Returned ~$150 worth of parts to Amazon via UPS on the 2nd.
Today, a FULL two weeks later, they have no record of my return even being started. Guess I get to gear up and go full on Karen at the UPS store and ask them where the hell my shipment is.
Remember kids, ALWAYS take pictures of your receipts so you have a record.
I have both the actual receipt and the picture and someone is gonna pay me my damned $150.
In reply to Mr_Asa :
Kind of surprised that you don't have an amazon drop location near you. We have multiple ones near me where as soon as it's dropped off, you get the refund.
Which is great on one hand- that if something happens, you get your money back. But on the other hand- it means that we probably get too much stuff because amazon has to be able to take it back so very easily.
In reply to alfadriver :
Compare it to Walmart or Kroger or KMart/Sears back in the day.
In reply to mtn :
I agree those were very prolific out there, but for now, I would only put Walmart in the same camp, since it's so easy to buy *stuff* on line. When you had to put effort into getting something, I personally think people put more effort into it and either got something good or didn't get it. Now people buy multiple of the same thing so that they can compare them, and return the ones you didn't like. The whole "try before you buy" thing on amazon shoes... Or everything has free returns.
But at the same time, since you can't see it in person, you almost have to buy 4 different versions of the same thing to return 3 of them.
alfadriver said:In reply to Mr_Asa :
Kind of surprised that you don't have an amazon drop location near you. We have multiple ones near me where as soon as it's dropped off, you get the refund.
Which is great on one hand- that if something happens, you get your money back. But on the other hand- it means that we probably get too much stuff because amazon has to be able to take it back so very easily.
I do. This one was UPS shipping required.
Depends on the seller, and what the item is I think. I think a lot of returns just end up in a bargain bin store where people buy lots of returns and try to get their money back. Some of the stuff the companies actually want back.
Duke said:wae said:Cabinets are supposed to be stained wood.
Woodgrain makes small spaces appear smaller.
The refinish needs to be nicely done, agreed. But lots of texture makes spaces look smaller and smoother, more uniform colors make spaces look larger.
All I'm saying is that the folks that build these things spend a whole lot of money and hire teams of people to make sure that all the colors and materials more or less go together. I'm not saying that is it impossible to improve upon whatever Winnebago does, but 95% of what I've seen is hot garbage. Take this for example:
Stock:
"Remodeled"
In fairness, there are things about the remodel - so-called - that I kind of like. The oven/stovetop is more modern, and I'm a sucker for a butcherblock top. I almost like the tile backsplash there, but judging from the grout lines it was installed by someone with tremors, blindness, or both. But now we have four different kinds of wood(ish things) going on: There's the original wood, we've got whatever that floor is supposed to be, the washed-out paneling on the wall, and the butcherblock. Plus the poorly painted wood. None of it blends with any of the others. And look closely at the paint job. We apparently just went crazy with the brushes and gobbed paint wherever we wanted because masking tape was clearly not in our budget. And the poorly-applied black - black!? - paint on the entry there is rubbing off and chipping. Apparently we ran out of the blue paint and switched over to white, just to mix it up. And then we stopped our backsplash at a very odd point but also didn't bother to cover the wall behind the over-sink cabinet to match.... anything. We added a little quarter-round toerail there, but couldn't be bothered to miter the corners.
In the last couple weeks I've looked at over 250 different RV listings and have done some deep-dive cataloging of over 130 of those, all in the 20k and up range. While there may be some good remodels out there, at least 95% of them have been like this fecal festival. I realize that the customer is always right in matters of taste, but I will happily take the original with wear and tear over whatever that's supposed to be.
In reply to Mr_Asa :
Hate those kinds of sellers.
In reply to wae :
I like everything about the remodeled one better.
tuna55 said:In reply to wae :
I like everything about the remodeled one better.
Yeah, me too. Physical construction quality aside, aesthetically, the renovated version looks much better.
wae said:All I'm saying is that the folks that build these things spend a whole lot of money and hire teams of people to make sure that all the colors and materials more or less go together.
Actually, the folks that build RVs hire teams of people to make sure that the interiors appeal to the most common denominator of RV buyers. Note that I did not say lowest, just most. Judging by nearly every RVer I've ever met, that's going to be a very conservative aesthetic featuring lots of Golden Oak woodwork, paneled "Colonial" doors and ogee-ish moldings, brass trim, a muted early-'90s greyed-tone color palette, and an emphasis on pattern.
I 100% fully agree that any work needs to be well done... but that is a reflection on the renovation quality, not the chosen aesthetic.
[edit] The blue lower cabinets / white uppers are to lighten the visual weight of the wall cabinets.
In reply to wae :
I'm with wae... that just looks disorganized and poorly executed.
In fairness, I'm not a big fan of "farmhouse". When we were shopping for new furniture last year, 80% of what was available was "farmhouse" mostly with "barn door" features. Drove us crazy, and I don't think the fad is going to age well.
