Big Fees to buy at Camping World?

[Boomer719]

Has anyone else encountered what I think are excessive fees at Camping World?

Looked at a new Coleman travel trailer and found out they were tacking on the following over and above the price of the trailer:

Dealer fee: $495
Prep fee: $895
Transportation and Delivery fee: $2,250

Salesperson bragged that their profits were through the roof because of this new pricing policy...why would anyone be foolish enough to pay this excessive padding on a deal?

[GrandpaKip]

rbpru wrote:
When a bought my last two TVs and my TT I use the same approach, I told the dealers that I am talking the dollar number that I am writing on the check and I only bring one check.

I make it a point to be sure that they understand, any fees, taxes and such are included in the price I am quoted. Anything else comes out of their pocket.

Yep, TV and TT, and if they had tried to add any more to them, I would have waved goodbye.

[the_happiestcam]

rbpru wrote:
When a bought my last two TVs and my TT I use the same approach, I told the dealers that I am talking the dollar number that I am writing on the check and I only bring one check.

I make it a point to be sure that they understand, any fees, taxes and such are included in the price I am quoted. Anything else comes out of their pocket.

Exactly what I've done - "I'll write a check for $15,000 even."

[rbpru]

When a bought my last two TVs and my TT I use the same approach, I told the dealers that I am talking the dollar number that I am writing on the check and I only bring one check.

I make it a point to be sure that they understand, any fees, taxes and such are included in the price I am quoted. Anything else comes out of their pocket.

[Walaby]

My local CW gave me a price on a TT... Told me $750 doc fee, plus half of the prep cost (she quoted $1100 as my portion of prep), and half the transportation cost (over a grand for that). My wife was like 'what the heck', to which the sales person replied... 'we have to start somewhere', and then the wife jumped up and said 'start somewhere with someone else' and was out the door with me just smiling and said 'what she said'... as I walked out.

Went across the street to the local Campers Inn... $200 doc fee.. that was it. No other fees. Still, negotiated to bottom line but nice to deal with a dealer who didn't play the adder game.

Mike

[Bumpyroad]

fdhealy4 wrote:
I bought a TT from CW last spring. I was charged the first two fees you mentioned but not the delivery fee. I almost walked as it was but if they had thrown on the delivery charge I would have definitely walked out.

seems to me that the delivery/shipping fee was the only correct one, if the amount$$$ made sense.
bumpy

[DC8Captain]

I bought a TT from CW last spring. I was charged the first two fees you mentioned but not the delivery fee. I almost walked as it was but if they had thrown on the delivery charge I would have definitely walked out.

[ng2951]

Boomer719 wrote:
Has anyone else encountered what I think are excessive fees at Camping World?

Looked at a new Coleman travel trailer and found out they were tacking on the following over and above the price of the trailer:

Dealer fee: $495
Prep fee: $895
Transportation and Delivery fee: $2,250
...

Yeah? Surprised?

If you can buy the same unit from different dealers you can swing a better deal by playing them against each other. It is more difficult because unlike car dealers the outlets are fewer and farther apart.

They also make it difficult by having different fees they charge (to offset trade-in values etc) and that warranty service is usually provided by the seller and not manufacturer. They will eventually get around to servicing the manufacturer's warranty on a unit they didn't sell, but they are going to be slower at honoring the manufacturer's warranty.

I haven't seen a CW being any worse than anyone else.

If they sold TT on eBay you might get a better deal.

[kerrlakeRoo]

The first telltale sign of a dealership I want to leave is when the salesman ask "What payment were you looking for?"
That tells you they will custom taylor the package to meet that payment with whatever lender they can, and will do so with the maximum number of months possible.
Anymore the car loans outlive the cars. And I wont do it.

[Hannibal]

If you agree to an Out The Door price, that's the amount of the check that includes any taxes, fees, dealer costs, prep etc to drive the vehicle off of the lot with no balance owed. They can plug it into the loan calculator and spread it out where needed. When I bought my Prius XSP work car in 2013, I offered $28k OTD for the $32k car. We went from "Toyotas sell themselves and aren't up for negotiation" to "We'll take $28k OTD but we're not making any money on it". Guilt trip tactic as no is a perfectly ok counter offer. After printing out all of the paperwork, the salesman realized he forgot to add the tag transfer fee to the state. Rather than start the paperwork all over again, I agreed to write an additional check for $135 rather than go by the DMV myself. I was happy with the deal and I have no doubt they made money on it or they wouldn't have sold it to me. They just made $4k~ less than they had hoped for.
They were probably glad to see me leave the Jayco shop too lol!

[Shal36]

The frustrating thing about the fees is that it makes it very difficult to shop online and get an apples to apples comparison. As noted above, these fees also tend to pop up on the paperwork after you've talked and agreeed on a price. Most adults will know that there will be "real" additional costs like tax, title and tag. That's a given. And most of us know to expect some sort of dealer fee. What chaps me is when some kind of creative fee pops up on that final version of the buyers order.

What the fees do is pad the bottom line and throws off all of the comparison shopping you've done. I think dealers hope you are either so tired at the end of he process as to miss this stuff or you're so invested by the end that you'll just give in. And yes, I've had deals where the numbers were discussed on the phone before I drove in and then some sort of magical fee appeared. You can't believe most of what the dealer tells you numbers wise until you physically see the buyers order.

[Hannibal]

Any price I agree to is OTD price. A car dealer tried to add stuff to the price we agreed to years ago and hide the final price with his thumb for me to sign the agreement. After arguing over his deception and price change, he asked if I would really walk away from the deal over $700. I replied "yes, would you"? We got up to leave and he backed down to the original price OTD. They play hardball and they can be very pushy and manipulative. Be sure to bring your bat and play hardball right back at them. Never forget the fact that you don't "need" their product. They "need" to sell it as it's their source of income. You are "never" at the mercy of a sales person. And never let them make you feel like you owe them anything for the time they've spent trying to coerce you into a deal you're not comfortable with. They're full of tricks and mind games but you hold the check book. If you feel pressured or bullied, leave.

[joshuajim]

The bottom line is what matters most. I don't care if a dealer charges 50 percent fees as long as the bottom line works. Actually, in this case, the high fees are good because I don't pay sales tax or license on "fees".

[Vintage465]

When we were looking for our trailer we narrowed it down to two dealers. One had all the fee's and the other didn't. The difference was $2500.00. When I tried to get the "fee's dealer" to "maybe swap out the single 12v battery for a couple 6v batteries", to try and level out the difference just a little, they would have no part of it. So believe it or not, I was happy to drive 7hrs to "Los Angeles's Oldest RV Dealer" and get my new rig. They were just so much easier to work with than the local "Chain" dealer. I'd go there again in a minute.

[beemerphile1]

You are going to pay delivery, prep, dealer fee, the water bill, the electric bill, the building rent, the sales persons paycheck, the secretary's paycheck, the owner's car payment and everything else no matter how it is listed on the contract. It makes no difference, only the final price matters.