Complaint Review: Ron Hoover Marine and RV - Houston Texas

Robert from Lake Havasu, Arizona is 100% accurate in his statements about Ron Hoover RV.

I am a disabled vet, and even after $10,000 in repairs (which I had to pay for) I have lived a total nightmare since choosing like a mullet to buy a used unit from Ron Hoover Oasis Marine in La Marque, Texas in August 2015,

Because I was an idiot and did not do my homework properly, I have a $40,000 dead RV sitting outside that is going to take me another several thousand dollars to repair, because Ron Hoover took my money and did not deliver the goods.

My story starts in August 2015 and has been nothing short of a total nightmare ever since.

I purchased what was advertised at the time as a 2005 Fleetwood Southwind 35B for $42,000 from Ron Hoover RV in La Marque Texas in August 2015.

When I received my registration 40 days after purchasing the unit, I found out that it was actually a 2004 Fleetwood Southwind 35b that was actually only worth $25,000.  When I complained, I was told basically, too bad so sad.  You had the unit more than 15 days, and there is nothing we can do for you.

Two days later, my front air conditioner stopped working, and the power converter went dead.

As happened when I complained about the unit not being what I was told it was, when I complained to Ron Hoover I was told, too bad so sad.  The salesman who sold you the unit offered you an extended warranty but you turned it down. - I told them 'no’ I was not offered an extended warranty. and that in fact when I asked about one during the sale I was told Ron Hoover did not offer extended warranties on a unit as old as mine'.

The response was, sorry, there is nothing we can do for you.  So I ordered a converter, and had it shipped to me by a third party recommended by Ron Hoover.  It took weeks to arrive, and I finally had to install it myself.  So, after spending more than $2,000 I finally managed to get the air conditioner and power working again.

Only to have my power pole hit by lightning three weeks later and having to order a new EMS controller board and another converter, because the Ron Hoover Oasis RV Park power poles were not properly grounded and my system fried because the breaker did not pop like it should have.

SO that was another $1,000.

After that, there was not a month went by that something did not break or I did not find something incorrectly wired/hooked up on the RV. 

The refrigerator (5 times), Hot water heater, cable system, water pump (twice - there are two power switches), hydraulic leveling system, and the like.  All costing me money even thoguht wverytihg involved something that should have been checked and made right before the unit was sold by Ron Hoover.

And, getting parts or having calls returned by the Service Department?  Forget it.  They don't call back.  Everyone smiles.  Everyone acts like you are important, but comes to performance and getting action out of them, it is nothing but a total, frustrating nightmare of excuses and pointing fingers at others in the company.

Then along comes Hurricane Harvey.  Boy what a mess.

My main Livingroom slide twisted and would not come in.  The rear bedroom slide started leaking.  The rood started leaking, the hydraulic levelers stopped working, my automatic door step was cycling open-closed, and the floor started peeling from the water.

And, because I was living in the Ron Hoover Oasis RV Park, I once again foolishly decided to have Ron Hoover give me an estimate and do the repairs.

The estimate was made in early October, and I did not get my unit back until the end of January.

And, drumroll... Lo and Behold, no surprise, I was charged $7,900 dollars the exact amount of the insurance check) but the unit was not repaired.

The roof still leaks,

The front Livingroom slide still sticks and does not always operate.  As I learned from talking to the techs, the jacked the slide, got it unstuck and it started working. So they never looked any further or did anything else to it.

Same thing with the leveler system.  Someone smacked the legs with a hammer, everything finally retracted and reset. So they never looked any further or did anything else.  It still sticks and goes into fault mode intermittently.

The floor was not repaired (they could not find the flooring).

The rear bedroom slide still leaks when it rains.

And, what is more, when I picked the unit up, I noticed that 120v power was not working when I hooked up to shore power (it had not been a problem when Ron Hoover took the unit in for repair).

When I talked to the service department, I was told, "we really don't work on electrical systems or have anyone who really knows a lot about them. You need to take it to someone else and have them look at It.'4

After a little jiggling of wires by a guy with a meter, the power came back on.  So Ron Hoover called it good, and "graciously” did not charge me for the tech's time.

However, when I went in and settled the bill, I was shown a bill for $7,400 or so.  When I asked them what they were going to do about the $500 difference between the insurance check and the bill I was told, Öh, we just keep the difference.  We cannot refund any money from the insurance check." I said, I don't think that is legal, and was told, that is the way we do it.

