The Highs and Lows of RV Extended Warranty: An Insider's View

Pack your bags, folks! We're off on an expedition into the world of RV extended warranties with the owner and CEO of Wholesale Warranties. It's a critical pit stop for every RV owner, especially for those whose road-tripping companions are over 20 years old. We kick things off, revving up some fascinating insights into the average repair cost of a motor home, which can skyrocket between $1,400 to $30,000. We'll also be giving you a sneak peek into our RV Life Live Event – and trust us, you'd want to be part of this!

We then shift gears as I recount my own journey from a dock worker to an RV warranty salesperson. We'll cruise through the success stories of Wholesale Warranties and the real value of warranties from car dealerships. Get ready to hit the high road as we talk about brands like Integra and Winnebago, offered by National Indoor RV Centers, that can give your motor home ownership a real boost. Of course, we can't forget about the significant role of RV roof maintenance and roadside assistance – it's always good to have some extra tools under your belt!

As we near the end of our journey, we'll navigate the risky terrains of DIY repairs and how you can utilize a service contract to cover repairs. We've got your back with valuable resources like RVRepairDirect.com, which provides a list of repair facilities and their ratings. And finally, we'll weigh in on the benefits and drawbacks of getting an RV extended warranty and how it can safeguard your RV investment. It's a ride you wouldn't want to miss, so buckle up for this enriching conversation!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Do you need an extended warranty for your RV? This is the RV Life Podcast. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, patty Hunt, and we bring you the RV Life Podcast each and every Wednesday on your favorite podcast platform. Now, it has been said that every time you move your RV, it's like your RV goes through an earthquake. And if that's the case, how important is an extended warranty for your RV?

Speaker 2: 0:39

Now we've traveled across the country three times in two and a half years. That's a lot of earthquakes. Several times during that two and a half years we certainly could have used an extended warranty.

Speaker 1: 0:54

Yeah, we were overheating going over Mount Shasta and then later on out by Albuquerque, going over those big mountains out by Albuquerque, New Mexico. So we could have used that extended warranty not once, but maybe two or three times.

Speaker 2: 1:10

Yes, that's being generous, maybe more because we do have a 20-year-old RV. So obviously things go wrong. Now we are in Hershey, PA today and we are getting ready for the Hershey RV Show, which is in seven days from today. So, as you're listening, you have seven days to get to the Hershey RV Show and the RV Life Live event, which is on Thursday night, September 14th. We're really excited about that event.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Now Patty and I will be hosting that event. It features food and local wine and local beer. I think it's $15 per person. It is. Kids are free Twelve and under free.

Speaker 2: 2:00

That's right.

Speaker 1: 2:01

We're going to be giving away an electric bike. It is sitting right here in the living room of our RV. It is a white electric bike from Kraken Electric Bikes. This bike rocks. It's got the fat tires, it is ready to go. This bike will take you any, every and all wares wherever you are. All wares, All wares.

Speaker 2: 2:23

Yes, Okay, I hope there's no English teachers out there. And Kraken and Venture Bikes is not the only giveaway that we will have. We have so many giveaways $500 gas card, escapees is giving away a year membership and tickets to the escapees, and there is so much more. I just the show notes will have the link with all of the details of all of the giveaways, all of the food, what you can expect, and border hookups will be performing that night.

Speaker 1: 3:01

So I was really excited.

Speaker 1: 3:04

Last year at this event. I have to say that was my favorite night of the entire year, including Christmas and New Year's. Last year it was truly my favorite night. We had such a good time and last week's show we talked about building community and that was a place where I was able to walk around that room and talk to every single table in the room, had a great time, met a lot of incredible people, gave away so much stuff. One of my favorite things to do in the world is to give people things and make them smile, and we gave away a lot of stuff last year. We're going to be giving away a lot of stuff this year.

Speaker 2: 3:47

Yeah, so we are excited. These are the kinds of things we truly look forward to. As Dan said, you know, building community, just a fun, fun night.

Speaker 1: 3:59

Now that sound means it's time for today's fun fact. Our fun fact is brought to you by Open Road Resorts, with four great locations in Montana, utah and Texas.

Speaker 2: 4:12

We are so excited about Open Road Resorts. They just do it right. I think they just have it down the locations in Montana, utah is near Yellowstone National Park.

Speaker 2: 4:27

Now I'm thinking in the next couple of months those resorts will be closed right For the winter because it's just too cold, dan, and I have not gotten up to those areas yet, but you want to book for next year, so start thinking about next year summer plans. These resorts just sound amazing. Chase Becker was on the show and talked about just what the area has and I just I think I closed my eyes and was imagining being there, and they just sound incredible.

Speaker 1: 4:58

Now I will say this one thing as a two and a half year full-time RVer, as somebody who has owned RVs his entire life, one of the things that you definitely want to think about is getting an RV warranty before you head up to Montana and Utah, and especially Alaska. The road's going up to Alaska. They make my hair stand on end just thinking about those roads. Well, have to think about that, our guests about that today. That's a good question.

Speaker 2: 5:30

Again, I've never been up there so I don't know not in a car, not in a RV, never been there. Now we are going to hit the location in Texas which is called Dallas NE, just northeast of Texas, and that sounds amazing too. We can't wait to go there, and we're going to meet Chase when we get there. Yes, so we're going to meet Chase and we're going to visit all of our people over there.

