Dream RV - Bradenton FL - ALERT

[pattie1tom]

This past weekend my husband Thomas and I attended the RV trade show in Tampa Florida. While there, we looked at many different RV models and found one that we felt best met the needs of our family. This 2011 Windsport RV was listed with a sticker price of $79,900. The company showing the RV was Dream RV, based out of Bradenton, FL. We spoke at great length with salesperson, Chris Patton about the RV and felt comfortable with purchasing the RV.

A first step in our process was to check on the trade in value of our current RV, a 2007 Concord Coachman with 17-18000 miles. We confirmed with Chris that we would not be purchasing a new RV is we had of a negative equity value on the current RV. After speaking with Dan, his owner, Chris returned to us with a trade in value of $52,000. We were pleased and continued with the process. Chris wrote up a purchase contract and accepted a $1000 deposit from us. When we went to sign the contract, we noted that all the numbers were different. We were then told that the numbers were massaged or adjusted for insurance reasons, but that our initial components were still soundly built into the contract. We should have seen this as a red flag but really felt that this company was interested in our business and would do us no harm.

We left with the purchase contract in hand and checked over all the numbers in full detail. At this time, I found a large discrepancy in the numbers on the contract. I contacted Chris Patton first thing the next morning to discuss. Upon contacting him, we felt he clearly did not want to talk with us. We then spoke with Dan, the owner of the company who assured me that upon returning to the office Monday, he would work to clear up any of my confusions.

Monday morning came and I received a call from Jim, the general manager. Jim explained to me that the contract allowed for a $45,000 trade in value on my current RV and that is where I was confused. I asked how that was possible when we agreed to $52,000. He stated with a very condescending tone that I just didn't understand and that there was no way I was ever offered that much on my trade in, that he has a number of other people interested in the model and we were free to take our business elsewhere.

We are very interested in this model RV and do plan to purchase a similar model elsewhere, but feel it's important to communicate our frustration with the Dream RV company. We have made contact with a number of review sites including the Better Business Bureau to list our complaint and found that there exist multiple reviews with the same concerns as we have identified and various unresolved issues and contract disputes.

As a young family who is already working on the purchase of a 2nd RV, looking forward to a lifetime of motorhome travel, it is very disconcerting to find dealerships with such working principals as Dream RV. We will look elsewhere for our business.

Respectfully,

Thomas & Patricia Forcier

Brand New FMCA members - signed up over the weekend!!

looking forward to attending events

[tbutler]

Welcome to FMCA and the Forum,

Thanks for the well written detailed account of your encounter with Dream RV. I'm sure your posting will alert others to their attitude about negotiation. At the very least, anyone purchasing a large item like an RV should check the BBB for any complaints against the company selling the product. If we all did that, dealers such as Dream RV would be out of business or change their ways. You have done a service for us all.

[Guest BillAdams]

If I am reading this right, it appears that you were expecting to trade-up 4 years with a net difference of $27,900. Is that correct? That sounds like very little money for such a big move. What was the final difference that they offered. I am curious just how much they "massaged" the numbers.

[Roodriver]

Sounds like they need to change their name to Nightmare RV. Thanks for the input on an obviously unscrupulous dealer.

Like anything major that you will purchase, there are a few important steps to agree on prior to signing a contract. We all will make verbal statements and that is always the first step. Step two should be something like a sales order or sales offer (this may be called a number of different things) which simply lists all of the prices, additions, deletions and otherwise hidden goodies. This sales offer should have the price you will pay prior to driving off the lot. Any step three contracts should agree to the number with your sales order. No agreement no contract!

The biggest lesson many of us have learned is to shop around and shop around and then shop around some more. This gives you the knowledge advantage. Ask around about dealers before you talk to them. I really think that a good dealer will have a good shop with knowledgeable mechanics.

Fortunately, there are some really good dealers out there.

Ward

[BlugrassTrail]

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

[rrlowther]

Thank you for posting your experience with Dream RV. We will be posting our experience with Windish RV in Lakewood, CO. HORRID doesn't even begin to describe our experience. But I would be very interested in learning where you were able to post your story about Dream RV. I'd like to take advantage of those sites as well!

[AlpacaJunction]

My wife and I were shopping for an RV. We visited Dream RV. An older salesman there with gray hair rushed to our side. My wife told him exactly which RV she wanted to view. He totally ignored her and drug us to every other WRONG RV on the lot. We purchased elsewhere.

