will force them to look in the mirror and make some changes in how they interact with customers. My extensive background in reviewing manufacturing processes tells me this really won’t cost them much if anything. If it does cost them something, they should be accounting for such future unexpected expenses in their pricing, and not making up for it by not addressing legitimate warranty claims or prior ownership commitments. I can get treated like this by a dealer or manufacturer in the US, I don't have to go to Canada, which is where we went in the hope of avoiding such behavior.
Fortunately this FORUM is very much an Escape Family
, and we have received a ton of beneficial advice from everything to mods to travel destinations and have tried to reciprocate whenever possible. Our continued thanks to every one of you!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is Karl’s email response to my request for a grace period for current owners regarding after-deliver accessory installs:
Hi Duncan,
Thank you for your email re after market installations at Escape. We still support for warranty but find ourselves in the position where we do not have the resources to act as an aftermarket installer. Fortunately the Escape is relatively easy to work on and most RV repair shops can complete the same installations as us. I appreciate this is not ideal, and not what we have done in the past.
We found ourselves between a rock and hard place, and the decision is to support Warranty and stop aftermarket installs. We have also stopped telling customers that Escape would complete the aftermarket installation work to avoid any future disappointments.
Warm regards,
Karl
We placed our order for our Escape19 with the previous ownership (Reace and Tammy). Tammy answered most of our calls and worked over our build sheet with us. She identified options that we could not defer if we wanted them, and others that she said Escape would be happy to install later (extra solar panel, under carriage insulation, etc.) if we brought the trailer back. It was a great buying experience and we felt like we were joining the "Escape family".
Our pickup experience turned out to not be great (see my post from a couple of years ago "off the ball" regarding the trailer coming off the hitch), but it was under the new ownership as Reece and Tammy had turned it over just prior to our delivery. As I noted in that post, Karl's response on the phone was less than sympathetic. But Trevor and another employee stepped in and very thoughtfully took care of everything, so we chalked it up to an error to the guy who drove it across the border and showed us how to hook it up to our truck. However, I should have taken Karl's reaction as an omen.
A short time after delivery we noticed the drawer rails on two of our drawers were not working properly. I tried some adjustments, and finally got it so we could work the drawers but we had to be very careful each time to ensure they did not come off the rail and get stuck. I called Dustin at the Escape parts department and explained the issue and was told they could fix it as it was still under warranty.
We were in the middle of a move from Virginia to Oregon and could not make it up there right away then COVID hit and the border was closed. I called Dustin at least TWICE over the next several months to confirm this issue as was told "I've got it in the notes, we will take care of it after COVID". We had such a pleasant buying experience, that I did not give much thought to getting his statement in writing. After all, we were part of the Escape Family right? so I felt I could trust him and saw no reason to get it in writing.
Then two things happened that I think align with other signs of poor management (several regarding delivery QA, and a recent post regarding solar panels becoming detached).
1. Escape announced that it was no longer going to do after-delivery installation of accessories. I've mentioned this before in a post, and my objection is that they did not give any notice to existing owners like us who were told at the time of recent purchase that we could have some accessories installed later (we wanted an extra solar panel installed and possibly the under carriage spray insulation). I don't look at it as a promise made by Tammy, it was a promise made by ESCAPE, and in my experience new owners should be bound by the promises of the previous ownership.
I wrote Karl about this and received a polite but dismissive response where he spends his time ignoring my point and writing about how they had to expand production, and we can get most of that stuff installed elsewhere. I've posted the email at the bottom if anyone cares to read it. Essentially, I told him that current owners should be given a reasonable grace period to have options installed at the factory before the new policy went into effect. We also could not get back to the factory until the COVID travel ban was lifted. Nope - he does not care what promises were made. So Tammy did not lie, but Karl made it so by dismissing her promise.
2. I emailed Dustin in the parts department several weeks ago and said we were planning to go camping in BC sometime in October and we could bring the trailer by to have the drawer rails repaired. I received a email response that said, "we have no record of this and it is out of warranty". I know we are talking about a $10 set of rails here being the likely culprit, but the issue is that they promised to repair it. I was pretty upset about being so blatantly lied to that I called and asked to speak with Dustin's boss.
His boss was even more unsympathetic and borderline rude on the phone. He said flat out, "there is nothing in the notes sir, and it is out of warranty. We don't even carry that bracket any longer. You can buy new brackets at Camping World for $20 or so. We are not going to fix it, it is out of warranty and we are a manufacturing facility."
So either Dustin flat out lied or he was instructed by his boss to say there were no notes after all and it would not be covered. Either is unacceptable.
Let me be clear that it is not the few dollars it took for me to get this problem fixed that is the issue. It is the fact that they lied and over a small issue at that and refused to even work with me to come to a solution. Their solution was to infer you could not possibly have heard Dustin say that twice on two separate occasions, never happened so go away we never promised anything.
I do not have a problem with them trying to maximize production and make a profit. I don't care if they make 200-percent profit or more, we pay what the market demands at any point in time - fine. But don't promise me something and then lie about it.
We currently have a 21 on order that we made prior to all of this mess, but now I'm questioning that decision. Overall, they still make a good trailer but I cannot trust the management any longer and I definitely do not feel they are any part of an Escape Family. They are now a “Manufacturing Facility”. Anyone can be nice when things are easy, but you really get a sense of someone when they have to address issues (large ones like solar panels or small ones like drawer slides).
I sincerely hope that this post, along with other posts critical of the actions of Karl and current management will force them to look in the mirror and make some changes in how they interact with customers. My extensive background in reviewing manufacturing processes tells me this really won’t cost them much if anything. If it does cost them something, they should be accounting for such future unexpected expenses in their pricing, and not making up for it by not addressing legitimate warranty claims or prior ownership commitments. I can get treated like this by a dealer or manufacturer in the US, I don't have to go to Canada, which is where we went in the hope of avoiding such behavior.
Fortunately this FORUM is very much an Escape Family
, and we have received a ton of beneficial advice from everything to mods to travel destinations and have tried to reciprocate whenever possible. Our continued thanks to every one of you! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is Karl’s email response to my request for a grace period for current owners regarding after-deliver accessory installs:
Hi Duncan,
Thank you for your email re after market installations at Escape. We still support for warranty but find ourselves in the position where we do not have the resources to act as an aftermarket installer. Fortunately the Escape is relatively easy to work on and most RV repair shops can complete the same installations as us. I appreciate this is not ideal, and not what we have done in the past.
We found ourselves between a rock and hard place, and the decision is to support Warranty and stop aftermarket installs. We have also stopped telling customers that Escape would complete the aftermarket installation work to avoid any future disappointments.
Warm regards,
Karl
