Complaint Review: Lewis RV Center - Oklahoma City Oklahoma

On 7/6/2024 I called Lewis RV in OKC to inquire if they carried a product called softstart. I spoke with an employee by the name of Sue who informed me that they did have a softstart on hand for $349. 

Even though the price was higher than what I had seen online, I wanted to get it right away and get it installed so that my wife and I could get relief from the sweltering temperatures as we are elderly and are moving from a more temperate climate in Western WA. 

So I drove to Lewis RV located at 1600 Reno Ave in Oklahoma City Oklahoma 73117. I met Sue and she had the softstart waiting for me at her desk and she briefly showed me the instructions outlining the 4 “easy” steps to install.  I paid for it in full with my credit card and was on my way. 

I then arranged for installation by contacting Cornerstone RV Repair and the installation was set for 07/09/2024. The installation took place on that day, but, the A/C would not run. It would start and then almost immediately shut down. 

I was advised by Aaron that the unit was not functioning properly, and that the directions provided were missing information and we discussed contacting the manufacturer for support. 

In the meantime, I could not let my wife and I swelter in the 100+ degree heat so that night I went and bought a generator for $868. Upon arriving home I set up the generator according to the instructions and fired it up. I connected it to our RV and turned the A/C on, as we were waiting for the cool air to start flowing, moments after I turned the A/C on, the electric in the RV shut down, again. I called my mechanic who suggested he come by and remove the softstart sold by Lewis RV because it should run off of a 30 amp generator. 

After the softstart was removed on the evening of the 10th I once again fired up the generator and plugged it in to the RV. The A/C started… and kept running… all night!

Clearly, their was a problem with the softstart. So on 07/11/2024 I contacted Sue at Lewis RV to get the customer service phone number for RVAC Solutions, the manufacturer of the softstart. She was going to get me the number, but stated their internet was down. I later that morning found out that the company website was no longer active. It was apparently shut down. 

Sue said to hang on, another employee nearby said she had the phone number for the company representative whose name is Tina G and Sue gave me the number. I called the number and it went to voicemail. In the VM Greeting there was no mention of the name of the company or the individual that I was calling. Just a reference to “extension 1001”. It seemed a little strange, but I still left a message stating who I was looking for and the purpose of my call. 

Because it seemed odd to me I started doing a little online research. Doing a search by company name it brought up the company website, rvacsolutions.com and it is not an active website.  

After I saw this I initially suspected that I didn’t have internet but as soon as I remembered that Sue said her internet was down I suspected that:

1, This company was no longer in business and

2, when Sue saw the message, her assumption was that the internet was down. 

 I still continued to try to see if there was a way to contact RVAC Solutions to get the help that might put me back on track to getting the permanent solution installed. All I could find were some social media accounts that were inactive since October of 2023. 

I recontacted Lewis RV and asked for Sue, she wasn’t available but I did speak with Porsche, and when I told her the reason I wanted to speak with Sue, Porsche said she was the one who had Tina G’s phone on her email.  I asked Porsche how old the email was and she said about 2 years ago. This was further confirmation of my suspicion that this company had gone out of business. There was clearly not going to be any help or support to get the softstart installed. 

When I mentioned to Porsche that with a defective part and with no help or support to get it functioning properly that I would bring it back for a refund, and she informed me that any part that had been installed was not eligible for a refund. 

I am seeking other remedies until such time as they see fit to refund my purchase price due to selling a defective part to me.