Apache Camping, Everett, Washington

Pinstriper wrote:
We shopped the dealers for our TT.

I contacted a dealer up in Seattle-ish, told them I was price comparing, and to please give me their best price so I could decide whether to make the trip up there or buy locally. They gave me a good price, I took it to the local dealer and said "I want to buy locally, I intend to use you for my service either way. Give me a reason not to go up there."

The local dealer didn't match the price, but came within $700 of them (on a ~$30k trailer). Close enough. I bought local.

I was transparent from the front with both dealers. My local never said anything about not being willing to service it if we didn't buy from them. Whether they would have dropped that on me later is, I guess, open to speculation.

Anyway, I think Apache's practice is pretty shortsighted and even spiteful. Many dealers of the same brands and line just don't have the exact unit you are looking for and you often couldn't buy from them in the first place. Makes no sense.

We where entirely transparent with Apache as well. We gave them one last shot to come close to the price we were getting out of state. They where angry when they learned what we were getting and could not come within 30% of the price. I completely understand there reluctance to match what was clearly a “loss leader” for the dealer we purchased. At no time did they threaten to not service the out-of-state rig at the time of transaction. It was not until we attempted to schedule our first appointment.