Speaker 1: 5:56

We're going to be talking to NIRVC. We're going to go and see Brett and have a meeting with him. We're going to stop in the RV Life Podcast. The name of our offices RV Life. Yeah yeah, they're going to stick around for this.

Speaker 2: 6:11

So, Patty, tell me what is your fun fact for today.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Well, this fun fact again is an amazing thing. Tell me, what is your fun fact for today?

Speaker 2: 6:19

Well, this fun fact again is another one of those facts that aren't so fun, and Dan and I could certainly relate to the average repair costs of a motor home. And for an engine on a motor home you're looking at, anywhere from $1,400 to $30,000. The roof AC anywhere from $600 to $3,500. And I just picked a couple of repairs. As RVers, we all know that there are potentially a lot of things that could go wrong.

Speaker 1: 6:57

Now I do want to say here that cost for motor home repairs can be all over the place, because you can have anything from a Class B or a C to a diesel pusher, just like Explorer 1 is. It's a Class A diesel pusher, but unfortunately this baby is 20 years old and that is why we do not have a warranty for Explorer 1.

Speaker 2: 7:23

Right and we certainly, like I said, could have used one many times.

Speaker 1: 7:28

Yes, now, normally, patty and I feel very, very strongly about using the products of our advertisers, or the guest on the RV Life podcast or over on the YouTube side at exploring through our lens. This is just one case where our particular unit didn't qualify because wholesale warranties has a rule or a system set up that they don't take units that are over 20 years old.

Speaker 2: 8:02

Right, and so I do have to say that, while we don't use this service, we really all of our sponsors, all of our advertisers, whatever you want to call them they're real people and that's what you and I really connect with. Wholesale warranties is one of those companies not to be salesy here, but that they are real people and we've heard a lot of really good things about them.

Speaker 1: 8:30

Yes, now, our first advertiser today is somebody that we do use. As a matter of fact, we use them so much we named our podcast after them. This is a product that we're going to tell you about right now that we actually bought this product six months before we bought the RV, so we had our next six months planned out. So here we go with our first advertiser of the week.

Speaker 2: 8:59

When traveling in your RV. How do you navigate? Do you use a paper map, a GPS, or do you use Google Maps? Our sponsor, rv TripWizard, has the solution and it just works.

Speaker 1: 9:17

It just works and my goodness, it does just work. Now, patty and I have spent the last three days planning out our trip from Hershey to Albuquerque and then from Albuquerque back to Disney World, and I got to tell you it's 1,700 miles in the trip and we know exactly where we're going to be, how long we're going to be there and how much gas it's going to take for us to get there. So we really really use RV TripWizard. Now also at Hershey and Tampa, patty and I will be speaking about trip planning, rv trip planning and what you need to know to do RV trip planning properly. Now, there's several apps out there, but we strongly, strongly, strongly like the RV TripWizard plan.

Speaker 1: 10:19

This is the RV Live Podcast. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, patty Hunt, and we come to you each and every Wednesday on your favorite podcast platform. Our guest today is the owner and CEO of Wholesale Warranties, an industry leader providing RV extended warranties direct to the consumer. He's a former full-time RVer yes, that's right, he's one of us and he's a travel enthusiast who knows firsthand what it feels like to make the road your home. An outdoorsman, since he was just a little boy growing up in the family marina business in Minnesota, in Minnesota oh my goodness, it's cold up there. He is passionate about adventure, with a focus on education, customer support and reliable coverage. Wholesale Warranties is his passion and it's his way of helping others help, of helping others to protect their adventures out on the road.

Speaker 2: 11:26

Today's guest is Jeff Shelton and, as Dan said, owner and CEO of Wholesale Warranties. Welcome, jeff, to the RV Live Podcast.

Speaker 3: 11:36

Thank you so much for having me. This is fun, great listening to your episodes. I wanted to make a comment. One thing I find interesting about your podcast is we like the same products. I use the Trip Wizard all the time and we actually give that away for our new customers along with an escapees membership, which obviously you guys are members as well. So it's like I think we are part of the kind of the same ecosystem of products you recommend for you know just that are kind of no-brainers if you're an RVer, if you're an RVer yeah, it's very interesting about your podcast.

Speaker 1: 12:12

You know it is so important, too, to really get to know and understand the people that you're promoting, because this is our word. People come up to us and talk to us about this stuff, and if we don't really use it or really enjoy the people, then we don't really have a story to tell, as we're walking through every night on our nightly walks in whatever campground we happen to be in.

Speaker 2: 12:42

Yes, so I just want to jump in. First of all. We've got to talk about Minnesota, jeff, in the winter, isn't it really cold?

Speaker 3: 12:54

Yes, and for somebody that just by nature does not like the cold, I think moving out from Minnesota to San Diego was kind of a no-brainer. But I actually do. I really like Minnesota is one of my favorite places to be. I love all seasons except the winter. That's where it gets a little rough for me. I kind of actually took a page, I tried to take a page from a lot of my customers. The idea was to become a snowbird and spend the winters in San Diego and then go back to Minnesota during the summer. But then I fell in love with San Diego because the weather is just always great. So I was like well, maybe I'll visit Minnesota every now and again. Didn't actually get the drive to actually do the full snowbird thing, but that was the intention originally.

Speaker 1: 13:55

Well, I got to tell you, jeff, you must have gone to a better school than I did, because I grew up in Southern California, sherman Oaks, and then, as I got older, I moved to Pennsylvania. So I don't know what I was thinking of moving to Pennsylvania, but I moved to Pennsylvania and realized that snow is heavy.

