What's up with RV Sales People?

tallerguy68 wrote:
PPL is a unique dealership that has a very different business model compared other RV dealers. The vast majority of what PPL sells is consignment, meaning someone else owns the unit. PPL also sells more RV's than any two RV dealerships in Texas put together. Meaning the dealership is not the place where you find a unit you want and then spend a week thinking about whether or not you want to buy it, more often than not the unit will be gone by the time you get back.

As far as salesmen not answering the phone...The best way to get a hold of one is to leave a voicemail or leave a message with a receptionist. PPL will frequently sell 15 units on a Tuesday, and there are only so many salesman. About 325k people visit PPl's lot every month, just like every other business the customer standing in front of you will always take priority over a phone call. Certain days of the week and times will greatly increase your likelihood of getting a hold of someone. Forget about getting a hold of anyone on Friday or Saturday, not saying you wont get called back, but you will have to leave a message and possibly wait a few hours for a call back. However if you call between 8:30am-3pm Mon-Thursday you stand a pretty good chance of getting a salesman on the phone.

PPL also compensates it's salesman on an hourly rate and not on a commission system. Most customers see this as a positive because PPL never does high pressure sales. PPL salesmen will also be forthcoming with any information they have on a unit and when dealing with customers calling from out of state the salesmen are trained to be very objective to ensure customers do not waste money on travel. Even when dealing with customers in person, after the customer has seen the unit, most salesmen will walk back out to the unit with the customer and inspect the unit and show the customer any issues they find.

PPL does offer an inspection and demonstration that the buyer can chose to pay for. The inspection is beyond what the salesmen will do as it addresses all the major RV components. The inspection does not cover structural aspects or the power train of a coach. But it does cover items like jacks, refrigerator, AC, range, oven, power steps, black water tank, grey water tank, plumbing, sewage system, trailer brake, propane system, inverter and converter. If any of the items checked in the inspection are found to be broken the seller is called with an estimate for the repairs. If the seller declines the repairs needed the buyer can walk from the deal or counter offer based on the information. The whole process is very similar to buying a house in alot of ways.

PPL has been in the RV business for a long time, and have many return customers. PPL shoots straight and wants nothing more than satisfied buyers and sellers. I do truly apologize for the issues you have had thus far, I hope this was informative and I hope you give PPL another chance soon.

May want to rethink a couple of your points. There is no way 325,000 people visit the lots every month. That would be over 10,000 a day. Impossible. My experience was very different from what you described, both from the point of view of the buyer and as a seller. I had consigned a 6 year old 45 foot Diesel Pusher. It never sold, and I never got a call from anyone. When I went to pick it up, I found it in about a 6 inches of mud. It was obvious it had been in that mud for some time, because weeds and moss had grown up into the engine compartment. Since the rig was only there for three months, I had to assume that was it's spot the entire time.
When I went to pick it up, it was obvious there was a problem. It would not start. The batteries were dead, even though I was assured all rigs were started regularly. The issue turned out to be a control board for the engine had failed. Not the fault of PPL, but I was never informed there was a problem with the rig. With it unable to start, it was obvious there was no chance it could have ever sold. On top of that many knobs and buttons were missing. Apparently people walking though the rigs unattended felt that my rig was the perfect parts vehicle, or they felt they needed souvenirs from their visit.
Since it took 3 days to fix the thing, I was there a often. NEVER did I see a salesperson helping anyone. Since I had nothing to do but wander, I tried to look at rigs. Many were packed so tightly together there was no way to enter them. I bet those owners had no idea there was no way their rigs would sell either. The only way to look at them were to get a non-existent salesperson to get a non-existent vehicle to pull them out so the doors could be opened. I found this to be the norm for fifth wheels and travel trailers.
The sales board was full of sales, but the vast majority were rigs that were quite old. My guess the average sale rig was over 15 years old, especially in the motorhomes. Sure wish I had known that before I drove 1500 miles to place my much newer rig there. I learned my lesson, PPL is not for me.