Question Is this the start of what I think it’s the start of

[MapNerd]

Received a response from Newmar this morning:

Hi John,

Thank you for contacting Newmar customer service. I am sorry to hear you are having issues.

Please send pictures as listed below:

1. A full view picture of each piece of furniture in the coach-
2. A picture showing the defect - only need one
3. A full view picture of the interior of the coach taken from the back of the coach with the captain's chairs turned inward.
4. We need law tag pictures to ensure the correct furniture covers are ordered.
Please send pictures of the law tags from all the furniture in your coach. It may or may not include the following items:

Both captain's seats
Recliner(s)
Sofa(s)
Theatre seating
Ottoman(s)
Dining chair(s)
Folding chair(s)
Or dinette

The law tags are located on the underside of the furniture or tucked in the seam of the captain's chairs or dinettes where the seat bottom meets the backrest. It is ok to cut he tags off to obtain a good picture. I recommend saving the tags until the furniture repair is complete.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any further questions or would like to discuss this matter further feel free to contact us at 800-731-8300 to speak with a brand specialist. We look forward to resolving this issue and serving you as a valued customer. In the meantime, I hope you have a nice fall and enjoy the RV life. Be great, outdoors.

 

[Neal]

Yep, that's what I had to do. They want to match your upholstery and any of the details such as the edge stuff.

 

[redbaron]

That is customer service the way it should be. It was as simple as sending an email, followed by an approval.

Sadly, the approval did assign you a lot of homework, but you will end up with a complete makeover, and more importantly that pen mark won't be there as a reminder of when the kids drew on your seats!

 

[Neemer]

It's recovered with the same trash.

This has been a huge disappointment for me with Newmar. They know they have a problem, and rather than do the right thing, they astroturf it. A great company wouldn’t do that.

 

[Neal]

Correct - it is NOT the fix. It is a further expense on both parts. It costs the customer time and fuel to go to Newmar, which should be compensated. Then they replace with the same crap that will require this again but maybe next time it's not original owner and not covered. Terrible situation ala Newmar.

 

[Soniccruzer]

Received a response from Newmar this morning:

Sent the email last night and received the above email this morning.

 

[Old-RV'er]

Correct me if I am wrong, but would not the S/N of the coach allow them to retrieve the original order, and match what was installed? Seems like some hoops need to be jumped through. I realize last minute changes, but those also should be contained in the OEM order. But who knows?

 

[redbaron]

We know that the Leather covering that is lower quality, but supposed to last 10 years is failing much earlier. My 2013 DSDP failed at 8.5 years (after I sold it).

There are two possibilities here:

1) Manufacturer knows this, and is doing nothing to improve the low end quality, and replacing the failed units as they happen.

2) Manufacturer has reformulated the material process to make it better quality.

I doubt it is #2.

Newmar on the other hand, is replacing this and extending the warranty as if it where new. A subsequent failure will be replaced again, without charge. Newmar has a long track record of doing this.

So why doesn't Newmar allow for a owner to "upgrade" to the ultra leather product? The answer is that they are being reimbursed by the supplier of the material. Now the big question is what is going to happen with failures like @mapnerds. He had flexsteel supplied material, as did many others. Flexsteel is no longer in the business. The supplier that supplied flexsteel also supplies Villa, but the warranty does not transfer. In this case, Newmar is paying for the materials and labor, and using the aggregate to file a large claim on the now defunct Flexsteel's insurance policy.

That policy will expire soon, and leave newmar holding the bag when the next round of failures come in.

If there was ever a time to allow the materials to be upgraded, now would be it.

What is unknown is if the current supplier is now using better materials for the low end (possibility #2) as opposed to Flexsteel ignoring the requirement.

There are many grades of leather products, and it is still possible to have a less than premium product that does not flake. Lets hope that the new supplier is in the business for long term and is providing a better low end product.

 

[NWIP]

When I talked about the situation when I was at the service center they told me I would be able to have recover with material of my choice, Ultrafabric. Might be an up charge which I was okay with.

Once warranty people got involved I was told I had to select from their samples and if I wanted different material, it would all be at my expense.

I just don’t understand why when a customer wants to fix the issue of inferior material they don’t want to assist anyway. That’s not great customer service

 

[redbaron]

When I talked about the situation when I was at the service center they told me I would be able to have recover with material of my choice, Ultrafabric. Might be an up charge which I was okay with.

Once warranty people got involved I was told I had to select from their samples and if I wanted different material, it would all be at my expense.

I just don’t understand why when a customer wants to fix the issue of inferior material they don’t want to assist anyway. That’s not great customer service

the reason is the continued warranty coverage would no longer apply if the same materials where not used.

