Update On Camping World Fiasco

[chp007kd40]

My Itasca 40KD is still not on the road (since 6-12-15) and in fact the process with National General Insurance is going so slow that I am truly not happy. I just learned today that Camping World is not authorized to work on Magnum products, but of course they did and now my 2800 pure sine with auto start installed 2014 is now not covered under the two year warranty if I chose to go that route.

It is my understanding that National General Insurance are required to recommend Camping World as their national repair center. REALLY. I have been told by my adjuster (somewhere in another state) that they (NGIC) will guarantee the work for two years and that's great if it actually happens, but I'm still without my motorhome. I feel like Camping World and NGIC have given me a "FULL TIME JOB" putting this all back together.

David and Ruthann

[hermanmullins]

David,
Sorry for your problems. If i t were my coach I would go get my coach and take it to where you can get it fixed. No amount of insurance is worth the hassle you are going through. Pick up your coach, pay what ever they say you own on a credit card and put the charge under dispute.

Get your coach back have it fixed and get back to doing what you bought the unit for.

Herman

[erniee]

Never go to CW for anything.

[rhart]

Herman is spot on with sage advice. Pay particular attn to his comment regarding the credit card strategy.

[chp007kd40]

Thank you all for your support. Just today I received the adjusters forms and they are accepting my estimates to start the approx. $7900.00 dollars worth of repairs that were done incorrectly, not done at all or wrong parts ordered.

Your right, don't go to Camping World. There system seems to be broken for responsible and caring repairs to your coach, at least in Redding, Ca.. There are seven coach owners around Redding that have similar stories of varying degrees, but we all agree when they take your RV behind those gates and restrict your access, things do go wrong.

[ultraglide]

Sorry to say it is not just your Camping World. Is seems to be the mentality at most if not all of them.

[five]

Camping World is like KOA, both are last resorts.

[wayne77590]

Hmm! Wonder what that means as I have had some great stays at KOA's. I have also had some not so great stays, but that is true of just about everywhere.

I have only had to use Camping World one time. They had contracted a person to come in and make my repairs. He was excellent and his work of 4 years ago is still good.

It is what it is, and then it is what you make of it.

[five]

It is what it is based on past experience. Experiences I wish to avoid in the future.

[wayne77590]

It is what it is based on past experience. Experiences I wish to avoid in the future.

Five, I agree with you. My point is that I have not had a bad experience with them. It seems that when bad expriences are had then reports are made publicly. When good experiences are had it just seems that they go by the wayside and no one ever hears about it.

I have had a bad experience at one of the local dealers in this area but it's not to say that others have not had good experiences. They seem to get a lot of business. Maybe it comes down to area's and CW is in many places. I remember one time in California with a broken down truck. Went to the dealer on a Tuesday, found out it was the second gear cog, went back on Thursday to check and part department said they hadn't ordered it yet and they would order it on Monday. Needless to say I had the part on Monday after some verbal words were exchanged. Here is my point. In California many business don't care if you don't use their services because there is a line of people waiting to get in for service. I don't care if it is a vehicle service or a restaurant - seems to be the observed problem by me.

More dealer specific then generalization.

[five]

...Five, I agree with you. My point is that I have not had a bad experience with them. It seems that when bad expriences are had then reports are made publicly. When good experiences are had it just seems that they go by the wayside and no one ever hears about it....

Quite true, and is true with many things on these forums. Recently, I was on another forum and there was a run of posts regarding problems with Allison transmissions. There were no posts from the many thousands of Allison owners who could have posted, "we just completed a xxxxx mile trip and our Allison preformed flawlessly." With so many of the same make/model of products, we are going to hear of problems, but not the nonproblems. We post because we have a problem, not because all is well.

[arlipscomb]

Quality is an interesting subject. If a company gets it right 99% of the time you would think that was good right? If aircraft mechanics did that planes would be falling out of the sky every day. In a year that would represent 3 days of work done wrong. The odds are you would not be the one with the problem, but there would still be a lot of them out there.

The reality is that nobody is perfect. But if you are doing a good job then problems are few, far between and quickly handled.

