New Reflection 323 BHS owners in Tampa, FL

[jwilliford]

Just bought our first RV today. We take delivery this Friday Feb 21 and are so excited. Up until this past weekend we were sold on the Open Range Mesa Ridge 367 BHS. By all accounts we still like the Mesa Ridge floor plan. Had we not been introduced to the Grand Design Reflection 323 BHS, I am quite certain we would have bought the 367 BHS. We are so glad that our eyes were opened to Grand Design. There was no other BHS floor plan out there that we saw like the 323 BHS. The fit and finish and quality of construction was visibly better than all others we viewed. The icing on the cake was to see the Grand Design Company owners involvement on this forum, existing owners on this forum, and also to read about all of the positive customer service experiences.

As stated above, we are rookies. We are moving from boating life to RV life and are so excited about the family memories that we hope to build with our children who are 3 and 6 years old. We will post more as our new adventure unfolds.

Eagerly awaiting Friday and meeting other Grand Design Owners,
Jamey and Becca

 

[TucsonJim]

Welcome! We're waiting on our 337 to be finished and delivered from the factory. We're excitedly waiting. We bought our based on a lot of the same reasons you list.

 

[Dave and Monica]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new Reflection...I'm sure you'll be very happy with it!

Dave

 

[Bill Fenech]

Hi Jamey and Becca

Thank you very much for choosing the Reflection fifth wheel by Grand Design RV. We really appreciate your decision and rest assured, we will take great care of you. You may be interested in knowing that Micah Staley, our Reflection General Manager, is a former employee of Open Range. The Reflection is his baby and he is meticulous and incredibly detail oriented in his product designs.

Happy travels,

Bill Fenech

 

[TucsonJim]

Bill - I couldn't help but notice that you're a "junior member" on this forum

 

[Steve and Cill]

Welcome to the forum Jamey and Becca, and congratulations on your new Reflection!

 

[Long Island Happy Camper]

Congratulations Jamey and Becca. I have been RVing for 15 years and this is my 5th different RV. I have not seen a RV company or any large company more responsive to their customers than Grand Design. I have spoken directly to Bill Fenech, Don Clark and Marc Houser via phone and email on numerous occasions. They are always able to respond to any questions I have in a timely and concise manner. You can't say the same for many other companies. You will be very pleased with the decision you made. Happy Camping!!!!!!

 

[Gsport]

Welcome Jamey and Becca.. Where are you located? Oops, just saw where you're located

 

[Bill Fenech]

TucsonJim

Good catch. I didn't notice that. I'm new at this Forum stuff. How do I change? I will contact Chris.

Thanks for the heads up!

Bill

 

[IA-TXFarmboy]

Hi Jamey and Becca,

Welcome! My wife (Patti) and I are new to this forum and new owners of a Reflection 303 (in the next few weeks anyway when it gets delivered). We were in a similar decision as we liked Open Range as well. We kept going back to it as there is a local dealer that carries them. Even at the Houston RV show, we went back and forth between the Reflection and Open Range. In the end, I believed the Reflection was a better quality and we really liked the overall appearance. Of course, having Bill Fenech buy us a beer helped make our decision . Actually, that was after we made up our minds

I tend to take good care of "my things" and keep them a very long time (current truck is 12 years old and camper 10 years...) and I am optimistic that the Reflection was the choice to get me 10+years.


I am sure we will both spend some great time with our families in our new Reflections!

John and Patti Gillman

 

[Dave and Monica]

IA-TXFarmboy (John and Patti)...congrats on the new Reflection. I'm sure you'll enjoy it for years to come!

Dave

 

[jwilliford]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. Sorry for the delay in my reply. We went to the dealership (Lazy Days Tampa) on Friday night to stay the night in their campground and perform our PDI. I must share our adventure as I am sure those of you who have or have had young ones will get a laugh out of it. As stated in post earlier, I have a 3 year old daughter and 6 year old son. My wife, kids and I settled in to watch the jungle book and after it was over we put the kids to sleep in their sleeping bags in the bunk house. I decided to leave the plastic wrapping around the mattresses until we could purchase waterproof mattress covers. Thank god I did. More on that in a moment. While everyone else was off to sleep (my wife included) I stayed up and began doing interior inspections testing everything inside. I stayed up until about 2 AM. I laid down to go to sleep and all of a sudden I heard my daughter coughing in a way that was not normal. She did this 3 times. I went back and she had gotten sick to her stomach. It was all over her, her sleeping bag, and impressively enough even on the bottom wood of the bunk above her. I called for backup from my wife. My wife took her into the shower to clean her up while I took to cleaning up the back bunk area where she was. One positive thing is that the shower was now getting tested out. Thankfully, everything cleaned up in the back bunk area without any stains etc. No sooner than we got my daughter cleaned up and out of the shower, she got sick again. So, at this point my wife decides she had better head home with our poor sick daughter. So, in the end my son and I finished out the first night of camping in our new Reflection. Adventures like this seem to follow me in life so I have just learned to laugh it off. My daughter is still sick but is on the upswing.

