I wish I had joined this forum two weeks ago. I too just had a terrible experience with Dream RV in Bradenton. My wife and I decided it was time to go RVing. We began looking for motorhomes all over central Florida, but decided to support a dealer in our community; Dream RV. We went to the dealer already knowing we wanted a used class A. The salesman, Mike Simpkins, showed us a nice Gulfstream 37 footer with a Honda CRV toad included. They asked for $2,000 down to get started on financing. We felt a little uneasy giving the $2,000 so we gave them a check for $500. They called us and told us they had secured financing and the payments would be nearly $800 per month. We told them that we did not really want to spend that much for something we couldn't use very often until we retired. We asked to see something smaller and a little older. We were shown a 2000 Windsport with nearly 70,000 miles on it. They were asking $22,900 dollars. We offered $19,900 if they would make some needed minor repairs. Mike "slugged it out with the boss" (Jim) and said they didn't have enough of a margin to accept that, but they could let it go for $20,400. We agreed and they set out to finance it.
A day later I received a call from Simpkins who said the bank would only go $15,000 on that basic unit at it's age and mileage. He said we were $6,900 apart. I thanked him and said I would not pay $6,900 down. He asked me what I would put down. I told him $3,000. He called me back about 10 minutes later and said that since I was putting down $3,500 (Hmm. I said $3,000), Jim would eat the rest just to make the deal. So they were selling it to me for about $17,000. Much different than the $20,400 that they couldn't go below. I told him we would do it. He called me back shortly thereafter to tell me we had loan approval. I asked him the terms of the loan. He said he didn't know! I told him that was pretty important and I would need to know that. A short time later, Jim called me to ask me if Simpkins had told me the good news. I told him that he had, but he neglected to give me the terms. Jim began stalling around explaining that it was an older unit, so on and so forth. He finally told me that the bank wanted 18%. I told him no way, no how!
He then told me that he would try the credit union. A day later I got a call from Grow Financial who told me I we were approved at 8% for 66 months and what the payments would be based on a sale price of $20,400 with me putting $3,500 down. Huh? What happened to the $17,000 sale price? I asked the Grow Financial officer if he had any other figures. He said that he did not. He was going off the contract that Dream RV had faxed over late the day before. I then had a phone conversation with Simpkins asking him why the price had gone back up. He stumbled and said it had not, that the credit union was just going off the original contract. I asked him how that could be possible since the original contract did not have me putting down $3,500 and that Grow Financial had never been offered the original contract. They had only been contacted after we had agreed to the new purchase price of $17,000. He stumbled again over his words and said that he would have Jim call me. Jim did not call, but Simpkins called back. He said it was all a big misunderstanding and that we were only going to pay the $17,000. I told him that I felt like they were being untruthful and unethical in their dealings and I wanted nothing else to do with them. He became angry with me on the phone and I terminated the call.
Someone from the dealership went immediately after the call and cashed our deposit check. We phoned Dream RV and spoke with Jim. He told us we would never get our money back and he didn't care what Simpkins told us about the deposit being refundable. When we asked him to explain why he felt he could keep our deposit, he said it was to cover their expenses! My wife told him we would be filing any complaint that we could. He laughed at her and told her "Good luck with that!"
The good news is, we have purchased a coach from another dealer and will be on the road as much as our work allows.
Sincerely,
Mike Harrell
