July 21, 2009
Camping World Corporate
RV SERVICE DEPT 2 Marriott Drive Lincolnshire, Ill 60069
Re: Dothan Camping World 2961 Ross Clark Cir, #2 Dothan, Al 36301
Complaint: Quality of service-POOR, Knowledge of RV repair-POOR, Length of time for repair & organization POOR, Customer Service POOR (would not return phone calls)
Alternatives for RV'ers in Dothan, AL: BAMA RV and RUNAWAY RV
On March 28, 2009, we were advised by our insurance company to take our RV to Camping World in Dothan, AL. This was a week or so after we received the 12 inches of rain and we noticed some evidence of leaks in the ceiling.
It was at least 2 weeks before the insurance adjuster was able to go look at the damage, and after seeing the RV a claim was submitted to re-seal the roof. The original claim was around $1160.
Originally we were told the RV would be ready by the 24th of April because we had a trip planned for that weekend. It wasn't ready and we went to Dothan, got the RV, went on the trip and returned the RV the following Monday. While we were on this trip, we discovered the water had damaged the bathroom wall and wallpaper. We discussed this with Katie while inside the RV looking at the damage. We also discussed options available for replacing the wallpaper (because it was 15 years old). She assured me that they would do something with wood grain to match the wood in the cabinets.
Our motor coach is a 1992 Safari Ivory Edition. It may be old, but we are the 2nd owners of this coach and have treated it with kid gloves both prior owners did also. We have had this coach for 2 years now and have taken many weekend trips around the area. We are familiar with its' operation and also know there was nothing mechanically or electrically wrong with it.
From April 27th to May 15th , another estimate was submitted which was to replace the wall in the bathroom and clean the ceiling where the water had leaked. This was an additional $2600. As of May 15th, nothing had been done to our RV.
By this time I was getting upset. We were dealing with a man named Keith in Service and not having a lot of results. He is a very nice man- but I don't think he really understands RV service and repair. He is now telling us that the roof has to be replaced, not sealed (we found out after the fact that one of Camping World's service techs fell through it). My husband took off early from work to go look at the roof and he suggested that they just cover over the fiberglass roof. After 2 weeks of Keith not being able to figure out how to estimate the repair, and not returning my calls, I decided to make an unannounced visit and see for myself what was going on.
I had been told that the bathroom wall was finished and that the ceilings had been cleaned. When I walked into the coach I almost had a heart attack it was trashed! There was absolutely no power at all the electric steps wouldn't work and I literally had to climb into the RV. I was already inside when I heard Keith telling someone to roll a generator over to hook up electricity. I went to the bathroom and because of the skylight, could see plenty actually more than I wanted to see with lights on.
As I mentioned before, our motor coach is an older one, but everything in it is first class. Tile flooring in the bathroom, oak wood (real oak wood) throughout. Cedar lined closets, washer and dryer..it's a very nice older RV.
So finally Keith comes in and so does the young man who replaced the wall. I almost started crying right then. They had stapled up some kind of yellowish looking plywood and trimmed it with plastic/laminate trim. The trim was put on backwards, there were nails showing all around the trim and the staples were also showing on that horrid yellow piece of whatever it was. For the record, there is NOTHING in our bathroom that is yellow. The tech (Chris, I think was his name) was also the one who had disconnected the electric and evidently ran into some problems because he mentioned that was why the plug was hanging out of the vanity. Keith said the plug was bad and they had to replace it----I think now they might have blown it up.
There were cut pieces of plywood all over the place, everything was a mess and on top of it all, the tech pointed out this box he had built to cover the water connections it was made with the same crappy plywood on the wall and trimmed with the plastic laminate crap, and then set on top of the water connections. It was horrible.
I told Keith the wall was not what I had discussed with Katie. The tech went and got another piece of plywood and brought it out, they talked about tearing that wall out and putting in another one (and I'm thinking I would not see the RV for another 6 months) on top of that, it was very obvious that Keith AND Chris did not know what they were doing, and there was absolutely no quality to their work. Our RV had been there for 8 weeks and this is what had been done - just thinking about these people working on our roof scared me to death.
I told Keith I wanted to take our RV somewhere else. This was 9:00AM. I also told him that we wanted to pick it up around 4:30 that afternoon. We went out to settle the bill. I had the check from the insurance company, and I had already spoken with them about moving the RV. I told Keith that I was not happy with anything that had been done to the bathroom wall and also informed him that all that material would have to be ripped out and trashed, because that's all it was trash. I also asked why the ceilings had not been cleaned and he promised me they would be by 4:30pm. There was a $75 overnight shipping charge and I asked him to please find out what that was for. He said it was for the trim they had used to be overnighted!