When I went to CW to check out their store I asked their service guy a pretty simple question about getting something done. His answer told me that he had no idea how they would perform the task and that some installer would be making it up as they went along. Now I understand that with custom work everything is unique, but if you don't have a process in place to sort things out in advance you are going to get into a mess. For most shops that means that at a minimum you have someone with the knowledge and authority to say "no we can't do that", for whatever valid reason.

[nitehawk]

If you consider just how many, many, many different things there are on an RV it is amazing how few things actually go wrong. Different suppliers, different assemblies, different capabilities of the RV owners, different models, different ages, and it is absolutely mind-blowing how few things actually go wrong!

If you took your house constantly down a 65 mile per hour trip and shaking it over bumps and twisting it around curves, the house would react the same as your RV.

Think what all that pounding & wind does to the latest fad thing: Tiny Houses. And they are built like regular homes but need to withstand the abuse our RVs take. I don't think so!!

[wayne77590]

We drive in a rolling earthquake.

All of the different things are somewhat very common to every MH.

You would think the technician force and repair facilities would get it right.

[stephenpinn]

Needed to use Campingworld once to repair my inverter. They removed the inverter from the coach and jobbed it out to a local authorized Magnum dealer and the Campingworld reinstalled. It went great .

[chp007kd40]

Some pretty interesting stories. I think we would all agree not all CW shops are as bad as the treatment I got in Redding (Anderson) Calif. , but their system seems to be flawed and their ability to restrict you from seeing the repairs being done, or not done, is very unnerving. My Itasca 40KD is still not useable since 6-12-15.

Just imagine if I was out of state and on a time limit. The repairs were so bad you can't even make this stuff up!!

[ric_bridges@msn.com]

I can appreciate those individuals that speak highly of Camping World. They are the exception. When we picked up our 2013 Sightseer from Camping World in Boise, Idaho quality control before we even looked at it was non-existent. From a bathroom cabinet door hanging by a few screws, to one air conditioner that did not work, to one heat pump that did not work, to an improperly installed vinyl floor and more issues makes me wonder how they can stay in business. Winnebago (if they were even contacted) refused to make the bad vinyl floor installation right. Camping World could not even fix the hanging bathroom cabinet door correctly. I had to take care of it myself. After receiving sales brochures to buy another motor home from Camping World in Boise I sent the salesman and general manager a letter informing them of my displeasure. Never heard back from either of them. I strongly suggest anyone looking at buying from Camping World or considering taking their product in to Camping World for repair, look elsewhere.

[jbrunson]

Ahhhh Camping World...they have good toilet paper and products such as that....consumables; it is doubtful that I would ever buy a motorhome there... the poor sales guys don't know anything about the product they sell...asked one of them once what chassis the coach was built on and just got a stupid smirk... most if not all RV's that are not new (For REAL problems, buy new) on their inventory is on consignment ~ this means they can afford to place their price ridiculously high because it costs them very little for the product to sit there.... no motivation to move product because they got little skin in the game...

Service???? these things are incredibly complex and tech with the competence to repair usually commands too high a salary.... he can feed himself working on aerospace or marine products.

Come to think of it Wal-Mart has great prices on RV stuff!

[campcop]

I can appreciate those individuals that speak highly of Camping World. They are the exception. When we picked up our 2013 Sightseer from Camping World in Boise, Idaho quality control before we even looked at it was non-existent. From a bathroom cabinet door hanging by a few screws, to one air conditioner that did not work, to one heat pump that did not work, to an improperly installed vinyl floor and more issues makes me wonder how they can stay in business. Winnebago (if they were even contacted) refused to make the bad vinyl floor installation right. Camping World could not even fix the hanging bathroom cabinet door correctly. I had to take care of it myself. After receiving sales brochures to buy another motor home from Camping World in Boise I sent the salesman and general manager a letter informing them of my displeasure. Never heard back from either of them. I strongly suggest anyone looking at buying from Camping World or considering taking their product in to Camping World for repair, look elsewhere.

