Friday, February 15, 2013

Making Lemonade

 

Seffner Florida, (high 71, low 52)

We are still at Lazy Days, camped out in one of the 300+ service bays, affectionately known as “Bay View” or the “Bays Inn.”   Or some might call it “hell.”

When we decided to come here, we had two problems.  The most urgent was the burning smell coming from the rear of  the coach.  The second was the clicking noises coming from the inside remote panel for the inverter.  

As I explained in the last blog, the burning smell was coming from a burned wire in one of the overhead fluorescent lights.  

The clicking noise from the inverter panel went away and frankly once the burning smell was corrected we weren’t too worried about it and wondered if it was just some kind of fluke.

While we were here, we decided to have some maintenance work done.   We ended up having the coolant changed and flushed, the brakes checked, a lube job and the wheel bearings repacked.   All expensive on a big rig like this, but all important.

We planned on leaving Thursday and since the inverter panel hadn’t made any more noise, we thought we were good to go.  Just a fluke, right?

Wrong………..

Early Thursday morning someone’s car alarm went off about 4 am.  Of course we jumped up to make sure it wasn’t ours and that’s when we heard the familiar clicking noise coming from the inverter readout panel.

Then it started reading “equalizing” and the voltage was rising rapidly.  

The first thing in the morning, we grabbed our service tech Rob. This time, he was able see and hear what it was doing. He wondered if it was a bad inverter, or a bad panel.  He saw first hand the rise in voltage as it went into equalizing mode.  He confirmed voltage over 15 16 is not good and hard on circuit boards on appliances and such.

He happened to have a spare panel matching ours and plugged it in and viola…..the clicking stopped.  He put ours back, the clicking started.  He did that a few times and concluded we had a bad panel. 

What luck for us that he happened to have pulled one of these panels, for his own use, from a previous repair.  It helped diagnose our problem instead of just buying the part and hoping for the best.

The bad news is that Lazy Days did  not have a brand new part on hand and it will have to be ordered. 

The good news is it’s being sent overnight and should be here today. 

The bad news is the part alone is almost $400. 

The good news is that we have an extended warranty with a $100 deductible.   We paid good money for the policy and this is our first chance to see what kind of service we will get from them.  I’ve read the policy and exclusions, and I believe this should be covered.  Let’s see how long it takes them to respond.

Since our policy covers multiple repairs under one deductible, we decided to get everything else we could find fixed for the single deductible.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, the only thing we could find that may be covered is the automatic step cover.  Rob fixed it in about 5 minutes. 

So, it’s Friday and here we sit, waiting for the part and waiting for the go ahead/denial from the warranty company.  The last extended warranty claim we filed on our other motorhome, was initially denied.  Being the good little ex-claim adjuster that I am, I had read the policy, understood what exactly was wrong, and was ready for them when they initially denied the claim.  After having it denied 3 separate times, they ended up paying our claim. It was a broken bolt inside the generator.  The policy clearly said outside bolts were not covered.  We went round and round over the inside verses outside issue, and I won and it saved us over $1500.   Moral of the story is, if you have a warranty claim, read your policy, especially the exclusions and know exactly what the problem is.  If they deny it and you feel you have a valid claim, ask them to review it. Make them explain exactly why they are denying it.  Don’t trust the shop to fight for you, do it yourself.

So, what have we been doing while camped here at Camp Bayview?   When Rob’s working on the coach, we have to be out.   I’ve had to put the kitties in cages during the day and of course that means they can’t get to the kitty pan.  Not good for them and I think that caused Chatty to get sick the other night.  It’s hard on them and it’s hard on us.

The good news is they have a nice customer waiting room, with Tv’s, comfy couches, free coffee, free WiFi, and plugs to charge your stuff.

The bad  news is just before we came here, Al was trying to fix a shower leak and removed the old caulk.  So, we have no shower to use while we’re here. 

The good news is that Lazy Days Campground is next door and has showers which we have been able to use. 

Our site in Bayview has full hook-ups…  water, sewer, electricity, but we’re under cover, so we couldn’t raise our satellite dish, and we missed Survivor and Nashville!  bad news.

