Tiffin Updates Regarding COVID-19

UPDATE as of January 5, 2021 —On March 17, 2020, Tiffin Motorhomes made the difficult decision to adjust some of our procedures regarding visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we progressed through the year, Tiffin Motorhomes was happy to make the announcement that beginning May 4^th, 2020, we would be able to offer two appointments per day for retail customers to inspect their personal units.

While that process has gone reasonably smoothly in the past, we are beginning to run into some issues. Absences due to positive COVID cases have compromised our scheduling in some cases. But even more challenging than absences are supply chain issues. Shortages in various appliances or raw materials have caused our scheduling to be thrown off significantly forcing completion dates to be delayed by weeks. While rearranging our schedule to keep the line running, some units are completed early. Because of this, many times we no longer have a good idea when these units will be available for inspection.

When the opportunity presents itself to ship a retail sold order, dealers expect us to ship that order as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we cannot park completed retail sold units to wait for our customers to make plans and appointments for inspections. Currently, we are booked up through January on appointments, and after this time, we must pause on-site inspections. We will honor any other commitments that have been previously made with our staff here at Tiffin Motorhomes.

Hopefully, when our COVID cases dwindle and we can get our supply chain issues resolved, we can resume inspection appointments. Until then, know that we appreciate your patience. Feel free to contact us with any concerns you may have.

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UPDATE as of May 11, 2020 — Campground Store Re-opening:

The campground store will reopen on May 12, 2020, with one provision. Because we want to guard against overcrowding in the small, confined space of the Tiffin Campground Store, we will only allow two shoppers in the store at a time in addition to our staff. We ask that you be considerate of other customers who may wish to shop by limiting your time in the store. Your cooperation is appreciated.

Service Bays:

Tiffin Motorhomes continues to bring technicians back to the service plant. We hope to have a near-full staff by May 18^th. Because of new guidelines, there may be only one technician per bay at this time. We will continue to keep our processes in order that were set up on 4/13/2020. Listed below are those processes:

• Upon arriving at the office campground, we ask that you stop to check in as usual. Instead of walking into the campground office, someone will meet you outside. If no one comes to meet you outside, we ask that you ring the doorbell, and someone will meet you to assist you.
• The campground office representative meeting you will take the temperatures of each individual in your motorhome with an infrared thermometer before giving you the paperwork for service. If any of the individuals in your party have a fever, the representative will refer you to the Red Bay Hospital. If no individuals have a fever, you will be issued a campground site.
• When it is your turn to be admitted into service, your temperature will be checked again at the guard station. All personnel working will have their temperatures checked here as well.
• In order to observe the CDC recommended 6’ individual space perimeter, we ask that coach owners wait in our onsite lounge or at a temporary lounge area at the former Mason Jar restaurant on 102 4th Ave SE street, Red Bay (depending on occupancy restrictions). For further information, please contact our service department at (256)356-0261.
• Although the parts store will be open (see above), if you should need parts, you can make a request for those parts when checking in with the service center techs and a representative will gather those parts for you and will add them to your bill.

We hope that you will understand and comply with these policies. They have been instituted for the safety of you, our customers, and for the safety of our employees. Thank you for your patience.

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UPDATE as of April 29, 2020 — This update pertains to both our Class A and Class C motorhomes.

To our current Tiffin Motorhome coach owners:

We have received inquiries from owners of Tiffin Motorhomes that are either near the expiration of the original one-year basic warranty or have had their one-year basic warranty expire since March 1, 2020. To reduce the concern of the immediate need to get your coach to a warranty center, any Tiffin Motorhome New Vehicle Limited One Year Warranty that is scheduled to expire between March 1 and May 31, 2020, shall not expire until August 15, 2020.

For new Tiffin Motorhome coach owners:

Any customer who takes retail delivery of a new Tiffin Motorhomes, Inc. product between March 1 and July 31, 2020, shall be entitled to receive warranty repairs at any authorized Tiffin Motorhomes, Inc. repair facility for an additional 6 months beyond the normal 12 month Tiffin Warranty Period, notwithstanding the terms set forth in the Tiffin Motorhomes New Vehicle Limited One Year Warranty booklet limiting warranty coverage for one year from the date of delivery.

Thank you for your understanding.

