Camping World RV Sales treatment of thier customers
We attended the Orlando RV Show on, January 19,2014 (last day of the show). After walking the fair grounds we were in between two units, a Forest River Sierra and a Keystone Avalanche, both from Camping World. Since it was already 5:00pm (Closing Time), by the time they ran our credit check and we agreed on a sale price on both their units and trade in value for our unit , it started to rain and all the units were being closed. The sales person and the finance employee suggested we give a deposit and both units would go to the Camping world in Tampa and the finance department there would call us Monday or Tuesday to let us know the interest rate and monthly payments would be. We saw both the units being tagged with our last name and a "Sold" tag on them . Not a problem, we thought. We have purchased units before, we know the routine, at least at other dealerships. This is were the nightmare begins........
Monday came and went , Tuesday came and went, on Wednesday I started to call . I left several messages for John, the finance guy at the Tampa Camping World. No calls were returned. Come Friday my husband called and spoke with the manager of that store and within 15 minutes John called him back. He was quite annoyed with my husband and told him that there were other deals before ours since we were the last deal of the show. My husband said, "Look that is fine, but a call back would have been nice but, okay just please remember that there are two units that we need you to give us a break down on both." He replied, "There is only one unit in your file" , my husband said. "No, we saw the write up of everything for both units and even our deposit slip has both units on there". John responded with," I will look into it and call you back". After that phone conversation we called our sales person and she called John directly and all of a sudden John found the second unit information in our file.
At 7:00pm, John called us and only gave us the information to one of the units stating the sales person's handwriting was like chicken scratch and he could not read it . At these point my patience had run out. It had been a week , we have great credit, we already were pre approved from Bank of The West (one of the hardest banks to get an approval from) what in Gods name do we need to do to finish this deal. I mean all our other deals have taken less then a day. I called the sales person and told her that was it . I was going to Lazy Days. She pleaded with me to please have our file transfer to the Bartow store since the Avalanche was there and not at the Tampa store, that not all Camping Worlds were this incompetent. We agreed to that. Saturday morning both the sales person and my self spoke with Evan from the Bartow store and we were assured we would be taken care of and that all the same stipulation that was agreed to at the RV show would be honored. I told him " look we are not interested in the Forest River anymore due to their horrible reviews that they have, the unit we wanted was the Avalanche". "Not a problem that unit is in my lot with your name on it" , he responded ." Okay perfect", I said. I spoke with Mirabel the finance lady from Bartow , "Yes mama I am aware of your deal don't worry the unit is here with a sold tag with your name on it." ( Now remember they were tagged at the show with our name) . Though out Monday we went back and forth since all of a sudden Evan did not want to honor the stipulation . Which was the trade value, hitch included, and a fireplace. After many calls and texts back and forth with the sales person and Evan, finally we were on our way . Boy, was I wrong. I got a call from Evan on Monday again 7:00 pm ," Ma'am , your approved and all the paper work is done ( at this point I thinking no kidding Sherlock , we have great credit score and we were already approved.) But your unit was sold to someone else" . I was floored . "What do you mean my unit was sold,?" "Yes Ma'am the unit was sold ,the sale person did not tag the unit and it was sold ." I demanded he call her on the phone with me on the line. I saw her tag it , Evan and Mirabel told me it was tagged and now it was sold to someone else. "Ma'am your not understanding, there is nothing the sales person can do ." "I gave a deposit on that unit it. It seems to me that you sold the unit to someone else since our deal was not that profitable to you . Why else would you sell it?" "Well we can sell you another one." I could hear the smirk in his voice. I was floored . How dishonest, unethical , and the list goes on.
I decided to find a contact for Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of Camping World. I thought he would like to hear about the dishonest, unethical practices of his locations. I could not find his information but I did find the phone number to Randall Rahe, the SVP of Camping World. I spoke with him and explained what had been happening and how I was trying to find Mr. Lemonis's contact information. Randall assured me that he would get to the bottom of this and I had contacted the right person since even if I contacted Mr. Lemonis he would just give him the information and have him fix it. I thought to myself, finally someone that can rectify the situation. He told me he would call me back and he did . He apologized and said that they had made a mistake but that he would rectify it. Mr. Rahe told me that he would sell us a different unit or have one ordered for us and it would be sold to us at Hard Cost for the trouble we had gone through. We went back and forth for a day or two about a unit in TN that they claim was identical to the unit we were originally buying , which it wasn't, but at this point I wanted to just put this nightmare behind me and since he was going to give it to us at Hard Cost, finically it made sense. On January 30, 2014 ,I received via email the documentation with all the numbers. Once again Camping World did not honor its promises. The only thing they did was had a less expensive hitch , took out the fire place from the deal, and fixed the trade value. When I emailed Mr.Rahe, I pointed out that the sale price was not adjusted to the Hard Cost as he promised. He replied and I quote " It is a non profit deal for the store. Those are the numbers." But he was going to add a $250.00 Camping World gift card. So, at this point I have leaned that Camping World is not only dishonest, unethical, but also liars. It is very obvious to us that our original unit was indeed, sold to someone else since our deal was not profitable to them. I will send this to Mr. Lemonis but at this point, I don't expect them to do anything at this point since its been one lie after another. It is VERY CLEAR that Camping World does not care about its customers! Camping World might have treated us this way us but, I will be sharing my experience on every available RV forums so that no other family will have to go through this.
