RIV Report?

[jim riordan]

Macy,

I wish you well with your health issues.

Jim RIordan

Macy Neshati wrote:

I have wrestled with my response for two full days now and I still don't know where to start. I will for sure start by thanking several people including Curt Sprenger, Eric Perplies, David Brady, Ernie, and Tom Warner for their support and to answer a simple question from Jim
Riorden
regarding the number of Blue Birds at the 2007 RIV it was 198 not the 400 that it has grown to by some accounts in the last few days of these posts.

Just as importantly, I want to apologize for my failure to attend this years
rally. It was my idea to move it, I thought it would be fun and a change of pace, and last year at the RIV our informal poll of attendees showed overwhelming support. However as this year has unfolded we have been besieged by the worst economic downturn in recent history, a credit crisis, a further blow as a result of the axle recall that we could not have anticipated
the death of our CEO's brother and business partner this past April forcing Dale to become active in two additional business units, and capped off with my personal health issues. As many of you know I have been battling with Parkinsons for several years now and this past 90 days my symptoms finally outran the medications ability to control them, forcing me to spend several
weeks with my doctors experimenting with new drugs and doses and deciding which side effects I could live with for the relative relief
they provided. Consequently as I was under physicians care at the time I simply could not make it. Dale has been consumed in dealing with the loss of his brother, consolidating the companies and dealing with issues I would normally be responsible for and therefore was covering a pressing business obligation for me.

Not wishing to reveal too much of my or Dale's personal struggles I asked Rick Clayton to simply apologize for our absence and hope that people would understand that there may be years were circumstances simply won't allow Dale and or I to attend. However the very vial and personal nature of the attacks that have ensued over the last few days have compelled me to share my situation more openly as the last thing I expected to do is to
offend any of you by taking our lack of presence as a lack of interest or desire to
be with you.

I must take very strong and pointed exception to Mr. Chaffin's attacks first and foremost on behalf of the company and the hardworking people who have labored against all odds to succeed in these adverse times, and secondly on behalf of myself for being called a liar, not just once but several times by Mr. Chaffin. In over 30 years as a business executive I have never witnessed this lack of civility. How many of you think it is
acceptable for someone who has a different perspective on a set of circumstances than you do, to go on a public forum and call you a liar? Has the internet, emails, blogs and such dehumanized us to the point that we find it OK to publicly slander and defame people? Does this forum find this behavior acceptable?

I will not dignify Mr. Chaffin's allegations and claims of warranty on this site and in this public arena. I will state emphatically that we have spent millions of dollars covering warranty claims on units that
we felt were legitimate and there are hundreds of you out there that know this is true as you have been the beneficiaries of our warranty work. I have dozens and dozens of emails from customers thanking us for our hard work on
Their behalf and in many cases telling us we fixed the problem when the previous owners couldn't.

I do want to address many of the false allegations from several of you that have appeared over the last few days: That we built all the M380 and LXI's and profited from them but won't spend the warranty money.
FACT
We did not build a single M380, and only one 450 LXI, and the owners of the one we built reported to me as recently as a week ago that they love it and have had great joy from it. However we have poured millions into warranty coverage on legitimate warranty

"They knew about the axle problem when they bought the company"
FACT
We did not have any knowledge of the axle problem when we bought the company, this
particular piece of slander is particularly disturbing on many fronts, but simply put, we aren't stupid, we would never have purchased the company knowing this, the impact on owner confidence, the costly recall process, not counting the repair cost, and the delay in coming to market based on the need to completely redesign and reengineer the unit would have been more than enough to stop the deal. And we all know where that
Would have left Wanderlodge and you all. Cerberus had stopped all work on the Wanderlodges, and were ready to shut down the business had we not bought it.

Instead, we bought the business, redesigned the product to meet weight
requirements, and went right down the line to fix the historic weak points, we engineered fixes for leaks, slides were a problem, went back to HWH slides, inverters were a problem went to two Trace pure sine wave 4000 watt inverters, house wiring a problem, went to the industry standard spyder controls, the list goes on
and on.

We were confronted with the front axle problem, forced Blue Bird Body to the table, got them to file the NHTSA recall and have worked night and day with owners to get their units as functional as possible. You want to scoff and belittle the fix? Don't scoff at us, we are doing everything in our power to fix a problem we didn't and would not have created.