I recently needed warranty work done on the unit I purchased in Tampa at another dealer. I explained several issues: 1. Dash AC had a problem. They returned it without any Freon, yet told me everything was fine. All they did was rewire it. There was no reason to allow the freon to escape. 2. I told them one of the jacks lifts after being down for a period of a day or so. They returned it saying they "could not duplicate". They had the RV for six weeks and whenever I visited to check on progress the jacks were always up. No wonder they couldn't duplicate. 3. I told them a fuse blows on a mirror switch/heater combination and they said they could not get it to blow. The fuse was blown when I picked it up. 4. They have an employee who likes to glare in a threatening manner at customers when they ask questions about his work. He was the guy who worked on my AC. 5. They turned the dash radio on and did not fully turn it off which caused the battery to deplete. I charged the battery and it went dead again. The radio provides no indication it is on as it takes two pushes of the off button to turn it off. The first push simply stops the radio from producing sound. It requires a second push of the off button to fully turn it off. The result was I had to buy a new battery as I thought the old battery was defective. The battery wasn't defective Dream RV was defective. 6. I decided to write a letter to the owner. I phoned to get his name and confirm his mailing address. The employee I spoke to refused to give me the owners name. I obtained it by going into Florida Corporation Records. I will never visit them again. I will never recommend them to anyone. It took them six weeks to do the work on my RV. Every time I visited it was sitting there waiting for them to finish something.

[denise32477]

I will be sure not to visit Dream RV for my next purchase of an RV, I have been looking around different companies for our next purchase and there is a company also in Florida that manufactures coaches as well as having some used ones on their lot. I'm posting a link to their website, I have gotten a lot of really good feedback on them .

http://www.millenniu...-owned-coaches/

[mvrugt]

We were in the market to trade our 5th wheel Bighorn for a motor home of 30 ft. or less.

For at least a year we talked to salespeople from Florida to Arizona, to Indiana, to Texas-- in short we shopped all over the country.

Eventually we noticed Dream RV which was almost around the corner from us. Why not give a local company a shot at it.

To our surprise their offer came rather close to what we wanted to pay. We liked our sales guy Chris Patton. He was knowledgeable, hungry and exuberant. Eventually we were only a couple of thousands apart.

At the Tampa Super RV show we saw Chris again and I believe because of the manufacturers sponsorship, we arrived at an acceptable price.

Chris kept running back and forth tirelessly between us and the Dream RV sales manager. Here and from our dealings with other RV sales people it became clear that they have no decision power over dollar amounts, that's solely the prerogative of the sales manager.

We closed the sale and are happy, both with our motorhome and Chris Patton's way he made the deal. We are not so happy with Dream RV. After we closed the sales our traded 5th wheel had to be moved to get some personal belongings. The way the Dream RV people hooked up the RV was horrible and all the while the salesmanager was watching how his merchandise was damaged by his own employees but said nothing. I would have fired them on the spot.

I surely hesitate to expose our motorhome to that kind of bad treatment, in case we need warranty work done. I prefer to take care of it myself and stay far away from these "mechanics".

The moral of this store: the sales people are fine but I am not sure about the sales manager and the "mechanics" as much as I have experienced are nothing to write home about.

[TBenish]

This must be a common tactic that RV dealers pull, because we were at Northtrail RV a few months ago and the tried to pull the same thing on us. But with us it was $25k. Stear clear of (NORTHTRAIL RV) or you will get burned!

9

[hermanmullins]

AH, Word of mouth, the Best advertizing you can get. :)

and

AH, Word of mouth the Worst advertizing you can get. :angry:

[russellbvi]

Unfortunately, many RV dealers as well as truck and car dealers practice these same tactics offering what initially seems like a good deal until you read the fine print ! Many try to sell you up grades, financing, insurance, road assistance plans, extended warranties or other options at greatly inflated prices because they make big commissions on them!

Most times the engines and transmissions already have an extended warranty on a later model RV especially the diesel engines. Anyone who tries to fast talk you into making a quick decision or signing a contract right on the spot just walk away and tell them you will think about it for a few days . An honest dealer will agree to a few days to think it over with no pressure. Anyone who must keep checking with his boss is only playing a game. They all have the bottom price well established before you ever set foot in their place!.

[djdrmrv]

I think you should also beaware of big RV shows. They bring in Salesman from all over the US and tell you anything to sale the unit. I experienced this when the salesman told us the engine was a 325 HP diesel and it turned out to be a 200 HP. There was nothing on the unit to tell us.

You think you can trust the salesman. Needless to say we took the dealership (JC"s) in CA, to court and won a refund as to what a 200 HP would sell for. So do be aware.

