Complaint Review: Lazy Days - SEFFNER Florida

I had been thinking about going full time in an RV. My wife and I went to Florida and we stopped at “Lazy Days” to look at RVs. They gave us a really high pressure sale. We didn’t really want to buy but after all of the phone calls and them adding things to sweeten the deal, or so we thought, I talked my wife into it and made the purchase. A 2013 Tiffin Allegro 38QRA. We had gone home more than a week before they convinced us to buy, so they Fed Exed the papers and we signed on September 30. I had to make arrangement to go down there to pick it up. I asked them to make sure everything was in working order and they agreed. I had my appointment for training and inspection set for 8:00 AM on October 17. They were also to provide training on driving on their course.

I arrived the night before and stayed in the RV overnight. The 8:00 AM appointment didn’t start until 10:30 since the trainer got there late and had to go to an hour meeting that started at 9:00. When he finally showed up, we started going through the RV and I started finding issues immediately. They knew that I was scheduled to leave that day to drive it home. With the number of problems I found, the trainer said it had to go to the shop to be ready that day and the training stopped. I asked them if I could just cancel the sale since it was not as described but was told that the deal was already finalized. I finally got it back at 3:30 with some of the issues fixed. They told me that since I had purchased the extended warranty, I would be able to get the rest fixed easily. Then they told me that the driving course is only open Wednesday and Thursday so there would be no driver training. I left to drive back to the Richmond VA are around 4:30. Within 10 miles the fuse for the radio/GPS blew and I asked if I could bring it back and have it replaced. They said there was no one available to help.

Needless to say, I drove it home. My wife decided she doesn’t like the layout inside and does not like that it does not have an oven or booth.

It took Lazy Days until November 17 to get the clear title to me. This means it sat without plates in my driveway without plates after November 16 since that was the expiration date on the temporary tags. I finally got it registered the beginning of December. I convinced my wife to take a four day trip just after Christmas. This is where we found lots of other things that were issues. During the trip, three lights in the back bathroom and bedroom stopped working. There is wiring that they said would allow us to play the DVD player on any of the TVs, that didn’t work. The electric element in the hot water heater didn’t work but at least the propane did. Needless to say, my wife was incensed. By the fourth day, she couldn’t wait to get out of the RV and back home.

I called the extended warranty company and they told me that I could take it anywhere I wanted for service. I went to the Tiffin web site and looked for a repair place near where I live. They showed “RV Service of VA.” It is about 45 minutes from where I live so I took it there. The RV was there from January 2 until February 3. I called them for a status and was told they weren’t done but my part of the bill was $840 and change. I started asking questions and they informed me that the extended warranty company would not cover the light issues since it was lose wiring and a popped circuit breaker for one light. Removing the crimp connection and installing the new one for one light cost $86.80, for the other it was $62.00 for tightening a screw. Resetting the breaker cost $37.20. They also charged me for labor where the number of hours was above what the extended warranty company would allow. I told them that I didn’t want to have anything done that the extended warranty would not cover. They informed me that they decided to stop working on it and I had to come and get it or they would start charging $65.00/day for storage.

When I picked the RV up, they did allow one of their employees to come out for me to see what they did. At least now, I know where the circuit breakers are, too bad Lazy Days didn’t take the time to give me training on the RV.

Needless to say, this has left a bad taste in our mouth for RVing. I am sure there are probably reputable RV dealers and repair places but don’t expect to find any. We have contacted a lawyer and are getting ready to start litigation with Lazy Days due to their violations of the Florida consumer related laws. Our lawyer has given them until February 15 to respond to avoid going to court. I don’t know how this will turn out but it is running my marriage and financial health as well. They lead you to believe that the extended warranty will handle most issues but as we found out, it covers less than half.

I did figure out how to diagnose the issue with the HDMI cabling and plan to get it fixed this weekend. It looks like Lazy Days tried to fix it but hooked the wires up incorrectly. There are no tags on the wires so I will have to connect then to the DVD player, figure out where they go and mark them. I have worked with electronics since the late ‘70s and was amazed that the manufacturers don’t do this. The manuals are somewhat of a joke since they don’t cover the actual RV, just a set of RVs and other manuals for what they installed but nothing to tie things together. I think the manufacturers should provide DVDs with instructions and troubleshooting information, especially since their certified technicians don’t seem know the RVs very well either. At least with an instructional DVD, both the customer and repair place could review how things should be working and how to troubleshoot things. I plan to create a video of how I debug the Video issues and how I fix it and post in on the web so it may help someone else.

I recommend people steer clear of both Lazy Days and RV Service of VA. I don’t think either are ethical or worthwhile. Needless to say, if we get rid of this we will probably never try again.