Speaker 2: 14:14

I don't like the cold either, so we're all on the same page with that as well.

Speaker 4: 14:20

Okay, Jeff, I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit here.

Speaker 1: 14:23

I want you to close your eyes and I want you to think back to your high school prom. Think about that night, your high school prom. Okay, you had a great time. Now, what did you think you were going to be when you grow up? Wow, I will put money on the fact that it wasn't the CEO of an RV warranty company.

Speaker 3: 14:50

You know that was the joke I was about to make.

Speaker 3: 14:52

It's like I knew all along I was going to be an RV warranty sales you know, from the little boy, like some people were playing with fire trucks and police cars and I was playing with warranty contracts, because it's such an odd thing. Of course not, you know. I think back then I figured maybe I would own like some type of like a campground or maybe, you know, be in my family Marina business. I was a dock hand, you know, growing up, so I had those types of jobs where I thought maybe selling boats or something like that, yeah, something to do. I did have the understanding that I probably want to do something in the outdoors camping type of marine RV industry. But what to do like, especially in high school, like most people, not a clue where I'd end up, not a clue.

Speaker 1: 15:56

Yeah, I thought I was going to be a policeman in Los Angeles, but that didn't work out. So now let me ask you this question when you were a dock hand because that's something I actually did for a while as well Did you ever fall in Huh?

Speaker 3: 16:13

You know what? Yes, I don't know if I was actually working, but I did one of those things where you put one leg on the dock and one leg on the boat. And then you start standing and you start pushing it and splitting it in half. You know I'm great son of a yeah, I'm not from the New Orleans side. I've been split in half and I'm like, oh, and I couldn't make a decision which way to go. And then by the time it split me in half into the drink is where I went.

Speaker 2: 16:48

I wish I had that video.

Speaker 3: 16:50

Yes, and I did fall through the ice, once too Working on the docks Yeets. That's terrible. That wakes you up. Yes, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:59

That's my thing. I'm definitely a warm weather person. So how did you go from a dock hand to Marina, to RVing?

Speaker 3: 17:08

Well, you know, in college I was a finance major and so I got a business degree and I was like to think of, like business degrees Once you get a business degree and you graduate, you still don't know what you're going to do. You know it's pretty general, yep, but I got the opportunity to work for a company that set up warranty programs. They set up warranty programs direct to the dealerships, so I'd be able to set up the dealerships with their warranty programs, and it was one of those jobs where it's pretty low paying to begin with. But if you build enough relationships with enough dealerships, you get a small, small piece of everything that the dealership sells and you kind of do what I like to do, which is training and talking to people and just talking about the different features of this particular product. Get to check out all the new RVs, kind of be around campers, and I know a little bit about finance and how things got to learn on the back end and how things work, and I enjoyed it.

Speaker 3: 18:28

I enjoyed it, I struggled, though I struggled because sometimes one of the things that led to this business is, I think, a lot of times when you set up these dealerships, there's a lot of misinformation out there, to be honest with you, and you thought you trained them right. But then you get like sometimes I would have to do their customer service and they're like I thought I covered this, this and this and I'm like no, no, you say that he said it, like no, it doesn't. That's your regular insurance. Or you kind of see a need in the market and it's kind of one of those things where you read a lot of those books where failure eventually leads to success. I think that, although I don't think it was a failure failure, but of course I struggled with that but with that struggle of getting the dealerships to properly promote these products, it really presented me with that realization like there's got to be a better way, type of thing. So that's kind of how the seeds were planted for this business.

Speaker 1: 19:44

Well, that's incredible and a lot of people don't realize that warranties when you buy them from the dealership at the time of you buy the vehicle, you save a lot of money. Now, my family, I, grew up in the Ford dealership program, so my family owned Ford dealerships and I never got split between the dock and a boat, but there was a really big pothole between the Mustangs and the Teabirds and I got to tell you you walk through that wrong hole.

Speaker 1: 20:22

You might fall in for a week or so. But one of the things that at the dealership level the car dealership level the Warranty Profit Center was one of the best profit centers in the entire building and we were famous for really every single car the Warranty Profit Center we had 100% for several months in a row, 100% penetration on selling warranties to the car, because we made it our value and it became a core value in what our dealership was known for. So if you think that you're gonna buy a car, any car, and I don't care what it is, from a Volkswagen to a Jeep to a Tesla if you think you're gonna drive that car for five years and 25,000, 30,000 miles and not have any issues with it at all, then you are living in Fantasyland. Now we're going to Fantasyland, but we don't live there all the time, so okay. So here's a question that I love to ask CEOs.

Speaker 1: 21:38

You know, at some point you had an idea, you had a vision for this company and it came all to your head, this vision, and here we are 10 years later, or so Did it turn out the way that you thought it would? You know, I envisioned the RV Life podcast. I envisioned it. I knew exactly what I wanted it to be. I knew how I wanted it to sound. And here we are, six months later and it's exceeded all of my expectations. So tell me your company Wholesale Warranties when you had that idea of what you envisioned what it would be when you started? Is it what it is now?