So, I glumly drove off (with a front left headlight that has been burned out and was supposed to be replaced by Ron Hoover since the day I bought the unit).

When I arrived home with my 2004 (not 2005), basically worthless Fleetwood Southwind, I found that the electricity did not work, and no matter what I do, it has never worked since leaving Ron Hoover in La Marque.  What is more, my television antenna was stuck in the up position (I guess it was jammed when it was being looked at in the shop), and it was knocked off (further damaging my roof) on my way home to Edna, Texas.  And, to top it all off, the panel cover over the refrigerator controls on the driver's side of the unit was not latched properly (but I did not know it) and is somewhere on the side of the road between La Marque and Bay City Texas.

So, to sum it up, Robert from Lake Havasu, Arizona is much more kind in his comments about Ron Hoover than the company deserves.

They lied to me about the make and model of the unit before and during the sale.  They lied about the condition of the unit when I bought it.  They lied about the work they did repairing my unit, and their service is a nightmare.

And, I am stuck making payments on a piece of garbage that does not work.

Ron Hoover is not only dishonest, they fraudulently claimed they did work they did not do, and kept money from the insurance company that was not theirs to keep.

Ron Hoover is a bunch of rip-off con artists who stole money through fraudulent advertising, sales, and service  activities. Over and over again from the initial sale right up until I left Oasis RV Park with a pievce of garbage Fleewood SOuthwind that in unable to be used for anything more than a doorstop at this point.

 While it is true we might not have done everything right. This is my side of the story. We reviewed the customers estimate from his insurance company. Submitted a suplement. We also subbmitted some repairs to his service contract. While waiting on approvals the customer stayed in his unit off property. Once we found out what was approved and not approved, we took a deposit and ordered parts. The customer was given a date when we thought we would have the parts (first mistake). A month or so had gone by, we did not get the parts yet. The customer calls, unhappy that we have not kept in contact about the ordered parts (second mistake). We checked status, presented the date, offered to refund the deposit and part ways. The customer declined to part ways, we aggreed (third mistake). Once the parts were recieved, we picked up the customers unit, completed the repairs in the allotted time. We also repaired several items that were not covered under his insurance or his service policy (fourth mistake). After the customer took delivery there were a few repairs he was not happy with and we left some debree in his shower from the roof replacement. One of the repairs we had noted as no work done. This turned out to be incorrect, we had made some adjustments. We later repaired or made it better. We had to order more parts again we didn't keep in contact with him during the waiting process (fifth mistake). Several months later maybe even a year, the customer called us and informed us that we should have replaced his surge protector. We had not charged for it but his insurance company had stated that it was part of the original estimate (hail damage), in good faith we reimbursed the customer. Our final mistake was that we asked him to remove or update a negative review. I will close by saying that we don't always get it right but when we don't we always try to make it right. I have to just chalk this one up to you can't win them all and some customers we will never make happy. Excuse my grammer and spelling, I'm just an old mechanic that became a manager.

   I have no idea who this dealer is and I have never been within 1,000 miles of doing business with or working for them.

I am posting this to cover two massive missconceptions you have about the RV repair industry.

1st "My unit is covered by warranty so it is not costing them money." Your Freindly repair shop will recover between 35% (factory warranty) and 80% (extended warranty on approved repairs) for every $ invested. Considering they are a profit oriented business, if they work hard and play the game properly they might make 1% or 2% Margin, not Proffit, Margin on Extended Warranty Repairs. Target Margin is 40% for a target Profit of about 18% on each transaction. So they are loosing money doing your warranty repairs.

2nd The $37,000 Hail Damage claim. Again not a profitable job. Insurance companies shave their Payouts as hard as they can. So your Repair Depot is not interested in huge repair jobs like yours. To many hidden problems, Special order parts and potential delays. You realisticly should have allowed 6 months for a claim that large to shake out and your repairs to be finished. From the time the insurance company said to repair your unit and it was done took how long? How long was it from the unit arriving on the lot and you starting to call every week or worse yet every day? Any answer less than 6 months is silly.

As far as the interior dings and damages, did you ask for touch ups and repairs, then give them 6 weeks to get matching material? Yes 6 weeks is a normal order delay for matching interior panels and mouldings from the factory.

Finally were you ever told to go away and refused warranty coverage on any legitimate problem, I doubt it.

Reading between the lines: More likely You are a high maintenance Customer no one wants to talk to.

I trully hope they never do business  with you again.