I think at first blush it might look OK, but Wae is right that the overall result is a trainwreck. Clashing grays, poor attention to details (seriously WTF is up with the unfinished bit above the tile backsplash?), workmanship that's bad enough to criticize in a low resolution photo (which means it'll stand out like a sore thumb in person), and why the hell did they paint the upper doors but not the carcasses? It's a wreck man. Yes they've improved on the general feel but left it half done, and that half has been done poorly.
I understand that I'm in the minority that still likes wood grain - albeit not honey oak and I'm not really a fan of the stuff in that rv - but in what world is that an improvement? It looks like garbage. They would have done better to put white shiplap everywhere and call it a day.
wae said:In reply to Toyman! :
You're not wrong. When I bought our first motorhome I put about 4000 miles on the car driving to look at different coaches before I finally found the one I wound up buying and of the dozen or so that I went and looked at in person only two of them were worth buying and I only really liked one of those two. I'd really like to have this done before Christmas if I can since we've become accustomed to taking the RV to the in-laws for the holiday and I really like staying on-site at Daytona for the Rolex in January. As a stretch goal, if I have something by October I may go to Rallycross Nationals. I kind of expected a lot of garbage the last time since my budget was a class A for under $10k. We've decided our budget this time is around $55k and there is still so much trash even at that level! Granted, we're really specific on what we want: Class C, 2001 or newer, under 100k miles, under 750 hours on the gen, at least one slide, a bunkhouse, an over-cab bunk, and a one-piece fiberglass roof. In typical fashion, I want to be served caviar but be billed for fish sticks.
We searched all over the world and ended up finding ours at a dealer 2 miles from the house.
Our requirements were DP, pre-emissions, king bed, decent size shower and bath. We looked at a bunch that fit the bill but were literally falling apart. Cabinets failing, fixtures broken or jerry-rigged together, walls peeling. Some of them were gross. Based on what we were finding I scratched a bunch of manufacturers off the list and narrowed it down to Tiffin or Monaco brands with the Cummins engines. We ended up with an '07 40' Holiday Rambler with the ISL 400 Cummins. It's built well enough that I expect to have it for 15-20 years. I've been super happy with it so far.
Good luck with the search.
Now the rant.
It was 59 degrees when I left the mountains yesterday morning. When we got home, it was 100 degrees on my porch.
I berkeleying hate summer.
In reply to dculberson :
Separate the build quality from the aesthetic, sure. But for sure, we didn't interior design our camper with the next owner in mind. And we were covering up glorified wall paper for the entire interior- looked terrible. Far easier to paint it than figure out how to find a good "wood" look.
Poor build quality sucks, and could be dangerous. Aesthetic is a personal taste thing.
The refinish would have appealed to me more, had they painted all the dead trees, instead of just the doors. It looks like Aunt Mabel had some small cans of paint left ofer from the last time she did the bedroom.
I'm not a fan of having dead trees clear coated in my house, but I'm also not a fan of peeled cow upholstery. Nature is too busy.
In reply to Toyman! :
I was looking to replace my camper this spring too and we looked at dozens. Same thing, falling apart, water damage, gross. I don't understand how you can drop 20-30k on a travel trailer and not take care of it???
I told the sales guy I appreciate him trying to show us campers but mine was the same age and in far better shape, I wasn't gonna pay more money to have a more beat up camper.
Associated camper rant, I had three things break on it this weekend. It kind of bummed me out but for a little bit of work and a couple hundred dollars I replaced or fixed each of the issues the right way, new parts, proper fixes. It isn't that hard.
There are three good pizzerias in my town. They all took a two week summer vacation at the same time. This is the kind of thing the town council should be working to prevent.
In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :
100% agree, plow roads and make sure there is pizza!
we have 4 in town, one just closed, one is only open Thursday-Saturday, one gives me the E36 M3s and the best one closed for the MONTH of July!
I had to drive 15 miles to the next town over for pizza and wings on Sunday.
In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :
Im pretty sure France does, or did, have a law regarding bakers and their vacation for this sort of situation.
In reply to mtn :
That's because they'd have a revolution on their hands if there was no fresh bread.
BoxheadTim said:In reply to mtn :
That's because they'd have a revolution on their hands if there was no fresh bread.
Ah, let them eat cake. They'll get over it.
3 fire calls in one day. 2 MVIs and a grass fire.
My hat is off to the for-real firefighters out there. Not sure how you guys handle it.
Stick a fork in me. I'm done.
Wally (Forum Supporter) said:There are three good pizzerias in my town. They all took a two week summer vacation at the same time. This is the kind of thing the town council should be working to prevent.
It's the Italian business model.
Good luck getting parts from there in the summer. The whole country goes on holiday in August.
55 bucks of non returnable trans fluid i cant use because of fords alphanumeric soup of part numbers amd google swapping it around. berkeley!!
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