Speaker 3: 22:24

I would say, when compared to the vision I had back then and what it is now, I would say no, not really. It's, probably it's because it's exceeded that vision. But the way that I like to kind of compare it to is I'm not a mountain climber or anything, but I remember one of this, like somebody who's scaled Mount Everest and kind of what their idea is is they, you know, like, when they're trying to accomplish this massive, massive goal, you know, like, what they do is they climb, they figure out their day first. They climb out the day and then they set up camp and then they figure out once they get the lay of the land, the weather, see how things are, and then they figure out the next day. The end goal is the top of the mountain, but if a storm hits, that's not gonna happen, you know. Or maybe to try back next year or whatever that is. And that's kind of how I see my business life, where I wanted to.

Speaker 3: 23:22

I think the end goal was to be able to make a decent living and travel around the country in my RV, and which I succeeded in, that. But at the same time, you know, I think the end goal, like, is just like, ah, that was fun for a little bit. But I kind of realized that I enjoy having a home base and maybe traveling every now and again, because that's, it's just nice to have a home base, it helps the business. I like to be around on a day-to-day basis and I didn't imagine having, you know, as many employees as I have to. So you know, that's like, you know, kind of they're comparing it to climbing that mountain is like.

Speaker 3: 24:07

Once I got to where I wanted to be, I kind of realized that the goal of traveling full-time wasn't the, wasn't, there was no longer the goal anymore. But it was nice to be able to possibly do that. But it kind of didn't fit my values as they changed, you know, throughout the years. So I don't know if I answered the question correctly, but it's like yes and no, because you know you just, you change as a human being over over so many years.

Speaker 2: 24:37

And I think that's a good lesson. I was a high school teacher for 20 years. I'm always looking for the lesson in things, the lesson in life. I think that's what it's about, as much as we envision. Like Dan said about the podcast, that's been like nine, 10 months. We're getting close to a year on it. You know we had certain thoughts and visions of what it would be like, but as we, like you say, started up the mountain. Certain things change, certain things are certainly better than we expected. So, yeah, I think that definitely answers it. I think that's just what business is about having the vision and then kind of segueing, you know, figuring it out as you go along, kind of thing. So, yes, definitely answered the question for me.

Speaker 2: 25:27

Now I wanna ask we've been talking about warranties. It's not something I'm as familiar with. I'm sure there are people out there that also. You know, what is it? What should I look for? So let's start with that. Let's talk about warranties and what people should look for. What's the important part of when we talk about an RV warranty?

Speaker 3: 25:52

Yeah, yeah. So one thing I was gonna mention, which is just a side little note, is so when we talk about warranties we always talk about, we always use the word warranty, because that's what everybody's familiar with. Technically speaking, we don't sell warranties, we sell service contracts. Believe it or not, a warranty the reason that the vernacular is a little bit different a warranty comes from the manufacturer and that's. Anything outside of that is a service contract. However, we have to like, but sometimes people who don't know what a service contract is everybody knows what a warranty is Okay. So some people like that are in the industry. They're like why are they calling it a warranty? They sometimes they'll ask on you, you know it's not really a warranty. I'm like, yeah, I know that's what everybody knows, that's what everybody knows it as.

Speaker 3: 26:44

But essentially, what a warranty does is there's obviously any regular collision insurance for things beyond your control, like accidents and liability that cover those major expenses. You actually need that type of insurance, otherwise it won't let you drive off the lot. That is a necessary part of RVing. However, the one thing that most people tend to overlook is there's the things that aren't covered under the insurance, like the mechanical breakdowns. That's, I think one of the most underthought about. I guess, like a lot of people forget how much it's gonna cost to keep the RV on the road and plan for mechanical failures as they own the RV, cause usually we'll have our travel budget and we'll figure out how much campgrounds are, gas mileage, we can calculate all that, but it's very, very it's impossible to calculate how much things are gonna cost when the RV breaks down.

Speaker 3: 27:59

And that's exactly what these extended warranties down is for these unplanned expenses which on an RV it's extremely expensive. And I love that you went over the range of how much things cost, because it's like that range is growing larger and larger. We've actually just recently had several. I had a $69,000 engine claim and two or three more engine claims in the $60,000 mark. I personally didn't know they got that expensive, but you know. So that range is gap. This is varying and obviously the big part of that is depends on the RV. So a lot of times what I always recommend to anybody whether or not you wanna risk it on your own or you wanna look into getting coverage is just getting an understanding of what the warranty companies think the cost of having that RV over a certain amount of years will cost you an RV repairs, and it could be higher, it could be lower, and just getting rid of that uncertainty is what we're here to do.

Speaker 1: 29:11

That is very, very well said. It is time for our certainty, which is that we have to take a break. And after the break, we're gonna ask the question who the heck is Kenny and Sean? And what is beyond the wheel? We're gonna talk about roadside assistance, we're gonna talk about how this program works and we're gonna get in a little bit deeper between a wholesale warranty and a service contract all that coming up right after this.

Speaker 5: 29:46

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Speaker 1: 30:16

National Indoor RV Centers. With over 1,000 motor homes available across multiple locations, national Indoor RV Centers continues to provide an outstanding, hassle-free motor home ownership experience. National Indoor is the number one New Mar dealer in the nation and also features brands like Integra, winnebago and much more. Visit NIRVCcom and become a part of the National Indoor RV Centers family. I will tell you that, of all the advertisers that we have all over the place and all of the things that we do, brett Davis and NIRVC that man is the most educated man in the RV industry that I have ever met anywhere and he just runs a really, really good dealership system.

