Complaint Review: Traveland RV - Langley British Columbia

Our story begins on our first trip to your dealership in April of this year.  This was our first time on an RV lot and our first purchase of an RV.  Having had wonderful memories of RV'ing as children, we wanted to provide a similar experience for our young daughter.  With that in mind, we saved up what we could and decided to give Traveland a try based on the values described on their website - the idea of a family owned business that put customers first was something we felt strongly about supporting.  At first, we had an excellent experience.  We met with Kyle (salesman) who was someone we immediately trusted.  He spent time with us, made us feel unique and eased us through the purchased of our first RV.  He treated us, even though we could not afford one of your most expensive units, as someone special and went out of his way to make our experience a great one.  It should also be noted that, despite the issues I will outline below, Kyle worked tirelessly to try and make things right from his end, but seemed to meet as much resistance as we did.

Aside from our experience with Kyle, however, things began to fall apart.  After agreeing to purchase a small tent trailer (a 2002 Jayco 8u), we were sent to the business office where we met with Perrin.  This was where things took a terrible turn.  Perrin treated us as if we were a tremendous imposition - he was curt, borderline rude and, in a startling display of unprofessionalism, had the nerve to berate Kyle in front of us (for something that was not even his fault).  Moreover, when he had finished with us, he did not even have the courtesy to thank us for our business and, instead, without even looking up from his papers for another sale, dismissed us with a rather rude, 'You can leave now', not even offering to show us to insurance.  I have never, in my life, been treated so poorly - we both felt hurt, unappreciated and as if we were a terrible interruption in his day.  In the end, however, we went through with our purchase because we felt we would be getting a nice little tent trailer and years of fun with our daughter that would most certainly overshadow this experience.  We, in hindsight, should have walked out then and there.

Sadly, as time wore on, Perrin would prove to be the least of our issues.  On our first trip out, less than a week after receiving our unit, we discovered that the fridge did not work and that the canvas was shot (it leaked).  Normally, I would say this is part of the risk in purchasing a ten year old trailer, but we supposedly paid for the benefits of a full inspection and the guarantee that all would be functional and ready for use.  As it turns out, nothing was ever inspected as promised - the fridge never worked and, when we brought the trailer back, it took the service manager all of about ten seconds to tell us the canvas was shot and that even patching it would be a solution to limp the trailer along for another season and not much more.  Moreover, after being promised safety inspections, we discovered safety issues with the tyres and fire extinguisher and discovered that the wheel bearings on one side had not even been repacked and required additional maintenance after our first trip out.  In short, our investment was a complete write-off and not at all what we were led to believe we were purchasing.  Had the appropriate inspections been done and had we been presented with the results, we would never have purchased that particular trailer and would have opted for a newer model.

Discovering this issue, we were presented with two options - we could have a new fridge installed and take the trailer as-is, or we could 'trade it in' on a newer model.  After discussion with a sales manager, the service manager and Kyle, it was determined that our trailer wasn't really worth repairing and that our best option was to purchase a new unit.  Knowing this would be a great deal more expensive, we decided to go ahead with purchasing a new unit any way, feeling that it was our only real option and that the dealership would do right by us and get us into something that would best suit our needs.  For a brief moment, I even thought they would stand by their product and help us come to a fair resolution on all of this.  After all, to give credit where it is warranted, everyone appeared to be working with us.

That all ended quickly, however, when we got the quote for the newer unit.  In short, we were shocked.  Not only was it thousands more than any of their competitors for the exact same uni (they even marked the price up above what they were advertising them for!)t, it required us to take a huge financial hit on the unit we had owned for all of one week, a unit that, had it been inspected and looked after as promised, would never have been purchased in the first place (they said it was now worth $2,500$ less due to its issues - they have since sold it for more than we paid...).  After much discussion (and stressful back and forth), we got to a price where we were at least close to a competitor and agreed to purchase the newer unit, less because we wanted to, and more because we really had no choice given how badly "ripped off" we had been on the first unit - with the shape it is in, it is unlikely we could trade it in anywhere or get much for it in a private sale.  In fact, as their sales manager pointed out to me, ‘I dare you take it somewhere else and get more for it’, something that underscores the fact that the trailer we purchased is considered worthless even by your own standards – funny how this was never discovered prior to the sale.  Essentially, we felt like fish being shot in a barrel – we were taken on the first trailer and sold a bill of goods and the only way for us to re-cooperate anything was to pay a huge sum of money on a new one and lose a hefty portion of what we had already invested.  All told, we have lost well over 1500$ in this transaction and have been made to suffer financially so that Traveland could turn a larger profit on, not one, but two trailers.  While I know, perhaps, this is a lesson I needed to learn (regarding dealerships and the sale of used tent trailers) and don't expect them to lose money, this has left a terrible taste in my mouth.  I feel like they are not as much concerned about the people who buy their product as they are with the amount of money they make off their backs.  Good finance is dollars and cents, but good business is doing right by your customers.  In our case, Traveland was an excellent financial agent, but they did not stand behind their products or their boasts as a caring, family-oriented dealership.