Camping World Visits 4 stores in 3 states

[4X4Dodger]

During the trip I just finished with my 30ft TT from Minot ND to AZ and back I had the opportunity to stop at 4 different Camping World stores in 3 different states. I thought my experience might be helpful to some others (what stores to avoid or to use) or just amusing.

In terms of service the store near Flagstaff was the winner with attentive and helpful folks who actually knew something. (I bought a new generator and new propane hoses at this store)

The Big Loser was the store in Golden Colorado where I bought a "Jack E Up" where the very snippish and unhelpful worker argued with me about the name of the product, clearly didnt want to help (she was busy stocking shelves)and then couldnt find the product. Standing in the area where the product should have been she continued to argue with me and tell me I had the name wrong until I reached up over her head and plucked the item from the shelf, showing her the name.

The store in Colorado Springs was a case study in how NOT to treat customers. Gobs of staff hanging around all hunched over computer terminals or paperwork and no one to help you find something or answer a question. When you did get someones attention you got a blank look and the attitude "...dont bother me I'm doing important Paperwork" (purchased a generator cover and a bit for my portable drill to raise my stabilizers)

The Tuscon store on S. Palo Verde road has NO Parking for RV's of any size! What genius at GSE approved this site? There may have been parking in the rear but the gates are closed on weekends. When asked about it the young man helping me said "I just work inside and hear every day how our parking lot Sucks"

The BEST CW I have encountered was in Chicago area where the staff was excellent, helpful and friendly. (but not on this trip)

CW I feel is very like the rest of the Good Sam Enterprises conglomerate. Service is uneven, haphazard, ranges from very good to terrible and the only constant is that you will be endlessly harassed at checkout to renew, subscribe, sign-up etc before you are checked out. The very first word out of an employees mouth when confronted by a customer with an issue should be "I am Sorry" then "Let me try to help you with that" Not snippish remarks, argument, bad attitude and "Oh poor me I hear that everyday" complaints.

Sam Walton in his autobiography said and here I paraphrase....: "never let the process interfere with helping the customer" GSE needs to take this attitude to heart and put it into action.

[prstlk]

Every company pays for a training program if they have one or not. After 40 years in retail, middle Mgr fortune 100, my own biss, home Depot etc. I am always amazed that companies will spend big bucks on advertising 0 on customer service.
CW is famous on this site as the place NOT to take your rig. There in store service is indiferance at best.
jw

[hawkeye-08]

I was excited a few years ago when CW opened a store locally, that is until I visited them. Most of the sale items in the flyer I received were not in stock (not sold out, just plain not in stock, with no intention of getting them). It was apparent that they get you into the store with the sale prices since they are not stocking the items, hope you buy something else (not on sale) while you there...

I only use them now to physically look at something that they carry before I go home and purchase online.

[martipr]

4X4Dodger wrote:

martipr wrote:

4X4Dodger wrote:
During the trip I just finished with my 30ft TT from Minot ND to AZ and back I had the opportunity to stop at 4 different Camping World stores in 3 different states. I thought my experience might be helpful to some others (what stores to avoid or to use) or just amusing.

In terms of service the store near Flagstaff was the winner with attentive and helpful folks who actually knew something. (I bought a new generator and new propane hoses at this store)

The Big Loser was the store in Golden Colorado where I bought a "Jack E Up" where the very snippish and unhelpful worker argued with me about the name of the product, clearly didnt want to help (she was busy stocking shelves)and then couldnt find the product. Standing in the area where the product should have been she continued to argue with me and tell me I had the name wrong until I reached up over her head and plucked the item from the shelf, showing her the name.

