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ThruTraffic's avatar
ThruTraffic
Explorer
Feb 08, 2017

Caming World 21 Days Free Camping : Yeah, Right!

Caution!

If buying an RV from Camping World it may be to your benefit to ask for a several hundred dollar discount off the final sales price in lieu of the 21 Free Days of Camping certificate instead.

At my closing the finance officer handed me a certificate printed on a cheap printer by an elementary school student and said that it was good for 21 days free camping and all I had to do was call within 7 days and enter the code on the document.

I called and got a voice mail asking for my name and number so someone could call me back. There is no "enter your activation code" option.

About an hour later I got a call from a resort and the result of the call was that for me to activate that benefit I had to take a day off and burn a tank of gas to travel to their resort and back to have my benefit activated. I'm fairly certain most of my time at the resort would be claimed by sales personnel trying to sell me time shares or other junk I wouldn't want.

Personal expenses to activate against the 21 days of camping came close to a wash so I told them what they could do with their scam certificate.

The T&E of activation may be a net plus for you but it wasn't for me.

So, beware that the extras Camping World sells may be mere illusion.
  • We got the same thing when we bought a new to us class A. I handed the offer right back to the lady doing our paperwork and told her, " No thanks, that's just a scam to get our name and phone number. they are only going to try to badger me into buying something". She looked kind of abashed and said, well its up to you, its only an offer you know. The "offer" was left laying on the table when we left.
  • You lost me at Camping World. ;). But seriously, congrats on your new purchase! May you enjoy it safely and trouble free for many years to come! :)
  • Yup, sounds like a typical sales pitch. Like when you walk into a Bass Pro Shops and they try to have you sign up for a "Free $25,000 shopping card" or some nonsense like that. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I would rather pay for 2 weeks of a camping trip than be forced into some high pressure sales pitch. Some people might love that, but I bought a camper specifically so that I would have a MOBILE vacation home. There are some places that I go every year, but I don't want to blow my entire vacation budget to only go to the same places every time.

    On the other hand, I bought my camper from Keystone Mega RV in Greencastle, PA. They offer a free night of camping at their campground. Its not much of a campground, but you can park the night there for free and test all your RV functions. No sales pitch, no attempt to solicit information... just a good business practice for new trailer owners to test out the product within walking distance of the salesman to ensure they know what they are doing.
  • Well, I'm going to name names, because General RV in Wayland gave us a free camping weekend when we bought our Class C. It was for a newish park called River Ridge, and there was zero pressure to buy anything. They gave us a BEAUTIFUL site, and we really enjoyed ourselves - I think they did it just to get people to see their gorgeous facilities along the Muskegon River?