Monday came and went , Tuesday came and went, on Wednesday I started to call . I left several messages for John, the finance guy at the Tampa Camping World. No calls were returned. Come Friday my husband called and spoke with the manager of that store and within 15 minutes John called him back. He was quite annoyed with my husband and told him that there were other deals before ours since we were the last deal of the show. My husband said, "Look that is fine, but a call back would have been nice but, okay just please remember that there are two units that we need you to give us a break down on both." He replied, "There is only one unit in your file" , my husband said. "No, we saw the write up of everything for both units and even our deposit slip has both units on there". John responded with," I will look into it and call you back". After that phone conversation we called our sales person and she called John directly and all of a sudden John found the second unit information in our file.
At 7:00pm, John called us and only gave us the information to one of the units stating the sales person's handwriting was like chicken scratch and he could not read it . At these point my patience had run out. It had been a week , we have great credit, we already were pre approved from Bank of The West (one of the hardest banks to get an approval from) what in Gods name do we need to do to finish this deal. I mean all our other deals have taken less then a day. I called the sales person and told her that was it . I was going to Lazy Days. She pleaded with me to please have our file transfer to the Bartow store since the Avalanche was there and not at the Tampa store, that not all Camping Worlds were this incompetent. We agreed to that. Saturday morning both the sales person and my self spoke with Evan from the Bartow store and we were assured we would be taken care of and that all the same stipulation that was agreed to at the RV show would be honored. I told him " look we are not interested in the Forest River anymore due to their horrible reviews that they have, the unit we wanted was the Avalanche". "Not a problem that unit is in my lot with your name on it" , he responded ." Okay perfect", I said. I spoke with Mirabel the finance lady from Bartow , "Yes mama I am aware of your deal don't worry the unit is here with a sold tag with your name on it." ( Now remember they were tagged at the show with our name) . Though out Monday we went back and forth since all of a sudden Evan did not want to honor the stipulation . Which was the trade value, hitch included, and a fireplace. After many calls and texts back and forth with the sales person and Evan, finally we were on our way . Boy, was I wrong. I got a call from Evan on Monday again 7:00 pm ," Ma'am , your approved and all the paper work is done ( at this point I thinking no kidding Sherlock , we have great credit score and we were already approved.) But your unit was sold to someone else" . I was floored . "What do you mean my unit was sold,?" "Yes Ma'am the unit was sold ,the sale person did not tag the unit and it was sold ." I demanded he call her on the phone with me on the line. I saw her tag it , Evan and Mirabel told me it was tagged and now it was sold to someone else. "Ma'am your not understanding, there is nothing the sales person can do ." "I gave a deposit on that unit it. It seems to me that you sold the unit to someone else since our deal was not that profitable to you . Why else would you sell it?" "Well we can sell you another one." I could hear the smirk in his voice. I was floored . How dishonest, unethical , and the list goes on.
I decided to find a contact for Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of Camping World. I thought he would like to hear about the dishonest, unethical practices of his locations. I could not find his information but I did find the phone number to Randall Rahe, the SVP of Camping World. I spoke with him and explained what had been happening and how I was trying to find Mr. Lemonis's contact information. Randall assured me that he would get to the bottom of this and I had contacted the right person since even if I contacted Mr. Lemonis he would just give him the information and have him fix it. I thought to myself, finally someone that can rectify the situation. He told me he would call me back and he did . He apologized and said that they had made a mistake but that he would rectify it. Mr. Rahe told me that he would sell us a different unit or have one ordered for us and it would be sold to us at Hard Cost for the trouble we had gone through. We went back and forth for a day or two about a unit in TN that they claim was identical to the unit we were originally buying , which it wasn't, but at this point I wanted to just put this nightmare behind me and since he was going to give it to us at Hard Cost, finically it made sense. On January 30, 2014 ,I received via email the documentation with all the numbers. Once again Camping World did not honor its promises. The only thing they did was had a less expensive hitch , took out the fire place from the deal, and fixed the trade value. When I emailed Mr.Rahe, I pointed out that the sale price was not adjusted to the Hard Cost as he promised. He replied and I quote " It is a non profit deal for the store. Those are the numbers." But he was going to add a $250.00 Camping World gift card. So, at this point I have leaned that Camping World is not only dishonest, unethical, but also liars. It is very obvious to us that our original unit was indeed, sold to someone else since our deal was not profitable to them. I will send this to Mr. Lemonis but at this point, I don't expect them to do anything at this point since its been one lie after another. It is VERY CLEAR that Camping World does not care about its customers! Camping World might have treated us this way us but, I will be sharing my experience on every available RV forums so that no other family will have to go through this.