The store in Colorado Springs was a case study in how NOT to treat customers. Gobs of staff hanging around all hunched over computer terminals or paperwork and no one to help you find something or answer a question. When you did get someones attention you got a blank look and the attitude "...dont bother me I'm doing important Paperwork" (purchased a generator cover and a bit for my portable drill to raise my stabilizers)

The Tuscon store on S. Palo Verde road has NO Parking for RV's of any size! What genius at GSE approved this site? There may have been parking in the rear but the gates are closed on weekends. When asked about it the young man helping me said "I just work inside and hear every day how our parking lot Sucks"

The BEST CW I have encountered was in Chicago area where the staff was excellent, helpful and friendly. (but not on this trip)

CW I feel is very like the rest of the Good Sam Enterprises conglomerate. Service is uneven, haphazard, ranges from very good to terrible and the only constant is that you will be endlessly harassed at checkout to renew, subscribe, sign-up etc before you are checked out. The very first word out of an employees mouth when confronted by a customer with an issue should be "I am Sorry" then "Let me try to help you with that" Not snippish remarks, argument, bad attitude and "Oh poor me I hear that everyday" complaints.

Sam Walton in his autobiography said and here I paraphrase....: "never let the process interfere with helping the customer" GSE needs to take this attitude to heart and put it into action.

This should be posted in the Dear Marcus forum.

I purposely did not post it there as any criticism seems to get a non-answer and the topic quickly closed before too many can chime in with similar experiences. I also believe that this issue is of General Interest to many of us and thus its posting here.

You do know you can post in more than one forum don't ypu?

[4X4Dodger]

martipr wrote:

4X4Dodger wrote:
During the trip I just finished with my 30ft TT from Minot ND to AZ and back I had the opportunity to stop at 4 different Camping World stores in 3 different states. I thought my experience might be helpful to some others (what stores to avoid or to use) or just amusing.

In terms of service the store near Flagstaff was the winner with attentive and helpful folks who actually knew something. (I bought a new generator and new propane hoses at this store)

The Big Loser was the store in Golden Colorado where I bought a "Jack E Up" where the very snippish and unhelpful worker argued with me about the name of the product, clearly didnt want to help (she was busy stocking shelves)and then couldnt find the product. Standing in the area where the product should have been she continued to argue with me and tell me I had the name wrong until I reached up over her head and plucked the item from the shelf, showing her the name.

The store in Colorado Springs was a case study in how NOT to treat customers. Gobs of staff hanging around all hunched over computer terminals or paperwork and no one to help you find something or answer a question. When you did get someones attention you got a blank look and the attitude "...dont bother me I'm doing important Paperwork" (purchased a generator cover and a bit for my portable drill to raise my stabilizers)

The Tuscon store on S. Palo Verde road has NO Parking for RV's of any size! What genius at GSE approved this site? There may have been parking in the rear but the gates are closed on weekends. When asked about it the young man helping me said "I just work inside and hear every day how our parking lot Sucks"

The BEST CW I have encountered was in Chicago area where the staff was excellent, helpful and friendly. (but not on this trip)

CW I feel is very like the rest of the Good Sam Enterprises conglomerate. Service is uneven, haphazard, ranges from very good to terrible and the only constant is that you will be endlessly harassed at checkout to renew, subscribe, sign-up etc before you are checked out. The very first word out of an employees mouth when confronted by a customer with an issue should be "I am Sorry" then "Let me try to help you with that" Not snippish remarks, argument, bad attitude and "Oh poor me I hear that everyday" complaints.

Sam Walton in his autobiography said and here I paraphrase....: "never let the process interfere with helping the customer" GSE needs to take this attitude to heart and put it into action.

This should be posted in the Dear Marcus forum.

I purposely did not post it there as any criticism seems to get a non-answer and the topic quickly closed before too many can chime in with similar experiences. I also believe that this issue is of General Interest to many of us and thus its posting here.

[BennieH]

Customer service is an art. It needs to be worked on and it needs management support.
I was a service manager (industrial equipment) in one of my previous jobs. When I took over the position, they had several very bad situations that I inherited. Once I got all of the facts (both sides), I had a talk with upper management. The first thing I asked was do you want things made right and how much am I authorized to spend fixing things?
In all of the cases, the customers ended up happy and I actually spent less than they had expected. I'll bet that their future business we got more than covered the cost.
All of my service people were told to fix things right and if they had a question to ask me.
It all starts at the top and needs management buy in.

My personal pet peeve is the silent service folks (any business). How much effort does it take to make a phone call? A simple regular update goes a long ways.