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UPDATE as of April 27, 2020 — We are excited to announce that as of May 4, 2020, Tiffin Motorhomes Red Bay will resume the process of allowing families to review their new coach at our facilities prior to shipping. With the advent of the COVID-19 virus, we will have new guidelines in place to help make this event safe for both our visitors and our employees. The new guidelines follow below:

• Verify that your new coach will be ready for your review. Please either ask your dealer to contact us, or call here at Red Bay, 256-356-8661. When the attendant answers, press 2316 for Wayne Williams. Have your sales order number and windshield number ready so that your motorhome’s status can be verified. At this time, you will learn when your coach can be viewed.
• There will be four available inspection time slots each weekday – two time slots from 7:00 am until 10:30 am and two time slots from 11:00 am until 2:30 pm, all Central Standard Time.
• We are happy to invite two family members to come and look at their new coach while it is in the final inspection area. Independent contractors or inspectors will not be allowed.
• When you arrive at Red Bay, proceed to the main guard building, which is located just across the railroad tracks on Second Street NW. The parking lot will be on the left. A member of our security team will greet you at that time.
• We will ask you to share your name, address, phone number, sales order number, and email. At this time, we will also scan your temperature* and ask that you wash your hands. We will provide a mask for each of you along with a note pad, pens, and a roll of no-residue tape. After distributing these items, security will take you to your coach.
• While you are at your coach, please write anything of concern with a description on the supplied notepad. Also, the no-residue tape is for you to mark any paint, cabinet, tile, countertop, etc. defects that you would like to point out for resolution. Please stay with your new motorhome during this review.
• When you have completed your list, please call the number on the business card provided by security and security will come pick you up. Leave your list in the motorhome when you are finished.
• When our final repair team is finished, they will email your list back to you with basic notes for your review.

*If your temperature is over 99 degrees, you will be escorted to our first aid station for temperature verification.

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UPDATE as of April 13, 2020 — Parts & Service Policy Changes (effective 4/13/2020)

As we continue to adapt our policies here at Tiffin Motorhomes in regards to dealing with the COVID-19 virus, management has decided to make a few temporary modifications to the normal service process.

(1) Upon arriving at the office campground, we ask that you stop to check in as usual. Instead of walking into the campground office, someone will meet you outside. If no one comes to meet you outside, we ask that you ring the doorbell, and someone will meet you to assist you.

(2) The campground office representative meeting you will take the temperatures of each individual in your motorhome with an infrared thermometer before giving you the paperwork for service. If any of the individuals in your party have a fever, the representative will refer you to the Red Bay Hospital. If no individuals have a fever, you will be issued a campground site.

(3) When it is your turn to be admitted into service, your temperature will be checked again at the guard station. All personnel working will have their temperatures checked here as well.

The campground parts store will be closed to the campground public until further notice. If you should need parts, you can make a request for those parts when checking in with the service center techs and a representative will gather those parts for you and will add them to your bill.

We want to ensure that local repair facilities have no difficulty in procuring the parts to repair our customer’s motorhomes. Because of this, we will allow these local technicians to have access to our parts store on a limited basis.

We hope that you will understand and comply with these policies. They have been instituted for the safety of you, our customers, and for the safety of our employees. Thank you for your patience.

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UPDATE as of April 9, 2020 — We have decided to reopen our assembly line and manufacturing plants on April 14th. Our Belmont plant will reopen on April 13th. Many factors were considered in making the decision, the most important of which is the safety of our employees, our customers, and our vendors. The decisions required consideration of the facts, compromise, and compassion.

We are very fortunate to have an extensive backlog of “sold” orders from prospective owners. We do not take lightly the trust demonstrated by our RV owners. “Our goal is to keep all of us safe here in Red Bay, Belmont, and Winfield, while doing our very best to build the dream motorhomes our new owners have ordered,” Bob Tiffin said.

As our employees return to work on the 13th, we will have in place an extensive array of processes following CDC guidelines. The efforts will exceed the guidelines whenever possible. These efforts include:

Supplying each employee and visitor a mask as they enter our facilities.

Hand sanitizing stations will be strategically placed in all of our facilities.

Testing protocols are in place for any employee who presents symptoms in line with CDC guidelines.

Along with testing, we will have a protocol in place for anyone who tests positive or is waiting for results of a test.

We will acknowledge that our production facility depends on the craftsmanship and interaction of our technicians and artisans in all of our production facilities. We are committed to following CDC guidelines as they apply to manufacturing environments. These include the well-published social distancing practices that by now are familiar to all, including good individual hygiene and proper sanitizing efforts in all of our buildings.

