[DK on the road]

I had one company work on my Coach shortly after I purchased it. They claimed to work on only "high end coaches, including Newells". It was a shop with about 30 Bays with a drive isle inside down the middle. Quite impressive. I walked thru the facility and saw extensive and difficult work taking place, so I left them with my Coach. I explained that it needed to be plugged in at all times or a series of Dominoes would fall. They acknowledged and said "No problem". The punch line is that they didn't plug it in. The main purpose of dropping the coach, along with a laundry list, was a charging system and battery going dead quickly, and figure out the dash air being discharged. My first clue was about a week later this shop couldn't open up the door. The coach had run out of air, the door would open and the crew was "locked out". I drove down and showed them what they did wrong. "OH OK, NO Problem" they said

They replaced the batteries with batteries I purchased, and charged the Air without doing a leak test. I was handed a bill for $2,500 after 6 weeks and no laundry list was done. The coach was running out front while we negotiated the bill. They agreed to $1,500 do to minimal actual work claimed completed. When I went to the coach, the air was not working after about a 1/2 hr. I went back inside and talked to the owner, upset, but professionally.

We agreed to $600 and I never went back. I still feel it was too much, but that was the cost of my education.

Shop Owners know...they know how skilled or unskilled the crew / staff is. I believe they would prefer to come to a uncomfortable agreement, but not outrageous one sided or the other. We all hate lawyers, both sides will lose more. I hate to say it, but I have a Stanford Law degree (but no JD after my name) paid for thru my mistakes made and arriving at reasonable solutions. I'll leave it at that.

I have had very few issues with Newell in Miami OK. I have had a few, but I believe they know my coach best and Trust but verify while they are working on it. They don't mind me leaning over the mechanic shoulder.

Vinnie, I hope you can work out a reasonable solution with the current shop. Remember "Reasonable" is always uncomfortable for both side I vote for Miami OK doing work your not comfortable doing.

Keep us posted on positive updates.

Get one of us retired guys to drive it out and back if needed.