Awful Good Sam Financing Experience
Recently, I purchased a new camper from a local dealership. I elected to apply for financing through the Good Sam program, which used Bank of the West as its preferred lender. I qualified for the best advertised rate (which was slightly lower than the competition) and committed to purchasing my new trailer with Bank of the West.
From start to finish, the loan consultants and other staff at Bank of the West were nothing short of delightful to work with. Despite the fact that we are separated by multiple time zones, they were responsive, helpful, friendly and highly professional.
However, the Bank of the West must be managed by former government bureaucrats who were dismissed for being too slow and onerous to deal with. My application and loan process required several signatures, of which three (!) required notarization. Everything was handled via overnight delivery (what did THAT cost?) and e-signatures were not accepted for the final loan documents. Toward the end of the process, where I had to reschedule my delivery date twice (I could only take delivery on Saturdays), I seriously considered just getting a signature loan from my credit union as the interest savings wasn't that great and I knew I could have the entire process completely in a day or two.
From start to finish (first application submission to delivery of the check to the dealer) a month had passed. This is a process that should only take a few minutes from application to approval to funding the deal, but Bank of the West's archaic, slow and expensive process made a chore of what should have been quick, easy and routine.
I keep telling myself that I'm just impatient and the "Amazonification" of commerce has ruined my perspective, but I think back to my last car purchase where my credit union completed the entire transaction in a couple of days, which included overnighting the check to the dealer (I would have used them here, but they do not loan against RVs). Even a week would be reasonable, but four?
I hope that Good Sam can influence Bank of the West to modernize their processes or they are able to partner with a lendor who is more reasonable to work with.
Sorry for the wall of text, but I wanted to provide frank and honest feedback regarding a GS partner. Thank you.
From start to finish, the loan consultants and other staff at Bank of the West were nothing short of delightful to work with. Despite the fact that we are separated by multiple time zones, they were responsive, helpful, friendly and highly professional.
However, the Bank of the West must be managed by former government bureaucrats who were dismissed for being too slow and onerous to deal with. My application and loan process required several signatures, of which three (!) required notarization. Everything was handled via overnight delivery (what did THAT cost?) and e-signatures were not accepted for the final loan documents. Toward the end of the process, where I had to reschedule my delivery date twice (I could only take delivery on Saturdays), I seriously considered just getting a signature loan from my credit union as the interest savings wasn't that great and I knew I could have the entire process completely in a day or two.
From start to finish (first application submission to delivery of the check to the dealer) a month had passed. This is a process that should only take a few minutes from application to approval to funding the deal, but Bank of the West's archaic, slow and expensive process made a chore of what should have been quick, easy and routine.
I keep telling myself that I'm just impatient and the "Amazonification" of commerce has ruined my perspective, but I think back to my last car purchase where my credit union completed the entire transaction in a couple of days, which included overnighting the check to the dealer (I would have used them here, but they do not loan against RVs). Even a week would be reasonable, but four?
I hope that Good Sam can influence Bank of the West to modernize their processes or they are able to partner with a lendor who is more reasonable to work with.
Sorry for the wall of text, but I wanted to provide frank and honest feedback regarding a GS partner. Thank you.