[ihave3spoiledbrats]

I had been dealing with Dream RV on buying a new 5th wheel for about 6 months. I was a skeptic and probably prolonged buying because I was worried about the dealerships reviews.To be honest the only problems I read was about this Jim manager that they got rid of a year ago. Its been 3 months now since we bought and I have been in twice for service with no appointment and they stopped everything to help me out. I think that maybe they have cleaned out the problem and are moving forward in a positive manner.

I asked our salesman Toby who was great and been in the business for years if the owner knew what was on the internet about his dealership. He just simply replied that the owner and himself were embarrassed about it and they have been trying to rebuild what the old manager had damaged. He asked me to write a review for the store so I am. If your in the market go see Dream RV and give them a chance. Make sure you ask for Toby he will definitely go out of his way to help you plus he said he would pay me a $100 for a referral.

The happiest Hearland owners ever 2012 model 3690SL.

Joe

[tetonchief]

There are numerous books and articles out there to educate one's self on the vehicle buying process. As WC Field said, there is a sucker born every minute. And the old adage, let the buyer beware. I suggest anyone thinking of shopping for a vehicle ((car, motorcycle, RV,etc) do there homework and be prepared. Know the buying process, Know the terminology used by the dealers and the bank. Read what you are signing BEFORE you sign it. If you have to, write on the contract next to the deposit amount the terms of the deposit, "contingent upon financing at x% and x months or deposit refundable." The sales agreement/purchase order HAS to be signed by both the buyers and the sellers to be a legal document. If the dealership signs it they have to sell the vehicle to you at that price and terms or give you your depot back. DO NOT leave the dealership without a sales agreement signed by both parties, If they won't sign, get up take your deposit check and walk. If they refuse to give you your deposit check back call the bank immediately and cancel the check--then take them to small claims for your bank fees if any.

It amazes me that people are willing to agree to deals worth thousands of dollars based on the salesman seemed like a nice person yet you didn't know him/her from Adam. Unless your background is sales in the vehicle industry, you are doing battle with a person who is skilled and possibly an expert at selling you something on their terms.

All that being said, not all salesman and dealers are crooked or bad. If you are prepared and know you stuff and can talk with them on their terms, you can make the process easy as well as fair.

[bugmeso]

WOW, a very informative thread. What the forum/website IT people might want to think over, is a section for rating any and all RV dealers plus Manufacturers. Just Sayin.

Yes, I am a newbie here but have a lot of years of experience dealing the public and businesses'. And I also see in the forum that it is not used too often by members

[drgregg]

In July my wife and I had a similar experience to what I am seeing in this forum. We purchased our 2013 Hurricane from Dream RV in Ft Myers (although we had to go to Bradenton to actually see it since it was up there for a show). Luckily, we already had financing secured for a set amount. We also had another coach that we could have purchased from a dealer in Texas which was at the price that we had agreed upon when we first looked at the coach. Dream tried to charge us about $10K more than we agreed upon but once we showed the salesman and manager in Ft Myers the paperwork from Texas, they agreed to sell it to us at the previously agreed upon price. Once we picked up the coach and used it for the first time, we were very concerned because there was no hot water. Looking through the owner's manual didn't help so we had to take it back to Dream to have that and several other issues. It took them two weeks to do the repairs and then we had to keep bringing it back because the parts and materials had to come from Thor.

2. First long trip (Naples to Gulfport MS), the shower leaked badly. Another trip to Dream. They recaulked the shower stall and said everything was fixed.

3. Next short trip (Naples to Orlando), the slide wouldn't extend. I actually decided that since the coach couldn't be moved I would call Thor directly. They told me to remove the middle roll-over lock on the slide. That allowed the slide to move in and out again.

4. Next trip (Naples to Gulfport) the main circuit breaker between the coach and shore power kept popping. It took Dream RV two hours to determine that it was a fuse in the engine compartment causing the problem. Since we were so far away, Dream wouldn't send anyone to fix it so we had to pay a service tech from Gulfport.

5. Final trip (Naples to Orlando) the shower is leaking yet again and now the windshield is leaking as well. I will be calling Dream yet again and will schedule the coach to go back into their shop.

The final straw is that after the very first trip between Ft Myers where we picked the coach up to our home in Naples (about 30 miles of interstate and main County roads) we found that the paint on the front of the coach is chipping. Dream stated that they would work with Thor on the issue but we haven't heard back from them in 5 months.

We thought Camping World and North Trail RV were bad until we started dealing with Dream. Their service department is by far and away the worst we have dealt with in twenty years of owning an RV. I will never purchase another coach from them and warn away anyone thinking of dealing with either of their dealerships.