Complaint Review: Giant Recreation World - Melbourne Florida

 First off, we have bought two new RVs from Giant Recreation World (GRW) in Melbourne, Fl.  We did not have a bad experience with the first purchase, mainly because we had no warranty issues before we bought the second one.  We spent over 100K at GRW and mistakenly thought we would be treated as valued customers, after the sale.  Immediately after the second purchase a new Class C Motorhome, we experienced serious issues like leaks in the roof and electrical problems with the refridgerator and cosmetic problems, like interior parts falling off.  All occurred before a 1000 miles and some parts fell off on the way home from the dealership. 

Before going on, GRW boast a Warranty Forever and claims that because they are a family owned business, they are somehow unique and trustworthy.  Not so.

Continueing, on our first camping trip, the refridgerator would not cool in the electric mode, which caused all our food to spoil.  When leaving the camping spot, once the RV shifted to turn out of the parking space water poured on our heads from a leak in the front cap.

We contacted GRW and made an appointment to have these things repaired.  Ultimately, we had to make appointments weeks in advance and it took three trips and a total of almost 2 months to fix the Cap Leak.  The refridgerator problem  was a worst story.  First, they told us the compressor was bad and they had to order one.  They kept the RV for almost 2 weeks and said it was fixed with by installing a new compressor.  RV refridgerators do not have compressors like household units do.  Afterwards, we went camping and our refridgerator cooled to 60 degrees and our food spoiled.  We called and waited for another appointment and repair.  This time GRW said the seals were bad and they had to order a new door and seal. 

Weeks later we picked up the RV with the assurance of everyone the refridgerator was fixed.  We plugged it in before our next trip and discovered the unit would not cool in the electric mode, but would work in the gas mode.  We went camping and called GRW afterwards to report the continueing problem.  We waited over a week for another appointment and dropped the RV off.  Three days later GRW called us and said the RV was ready to be picked up.  I rushed down there and was told the refridgerator workes fine.  I asked what they found to be the problem and was told only that GRW had plugged it in and it worked.  They looked no further.  During this conversation with the Service Manager (son of the owner of GRW), he suggested I switch my electrical plug to another household circuit.  He suggested that I purchase a polarity tester and check the polarity of my household outlets. 

He suggested I run the air conditioner in the RV to reduce the ambiant tempature in the RV to help the refridgerator and he suggested I roll out the awning to shade that side of the RV from the sunlight.  Just to make a point, I did all of these things and after 4 days, the refridgerator reached 40 degrees overnight and 60 degrees by noon and over 70 degrees by 5PM.  I sent GRW a detailed message containing everything that I tried and pictures of the digital tempature guage I used to check the refridgerator.  I only opened the refridgerator 3 times a day for only seconds to take a tempature reading.  What I got back was a message saying that the the refridgerator worked fine for them and they had no solution.  They reminded me that my RV was over a year old and had no remaining warranty with them, adding that the Dometic refridgerator was warranted through Dometic  until April 2016.

As for the claim of free Lifetime Warranty.  The small print is that the Warranty is not free.  Each year to maintain your Warranty you must send your RV iin for a pre-determined inspection and supply that inspection report to the insurance company.  In our case, we had less that 3K miles on our RV and it had already been in the GRW shop for over 3 months during the first year.  The pre-determined inspection cost over $400.00 and included things like changing the annode in the water heater, which we probably never used the electrical side of the water heater. 

Finally, it does not matter who you involved at GRW, from the saleman all the way to the owner, they play along as long as they can back charge the manufacturer and once thay ends, you are on your own.  The strongest thing I can say is that I regret dealing with them and have nothing positive to say about the entire RV dealership.