Many owners are thrilled with their reworked units, they have ample cargo
capacity, better handling due to a lower CG and a quieter less vibrating generator installation. Are some unhappy, sure, again, not our fault, not our problem but we have done everything in our power to make things as right as we can. I truly and honestly don't understand how this issue is turned on us in anger.

Now to our future and the Wanderlodge's survival. Roughly 16 months ago when we bought the company it was widely believed in the industry that the economy was stable, that the RV industry was continuing to
grow and would through at least 2009. If you don't believe me go look up last years University of Michigan RV industry economic report, widely held as the bible for the industry.

Look were we sit today, two out of the three largest lenders to the RV industry, Wachovia and GE are out of the business, National RV.... Bankrupt gone, Weekend Warrior, Bankrupt gone, several other smaller guys, gone... Fleetwood, stock at .25 cents, delisted from the New York stock exchange, nearly gone, Monaco, hanging on by a thread, their dealers have no more floor plan money to buy anymore units, nothing is selling.

RV sales..down 60% and what is selling is at massive discounts, no one is making money. Ten Thousand RV's in San Diego, gone, La Mesa, closing and consolidating stores.

Why don't we have dealers?? The credit crisis has left them with no floor plan money. Simply put they can't afford to buy a stock unit.

So here is the greatest contradiction I have
heard yet, "We don't want to see
CCW fail"

"But I won't buy a new Blue Bird because what if CCW fails"...... anyone else
see the flaw here?

If we don't sell RV's how do we survive? if you want to see us survive,
you need to buy Blue Birds... If you don't buy Blue Birds, you not only guarantee our demise... You are responsible for it.

Someone else steps in to criticize us for being late with the 2009 RV for the
FMCA, and for the poor showing our then dealer made of coaches.

The axle issue came up and forced us to redesign the RV to provide a product with respectable cargo capacity on a legal front end. Do you know the work that goes into that kind of engineering feat? While juggling a recall? What you should be proud of is that your brand has new owners that refused to build or ship a product that wasn't engineered or built correctly, even if it missed the whole show.

Our company has poured double digit millions into this Brand
to keep the doors open what has that meant to you? So you could get warranty on product we didn't build and wouldn't have built or shipped as designed, to perform recall work for defects in design we didn't design on product we didn't build, to redesign and reengineer a Blue Bird Product to make you and us proud, we decided to trudge on through the worst economy in recent memory and a credit crunch like nothing we have ever seen, and we
built a beautiful Premier XL. But Mr. Chaffin goes on and on about where to get them fixed and blasts us for not having dealers. what if we hadn't bought the company? No telling how the recall would have gone, who would have done your warranty. How many of you have benefited from us being here to fix your units both in Riverside and Fort Valley? To buy parts from us? Have we had turn over? Sure, people will get scared as a company slows down and has to right size in this type of economic crisis and some will jump ship, is that something
to go online and blast us for?

And on a final false assertion by Mr. Chaffin, the 2006 we brought to Branson would have to be parked by the new owner, not useable.

FACT
It has had the recall done, is fully functional has outstanding front end weight numbers and wouldn't have to be parked in anyone's driveway other than to restock for the next journey.

I have said enough, maybe too much....we have done all we can, we fixed the
Design problems, enhanced the product with top of the line features, provide a better ride than any Prevost, build a tougher more rugged chassis than Prevost or Newell, enhanced our warranty by going to a 12 year chassis, structure and body warranty and provide better craftsmanship and construction than a fiberglass Newell.

The rest is up to you. No company, no matter how well financed, stays in
business if the product isn't selling, not because they run out of cash, it just isn't good judgment.

For now, we
are tightening our belts and weathering the storm. We have a
beautiful 2009 (RV 02) for sale, Our first 2009, as many saw at Branson is a 1 1/2 bath that was purchased by George and Vel Kistler. We are so grateful for their support and loyalty.

We do understand the importance and the value of a good rally. But given the unique nature of the economic crisis we are faced with, the almost daily business failures, and the need to find ways to weather this storm we made judgment calls as to where to place priorities, we didn't mean to slight anyone, and we will work hard to return next years rally to its previous glory.

But I stand by our decisions this year and ask you
to consider walking a mile in the other guys shoe before lashing out. It is seldom as simple and as clear cut as it seems looking in.
As always, travel safe
Macy



Macy
Macy Neshati
Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Complete Coach Works & Blue Bird Coachworks
Office: 951-684-9585 Cell: 951-836-6525 Fax: 951-684-9585
Visit Our Websites: http://www.completecoach.com &www.bluebirdcoachworks.com