Fun Town dealership

dougrainer wrote:
For those that believe what Larry Cad stated. WHY WOULD YOU BUY AND SUPPORT WHAT YOU PERCEIVE AS AN INDUSTRY FULL OF CROOKS??????????????????????????????????????? Doug

Because it’s not easy to build your own RV? Don’t get butt hurt. Your knowledge here is invaluable and you’re just protecting your trade/industry. But pull the blinders off.
There are enough shady rip-off dirt bag rv dealers to make the assertions here largely true.

They have 2 articles in the latest RV business magazine. The one I was impressed with was their Facility in Elkhart, Indiana. It is a PDI ONLY facility. No public service or service for their customers. According to the article, Fun Town built the facility(HUGE), to PDI ALL units going to his various dealership locations. This means once they get to his various locations, they just need an outside wash job and are ready to be delivered immediately. They find and fix discrepancies, BEFORE they get to the various sales facility lots. This is probably why they are the largest Towable dealer in the USA. Doug

dougrainer wrote:
They are the largest towable dealer in Texas and Oklahoma. I do not work for them. Doug

CONGRATS !!

Unlike "The Cad" :R you actually answered the OP's question!!

~

I've bought three different brand truck campers from their dealers and three 5th wheel rv trailers from two different dealers starting in the '60s and had very good experience with all of them. But I wouldn't make a ignorant statement all dealers or owners have had the same experience.
RV industry is a spin off of the mobilehome industry and have worked in both in the '50s/'60/'70s (assy line in the '60s) so I knew what too expect.

The rant from cad could be about many other many products.

To the OP...I would post in other rv websites also and get even more perspective on the FR dealers you asked about. Some are actually friendly.

If anyone on this forum has read a fair number of posts, they have to have read one or more stories from new RV owners regarding poor service-after-sale. Some of them are just heart breaking. One of my favorite examples happened to a close friend of mine. He and his wife bought a 2 year old Monaco DP from Laz y Days, in Tampa Fl. PRIOR to the final sale, my friend did a tour of the coach with the sales person and came up with a list of problems that needed repaired. The sales guy assured him it would all be taken care of before my friend picked up the coach. Since he lived about 1500 miles away, they went home and waited over a month for the jobs to be done. One day, he received a call and was informed that ALL of the defects were now fixed and he could come down to pick up his coach.

When he arrived, and toured the coach, (listen to this), NOT ONE THING HAD BEEN DONE!! Not "one got missed", nothing had been done in one month. He had been lied to.

Now the best part. He wanted to use the coach for a planned outing and discussed with the sales guy that it would be alright to bring the RV back in a couple of weeks. So, he went off on his pre-planned adventure, and when finished, he returned to LZD to have the work done and they advised him that nothing more could be done under warranty, and they would have to charge him to do the work. All with a straight face.

I have owned several RVs in 17 years, and have been personally screwed by several dealers with absolutely no recourse. I have known many owners who had similar events. It is not unusual, and it happens frequently. From brand new, just off the line, to used. And YES, we keep buying these things. We do it, because we are a captive audience. I won't tell anyone to not buy an RV, I will just advise them to be very careful.

I have another friend who is taking their fairly new Class C to a Camping World tomorrow to have several warranty repairs done, including slide mechanism is falling apart, and fridge quite working. I will be interested in hearing how this one goes. Stand by.

dougrainer wrote:
For those that believe what Larry Cad stated. WHY WOULD YOU BUY AND SUPPORT WHAT YOU PERCEIVE AS AN INDUSTRY FULL OF CROOKS??????????????????????????????????????? Doug

Hey Doug - My experience with my two purchases of new RVs was pretty close to what Larry described. Maybe that makes me dumb, but I think it's more a function of being inexperienced. It's not like new car purchases where we do it every few years. I bought a new RV from the dealer in 2004, and then I kind of got amnesia and kind of figured my first experience was a fluke. And then I bought a second one from them and my experience was even worse than the first time.

Does this mean that the folks at my dealer were crooks? No, not at all. (Maybe they are, but I don't have any reason to call them crooked.) But they're certainly inept.

I ran into the owner of the dealership in the parking lot and he struck up a conversation. He said that his #1 cost was real estate and it was killing him. I told him that he could clear out a ton of room if he stuck a boot in the butts of his service team (especially the service manager) and cleared out a bunch of these units that were sitting for warranty service. He looked at me like I was nuts, but I told him:

1. Bring the units in for an appointment and fix what you can and/or figure out what parts you need to order.

2. Send the customer home with his unit while you order parts. This way you don't have a bunch of dusty units sitting around taking up space. Plus the customers can actually get out and camp (if possible) while the parts are on order.

