Complaint Review: Camping World of Cedar Falls - Cedar Falls Iowa

Where do I begin?  This is our nightmare and possibly a lawyers dream!  Well, we had been trying to buy a trailer from Camping World in Cedar Falls, IA for over a year (that should have told us something).  We went through several Sales People (they seem to leave the company or were moved to a different department a lot) as they didn't seem to know what we were looking for in a trailer.  They would call us about ones with options that we told them several times we did not want on our trailer.  I was tired of all the contact about ones we didn't even want so I wrote an email to the CEO, Marcus Lemonis.  

I got the usual reply back from someone else he supposedly asked to reply with the usual $10 gift certificate attached.  I finally called the first Sales Person, Susie, (she knew what we were looking to get) even though she was not in sales, asked her whom to talk to for us to get a trailer.  She provided a name of someone and I told her I would call him.  I called the next day and asked for him but was asked what it was about which I told them "we would like to buy a camper from you guys and need someone to help get us one like we want."  She transferred me to someone that said they were the person I asked for and that he was the "Top" Salesperson in Camping World.  

He also stated that he would help us get a camper that we wanted and asked what option we were wanting.  I gave him the list of options and he suggested (very pushy) to come to see what they had on the lot.  I mentioned we are a couple of hours away and we would be there on the Saturday, he would have options picked out to show us.  In the mean time we checked the web site and found a couple of used ones and new ones.  I wrote down ALL the information about them, stock number, description and price.  They were running a special financing name your payment type of deal on the new ones and we thought that might be the way to go.  

We went up there that week-end, the salesperson met us at the door and took us to his office.  I gave him the list of what we had picked out and he did not seem to have any options for us anyway.  We went out to look at the used ones first and then he mentioned that we could get a better deal if we went with a new one.  So he took us out to the new ones.  We looked at the first two on the list which we really liked so he mentioned that we should not even look at the third one as it would just confuse us.  We went back inside to talk it over and to see what we could do for financing.  We decided on the first one as it was the lay-out that was best for us so we proceeded with "the numbers."  

He told us that we would have 2-30 lb. filled lp tanks, 3 years of the Good Sams Club Elite membership, road side assistance, $1,000 in Camping World coupons, magazine, walk through and it would be detailed.  He went over what we had for a trade and all its options then checked with someone else in a different office.  He came back with an offer of $1,500 which was a little less than we were wanting and also wanted $1,000 down (10%) to get the financing we wanted.  He then had the other person come in to go over our application to finance and we told him what we wanted the payment to be which he felt it could be done.  We had to give them the down payment and sign the purchase agreement then they told us they would run it first thing Monday and let us know.

On Tuesday afternoon I called THEM but could not get a hold of either of them and was told they would call back.  Finally later that afternoon the salesperson called me to give me the financing details which the payment was twice as much as what we told him.  He said that he would see what he could do and maybe get the payment down a little.  Two days later he called and told me that he was not able to get it changed so I told him we would discuss it and maybe we would consider a different trailer.  We got back on the web and checked the second & third options, deciding on the third option for the one we wanted to get.  I also noticed the price had gone up since we were there looking.  

I called the salesperson the next day to tell him to go with our decision but wanted to make sure we were getting it for the price it was the day we were there and to make sure they would still give us the $1,500 for our trade and to see if we would pay less down since this one was less?  He stated that they would honor the price it was the day we looked at the others and the trade allowance would be the same but they would keep the down payment (already made on the other one) to apply to this one.  Once again I had to call them, 3 days later to see what was going on with the financing and he told me the details.  I stressed to him that is not what we discussed for a payment or terms so he said he would have the General Manager, Mike call me by a set time.  Guess what, he did not call at that time so I called the salesperson and he said he would have him call soon.  

Finally the GM, Mike called to give me some story about why they could not now honor the price that it was the day we were there and asked if maybe we could cut some of the extras that the salesperson, Steve, had put on our deal.  I informed him that we were not aware of any add-ons and wanted to know what they were.  He told me that he would look them over and see if we could drop some of them to get the payment that we wanted.  He called early evening & told me that he would go with the price that day and throw in a 5 year extended warranty, 3 year Good Sam Club Elite membership, etc. but we would not have the carpet protector or outside/roof protector put on.  The payment would be in our range (the maximum), have it ready the next day and wanted to know if we have a deal?  I told him that if that was the deal we would be there the next day, Saturday, in the afternoon and he said they would expect us then.

The next morning I spent several hours emptying our camper and cleaning it.  We took off and headed for Cedar Falls, had several text messages wanting to know how soon we would be there so a tank of gas later, arrived at 2:30 PM.  The salesperson met us outside to direct us around to the back to leave our pickup & trailer so they could unhook it and we could do our walk through.  Mike, in the service department, provided an EXCELLENT walk through where we pointed out some of the trim popped off, the split in the kitchen table and the trim on the refrigerator door coming off, etc.  The salesperson had switched our plate (which is good until May of 2015) to the new one then took us in to the finance office.  There we met with another Steve who had a stack of papers for us to sign.  I asked to see the purchase agreement with all the finance numbers but he replied that we had to go through these other papers first.  

After signing and initialing several papers (which he did not really explain what they were about) he finally got to the purchase agreement.  First we stressed that it was to read myself AND the other party as our insurance requests but he stated that Iowa is an "or" state but he would put it down.  Then for the figures, they were not at all what I was told, the price was not what we were told, we were charged for lp, extended warranty and many other things that we were not told about.  I was very mad and plainly told him that they had "stuck us" and asked to talk to the GM or salesperson.  He did not make an attempt to get either one and told us to proceed which I mentioned that I was not happy about it but they had us.  So we, with anger, signed the papers and he gave us our copies but mentioned to get our 4 references sent to him and left.  The salesperson met us outside and I expressed our anger which he just laughed it off.

We stopped to fill up with gas & proceeded home arriving a half a tank later.  We went over the rushed paperwork to find that we were charged for everything we were told would be included.  I sent another email to the CEO, Marcus only to get (a week later) the usual reply and another $10 gift certificate which we will never use.  The next day I received a call from the GM to discuss the offer that Marcus had supposedly talked to him about.  He did not really listen to our issues and just plainly said that we could bring the new one back and they would give us our old one.  I laughed at him and said are you serious, after the gas and time we have put in to this?  We are not unhappy with the camper but the transaction to purchase it.  He bluntly told me that this is what he will do: 

Here is what I am offering to you to help with the issues to give us another chance to do business with you.

 1. A $50 gift card Towards the cost of the LP or to be used in the store

2. This spring, we will do warranty work for her and at that time we will detail the unit again

3. A requested  copy of the Warranty and where you can use it should you need to.

4. This spring your  De winterization will be at no cost.

 Thanks again for doing business with us, hopefully we can rectify your issues so that if you need our services, we will be there for you.

Seriously!!  Do you really think this is fair?  First of all we will NOT ever trade there again and most likely will not be buying anything there.  We are not sure what is or is not on this camper since we did not get any info from them what was ordered on it.  We are not sure if the warranty is through the Keystone company or someone else but if it is with Keystone, we have a dealer closer and more HONEST.  Now we find out they went and licensed it again for June so where is our refund?  What a mess!!   As far a we are concerned, Camping World is just as most of the reviews say, liars, dishonest, rip off and don't know what they are doing.  I think we shall proceed with The Better Business Bureau, Attorney General and maybe a lawyer.  I guess we should have read the reviews first and hope others do read them before they make the big mistake!