I thought our nightmare was over after leaving Camping World and taking our RV to someone that knew what they were doing, but I was so wrong. Once we got the motorhome to Bama RV, a lot of things that were done incorrectly became evident. Both the insurance adjuster and Keith at Bama RV could not believe what they saw when they looked at the bathroom wall. When they went on the roof, they discovered the hole where someone at Camping World had fallen through, there was now a leak in the toilet fixtures and a huge gouge in the wood on the side of the vanity (where the box had been made to fit over). After seeing this, the insurance adjuster felt so bad about what had happened, he and Keith at Bama RV worked out a way for him to replace the crap used by Camping World and also replace the roof. We supplied Keith with some tongue and groove cypress and that's what he used on the wall. It is beautiful! That's also when he discovered the leak .
We got our motorhome back on July 14th. While driving it home and me following behind in the car, halfway home I smelled what I thought was fertilizer. We got home and when I walked over to the RV, I smelled the dame thing. My husband opened the generator doors and the hot temp light had tripped and cut it off. We let it cool and checked all the fluids everything was good and we thought it would cool down and reset. We decided to take it back to Bama Rv that night, because we didn't know if perhaps it had something to do with the AC units being removed and then put back on the roof. Keith said there was no connection with the AC units and, they were not able to get the generator to come back on. We brought the RV back home and connected our heavy-duty extension cord (like we have numerous times before) to get the refer cool before trips and 2 hours after connecting it, my husband just happened to check it and it was almost hot enough to melt! So, he started trying to see what else was wrong and discovered that the electric steps wouldn't work, when you plugged something into one outlet, another one would trip off.
We had a trip planned to visit my husband's parents in Memphis (which we had already moved back a week). We were trying to ready to leave Saturday July 18th. Friday, July 17th, my husband had to take off work and we went all over Dothan trying to find out what was wrong with the generator. Keith and my husband thought it might be the starter. After me calling around that morning, we went to Runaway RV and found that it was not the starter by the way, if you need RV service, I recommend them - they are honest and knowledgeable. And, if you need any other RV service; other than mechanical, take your RV to Bama RV. They replaced our fiberglass roof and all the wood and did an incredible job GREAT PEOPLE!
We ended up at Dothan Power Equipment (because they service Honda generators). The young man we spoke with was wonderful! I cannot say enough about the amazing customer service and quality advice we received from all of these people listed here. He checked the generator for us (even though they cannot work on RV generators, because they are hard-wired into the RV). After checking the spark plugs and fluids and smelling the oil, he believes that it might just be a bearing or something in the generator itself, but not the engine.
Our generator has 1010 hours on it hardly anything for a Honda 6.5 generator. It has never given us any problems for the past 2 years and we have never had any electrical problems. We replaced the motor in the steps last fall, so it is brand new.
While our RV was at Bama RV, I made several trips to stop in and see it- and I used the lights each time the electric step worked also.
While our RV was at Camping World, there was no power at all to the motorhome. They had to bring a generator over to give it power. When my husband left Camping World that afternoon and drove over to Bama RV, he did not turn on the generator, he just had the coach AC on. The first time we used the generator after getting the RV back from Camping World was when we brought it home from Bama RV.
After seeing the poor quality of work done by Camping World and having to take our RV somewhere we felt knew what they were doing; it is pretty evident to us that whatever they did when they claimed they replaced the plug in the bathroom and disconnected all power to the coach has caused our generator to overheat and seize up. We believe that when Camping World re-wired the bathroom plug, somehow they ran the wiring back through the inverter, and now the whole electrical system is not working properly.
I realize this is a long complaint, but I felt I needed to explain how frustrating and costly our experience with Camping World of Dothan has been. On top of not having our RV for 8 weeks, we now will incur an additional expense of around $2500 to have our generator repaired. You should also know that you have serious problems at Camping World of Dothan if you don't already.
I doubt I will receive a response, and I almost know you will not do anything about the cost we are going to face just to get our RV to work properly, but I do know that I intend to send this letter to the Better Business Bureau and post it on as many RV blogs as possible so that others will not have this happen to them.
Linda
Hartford, Alabama
U.S.A.