During these last few weeks, we have made several adjustments at the service center to keep both employees and customers as safe and healthy as possible. Tim Massey, service director, and his team have done a great job getting folks back on the road in their Tiffin coaches. The safety procedures in the service center include:

To maintain social distancing, owners must leave their coaches while technicians are working in them. To make this easier, Lex Tiffin has created a new customer lounge in the former Mason Jar restaurant in downtown Red Bay, while both of the existing owner lounges have been designated pet friendly.

The service center will focus on repairs that will keep a coach safe and livable, including heating and air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, and slide room function. In addition to this, technicians will work off small lists of 10 or fewer items.

The service center will use every other service bay, and in some cases every third service bay, to maintain a safe separation among our technicians, which means operating with a smaller crew on a temporary basis.

We are doing our very best to keep our immediate commitments to our coach owners, keep employees and customers as safe as possible, and make our company viable and productive as both a current and future employer in the great states of Alabama and Mississippi. We wish all our best to you, and please stay safe.

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UPDATE as of April 3, 2020 — After continuing to monitor the Coronavirus pandemic and as we continue to follow CDC guidelines in an effort to protect our employees and customers, we have decided to keep our production facility closed beyond the April 6th date that we previously announced.

Our Red Bay service center remains open with a reduced staff to allow for proper personal space between our employees. We have created an additional space for our coach owners to wait while we service your coach.

We are here to take care of emergency coach issues, such as operational electrical issues, heating and air-conditioning issues, functional plumbing issues, and inoperative slide-outs. Time and labor allowing, we will do our best to work on other items limited to a 10-item list. If your coach is a 2017 model or newer, you are welcome to drop off your coach and leave it with our warranty/service center. We will work with you to create a list of items to be addressed.

Our Winfield service remains closed, with parts and phone techs still available in Winfield throughout this time.

Tours at Red Bay and Belmont continue to be closed until further notice.

We will continue to provide updates regarding our service and production operations, so please stay tuned. Thank you for your patience and understanding. We wish you all safety during this time.

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ORIGINAL POST from March 26, 2020 — As we face historic challenges with the growing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, we are committed to communicating to our coach owners, employees, and vendor suppliers as information develops. With this thought in mind, we have important information to share with you.

We are grateful for the interest our motorhome friends and family have shown in supporting our plant tours over the years. Oftentimes, we have tours numbering from 10 to 20 and even more each day. Due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 virus, in the interest of the safety of all involved, and in keeping with the guidelines of the CDC, we have decided to POSTPONE plant tours at our Red Bay and Belmont facilities until further notice. We will resume plant tours in Red Bay and Belmont in the future when it is deemed appropriate. We will continue to permit customers who have ordered units to inspect their motorhome once their unit reaches final inspection.

Furthermore, effective immediately, our production facility will pause for a period of 2 weeks, as we make a concentrated effort to reduce our employees' and visitors' possible exposure to the Coronavirus. Our plan is to resume production on April 6th. If you have a new Tiffin product being built specifically for you (a retail sold order), we realize that this may affect the delivery date of your coach. Please reach out to your dealer or the team here at Tiffin Motorhomes for an update on your completion date.

During the period of March 25th through April 6th, our service department at Red Bay will be operating at reduced capacity as we do our best to abide by the CDC guidelines. While we endeavor to accommodate Tiffin owners who need service on their coaches, the period for getting this work done will increase to a large degree.

A key part of the CDC guidelines involves personal space perimeters of approximately 6’ between individuals. To accomplish this important element of the guidelines, we will be asking coach owners to wait in our on-site lounge or at a temporary lounge area at the former Mason Jar restaurant on 102 4th Ave SE Street, Red Bay, (depending on occupancy restrictions).

Finally, our Class C service center in Winfield, Alabama, is temporarily closed as we make every effort to reduce our employees' and visitors' possible exposure to COVID-19. Our plan is to resume service operations in Winfield on April 6th. Parts and phone techs will still be available during this time.

For further information, please contact our Red Bay Service Center at (256) 356-0261 or our Winfield Service Center at (205) 487-4710.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time. We will continue to distribute updates about our business regarding COVID-19 through our blog, our emails, and our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. Please stay tuned.