When we bought a WB a few years ago, I noticed a few defects a week or so after buying the MH. Brought them to the dealers attention. Found out that the dealer had to eat the bill for the repairs. Seems that WB gives Dealers a certain amount of time to report defects....

[FABARTLETT]

I want to hear one positive word about CW!! I have a 2 page story of a tire change that CW did and damage that resulted in changing a hub, all the wheels and tires. Then when they attempted to fix their screw up, they damage my water tank before I took it back and never looked back. Is CW TWO BIG TO FAIL? I'm in an RV club near Hilton Head, SC and no one in our club will go to CW for repair. But I will use the online store for parts.

[manholt]

CW today, is a high volume corporation. I personally think that they don't care much for repeat customers! Buy the RV, send them on their way and hope we don't see them again!

Since Mr. Lemonies bought CW and Good Sam, it's been one big con job! Headquarters is no longer in Kentucky, it's now in Colorado and you can't reach a person for help!!

There are so many good RV parts stores out there now, that I have no need for CW anymore and that is sad...first visit was in 74'.

PPL for parts and used RV's is great! Service in house is great! Thankfully PPL is in Texas!

Carl

[jleamont]

Carl, funny you mentioned PPL. I compare their prices to CW and they almost always are the same or very close. I choose PPL even if a slight bit higher. The service from PPL has been great in relation to their parts staff (cant speak for any other part of the co) and service like that isn't free, neither is knowledge.

[patron]

Our neighbor recently had a long, drawn out experience with CW. 6 months to clean camper and replace manual awning with automatic type. Ordered wrong awning, sent back, wrong parts, waiting waiting, waiting, finally ready to pick up. Where's the button to operate the awning? Couldn't find it. Can you believe they installed a regular one instead of the automatic? Neighbor missed deer season this year.

Enough of the negatives. Let us tell you about what started as a rough get-go but ended up as a POSITIVE EXPERIENCE WITH RV WORLD OF GA in Buford.

Bought a used 38' 2003 Allegro Bus from RV World of GA in late Oct 2015, to use for retirement and pending trip to Alaska heading out May, 2016. Prior to receiving our "Bus", RV World replaced all the window and door seals, installed a new radio, and repaired other miscellaneous items. We paid for painting on the top and front along with a small repair to side area from previous owners. RV World did more than required and we were very happy with the result.

As previous 5th wheel owners, but new to Class A's, we set out to our local campground to try out this massive 38ft rig, including learning all the systems and processes inherent with a Class A Bus. Having problems with multiple issues, some intermittent, including 12 volt dead after a few days. RV World sent out service technician to our campground on a late Friday afternoon to attempt to fix (40 miles away)--surprised they would go to such lengths. Technician upset with our situation, indicating "this is not how we do business". He could not fix at site so back to RV World for repair.

Appeared there may have been an electrical surge with resultant electrical issues. Required replacing major items such as Xantrex display panel, converter, inverter, jack leveling system pressure switch, hazard and ACC switch, water heater thermostat, TV antennae, new awning door instead of new spring arm, and a few various smaller items found at camp. When we picked up The Bus after RV World keeping for a few weeks (to insure no issues with 12 volt/120 volt systems, etc.), we were ecstatic to learn we were not billed for any of the several thousand dollars of parts and labor. Again, many apologies from RV World for having the issues and resulting inconvenience.

Should some of these issues been discovered/repaired by RV World before the sale? Maybe. But, to their defense, many of the problems were intermittent and/or required using the rig to discover same.

Let me say that in our dealings with RV World, every employee was professional and attentive to our needs. The technicians appeared passionate about their work and proud of the end product. This is the way to do business. No Camping World for us. Only RV World of GA.

[manholt]

Joe. I bought a used 97' Allegro from PPL in 02'...nice, pleasant experience! Very professional.

Patron, welcome to the Forum!

Not the first time I've heard good things about RV World of GA.!

Carl

[hermanmullins]

Joe, Carl and Patron,

Thanks to each of you for sharing your positive experiences with both RV Dealers. Good report are always nice to hear for all of us as well as the Dealers.

Thanks again,

Herman