Our 21' Escape Trailer purchase issues

[Marry-ESC]

Picked up an Escape 19 today ... Extremely happy with this unit!

Big thanks to everyone at Escape Industries!

Now that looks awesome!!! Beautiful combination! The colours match.
Many happy camping days ahead. Enjoy!

 

[Perry Butler]

Give me a break and take off your ETI goggles. I joined in 2013 and there are many that have had problems and reported here. The real problem is when a few people like you then each and every time begin the process of in effect blaming the victim.

What that does is to deter some, if not many to report their problems or voice their honest opinions or experiences because they see what they can expect.

From my own experience I would not hesitate to buy a new Escape Trailer. What I would do is insist that my inspector would go over that trailer a week or two before pick up. You do that for a house inspection so why not when you are spending significant $$$ for a product where it is a factory direct business model.

Unfortunately, in this thread the main victim is ETI. Some buyers have unrealistic expectations and expect their rolling toy homes to not have problems. One poster has beat this thread to death. If one wants perfection I suggest they buy a Forrest River or Thor product. :whistling:

Our 5.0TA was not perfect, as I said in post 11, but we didn't have unrealistic expectations. Those problems tend to show up in the first 60 or so days. Ours did and we addressed them.

Unfortunately, some don't like it when they find out NO rolling toy home is perfect. You can be proactive or reactive, constantly complain about the product or do something to make it better. Sometimes people don't like the answer to their problem, so they fail to realize the solution to their problem. It's the posters attitude and choice.

We plan on enjoying our 5.0TA for years to come.

Enjoy,

Perry

 

[Iowa Dave]

That’s a nice looking 19. I like your graphics color. When we put solar on our 19 with the dual batteries it really widened our campsite selection. As long as we had a fresh water source or brought water with us we really felt independent. We felt the same
when we got the 21 but knew better what our capability for boondocking was. Enjoy your good looking Escape.
Iowa Dave

 

[steve dunham]

Unfortunately, in this thread the main victim is ETI. Some buyers have unrealistic expectations and expect their rolling toy homes to not have problems. One poster has beat this thread to death. If one wants perfection I suggest they buy a Forrest River or Thor product. :whistling:



Perry

So it’s wrong to expect that when you buy a product that it performs properly for its intended purpose ?
By that logic auto manufacturers should not have to perform warranty work or issue recalls ? The logic of “You bought it so now your stuck with it “ doesn’t cut it
One of my faults is that I don’t except mediocrity well and don’t make excuse for poor quality
If the litmus test for quality is being better than Forest River then we’re setting the bar ridiculously low.
People have legitimate complaints about Escape trailers but evidentally they are supposed to be silent . Maybe the forum should only allow positive , ETI affirming posts ?
The sky in my world is not always sunny with rose colored hues !!

 

[Iowa Dave]

So after nearly 300 posts what is the takeaway? In my mind it is a bell curve of acceptable performance. It’s Skewed somewhat to the right from totally unacceptable on the left to perfection on the right.
Your job, if you decide to accept this mission impossible camping task is to determine what level of comfort, maintenance, dependability, expense, appearance, and about 700 other parameters are acceptable to you and your style of camping. You may examine opinions of others but it is imperative you make your own decision. Good Luck to you and your team. I’ll already be camping in our 2013 Escape 21 production # 006. Pass me another glass of that Escape Kool Aid.
Iowa Dave

 

[rubicon327]

So after nearly 300 posts what is the takeaway?

Besides your wise thoughts the takeaway for me was from DavidMurphy02 all the way back in post #96...

If you look through the forum for any brand of trailer you will find people frequently posting about the problems they have had. Many of those problems occur very rarely but when you read through a list of them it can sound daunting. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who's ever bought an RV of any type and didn't have at least a few little glitches that needed correcting, that's just the nature of RV'ing and anyone expecting perfection they will be disappointed.

I look at how well a manufacturer stands behind their product and works to resolve issues, and ETI seems to excel in this area. Certainly if you are distant from the factory it's not as simple having a major issue resolved but ETI has a long track record of paying to have warranty repairs done at local RV shops for distant customers. In your case since you are not that far from Chilliwack if anything major needed to be done you could take the trailer back to ETI.

 

[Iowa Dave]

Wise words

Reading the forum and posting on it is certainly a good way to learn about problems, repair techniques, warranty issues, modifications, etc. For me, attending rallies and meeting folks who post or do not
Post but read the forum and in many cases are unaware of the forum or don’t care to post has enriched my retirement and I’ve made a lot of friends as a result. My entire life has revolved around daily contact with a wide range of people. Between travel, conversation, and personal pursuits I’ve had a great time and it ain’t over yet.
Stop and see me at any one of the 7 or 8
Rallies we will attend this year. I’ll twll you about the time I........ Now where was I? I was going somewhere with this.
How about a bottle of beer it’s already past 5 in the Azores.
Iowa Dave

 

[Ian and Sue]

Let's not forget cooking on a shovel

I do wastewater work....not cookin on my shovel!!!

 

[dsbc]

Thanks Marry and Iowa Dave ... have a great day

 

[MikeS-ESC]

Yup. A lot of people seem to think that ETI owns and reads this forum. They don't own it and may read it occasionally, but they'd have no time to build trailers if they read every post. I doubt they receive PMs from this forum either.

If they don't read it, they are missing a great free resource offering customer feedback and opportunity for improvement. They should be all over these threads looking for ways to improve and I hope they are.