I am going on a speculation limb here, but I think this was the reason for Flexsteel exit. They chose to save a buck and delivered terrible material using a substandard product. They expected Newmar to behave like every other RV company and tell their customer to take a flying leap. Newmar didn't, and further, newmar forced the hand of flexsteel with the warranty repairs.

I believe Newmar's policy of forcing the vendors to deliver on their product quality and warranty is what killed flexsteel.

If they chose a material that was better quality, then they would have been priced similar to Villa. Villa is nothing special, other than they set a higher standard.

Let's hope this high standard still exists.

 

[J&JD]

the reason is the continued warranty coverage would no longer apply if the same materials where not used.

I am going on a speculation limb here, but I think this was the reason for Flexsteel exit. They chose to save a buck and delivered terrible material using a substandard product. They expected Newmar to behave like every other RV company and tell their customer to take a flying leap. Newmar didn't, and further, newmar forced the hand of flexsteel with the warranty repairs.

I believe Newmar's policy of forcing the vendors to deliver on their product quality and warranty is what killed flexsteel.

If they chose a material that was better quality, then they would have been priced similar to Villa. Villa is nothing special, other than they set a higher standard.

Let's hope this high standard still exists.

Doesn’t newmar spec out virtually everything they want from their suppliers? Also, I’m sure newmar has been aware of this problem for many years. Why would they continue to accept inferior products when their reputation and bottom line are affected?

 

[bpaikman]

Yup, during my years of research I saw this over and over, in various stages. I priced it out and decided it would be better for us to completely replace the furniture, but with covid, it might be hard.

 

[bpaikman]

Doesn’t newmar spec out virtually everything they want from their suppliers? Also, I’m sure newmar has been aware of this problem for many years. Why would they continue to accept inferior products when their reputation and bottom line are affected?

THAT is the million dollar question.

 

[MapNerd]

So today I asked a few additional questions which are below, with Newmar's responses in red.

Thank you for the response Carrie,

I will send those pictures over today. I have a couple of questions also. Other Newmar owners have told me that Newmar is replacing all furniture coverings in the coach when this occurs and since you are asking for tags to all of the furniture, I assume that is the approach you are planning to take here as well.

· Yes. We are recovering or replacing all furniture in the coach.

Assuming that is the case, would it be possible for us to change the color of the furniture? We have kids and off-white has proven to be not the best choice as we are constantly wiping the furniture down.

· Yes- where would you like us to send samples.

Also, we wanted to inquire about swapping the recliners out for a sleeper sofa. I understand that would not be a warranty item as there is nothing wrong with the recliners other than the fabric they are covered with, but the recliners have proven to be very limiting for our needs and we would prefer an 87” sleeper sofa.


· This would be considered retail and is customer pay. At this time our vendors are not accepting retail purchase orders so the service department would not be able to provide an estimate.

Lastly, we are in the process of planning our summer trip and could easily work in a service center visit. We have some minor paint repairs that need to be done anyway so it makes sense to try and do all of this in one fell swoop. Can you tell me approximately how far out the service center is currently booking? We would likely be looking at a July-August timeframe, but could move things around to arrive earlier or later depending on Newmar’s availability.

· At this time we have a backlog list of customers that are coming to Newmar for furniture service. You would be put on a list and once we are able to order furniture again we begin contacting our customers. It is unlikely that this furniture repair can be addressed as Newmar in July- August of 2022.

Shortly after reading the response however, I realized what @redbaron had already realized and posted above - I have Flexsteel furniture and they're no longer in the industry. That left me wondering, who exactly are they going to order covers from and how in the world are they going to match the contours since every manufacturer's furniture contours are different.

So I sent off another email pointing out that I have Flexsteel furniture and inquiring whether the plan was to recover the existing furniture, or replace it with whatever they are putting in coaches these days. I offered that if the plan is to outright replace because they can't get get covers that would fit the Flexsteel furniture, then it might actually be cheaper for them to order an 87" sleeper for me instead of 87" theater seats.

Awaiting response...

 

[MapNerd]

I would just offer that yes, this is a bad situation for everyone that it impacts but it does not appear unique to Newmar. Tiffin got it, Winnie got it, Fleetwood, Thor...the only difference I have seen is that Newmar is actually doing something about it. I'll take a free-ish biennial furniture recovering/replacement over "this is the first I've ever heard of this" any day.

Its absolutely the worst for those who are second hand owners or original owners that are 6 years out from purchase before this defect shows its face. I agree with what @redbaron suspects is going on here in terms of Newmar charing the cost against manufacturer's insurance and absorbing the overhead to support their customers. It's an awful lot more than any other manufacturer with the same issue is doing.

Still, someone on another forum said it best about the whole situation:

Without a doubt I'd pay the up charge for the best covering available. In fact that's what I thought I did when I bought a Newmar in the first place.