Speaker 1: 31:14

Now, their concept. You know, it's kind of funny, jeff, that we're talking about this, because their concept is the Marina concept. So when you have a boat in a marina and you go out, you go back to the same marina and that's where you park your boat. Well, he took that to the RV level and said well, if you have an RV and you buy it from us and you take your RV out on the weekend, bring it back to us and then we'll fix it up, we'll wash it, we'll clean it, we'll make sure everything's okay and we'll get it all ready for you to go out on your next trip.

Speaker 2: 31:46

We wanted to continue with. You know we talked about warranty or, as you and Dan call it, service contracts. Warranty is more for people like me. That I understand, but you really explain the difference there or the difference in the wording. But you guys also do roadside assistance and wheel and tire protection, so can you talk a little bit about those services?

Speaker 3: 32:13

Yeah, yeah, and you know, in our opinion you gotta to me I feel that roads, making sure that you have some type of roadside assistance, is absolutely necessary, because I mean, I had roadside assistance and I definitely needed it. I used it and you know, even when you have I was kind of make this joke what you have roadside assistance, or if you have, you know, an extended warranty and you have a breakdown or you get stuck on the side of the road, it's still a nightmare, it's still very scary, but at least you're taking care of the financial aspect of it by having some type of roadside assistance. And also you know who to call, which is going to be I mean so, so critical. So you know we offer that program as well and I know that, like escapees has a great program, we're not overly biased. You can get a lot of. You know the feedback we get from our customers is sometimes hit and miss, because a lot of times, with roadside specific service in particular, your service really depends on who comes to pick you up.

Speaker 1: 33:26

If there's a complaint, it's usually who picked them up, not the roadside assistance program, but absolutely I have to say we have roadside assistance through our insurance and we also have it through escapees and you know when you say who comes and picks you up, I talk Travis in to being the guy. I have his number on my speed dial so if we break it down on the side of the road, the CEO or co CEO of escapees is coming to pick me up.

Speaker 2: 33:54

I think we have him recorded. I think we have him on record saying no, he will not be showing up. But I do have to say, when it comes to roadside service, we got stuck in the mud, literally got the RV stuck in the mud and Dan decided that he could get us out. So after two days of backbreaking, digging, all of this stuff, we finally decided to call our insurance company to find out that they will come out for free. Now you're right, roadside service depends on who they send, because we're a 40 foot class A and they sent some little rinky ding pickup truck to try and get us out. We have it on video as they smoke their tires. So then they had to send out the real truck. But you know, it is good to know what you have and what is covered, because we could have avoided a lot of backbreaking, digging and things like that. So that would have been nice to know. So everybody should know that.

Speaker 1: 34:56

And you know, a few months ago we had Jess Sather, who is the CEO of Cummings Freightliner, and you know you just said something that just made me want to tell this story, because knowing who to call is probably the biggest piece of the puzzle. You know, we were stuck in the mud and we were sunk down to our axles and could not move, couldn't get out to save our lives. And he's like your chassis manufacturer should have been your first call. We could have taken care of that for you if you were a Freightliner. Now we happen to not be a Freightliner, but if we were a Freightliner, Freightliner would be your first call because they would then call the extended warranty company or the manufacturer and they would manage the process of getting us out of this six foot hole. Yeah, so I thought that was very, very interesting and you know you brought it up just now. So I'm saying, knowing who to call if you have a problem or when you have a problem, that is probably one of the most important things to do.

Speaker 2: 36:15

Yeah, absolutely, and you can get. And when I had my breakdown.

Speaker 3: 36:20

It's like at the time I'm trying to tell, like in my head, I'm telling myself all right, you're going through what it actually goes through. You know, calm down, you're just going to learn from this experience. You got to be. You know, this is it's like you're going to learn from this experience and the reason I'm telling myself that is because I'm inside of the road and there's semis going right by you at 75 miles an hour. Just beesh, and you're like you're frantic.

Speaker 1: 36:48

If you're standing between your rigs and the road. If you're standing between your rig and the road in that exact situation, that semi coming by at 70 miles an hour, it almost sucks you into the rig. You want to jump out next to it. It's like no, okay, don't do that yeah.

Speaker 3: 37:08

Don't stand between your road, your rig and the oncoming traffic.

Speaker 2: 37:12

For anybody listening. Please do not do that, okay, and that's what roadside services are Kind of, while we, as RVers, like to fix stuff ourselves as much as possible. That's not a situation you want to put yourself in Again, especially in a 40 foot RV. But yes, please be careful. Call roadside assistance whatever roadside assistance you have check out what you have and make sure you have it. I think that's incredibly important.

Speaker 1: 37:44

Okay, okay, jeff, time for Dan to put you on the spot again, all right?

Speaker 1: 37:48

How does this program work? Okay, let's just say that I only had a 10 year old RV and I could buy this product, which I gladly would do if I had a 10 year old RV, so how does it work? So now I have this 10 year old Monaco and we are sitting in a campground in Pennsylvania, and before we went on the air, I told you that my generator is giving me an air code. So tell me what the process is for the consumer. How does it work?

