For all the “sound and fury” of RV buyers fed up with shoddy, falling-apart purchases, we don’t often hear about them getting legal help. Maybe RVers are just afraid nothing will ever come of it, that somehow, the cards are in the hands of the manufacturers and dealers. Why bother to take legal action for nothing?
Hold on, it looks like the RV industry is actually worried about legal action. This November, industry is including a special program, a “Super Lawyers Session”, at their RV Dealers Convention/Expo in Fairfax, Virginia. Would you like to be the proverbial “fly on the wall” there? Here’s what’s advertised:
“RV industry legal experts will train dealers in how to avoid costly consumer lawsuits,” says the promotional material. “Audience members will once again be treated to a mock trial of a consumer claim against an RV dealership. Audience members will serve as jurors in the trial.” Interestingly, the promotional “poster” for this session is based on a Star Wars’ theme, “The Dealership Strikes Back.” Do you need to strike back if you haven’t been hit hard to start with?
Super Lawyers admonish: “Take control of the legal action”
The upshot of this special Super Lawyers session is, “to teach RV dealers how to prevent lawsuits against their dealership by partnering with their manufacturers.” Industry legal beagles will be making presentations, including Keystone’s top attorney. A slew of others are on the docket, ready to teach dealers how to stay out of legal hot water. One session is optimistically entitled, “How to partner with your manufacturer to take control of litigation and recover your customer.” For industry this is a novel idea, that they take control of the legal action.
Other game strategies fall under the banners of, “How to eliminate lawsuits inexpensively and quickly as soon as the claim is filed.” “How to work together with your manufacturer so that the manufacturer is more likely to pay for the dealer’s legal defense and protect the dealer from judgment.”
Lessons for RVers
It’s evident from the efforts the RV industry is putting into the legal arena that RVers are not just quietly going away when serious issues arise. One insider told us that there may be a lot more going on. Many potential suits are being quietly settled with non-disclosure agreements. While the RVer does come away with a settlement, under this arrangement, nobody else knows. That sets well for industry, as fewer RVers are encouraged to take action. They simply don’t know other RVers’ efforts are being rewarded.
The RV industry may be getting stoked by their own Super Lawyers. RV consumers wounded by the industry shouldn’t give up. It may be your case is worth hiring a lawyer.
##RVT1120b
It sorta sounds like the manufacturers would rather support lawyers instead of building quality products.
As stated at the beginning of the article many people assume it’s not worth it to file a law suit so they don’t especially if it’s something small.
Was it a small matter for the “coffee being too hot” or the fast-food product doesn’t look like the menu advertised? Though sometimes, it’s matter of principle and most certainly money and greed.
Very true, I read this as a negative for the RV consumer not a positive. I have been there with Ford years ago and they would rather spend a million dollars defending their dealers and the company than admitting fault.
I agree Robert. They are defending early and practicing to defend against a possible domino effect in the event that a precedent does get set in the consumer’s favor. “Don’t let an adverse precedent be set”. New victories follow the first legal victory and new legal losses follow the first legal loss.
If they put the big bucks into the product, there might be less of a problem.
Agreed. This approach to the problem is telling in how the Industry sees themselves. In their eyes they aren’t producing crap. It’s better to defend their previous cost-cutting measures than earnestly try to improve the product.
Should they not be worried about lawsuits? Just let the lawsuits come and not be prepared? If you owned a business is this is what you would do?
No large company such as a manufacturer “worries” about lawsuits because they have entire departments dedicated to them. They’re just another cost of doing business and most often they have insurance to cover most or all of the costs from an adverse judgement.
Unlike individuals getting sued, when a company gets sued the employees are required to be defended by the company if they were working within the scope of their employment and not a rogue. Individual liability for an employee, from the CEO on down, almost never attaches.
Unfortunately, this is also the attitude of some major companies with regard to online breaches of customer data. It’s a “cost of doing business”, and they don’t want to invest the money and manpower to prevent the thefts, they’d rather let the insurance companies deal with it.
Fortunately, the insurance companies are starting to fight back and refusing to pay. Hopefully that will promote change.
Perhaps the same will happen with the RV industry.
Bottom line, who always wins? The lawyers.
Good to hear dissatisfied customers are fighting back.
“to teach RV dealers how to prevent lawsuits against their dealership by partnering with their manufacturers.”
I’m sure this has nothing to do with a more rigorous quality control effort at the manufacturer or better pre-sale inspections at the dealer. We can’t have that!
Sandy G: We did file a lemon lawsuit against Jayco. In our NEW 1922 Jayco Envision 30 ft. RV, we had 35 things on our list to be fixed after our first 4,000 mile trip. That did not include replacing the grill after we found out that during delivery a turkey hit the grill. The drive did not fill out the correct forms, the dealership did not know about the issue and did not make us aware of the situation. Jayco did not want to take the RV back. We did settle for a cash amount. Our attorney took half of what he said his fee was which added to our cash amount. We have since sold the RV. It was a piece of junk.
I agree Robert. They are defending early and practicing to defend against a possible domino effect in the event that a precedent does get set in the consumer’s favor. “Don’t let an adverse precedent be set”. New victories follow the first legal victory and new legal losses follow the first legal loss.
Don’t forget that the cost of litigation will be passed on to the consumer.
Just like when you buy a new toaster at Walmart, a portion of that price comes because some guy stuck a fork in there to dislodge his toast and got electrocuted!
Sad commentary on the state of the RV industry.
Only three things will change the current RV industry malaise.
1. Competition from European and/or Asian countries.
2. People stop buying new RVs due to reputation.
3. Government regulation and oversight of the industry.
Number one is likely to happen, as a result of number two. Nobody wants number three, so not likely to happen until lives are at proven risk.
It is a very sad state of the industry.
Wow! Amazing!