What's up with RV Sales People?
PPL has an almost new 5th wheel I am very interested in. After being sent to voicemail several times I finally got someone to answer the phone this morning around 9:30. She was going to send an email ...
Forum Discussion
PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
PPL also is the name of a national known RV consignment sales company originally located near Houston, Texas. The company opened a second location near New Braunfels - about an hour north of San Antonio a few years ago and last year opened a third location about an hour southwest of Dallas.
(Consignment sales mean that - the RV dealer does not buy your rig - he allows you to put it on his lot, and he tries to sell it. He is acting as your agent. Most of the time, the RV dealer gets no money unless he sells the rig. There are some consignment sales locations that charge the RV owner a monthly fee for the space while the rig is unsold.)
Their website says they have been in that business for almost 35 years, and have "helped over 32,700 individuals" sell their rig.
With three locations, they say they are now selling 2,200-2,500 rigs per year.
An average of 8 rigs a day sell year round at three locations.
Due to Texas laws about automobile, truck and other vehicle sales - they are closed on Sunday - so they are only open 313 days per year at most.
The company says that about they have 150 to 250 people per day visit between the three locations (maybe 80 - 150 buyers if they count a couple looking at rigs as two people - most retailers do). So between 40,000 and 46,000 potential buyers look at rigs each year - in three locations. Probably 60% in Houston, 25% in New Braunfels and 15% in Cleburne.
Even then - that is way more than almost any other dealer I've heard of.
My experience with the company - New Braunfels and Cleburne - is that 2/3 of the rigs are older models in need of work where the owner is just trying to get rid of a rig they could not get a dealer to take in trade (or the dealer would give them very little for the rig). We were allowed to wander the lot and look at the exterior of rigs, and a few 'models' were open for inspection. Generally we were not allowed in a rig unless escorted.
Most RV dealers I've been to have been very quick to give my wife and I time alone in a rig to look it over and discuss details - once the salesman felt we might be serious customers. (I've had more than one salesman tell me that after a few months in the business - they can usually tell who is really ready to buy, who is just looking and who are the thieves looking at the rig as a free parts supply after five or ten minutes.)
About 1/3 of the rigs are in great shape - and sell quickly. They are steals at the price asked usually.
This is very strange as it has been PPL'S model from the beginning to not harass our customers or do any high pressure sales. The whole basis of our buisness model is an open lot. All the units are open for people to browse through at their leisure.