We did not get to bring the RV home yet. The dealer is fixing 9 items that I had on my punch list for broken/sub par installation items that I found with my PDI. The dealer has been excellent in working with us and I have no complaints whatsoever. I anticipate being able to bring the RV home tomorrow evening (02/25). I am a very meticulous/mechanically inclined guy so I don't feel that 9 items to be fixed is a bad thing. I look at this like closing on a house and I knew that I was going to find some faults in the new unit. I'm just happy that the dealership is making it right and I know that Grand Design would step in if it was necessary. Note to Grand Design: If you would like my punch list and pictures so you can use it to evaluate your different assembly areas and final QA testing I would be more than happy to share it with you or on this forum. I withheld from posting it on this thread initially because I did not want to come off like I was trying to bash Grand Design as that is not my intention.

 

[Bill Fenech]

Hi Jamey

What an adventure! Probably not the adventure you anticipated, but I'm sure these are memories that will last a lifetime

I would love to see your punch list. You can post it or send me a message. Whatever you prefer.

Thank you very much for you Reflection purchase. We appreciate your business and welcome to the Grand Design family!

Happy travels,

Bill Fenech

 

[jwilliford]

Bill,
Sorry for the delay in my response. We got to bring our reflection 323 BHS home on Tuesday Feb 25, 2014. All but 2 of the items on our punch list have been taken care of. The 2 outstanding items are as follows. 1) Propane line for outdoor kitchen stove 2) Remote control for fireplace. Lazy days said it would take between 4-6 weeks because they were ordering the parts from Grand Design. Since we are going camping for the first time this weekend, I went ahead and ordered my propane line from Amazon. Below is the punch list that I had from my PDI. I have included pictures for clarity where possible. Since only 4 pictures are allowed per post, I had to post pics in 2 separate posts. Note I had to scroll the pictures left/right to see entire picture on this post. Especially true on the caulk photos.

On a side note, if I would have had a choice, I would have had the Furrion FUR-DV1200 stereo installed instead of the FUR-DV1000 that came with my RV. I would have selected this because it has bluetooth capability and HDMI all for only $50 more through furrion.com. I am curious if there might be a way that I could trade the FUR-DV1000 unit I have in plus the $50 extra and get the FUR-DV1200? This will give me the ability to stream audio from my iphone wirelessly and Give me up to 1080p DVD playback through my Furrion TV set instead of the 480i that I am getting with the FUR-DV1000.

Will post stories and pics from our first camping trip this weekend. We absolutely love the 323BHS so far and are proud to be a part of the Grand Design family.

1) Fill 2 caulk bead crevices between rear roof and edge flashing where self level did not cover all the way. Location is rear roof of rv from center line over towards ladder. See pics caulk_bead_1 & caulk_bead_2


2) buff out black streaks on all slider front and rear walls (slides need to be extended to see these). See pic slider_black_streaks_1

3) grey water 2 (gry 2) says full when it is empty. See pic grey_water_tank2

4) missing remote for Furrion TV set.

5) missing remote for Greystone fireplace.

6) outside kitchen quick connect propane line under 2 burner propane stove that has hole in it from brad nail. See picture od_kitch_propane_1 and od_kitch_prop_1

7) upholstery top panel loose/stripped out at dinette. Location is top closest to door on outside edge. See picture dinette_upholst_1

8) hinges on lids below dinette seat cushions do not allow lids to open fully. This is because hinge pins were placed on inside of compartment instead of outside.

 

[jwilliford]

Here are the other pics mentioned in punch list.

 

[cuttinchief]

GD has a great product. I believe it is due to a great QA department. Quality Assurance actually saves the corporation thousands of dollars up front. Problems caught before a product leaves a factory saves everyone and GD gets that. There will be failures after but they will be few and far between. You know the saying man hours up front save the added man hours later.

 

[jwilliford]

Cuttinchief,
I agree with you 100% on GD building a great product. As stated in previous post, I am not trying to bad mouth GD in any way shape or form. Absolutely thrilled and proud to say I am a GD owner. Having said that I wanted to provide the flaws that I found to Bill (at his request) to help the company product be even better than it already is. If I came off in text with a negative tone it was not intended. I just realize the we the customer are Grand Designs QA and eyes/ears once the product leaves the plant and wanted to point out what I had found to them.

 

[Bill Fenech]

Hi Jamey:

Sorry for the delay in responding. I was in Portland and Phoenix attending an RV Show and a dealer Open House. I always enjoy getting out and speaking with current and prospective Grand Design RV owners.

Thanks for sending your punch list. I will share it with the appropriate people. I sincerely hope and assume that you have had these items repaired to your satisfaction (other than the remote which is on order).

Please feel free to send me a message with your phone number to discuss your TV question. I will have someone follow up with you promptly.

Take care and happy travels,

Bill

 

[jwilliford]

Bill,
Thanks for the reply. You are correct, all items except the remote (which is on order) have been addressed. I called and spoke with customer service today. What a great experience it was talking with them. I can't say enough how pleased we are with our Reflection and with the top notch communications that we have had on this forum and now with customer service directly. You guys have a great thing going with Grand Design quality and with the ownership experience you deliver. This will keep existing customers coming back because they know that you stand behind your product should there ever be a problem. Any customers who are on the fence between purchasing a Grand Design and another Manufacturers RV reading this should know that Grand Design provides exceptional customer service. If there is a tie for some reason between a Grand Design model and another manufacturers model, let this customer service testament be the trump card to lead you to purchase a Grand Design.

 

[Bill Fenech]

Good Morning Jamey:

Thank you for the kind post. We truly are trying hard to create Customers and friends for LIFE! I will be calling you today as per your request.

Happy Travels,

Bill