Unfortunately, in this thread the main victim is ETI. Some buyers have unrealistic expectations and expect their rolling toy homes to not have problems. One poster has beat this thread to death. If one wants perfection I suggest they buy a Forrest River or Thor product. :whistling:

But it's not unreasonable to expect that ETI takes notice of complaints & criticism and considers ways to improve. In this case it seems like ETI installed an option for the fridge fan that should not be operated during travel and the customer was unaware of this restriction. It would be relatively easy to go back to putting the sticker on the fridge about this as shown up thread. (Maybe this is the practice but was missed?), or updating their build sheet template for the fan option that when added it includes a statement that it should not be operated during travel.

It seems like there was a sink leak very early on also, that was probably a workmanship issue. Seems odd it was not caught during a factory leak test if performed.

Both of these issues could be prevented/reduced in the future with better processes. A couple minor changes here and there could be the difference between a bitter customer and a cheerleader.

 

[gbaglo]

Many posts are idle speculation and assume that ETI is not listening to customers. They wouldn't have built the company as they have without paying attention, especially since sales are factory direct and the result of word of mouth.

That's what tires me.

 

[Ron in BC]

Many posts are idle speculation and assume that ETI is not listening to customers. They wouldn't have built the company as they have without paying attention, especially since sales are factory direct and the result of word of mouth.

That's what tires me.

Me too. I mean, read a few years of posts and tally up the number of folks who tell of above and beyond customer service. It has to vastly outnumber those who feel that they didn't get quality service.

I've never hesitated to list items that I thought could be done better and I know of at least one that has resulted in a change in the production line. I'm disappointed when I notice something that could be done better but I have a huge respect for the ETI success story and part of that has been above and beyond customer service.

If the sink in my new 21 leaks I won't be bitter. I'll just fix it and go camping.

Ron

 

[PGDriver]

Me too. I mean, read a few years of posts and tally up the number of folks who tell of above and beyond customer service. It has to vastly outnumber those who feel that they didn't get quality service.



I've never hesitated to list items that I thought could be done better and I know of at least one that has resulted in a change in the production line. I'm disappointed when I notice something that could be done better but I have a huge respect for the ETI success story and part of that has been above and beyond customer service.



If the sink in my new 21 leaks I won't be bitter. I'll just fix it and go camping.



Ron

Ron this pretty much sums up my feelings too.
Both my trailers had a few issues, some I chose to make the trip back to ETI to have fixed others I fixed myself and enjoyed fixing, some with friends and a cold beverage. I have also helped work on other people’s trailers, some with ETI supplies parts.

 

[Perry Butler]

So it’s wrong to expect that when you buy a product that it performs properly for its intended purpose ?

By that logic auto manufacturers should not have to perform warranty work or issue recalls ? The logic of “You bought it so now your stuck with it “ doesn’t cut it

One of my faults is that I don’t except mediocrity well and don’t make excuse for poor quality

If the litmus test for quality is being better than Forest River then we’re setting the bar ridiculously low.

People have legitimate complaints about Escape trailers but evidentally they are supposed to be silent . Maybe the forum should only allow positive , ETI affirming posts ?

The sky in my world is not always sunny with rose colored hues !!

Did you even bother to read and understand my post?

“You bought it so now your stuck with it doesn’t cut it" doesn't work for me either. I, as well as you, know ETI has no dealers. You either take it back to ETI, or find an RV repair and be reimbursed. For Dometic, etc. you go to one of their repair facilities and wait, like everyone else, for the repair to take place, or fix it yourself. I knew this and so do you. You may be "stuck with it" but I'm not.

ETI has listened and helped me with every conversation I've had with them. I try to remain positive and look for a positive response. I learned a long time ago not to accuse, because it gets you nowhere, but to try to resolve the issue.

Jeez, the Forrest River comment was said in jest. Did you not understand the smilie?

I NEVER said they should be quiet. Please show me where I said that. They should NOT be quiet, but work to resolve the issue.

Not once did I say they should "only allow positive, ETI affirming posts." But perhaps you have a problem with proactive posts like mine. You seem to enjoy the drama.

I do agree that, for you, your "world is not always sunny with rose colored hues." That is a choice that you and some other's here make. Re-read the second to last paragraph of my previous post. I know who I am in that paragraph and I'm ok with my view. That's why I get issues resolved with both sides satisfied.

Enjoy,

Perry

 

[MyronL]

Ditto what Ron and PGDriver and many others have said. We get it, we understand. Personally I think that egg has been fried.

 

[Ron in BC]

That egg looks like it needs some fried spam with it.

Ron

 

[cpaharley2008]

Scrapple is better- aka "Meat cookie" by Iowa Dave

 

[Farther]

Scrapple is better- aka "Meat cookie" by Iowa Dave

Isn't scrapple the same as head cheese?

 

[Iowa Dave]

Scrapple is scraps of meat ground up and fried as a thin patty. As the son of a full blooded Czech mother, we made Souse which is head cheese with extra vinegar. A hogs head was boiled for about 3 hours. Spices are added, the bones in the head give up juices that when cooled turn to a clear gelatin. The snout, forehead, ears, tongue, jowls cheeks and temples are boned out and cut up into bite sized pieces. The meat is combined with the juice and put in a mold. In our case, cake pans. Then it’s cooled in the refrigerator or out on the porch in winter and eaten like a meat infused jello. Not bad. Makes a hot dog look like Sunday school
Meat. Did I mention there was a lot of gout in the old Bohemie crowd? And high blood pressue was a way of life. There are recipes for all of this. In rural Iowa there are still some small independent locker plants that custom butcher. They are the source for hogs heads, Rocky Mountain Oysters, Jowl bacon, award winning sausage and delicacies like landjaeger. Sometimes called weasel peter for some strange reason.
Iowa Dave

 

[Ron in BC]

OMG, just when you thought that you'd heard it all. I think that I'll stick with my A & W teenburger, if I still have an appetite after reading about the hogs' head.

Ron