Speaker 3: 38:20

All right, first step, just like anything. I'll kind of go over a few different scenarios. Like, for the most part it doesn't change too much for when you have a service contract or you don't have a service contract, so like, if you don't have one, you probably find a repair facility that can work on your unit. You bring it to the repair facility and then they'll diagnose it, see what's wrong with it, and then they'll come to you with how much it costs to know what the estimate would be. The only other step with the service contract is they'd also bring that to. They probably first bring that to the warranty company and say hey, this is what broke down this almost to your cost. And then they get prior authorization going. Okay, that sounds about right, we'll approve it. Here's the dollar amount that you get. By the way, we're not going to pay for your oil change because that's not under the policy. So this is for the generator. That's covered. Your oil change is not. And then the repair facility would go to the customer saying this is what we got covered on the warranty. You have to pay X amount for the oil change because that's a maintenance item, and here's what your total bill will be. And then they say, okay, you know what, fine, I'll do that. Or yes, fine, I'll do the warranty work, my oil change elsewhere, because I know I can do it myself, or it's cheap, or somewhere else, or whatever you decide to do. And then they make the repair facility will make the repairs, they will collect the payments, the majority of the payment, from the warranty company and then they'll go to the customer for either the deductible plus any, you know, maybe upgrades or the oil change, anything that wouldn't be covered under the warranty. So that's a little bit. Just that's typically what happens with most customers.

Speaker 3: 40:17

And the reason I say you know with most customers is because sometimes people want to know who use like who has used our program. With our program you need to take it to any repair facility in the United States of Canada. As long as they're in business to work on RVs meaning they have a tax ID number, they can use our programs. But some people like it to take the RV to somewhere that has taken our program before, just because typically they've used our program before, they know how it works. And we've created actually a website called RVRepairDirectcom where it has a list of all kinds of repair facilities across the country where you actually rate the service that you got. And then also you can see which repair facilities around you use our programs. And since we're the largest provider of this product to direct to consumer, we've got thousands of repair facilities across the countries that have used our program.

Speaker 3: 41:21

So we don't we try to stop it short of an endorsement, because we're just letting you know who used it and then the customers are giving their ratings on the different programs. But that's a tool that we allow people to use because sometimes it's not easy to find repair facilities across the country. So but yeah, that's the so long story short. The only step is is the warranty company will just call the administrator and get a pre-authorization before they begin repairs. And when people ask me about what are the gotchas, what are the things that they won't cover, typically when we deal with a lot of you know, the customer service calls is you want to make sure that that repair facility or that you let them know you have a warranty just before they begin work. Let them know you have a warranty and just make sure you just don't get something fixed and try to turn in the receipts afterwards. That's where you'll run into issues with these programs.

Speaker 1: 42:18

You know, doing things up front and telling people what's going on is always, always, always a good thing. And you know, when I was getting ready for this interview, patty showed me your website and there's a line in the website that I thought was so important and I grabbed the whole line. I want to read it right now. Our goal is to provide a dependable and cost effective service to all RVers. We seek to make RVing easier and more enjoyable for all travelers through peace of mind that RV extended warranties provide.

Speaker 1: 42:58

I just thought that line was really it says something about you, jeff.

Speaker 1: 43:02

It says something about what kind of company you are, because you know, I read that line off of your website and I looked at it and I'm like we've got to talk about that today because it's just so important to care about the customers.

Speaker 1: 43:20

We truly care about our listeners, so we don't bring products on that we don't believe in or things that you know they're just trying to get their name out there because we've got a good followership. I just think it's so important when you talk about dependable and cost effective service to all RVers, making RVing easier and more enjoyable the way that you wrote that just meant so much to me, a customer, I can't tell you. So thank you for putting together a company and then making sure your employees stay to your standards, and that's something that I think we're kind of missing in the US these days is those standards are just kind of falling down all over the place, and my dad used to call it you know, if they don't give you a ticket for J walking, the next thing you do you're going to be speeding 90 miles an hour down the road. It all starts with the little basic things, and I really believe that you have covered all of those basics.

Speaker 3: 44:26

Well, I really appreciate that. Yeah, you know, and I think that probably one of the goal of our company is it's transparency. You know, let's talk about what's. You know what is covered, what isn't covered.

Speaker 3: 44:40

Some of the issues that we run into we're not hide away from just like presents the product, like it is not any better, like not any better, not any worse, but make sure that people understand how to use it. Make it make sure that, like, if you get a warranty, something breaks, you have competence that you can get paid for. You know, but sometimes, if you don't know exactly what you got, there can be that little bit of anxiety of like all right, is this covered? You know you want to make sure that you know exactly what you're getting and you know get you the best price possible and make sure that you know you don't have to worry about those unnecessary costs Because you know the reason that I got into this business is I've been, I've been burned and I've been scarred with the boats that I've had, with the RVs that I've had, but too many breakdowns, and I always think that I'm like cursed and like this is the perfect business for me, because I think everything seems to break around me.

Speaker 1: 45:43

Well, like Patty says, we will never own a boat because they're a black hole for money. Even if you have a warranty. Jeff we have a segment that we call the question of the week and that's coming up right after the break. You want to stick around and help us answer this week's question of the week?

Speaker 3: 46:02

I would love to.

Speaker 1: 46:04

Okay, so we'll be back with the RV Life podcast right after this.

