I Am Very Sad Today :(

I had to cancel our upcoming trip to South Llano State Park (near Junction, TX) because I took my wonderful PUP to a place in Odessa, TX, for some warranty work.

I called up and spoke with the [quote] Service Manager [unquote] who first asked, "Did you buy it here?" and then asked what work I needed done. I went through the laundry list (the electric top raiser thingy didn't work too well the last time, the plastic connection between the tent and the camper is broken, and please check the lube job) of things I would have liked for him to check.

Then, he said I needed to make an appointment to bring it in. OK. Who do I need to make an appointment with?  Oh, that'd be Al. Who's Al? The guy I was talking to on the telephone (sigh).

OK. I'd like to make an appointment. Sure, bring it in a week from tomorrow - let's see that'd be next Tuesday. 

That was two weeks ago.

I called today to check on it. Took me several minutes to get Al on the telephone and when he finally answered, I asked what the status was on my PUP.

"We haven't looked at it yet."

"What? Why not?"

"Hey, the boss tells me which ones to do." (Note: Al is supposed to be the [quote] Service Manager [unquote]. So, who the heck is his 'boss?')

"Well, will it be ready Friday?" (Note: this is Monday.)

"Probably not. There's another one in front of you."

"So, let me get this straight. I call you to get some warranty work done - since you are the only bloody place in a 2 or 3 hour drive that does warranty work - and you set me up with an *appointment* a week later. Then, two more weeks go by and you haven't even started on it. Plus, I told you *twice* that we were planning on using it this upcoming weekend. And it isn't going to be ready? Did I get that right?"

"......."

"Well, is that right?"

"Sir, I didn't remember that you needed it. I'll put yours in front of the other one."

"I'll call you Thursday."

"Yes, sir."

I have NO HOPE that the PUP will be ready by Friday. I have little hope that they will even look at the items that need to be repaired. If the lift motor is faulty, it could take 10 days or more to get a replacement part to Odessa.

Not only am I officially "pissed off", I drove by the business this afternoon on the way to my doctor's appointment (a story for a different BLOG) and noticed my poor baby PUP has been parked behind a chain link fence with no cover from the sun, the wind-swept sand, and all manner of insectoids or rodent type of mammalians. Oh, and it hasn't been taken in to the well air conditioned work area.

So, now I understand why so many of the folks on the different popup forums ( such as http://www.popupportal.com/ and the Popup Explorer) spend so much time working on their tent campers! 

So, if most RV Service Centers are as the one at Billy Sims Trailer Town in Odessa, TX; then don't bother with them. What's sad is on their website, they actually say, "If we can't service it, we don't sell it." What they might add, "If you didn't buy it here, don't bother on getting top notch customer service."

Sad. We'll be missing a much needed weekend of camping at South Llano State Park. Well, we have another trip planned in early December to Davis Mountains State Park near Fort Davis, TX. Think that "Al" the [quote] Service Manager [unquote] will have our PUP finished by then?