On our first go-round with Camping World, the issue was climate control -- our 1989 Excella came with a ceiling vent, but Matt and I wanted something that would actually move the air around. So looked at the different brands, and (newbies that we were) allowed the salesman to talk us into a fan with a remote control on it. The service department installed it within about an hour, everything seemed fine, and we were pleased with our purchase. We got home, and exactly 2 days later, the thing completely quit working on us. Matt tried resetting the remote, replacing the batteries, fiddling with the fan itself -- nothing helped. We called the shop and were told that it was probably a faulty remote. They mailed out a replacement to us, it arrived, worked fine for 2 days, then quit.

So this time when we called, the repair manager told us to bring our <a href="amzn.to/9tHTzz">Airstream</a> in and they would replace the actual fan. We lived in Maryland at the time, and Camping World was all the way on the other side of D.C. from us -- a 45-minute drive away in Manassas, Virginia. But, Matt and I assumed that this would solve the problem once and for all, so we diligently did as we were told. The fan was replaced, the shop guy went out of his way to demonstrate how well it worked, and we headed back home again. Exactly 48 hours after parking in our driveway, the damned thing fritzed out again. I was livid! I called Camping World and told them that we'd had enough -- that we were not happy with this fan, we wanted a different model without a remote, and we didn't have time to drive all the way back out there again because we were leaving the next week to go south for a month. After a half-hour of wrangling and being transferred back and forth between departments, I finally got customer service to agree to mail us the new fan (at no extra charge) so we could have it installed at the Camping World in Ft. Myers (at no extra charge.) I don't know if it was the fan or the installation crew or "third time's a charm," but we've never had another problem with it. However, it took us numerous hours and I don't know how many gallons of gas to get it right -- seems that a ceiling fan shouldn't be so damned difficult!

The next time we needed Camping World's help was at the start of our first cross-country trek. When Matt and I pulled into the RV park that first night and went into our trailer to set up, we heard a strange popping noise coming from the 12-volt fuse panel. Even more disturbing was the fact that the cover to the panel was warm to the touch -- we immediately turned off the breaker switch and called our roadside service club for help. These folks maintain a staff of fantastically talented mechanics who seem to know our RV from stem to stern (without ever having seen it) -- they can pinpoint just about any problem over the phone, and arrange for us to have it corrected at a nearby service center. The gentleman I spoke to diagnosed a relay problem -- something was shorting the fuse out and it kept trying to "reset" itself. He scheduled an appointment for us at the nearest Camping World that very next day, assuring me that it should be a quick fix.

Matt and I sat in that hot, dingy service garage for at least 4 hours, while Camping World's maintenance staff tried to figure out what was causing the short. Finally, they said that it must be a hidden wire that was touching the actual metal frame of the Airstream. They told us that hunting the offender down would require ripping out the walls from one end of  our home to the other, until they located the problem. My response was, "You must be joking!" There's no way I was willing to undergo such an extensive, expensive, and destructive procedure -- especially when there was no guarantee they would even find the short! Matt and I chose to simply turn that one malfunctioning fuse off for the time being. We left Camping World no better off than before (but at least I got no arguments when I refused to pay for time spent accomplishing nothing!)

A few months later, we passed through Ohio and made a maintenance stop at the Airstream factory in Jackson Center to have a few things done. While there, I mentioned our problem with the fuse, and the guy at the workshop offered to look at it. After 5 minutes, he came back out and said, "You replaced your LP gas monitor recently, didn't you?" I said, "Why yes." He replied, "The grounding wire had come loose. I've re-grounded it and the fuse is fine." It cost me exactly $1.50 of the man's time. So don't believe Camping World if they tell you that they have to tear your rig apart to solve a problem -- get a second opinion before you allow them to operate!

The final straw came just recently, and it has convinced me to never take my rig to Camping World for service ever again. Since day-one, our water tank monitor has never worked properly -- the thing is run by an old transistor-style piece of machinery from 1989, and not even Airstream has the right parts to fix it anymore. We didn't have time to deal with that problem while we were at the factory, so the shop guys suggested that I buy a third-party water tank monitor and have it installed along our route, when it was convenient -- that any RV repair center should be able to do the work. Dandy! I ordered a monitor from the company they suggested and planned to have it installed at Camping World, while we were down in Naples for 6 weeks during the holidays.

Rather than call Camping World and have them misunderstand my request, I made a trip to the shop and showed the water tank monitor to the maintenance manager. I explained that we had a 1989 Airstream, and I just wanted to be sure that he could do the work. He said, "No problem. Take me 3 hours." I said, "Are you sure? You'll need to put the thing on the lift, take off the bottom panel, attach each of these sensors to the tanks, and mount the monitor -- you can do that in 3 hours?" He said, "We do it all the time." And when Matt and I brought our trailer to the shop on our appointed day, checked in at the front desk, and even took the guy out to see our trailer before we dropped it off, no one said "boo" about our having an Airstream. However, 2 hours later, we got a call from Camping World telling us they couldn't do the work they quoted. "Why not?" I asked. "Because you have an Airstream," the mechanic on the phone replied. "What difference does that make?" I asked. "Because the bottom panel is held on with rivets. We would have to cut through all the rivets and then weld them back, and that's body work -- we don't do body work here. We could send it over to the shop across the road for the body work, but it will cost extra, probably 7 or 8 hours."

I won't even go into the conniption fit I threw over the phone. But suffice to say that I never got a satisfactory explanation as to why I wasn't told this before making the appointment. Matt and I drove back up to Camping World, picked up our trailer without having the work completed AGAIN, and vowed to stop playing this game. Perhaps if you own a fifth-wheel or motorhome, Camping World can be counted on to do the work and do it right (although I've heard plenty of complaints from other non-Airstream RV owners, as well.) I personally think you're much better off going to a small, local, independent shop that specializes in your type of rig.