3. Schedule a second appointment when you know that the parts have shipped.

4. Bring the customer and the unit back for that appointment and hopefully finish the service while the customer waits or send the customer home and keep the unit for the day or two that it takes to actually do the service.

This way the units awaiting warranty work are only on the lot for a day or two while they're doing the work. And those units shouldn't even be on the lot; they should be in the service bays getting fixed.

He kind of shook his head and asked me "Have you ever even met my service crews? They could never pull that off."

Regardless, I won't be back to that dealer again. I'll buy from someone else who isn't so inept.

dougrainer wrote:
For those that believe what Larry Cad stated. WHY WOULD YOU BUY AND SUPPORT WHAT YOU PERCEIVE AS AN INDUSTRY FULL OF CROOKS??????????????????????????????????????? Doug

It's not about supporting anything. If you want an RV you have two choices. You go to a dealer or build your own. That is unless you want one of the niche smaller towable models where the builder sells direct of a high end class A or something. Some of the stuff I've been handed in a new RV bordered on criminal, like the terminals not tightened on the wall mounted power connector that arced and nearly caught on fire. How about Keystone RV denying a warranty claim on a two month old trailer where the entire corner pulled open stating it was caused by overloading and the poor dealer not willing to go to bat for the buyer? Yes your industry has a good amount of what some would consider CROOKS associated with it.

No sense for ANYONE, to get worked up over a forum members opinion of RV dealers.

Yes, some of what Larry said is true, and he did say generally. Quite a rant, which indicates a bad personal experience?? Who knows, but a bit over the top!

Of course some dealers are better than others, same as with car sales, realtors selling homes, even doctors and lawyers. High volume dealers can sometimes be less personal/caring.

Jerry

For those that believe what Larry Cad stated. WHY WOULD YOU BUY AND SUPPORT WHAT YOU PERCEIVE AS AN INDUSTRY FULL OF CROOKS??????????????????????????????????????? Doug

dougrainer wrote:

larry cad wrote:
As a general rule, the vast majority of RVs built are full of broken, misaligned, missing, and poorly installed parts. This includes inside and outside the RV. YOU are responsible for making certain EVERYTHING is done correctly. Inspect with a fine tooth comb. Look every where. Don't believe a word they say about quality.

As a general rule, ALL RV dealers are in business for ONE THING, and that is to make as much money as possible, while selling you any particular RV for as much as possible through what ever means they can use. They act nice, but they are not nice. It is up to you to negotiate by any means possible, to get the best deal possible. You can use any means available to you, including the same methods they use.

As a general rule, buying an RV is not a fun or easy project. Wear steel toes shoes, flack vest, ear plugs, and any other protective gear you can find. If the purchase is easy, you got screwed. If everything works perfectly, and you love your new purchase, breath a sigh of relief, you are one of the lucky few.

As a general rule, when you drive off the lot, you are forgotten. Don't expect anyone there to remember you, or go out of their way to do you any favors.

As a general rule, there is NO DEALER in business that will stand behind any RV they sell.

As a general rule, there is NO DEALER that will perform repairs under warranty, and will find ways to charge you anyway.

These are some of the general rules. Not all dealers are this bad, but most are.

ca·ve·at emp·tor

the principle that the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made.

Others can feel free to comment.

Change DEALER to RV OWNER. Same thing could be said. I have been involved in the RV business for 50 years. Started out cleaning RV plants after school. Then worked on production line. Then became a RV tech for 43 years. NONE OF WHAT YOU STATED IS TRUE. The vast MINORITY of RV dealers behave as you stated. DEALERS (good dealers) require repeat customers. You cannot stay in business by ignoring your customers. You take your advertising budget and divide by the year total customers you sold too. THAT is how much it costs to get 1 customer on your lot and sell him. Years ago the owner told me that cost was $575. in other words, it cost $575 to land each customer. DON'T TAKE CARE OF THAT CUSTOMER AND YOU SQUANDERED THAT $575. Doug

Ahhhhhh, the poor RV dealer LOL.

My experience is most are as Larry calls it, especially so any of the large chains. Camping World, Campers Inn, General RV, Myers, even RVW.They'll get that $575.00 back and then some with the BS they tack on. They sure seem to be staying in business fine and its a known FACT that after the sale the RV OWNER is forgotten in a New York minute.

I know of a couple mom and pop family owned dealers who might give a ****, but I also know of more than a couple of those who sold out to the chains I mentioned. The poor RV dealers, I hope they don't starve.