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.
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.
Last edited:
Alf