[Cloud_Dancer]

I've visited several. They're more than I would expect. They have a lot of inventory, and I appreciate it. I know what I want, and they either have it, can get it for me, or I move on.
I've overnighted in a couple of their parking lots.
I do all my own maintenance and repairs.
The first one I actually visited was in Belleville Michigan, about 30 years ago. I was at Kalitta Air at Willow Run airport, and needed some RV stuff.

[nevadanick]

I dont care for the front desk person you have to get through. General RV has this same setup but when i said i didnt need any help that i wanted to look on my own they said ok. CW wasnt this way and insisted i needed a salesperson. Guess where i bought my motorhome.

[milo]

It all depends on the the person setting the policies. If the boss says customer service be #1 priority, then customer service will be #1 priority & the customer will be treated as you would expect. If boss doesn't care about the customer & only about the almighty buck then the business will suck.

[martipr]

The store on I-35 in south Fort Worth, TX has had very good service every time I have been there. The service dept, that's a different matter, rude, discourteous and inept. Hard to believe they are in the same building and, I suppose, under the same general manager.

[martipr]

4X4Dodger wrote:
During the trip I just finished with my 30ft TT from Minot ND to AZ and back I had the opportunity to stop at 4 different Camping World stores in 3 different states. I thought my experience might be helpful to some others (what stores to avoid or to use) or just amusing.

In terms of service the store near Flagstaff was the winner with attentive and helpful folks who actually knew something. (I bought a new generator and new propane hoses at this store)

The Big Loser was the store in Golden Colorado where I bought a "Jack E Up" where the very snippish and unhelpful worker argued with me about the name of the product, clearly didnt want to help (she was busy stocking shelves)and then couldnt find the product. Standing in the area where the product should have been she continued to argue with me and tell me I had the name wrong until I reached up over her head and plucked the item from the shelf, showing her the name.

The store in Colorado Springs was a case study in how NOT to treat customers. Gobs of staff hanging around all hunched over computer terminals or paperwork and no one to help you find something or answer a question. When you did get someones attention you got a blank look and the attitude "...dont bother me I'm doing important Paperwork" (purchased a generator cover and a bit for my portable drill to raise my stabilizers)

The Tuscon store on S. Palo Verde road has NO Parking for RV's of any size! What genius at GSE approved this site? There may have been parking in the rear but the gates are closed on weekends. When asked about it the young man helping me said "I just work inside and hear every day how our parking lot Sucks"

The BEST CW I have encountered was in Chicago area where the staff was excellent, helpful and friendly. (but not on this trip)

CW I feel is very like the rest of the Good Sam Enterprises conglomerate. Service is uneven, haphazard, ranges from very good to terrible and the only constant is that you will be endlessly harassed at checkout to renew, subscribe, sign-up etc before you are checked out. The very first word out of an employees mouth when confronted by a customer with an issue should be "I am Sorry" then "Let me try to help you with that" Not snippish remarks, argument, bad attitude and "Oh poor me I hear that everyday" complaints.

Sam Walton in his autobiography said and here I paraphrase....: "never let the process interfere with helping the customer" GSE needs to take this attitude to heart and put it into action.

This should be posted in the Dear Marcus forum.

[4X4Dodger]

Marcus??? You there? Are you listening?

[monkey44]

St Augustine CW can land on the 'extremely poor service" list as well. Too long for here, but a terrible experience in that store, more than once. I actually detailed what happened, and the Mod (or someone) deleted my post - posted again, and it got deleted again. It was posted in Dear Marcus section ... Every word was fact and truth.

I'll never go in a CW again for anything.

[Laman]

For the other side of the coin I was in the Bartow Fl. Camping World today and was promptly greeted with a smile and hello when I walked in the door and saw the same thing happen to others. As I browsed around I was asked a couple of times if I needed help. That part was good the fact that the 10 watt halogen bulb I needed was priced at 3.99 for one was not!

[Tango__AE7UI]

We used to enjoy visiting CW but they have changed too much and we no longer shop there.
Our local State Trailer RV and Outdoor Supply is more customer friendly.