So, what did we do for Valentines day?   Dinner, drinks, movie, flowers?    No….we already got our presents.  Al got a Lube Job and I got wheel bearings repacked!  Romantic, huh?

Last night, it was cool (about 60 degrees) and raining.  We decided to go over to the campground and have a nice soak in the hot tub, if it wasn’t too crowded.  We went over there and found no one in either the pool of the hot tub!  Perfect!   The hot tub was nice and warm so the cold rain didn’t bother us at all!  It felt so good!  That  was our Valentines celebration.  

So, while we’re forced to be here, we are dealing with it as best we can and trying to make lemonade!

Hopefully, we’ll get out of here today, but we’re not holding our breath.  There are certainly worse places to be!

25 comments:

  1. I started watching Nashville thinking I would get a lot of country music. Then it turned into a soap opera so I quit watching.

    JC

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  2. Can you not close the kitty's in the bedroom? We've done this when having work done. We also have a large cage(wire so it folds flat for storage)that we can put the litter box in for extended time. Hope your outta there soon.

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    1. No Jan....I don't trust the cats or the techs. Many times the techs have to get back into the bedroom area to flip a circuit or check something. I've seen that too many times. Or they decide to close the slides for some reason...and squash a cat. I've also heard of that happening. I figure no one is as careful with our kitties as we are and I trust no one else!

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  3. We got similar Valentine's Day gifts...we each got 2 new tires for the 5th wheel! LOL Hang in there....

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  4. It is good that they found the problem. I get jealous every time see your header photo. I have seen two Cara Cara's here but have not gotten a good photo. Good luck with the repair.

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    1. Go to the prairie if you want their photo. They are very cooperative.

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  5. It's really not fun when you're stuck in a service bay for days on end. Especially on the furkids. But the really good news is that you won't have that clicking anymore and the problems with the voltage. Hang in there - you will get out of hell sometime.

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  6. Hope you are outta there soon with some $ in your pocket too.

    It's good you were close by to Lazydays and getting all this done.

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    1. Yeah, I am also glad we were near Lazy Days.. They make it as easy as possible.

      Whether we'll have any cash in our pockets is doubtful!

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  7. Glad to hear the inverter problem has been resolved. Good luck with the insurance company at least you have some experience in dealing with them.

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  8. Well lots of bad news, but the good news is it is all getting fixed. Won't be long, and you'll be back outta Bayview :)

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  9. I admire you positive attitude. I think I'd like V day in a hot tub. I sure do miss ours.

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  10. Have you kept the same "extended warranty company all this time? If so would you mind sharing its name with paultmiller@hotmail.com
    Nice blog and thanks for sharing.

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    1. Paul... yes we've kept the same extended warranty as when we purchased the coach in 2010. We bought it through Go Rv Network. The insurance company is Allegiance, Home of CSI Care.

      This was the first time we used them and were happy with their claim handling.

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  11. Lube job and wheel bearing repack? You guys are such incurable romantics... ;c)

    At least you got to soak your cares away in the hot tub. I'm jealous...

    Hope overnight really means overnight, not like the USPS where overnight means 2 to 3 days.

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  12. We have to get an extended warranty on our camper when the manufacturers has expired. If you are happy with yours would you be wiling to tell who you have it with. We are shopping around. Thanks

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  13. I too am anxious to hear about yor coverage and how they are to work with since I'm pretty sure we are with the same company. We have not had reason to make a claim so far, but we did pass thru a claim for the slide seals a few months after we bought the Alfa. The response was a justified "pre existing." But they did send an adjustor in a timely fashion. We didn't expect sucess, but the shop suggested we try anyway.

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  14. What did they charge for a coolant flush and change. Ours is coming due.

    Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. The coolant flush was $199 for our diesel motor home.

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  15. You and Al are certainly making the best of the situation!

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  16. It's terrific that you know how to fight the insurance battles! And way to go for having a positive attitude about having to sit in Lazy Days for a few days...Glad that you found the source of the clicking, too...

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  17. Lucky break with the panel. Sounds like you have been having a lot of lemonade:(

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  18. Hope you get out of "Bayview" soon. At least you have the hot tub to enjoy.
    P.S. Survivor was GOOD! Nashville, too!

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