Complaint Review: Camper & Trailer Outlet - El Cajon California

Don’t walk away from Camper & Trailer Outlet in El Cajon…RUN as FAST as you can and DON’T look back.  If I could give ZERO stars I would, but that is not an option.  I will never use this company for anything.  I wouldn’t rent or buy anything from them.  They do not know how to take care of their clients nor do they take care of their equipment.  This is a SHADY; I repeat SHADY company.  They don’t take care of their trailers and wait for the trailer to be rented and hold the renter responsible for THEIR NEGLIGENCE.  The contract that they make a renter sign puts all responsibility on the renter and the company takes no responsibility for anything.  We should have known from the minute we arrived to rent the 21” toy hauler to go the other direction. 

To start our horrible experience, when we went to pick up the trailer, they were REPLACING locks on the trailer and the jack after the trailer was hooked up to our car.  We got nervous this trailer was going to be stuck or ruin our brand new vehicle.  Also, at the time of pick up, they stated the water and black water gauge was broken and would only read 1/3 full, but all the fresh water was filled.  Turns out once we arrived out in the desert, we only had approximately 5 gallons of water and of course we ran out on our first day there (with our two small children in tow).  It is NOT a good thing to run out of water, but especially in the middle of the desert.  Toy Haulers are made to be out in the middle of nowhere for longer periods of time, this should NEVER have happened!!!

I am a clean freak.  I don’t expect things to be to my standard of cleanliness; however, the condition of the inside of this trailer was UNACCEPTABLE!!!  There was yellow gunk stuck to the walls and other gross things that had to be scrubbed off the floor.  It looked like this thing had not been cleaned in months!!!  No one should have to clean up someone else’s mess like this.

The tie down hooks for the quads and bikes were pulling out of the floor and had us concerned about our gear.  In addition, there were outlets that didn’t work (literally made toast in the bathroom – gross)!  We only had two windows that could open because all the other window openers had been broken off by previous renters. 

We had to fix the stove because we continued to smell propane.  The trailer had two propane tanks attached.  Again we were told we were good to go, once again, we were not.  We ran out of propane as well.  Our food spoiled on our second day there. 

The real kicker with our renting experience with this company happened on our way home (the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend) from the desert.  We literally had a tire BREAK off the trailer along the S2.  We contacted the company and explained that a tire broke off the trailer and needed to be towed.  The owner contacted a tow truck company and sent them out to us.  We told the owner that we would have it towed to our house which was closer than their facility, so they could pick it up the next day.  After the trailer was towed to our house, the tow truck company called the owner to collect payment via credit card and the owner was unwilling to pay!!!!!!  The owner said the tow truck company quoted $180 flat rate when in actuality it was $180/ hour, so when the bill was over $400 he refused to pay.  The tow truck company then proceeded to reload the trailer and take it to their storage lot.  He called me and asked me why I wasn’t stopping them from reloading the trailer.  I had to remind him that he was the one to contact this tow truck company and it’s on him.  This was not my trailer and not my fault for his misunderstanding of the tow quote.  The owner agreed to pay finally, but told me I would be responsible for half – HELL NO!!!  This is not my fault the maintenance on the trailer was not done and the tire broke off under normal driving conditions.  Thankfully no one was hurt or a fire wasn’t started.  Things on the side of the road could have been much worse (it would have been nice if they asked if we were ok, but they don’t care about the people they rent to at all).

Unfortunately, the tire drama continues.  This is where Camper & Trailer Outlet gets really SHADY with their business dealings.  They filed a claim with our insurance company for the tire and damage the tire caused to the trailer when it broke off again not taking any responsibility at all.  They stated that this is all in the contract and that they do not keep insurance on the trailers.  The trailers are only insured by the renters when rented according to their business practices.  Its Camper & Trailer Outlet’s responsibility to make sure all their equipment works properly and make sure lug nuts & bolts are tightened correctly – OBVIOUSLY this did NOT happen in our case.  After much back and forth, our insurance company agreed to their claims and wrote them a check.  The Camper & Trailer Outlet then snuck the tow truck charge into the claim without us knowing (and we got stuck with this entire bill too).

Now that ‘the dust has settled’ a tad on this hot button issue, we contacted the company again inquiring about how they planned to right a wrong (running out of water, propane, etc).  They didn’t think they should have to do anything to compensate for their negligence.  They did eventually agree to offer a $50 credit or a free night on our next rental (are you kidding me)!!!!  For the amount of money we sent per night for a piece of junk trailer, we could have stayed at a really nice hotel.  We are so tired and done with dealing with them.  We are hacking this one up to a hard expensive life lesson.  Don’t make the same mistake we did.  RUN!!!!