Comments on: Release the task force reports — today

By: Gene

Gene — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:46:53 +0000

Three cheers to those who have provided their comments to Greg’s article.

Having served on many different technical and business committees, I know first hand the problems that Committees have in making their collective views heard by their Parent Organizations.

A quick summary of concerns:

1. Are the reports being witheld due to Competitive Issues? If so, edit out those specific areas and release the balance.

2. Do the reports contain information on potential safety issues? Is so, Federal Safety organizations and the Insurance industry would have a field day.

3. Do the reports identify an Engineering issue? If so, then maybe it is time to correct the problem.

In this Freedom of Information Age, nothing is sufficiently sacred as to hid from the light of day.

By: Bob Zagami

Bob Zagami — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:11:00 +0000

Marcus Lemonis has always respected our right to report industry news as we see it, good or bad. He is always available if we call him and we are available if he calls us. He does ask that we report the news correctly and has taken the time to call and explain his position or correct something that is wrong, or in dispute. I respect him for that.

On the other hand RVIA and RVDA have decided not to engage in discussions that questions their decisions or motives on industry issues. This is also their right, but I think it is intersesting to see how some executives respond and how others choose not to respond.

While they may not respond in print, we will have discussions with them in Louisville and I suspect they will tell us that they do not like the approach we take to some industry issues. It will be the same discussion we have every year. I did receive one private response from RVIA this year relating to some of my postings, but they did not want to go public with their feelings on the matter being discussed.

Forums and blogs are part of the new social media impacting not only our personal lives, but also our business lives. You can bet that there are a lot more people reading this blog than contributing to it. And I suspect many of them are at RVDA, RVIA, and the AGI family of companies, including FreedomRoads and Camping World.

We report, you decide - oops, somebody else has used that line already.

Ok, how about fair and balanced - nope, can’t use that one either.

Agree or disagree, contribute and have some fun on here.

By: Mike Ingram

Mike Ingram — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:59:06 +0000

Greg and Bob,

Stay close to your phones tomorrow because I’m sure the RVDA/RVIA Honchos are going to give you a personal Saturday call just like Marcus did. (They’re just busy deciding who the designated spinner is.)

By: Carl

Carl — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:43:58 +0000

By now, anyone reading more than one article, listening to one opinion, or having input from none but a salesman should know that ANY appointed committe has an agenda and expected report favorable to the organization or person apointing the committe. When the report is given, if not supportive of the views, opinions, or agenda of the ones that appointed them, they ar politly thanked, but not told that the ‘consideration’ will be what trash box to hide the report will be used. RVIA and RVDA are expected to be a conduit for information between members, with the purpose to advance the overall industry. To do this, there can be no protective posture of any individual entity that proves to deteriorate the colective whole. The ‘bad apple’ effect.
As to political concerns… one doesn’t have to say who is doing it wrong, to say who is doing it right. One doesn’t have to say “this doesn’t work” to say “this does work”. Subjective oversight is ivory tower at best, nepotism as standard, and the road to disaster often. RVDA and RVIA have to step back and become objective. Just the facts, let the chips fall. Otherwise, they are just aranging the breakfast table on the titanic.

By: Gene

Gene — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:13:22 +0000

I just want to thank all of the individuals who have contributed their thoughts.

It appears that several warning shots have been fired across the bow of the RVIA/RVDA Ship-of-State. If the Captains of the Ship fail to grab hold of the rudder soon, the next shots could be below the water line.

By: Bob Zagami

Bob Zagami — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:47:22 +0000

RVDA and RVIA are living a fairy tale if they think the very same people that contributed comments to the reports issued by the task force’s are not saying the same things to their manufacturer’s reps, employees and even their customers. There are no secrets in this industry, the information is being discussed openly and most of those doing the talking are very critical of the industry for not taking an aggressive posture in releasing this information and implementing programs to address the consumer’s concerns.

There are only two intelligent answers to the issues presented by Greg in this commentary. If the task force reports were not well prepared, did not include valid information, and did not address consumer concerns; then they should be denounced publicly by the industry associations as having no relevance to improving customer service. The silence is deafening. If the task force reports are valid, present meaningul best practices, and detail the level of dissatisfaction that consumers have with the RV industry today then they sould be published and corrective action must be implemented immediately.

What is RVIA and RVDA afraid of? I think most people are quite capable of arriving at their own conclusions if we could just get our hands on the reports that are being hidden from public view and discussion.

Somebody should have the guts to do the right thing here, but don’t expect to see a long line in Louisville under the banner that reads, “Release the Task Force Reports Now.”

By: John Barrel

John Barrel — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:43:04 +0000

RVDA and RVIA should publish the information as a first step. Publishing the info, without more shouldn’t raise any competitive concerns. However, isn’t the second step for dealers to stop doing business with the many many manufacturers that consistently fail to support their products? Stop talking out of both sides of your mouth and take a stand.

By: JimG

JimG — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:36:20 +0000

Greg
Sometimes I wonder who RVDA really represents. Are they a dealer organization or they just there not to rock the boat. Like the car industry, until the industry steps up and warranties everything they put into there product and not force dealers to deal with 20-30 different vendor products trying to get parts and warranty paid the customer satisfaction index cannot get better! A couple of manufacturers have a single source warranty and I bet there individual satisfaction index is better then the industry average by far. RVDA needs to be the leader in getting a single source warranty put in place along with RVIA and streamline parts ordering using standized forms. Warranty claims filed online and timely approval of warranty work would allow dealers to schedule and finish warranty work on a timely basis. I suspect all the meetings and suggestions in the world by all these well meaning committees will be for naught unless those running RVDA are held accountable for following through on the committee recomendations. They should report what the recomendations are and if necessary allow the dealer members to vote on what direction and position they want RVDA to go in.

By: George M Sutton

George M Sutton — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:41:09 +0000

It seems to me that the market place will eventually right some of theses wrongs. Look how many years we seem to be behind the Auto Business in so many things. During the past 11 years we have concentrated on Rv’s, I have seen multiple manufacturers swing from one end of the spectrum to the other. It is no different than running a dealership. People come and go and we are no better than our weakest link. In a perfect world, I would love to have each one of my product lines come in like our Bigfoot Brand, but they just don’t. I think we dealers need to make sure the units are all they can be when they leave our dealerships. If you have a product line that is a dog, and the manufacturer refuses to do anything about making it better, I think the market place will force change or extinction. Seems like there are so many choices of product lines, why put up with one that is bad?
We can complain all we want, but unless the builders of these Rv’s has the “will”, they just get tired of a complaining dealer. You’ll lose your ability to have any impact because you’ll be marked as a whiner.

By: ToddR

ToddR — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:35:17 +0000

Well if the industry does not wake up, there are industrious people out there that will. Detroit never saw it coming. Nobody will buy those “foreign cars”. And well, their backsides have smarted ever since. With so little actually being manufactured here in our country, does it take a Honda or Toyota or Hyundai to shake things up? Sooner or later, they might.