Speaker 2: 46:08

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Speaker 5: 46:54

Protecting your RV investment means being ready for anything, and extended RV warranty from wholesale warranties is the best way to make sure that if an RV failure happens, you can afford to get back to enjoying the RV life as soon as possible. Rv warranties are available for motor homes, fifth wheels and travel trailers, new and used, across the US. Visit wholesalewarrantiescom for a free personalized RV warranty quote today and hit the road with peace of mind tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 47:25

What she said yeah, okay, so that was a great commercial for a great company. Jeff, I am so proud to have you here on the RV Life Podcast. It really, really has been a great afternoon, but that sound means it's time for the RV Life Pro Tip of the Week with our friend Patrick Buchanan.

Speaker 4: 47:55

One of the handiest buttons on your RV Life TripWizard map is the show entire trip button. Rather than zooming in and out frequently, especially on a touch device like an iPad, you can quickly see your entire trip by pressing the show entire trip button. It seems obvious, but often, in haste or habit, we forget to use the simplest button on the screen. Use this simple and efficient tool to make your trip planning even better. For RV Life, I'm Pat Buchanan with your pro tip of the week.

Speaker 2: 48:25

Thank you, patrick Buchanan, and again, every week we have Patrick come on with a pro tip just to help you use TripWizard. There are a lot of features and a lot of things that make trip planning easier, so we really appreciate that being able to look at the whole trip. It just makes it easier when planning. Thank you, Sometimes, too.

Speaker 1: 48:56

he said that sometimes we overlook the simplest things. We're always looking for the big answer someplace, but sometimes it's just right in front of you. And speaking of that, my favorite thing on this entire RV and I hope it's covered by my service contract it's my air horn, and that horn now means it's time for today's question of the week. It comes to us this week from social media. That would be Facebook, the Instagram thing.

Speaker 2: 49:26

So social media you could reach out to us on RV Life podcast, instagram or Facebook. Please send us your questions privately or in the thread. We're looking for questions that we could either have an expert come on and answer or Dan and I could answer. But keep those questions coming. And this question is from Hishampi. He's a part timer from Alexandria, virginia, and he's asked and I see this a lot is the RV extended warranty worth it?

Speaker 4: 50:02

Well.

Speaker 2: 50:02

I have to tell you. I pull questions intentionally, depending on what we're talking about. And first of all, I'll say for us and I know, jeff, you of course have an opinion, but for us we've had engine issues that cost, I want to say, $5,000. That was a tough one. We've had generator issues, we had to replace our refrigerator, we had refrigerator issues, to name just a few of the things that a warranty would have helped us with. So I certainly think that it's worth it. But, jeff, what's your thoughts here?

Speaker 3: 50:44

It's a great question and I get asked that all the time, and especially from customers. Sometimes people are like hey, do you think it's worth it? And it's like. My answer is I was like if we knew for certain if it was worth it, this would be an easy decision, because you never know. You never know. But what it's really there to do is if we, if you're anything like me, the joke that I like to make because it's so true, it's not really even a joke. But if you're anything like me and you're considering a warranty, whether you buy the warranty or you don't buy the warranty, my personal opinion is like for me, I've always made the wrong choice Me, me. If I buy the warranty, nothing's gonna happen and I just wasted a bunch of money. If I don't buy the warranty, it's gonna break down a bunch of times and I'd really regret that Because it really is. It seems to be the case for most people. Yes, absolutely, and I love what you said about it providing that peace of mind.

Speaker 2: 51:50

I guess you know that's why we have car insurance and those kinds of things as well. You know, when you pull in, dan and I like he said we were having trouble going over the mountain and overheating and we get to the mechanic and it's a $5,000. And I don't think I'm exaggerating, right $5,000 fix. I literally started crying. Like you know, I wasn't prepared so to know that I could go into the mechanic and say, okay, I know there's something wrong, because we knew there was something wrong and know that for the most part it's going to be covered. Yes, we just need to get a newer RV so we can get coverage.

Speaker 1: 52:29

So Casey Tubman, I know you're out there listening. We're coming to see you soon.

Speaker 2: 52:35

He's the CEO president of New Mar.

Speaker 1: 52:37

New Mar. Yeah, those of you who don't know.

Speaker 2: 52:41

We'll see you next week at the Hershey.

Speaker 1: 52:43

RV show Go ahead.

Speaker 3: 52:46

Now one thing I will add to your said. One of the things that people also do like about having coverage. You know when it comes to like you know if it's worth it or not it's going to be. You know hit and miss depends on, obviously, from a purely financial standpoint, some people will make a lot of claim, a lot of breakdowns, some people won't. And the you know a few points is typically when you look at the pricing it's pretty close to how much it will. You know a cost over the next four years, how many years you get that warranty. It's pretty accurate in judging that. So some people if you think it's really cheap or if you think it's too expensive, it's still like you probably don't. You know it's just a good way to find out how much the warranty companies think it'll pay off over that many amount of years. So it might influence your decision on what RV to buy.

Speaker 3: 53:36

But the other thing that I like about it too, that I'm getting a lot of good feedback from, is we talk about like how it pays out. It's full retail parts and labor. You know they pay the market prices. But at the same time you know people say, well, if it's possible I could come out of pocket for paying more like having to pay more than what the warranty will cover and it is slightly possible. But the one thing that people really like is these warranty companies have spader books and they have national averages so they know exactly how long it should take to, you know, fix the slide out, to fix items. And you know I want to preface with most RV repair facilities are honest, do a good job and don't overcharge. But when you have a warranty, the chances of them trying to take advantage of the warranty company, if it happens, the warranty company will come to us and say, hey, this repair facility is trying to charge 25 hours for something that takes 10 hours. Do you want to work with them and see what's going on? We can say, well, look, we don't want to let that customer know that you're strictly overcharging. We always not, you know, like in almost every case are able to be that source to make sure that you're getting a fair price, because we are for retail parts and labor.

