Julia Tomkins here! As many of you will know who watch our YouTube videos, I get involved in the making and producing of our videos, but leave all the social media side of things up to Glenn. On this occasion however I have been so angered and upset by some of the things that have been written – especially on the Entegra Facebook page – that I really feel the need to comment…..
To those people who pass him off as “Just a Brit and what does he know”, Glenn has had a passion for your American RV’s for years, long before we bought our first RV as a family around 2005. We do speak from experience. We also speak as previous owners of a 42ft Fleetwood Excursion, which we had from new for 7 years, and guess what – there was not a single thing wrong with that coach! So we do know it is possible to produce a trouble-free coach and we do appreciate it is possible that there are a few Entegra owners out there with perfect coaches.
To the person who referred to our coach as a ‘cheap apartment on wheels’ – How do you figure 330,000.00$ is cheap?? You must live in Manhattan or LA! And I also don’t agree with the rattling scenario because it is a ‘home on wheels’ – No, no not the Entegra RVs – have you seen the way they reinforce those Spartan chassis? Very few of our problems have been to do with vibration.
Anyone who has commented bitterly (some even maliciously) on our last YouTube video entitled “Entegra 2 year bumper to bumper warranty and the PDI” should really watch the video just prior to that one entitled ”Entegra PDI” which Glenn posted just after we left our coach at Entegra for our PDI. We could not have produced a more positive video about Entegra and our 2016 Anthem! Do you think anyone at Entegra thanked us for that video? NO! But a few days after we got home to France Joyce Skinner sent Glenn an email accusing him of bad-mouthing Entegra when he was in the customer lounge at Middlebury when we dropped off the coach, and said that his comments had been overheard by a group of people in the lounge waiting to do a factory tour. Glenn defended himself vehemently in his reply to Joyce, attaching the very positive video to his email and telling her that she couldn’t be further from the truth. It seems that whenever Entegra need a scapegoat they pick on Glenn. And who at Entegra had the brilliant idea of mixing up together in the customer lounge the potential coach owners doing a factory tour with the disgruntled coach owners having their PDI’s and repairs done – often with days’ of repairs running into weeks?? NOT good PR!!
It’s fair to say that we were at our happiest with our coach when we left it at Entegra for the PDI. Twenty months’ worth of disastrous and disappointing problems behind us…..or so we thought! We were so positive, and looking forward to a problem-free future and some trips when we didn’t have to make detours for repairs. ALL Entegra had to do was to fix the few teeny-weeny items remaining on our list and keep their most public, and now almost entirely satisfied, enthusiastic Entegra coach owner happy! But no, not a bloody chance of that happening.
It really is VERY unprofessional to broadcast details about private business meetings, but as the VP of Jayco has embarked down this road, there are other facts that really should be made public. Since making that very positive video (with over 9,500 views) about Entegra on our YouTube channel Glenn wrote to the new VP of Jayco requesting a meeting with him to discuss a possible way for Entegra to benefit from his massive YouTube following which of course has been born out of our buying a 2016 Anthem. Now it is true to say that Entegra is not big on social media – Their latest YouTube video has had 263 views and 1 comment, whereas our latest YouTube video has had 9,888 views and 303 comments. The Great Escape channel has 30,202 views per month and 5,500 subscribers. Let us get one fact absolutely clear, in no part of this business proposal did Glenn ask for a FREE coach. We bought our brand new 2016 Anthem with every penny of our hard-earned money, and not on finance (which makes a huge difference psychologically). So any deal even to be considered by Jayco/Entegra would have included that 330,000.00$ investment of ours. I guess the way in which Entegra does not recognise this when they bandy around the words ‘free coach’ compounds their lack of appreciation of how much money any of us Entegra owners have physically invested in their brand. Anyway, back to that meeting with the VP of Jayco. It was a very good and positive meeting, at the end which Mr VP told Glenn ‘Let me look at the figures and I’ll get back to you’. This meeting took place the day BEFORE Glenn collected our coach after the PDI, because the coach was at Spartan in Michigan (having yet more work done on the chassis) where Glenn collected it from…… after which the whole sorry tale of the dreadful PDI came to light. We were so angry by what the service department had and had not done to our coach, and especially since our 7 week holiday would now be disrupted by 2 further unsatisfactory visits back to Entegra at Middlebury, where we met so many Entegra owners SO dissatisfied with their service and PDI work, that we just felt enough is enough and we owed it to our followers to make the latest video complaining about our terrible service and PDI. Glenn’s integrity is proven in the way he reports when things are good AND when things are bad. He published the video before he had any answer from the VP of Jayco, so how on earth can anyone accuse him of blackmailing Entegra??
Some of you have called Glenn a moaning Brit. Believe me, you American Entegra owners moan A LOT to us about your coaches! Wherever we go, we meet other Entegra owners and we hear ALL about your problems. Many of you thank us for speaking up in our videos on behalf of Entegra owners. Thank you! You wouldn’t believe the hours Glenn spends making and editing his videos, and then how many hours he spends answering each and every comment that is posted? One point I am always asking but never get a reply to is: Why doesn’t the Entegra Coach Owners’ Association do something to help all the dissatisfied Entegra owners out there? Surely an Association where all voices are joined together would be more powerful. Perhaps Glenn should start an ‘alternative’ Entegra Coach Owners’ Association and actually get something done?!
Some people have commented that we had a cheek asking for our coach to be stored for free (outside in the yard, unplugged) for 5 months whilst we weren’t in America. What did this actually cost Entegra? Zero$. Just occasionally, and I make no apology for this, we ask Entegra for a favour. It is a fact that Glenn, through his YouTube channel featuring our Entegra 2016 Anthem, has directly helped to sell at least 10, maybe even 20 Entegra coaches over the past 2 years. Do you have any idea how many hours he spends talking to people on the telephone and answering emails from potential RV buyers – people who just want an honest opinion and appraisal of the Entegra brand. He doesn’t have to do this. As I said right at the very beginning, Glenn is passionate about American RVs, and believe it or not, most of the time we love our Entegra coach in spite of all the problems we’ve had. He receives no financial reward from Entegra whatsoever, and given the facts of the last video, as you can see – no special treatment AT ALL. The old Entegra ‘family’ (Pre Thor) valued Glenn and would personally thank us from time to time, but not this new ‘family’ – in fact, I think that Joyce Skinner, who I agree is a genuinely lovely person, is the only member left of that old family. Sadly one person doesn’t make a family.