Speaker 3: 55:08

But at the same time, rvs are a lot more difficult to understand exactly how long it's supposed to take to fix a slide out and having done this all my life, I couldn't tell you. You know people say I'm going to slide out, fix and repair, and this is what happened. How long is it going to take? I'm like I just don't have access to those books. I have to go online and you know like it's such a very specific skill to be able to adjust those things. So that's a lot of the feedback, especially from those higher end RVs where only a few places you know can fix that and we need special expertise to do that. You know that's what people are really, really, really enjoying and gives them that piece of mind that not only are they going to get the repair bill covered but they're not going to be taking advantage of if they are out on the road and they're stuck at one repair facility.

Speaker 2: 56:02

Right, and that's good to have that information. Now, jeff, what is the website people could go to? I know they could go on and get a free quote. Sounds like that's a great place to at least start. You know the whole processes by getting that quote. So you know. You know what what it's going to cost. So what's a website that we could send our listeners to?

Speaker 3: 56:27

It would be hostailwarrantiescom.

Speaker 2: 56:30

Okay, nice and easy. I will put that in the show notes, as well as the RV repair directcom that you said that people can go to, so I'll have that all in the show notes for people. You know Jeff.

Speaker 1: 56:47

I spent a good portion of my life working in a Ford dealership and when people ask me this question is an extended warranty or a service contract really worth it? I tried to turn it back on them and you know, one of the reasons that Patty and I went RVing full time is to reduce stress in our life. And I I now, if I have a problem with my next door neighbor, I move, so I have no stress in my life. But I would ask them the question I said do you have health insurance for you? How would you feel if you didn't have health insurance for you? Is it worth it? Well, it's the same kind of question, you know. If you have it for you, why wouldn't you have it for your home? In our case, this is our home. So sometimes if you turn those questions back on the people that ask them, you get an answer that's, they almost retract the question and change it around to make it a more favorable question.

Speaker 3: 57:55

Yeah, I mean, you know it's a. It's something that I just thought about. Over this weekend I traveled quite a bit and I've I've got a Jeep that I really, really love and I got a warranty on it, you know cause we actually do auto warranties as well, so I got an auto warranty. But I, you know, like I'm a Jeep, I noticed like it's starting to get a little tick in that engine and you Google search with that name and just like you're going to get a good tick, it's like just kind of like you're like symptoms of public cancer, you know, like I don't know what it is, but like the warranties actually kind of worth it because that tick, whatever it is, it's not going to cost me a lot of money. You know what I mean. Like, if it's the worst case scenario, like I find value in that. Maybe it's just a spark plug, maybe it's a cracked, you know, gasket.

Speaker 1: 58:47

I don't, I don't know Cracked gasket and you have radiator fluid getting into your oil causing the tick. Wow, and you need a new engine. You need a new engine. I read that post. I write that post.

Speaker 3: 59:02

I hope it's not that, but if it is, at least I don't like you know, at least I don't have to come up with that anxiety of thinking the worst right now. You know, and I think you know, that's what it does for me. It's like I was just kind of thinking that, like you know, as a you know why I like this product? Because of that reason exactly. And I also got a joke that I'm like I'm not a warranty guy really when it comes to most things. If my TD breaks, I spent $400 on it.

Speaker 1: 59:39

Costco, Costco, go get a new one.

Speaker 3: 59:43

I'll get a new one. It's probably got the smart team. He's got probably a few other things and gadgets and stuff like that. $400 does not make me cry when we're talking about many items that are thousands of dollars and then we're talking about a hundred and $180 in labor. You know, for people that haven't had RV repairs, they're very shocked to how quickly something seemingly inexpensive actually really costs. So I think you know, for the people that are seizing RVers, they're like oh yeah, I did it, but some of the newer RVers out there, it's definitely. You know it's. It's. It's just so many items to cover and we can do it so much more efficiently than you can on. You know, something that's $400. And I wouldn't even know. I just just want to get a new one, order it online. So the old one. But RVs are a little bit different.

Speaker 1: 1:00:46

Yeah, yeah, especially when when you're full time, I mean it's your home, oh yes.

Speaker 3: 1:00:52

Yeah, you don't want to exactly hang out in your RV in the middle of Arizona without air conditioning.

Speaker 1: 1:00:59

No, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:01:00

Not a good idea.

Speaker 2: 1:01:02

You've been listening to the.

Speaker 1: 1:01:04

RV life podcast. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, Patty Hunt. We've been talking to owner, CEO and originator Jeff Shelton from the RV warranty company and a wholesale warranty company should be on the whole sale warranties, so Jeff thank you, let's get this right wholesale warranties.

Speaker 3: 1:01:29

Sorry, not to plug my company, but wholesale warrantiescom. Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1: 1:01:35

We need a little music for that. Wholesale warrantiescom.

Speaker 2: 1:01:38

Thank you very much for taking time and being on the show with us.

Speaker 1: 1:01:43

We truly truly appreciate it.

Speaker 3: 1:01:44

This is great. I really appreciate you guys having me Well.

Speaker 1: 1:01:50

thank you for being with us. I'm Dan Hunt, with my incredible wife, patty Hunt, saying have a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.