Camping World, Boise and Meridian, Idaho

High pressure sales tactics: twice lied: took 2 months to fix bad window

1st of Feb, 2015 by User73532

At Camping World my wife and I were victimized by high pressure sales tactics… I look back and ask myself how could a baby-boomer like me, with my wealth of worldly experience, get bamboozled into buying an RV that cost $2,450 more than the same, new unit price elsewhere? How indeed, after being assured by a likable sales manager that Camping World (C.W.) would "meet or beat" any price from anywhere. Later we learned this was a lie. We were told we should make a refundable deposit to hold the RV we wanted.... to hold it over a holiday... and later we learned this was a lie, that the deposit was not refundable if we did not buy the unit.

Imagine how I felt when warned by another Camping World employee that my RV could be sabotaged during detailing! (Apparently "detailing" is a fancy word for dusting and washing the exterior, because the generator didn’t start, nor would the stove burners light, outside storage latches didn’t lock, a window frame had a .25 inch gab and wouldn't seal. There was a lot of road noise, in part because the television antenna was installed backwards.) Not to worry…we’re not so old that we don’t notice details… our clothes weren’t distributed along the highway before we reached our first destination, but warranty service for the window-that-wouldn't-close took nearly two months to complete!

We see no reason to go back to Camping World for anything. We found other places for maintenance and authorized-warranty work. At time of purchase we bought a 7 year, extended-warranty elsewhere, because we saw complaints in Better Business Bureau reviews that mentioned C.W.’s “shady service people” and Good Sam’s deceptive advertising.

Oh, it still makes us laugh to recall of our Boise Salesman’s pridefully announcement that Good Sam membership brings discounts and "we’d have one year, free parking in their lots." (Ha! Ha! "Their lots” doesn't refer to Good Sam's.) Come on honey, I say to the wife, let’s go campin’ in the C.W. parking lot! Gimme a break.

My Definition of a High Pressure Sale:
My siblings have motorhomes and I wanted to test drive their $99,000 unit shown on the internet. I stopped by Boise Camping World (C.W.) in Meridian, Idaho. Before we left, the C.W. Salesman said, in the presence of his “Daily” Manager, that he would meet any price at any dealer. I said my ability to pay $99,000 cash should get our price lowered. The Daily Manager didn't correct the Salesman's statement that he could beat the other dealer's cash-sale price. He looked up the cost, but made no correction to what the Salesman offered us.

What sold me on C.W. was that we'd be moved to the "head of the line" for maintenance service if we bought from Boise C.W. (This doesn’t even make sense to me now.) The next day, the Salesman phoned and my eyes glazed over with his rehash that Boise C.W. “goes the distance” to gain and maintain us local folks, because mechanical service is where they make the bucks.

Within 20 hours, my phone log shows another 5 calls from Salesman. Were we willing to pay this amount? Yes. He conferred with Sales Manager. We waited 35 minutes. Salesman called back to ask if we'd pay a higher amount. I handed the phone to my wife and the price raised to a yet higher amount. She explained we were waiting to hear from several other dealers. Exactly 2 minutes later the Salesman called, to again ask if I'd pay a lower dollar total. Well, albeit I was confused, I said "yes." He “took that back” to Sales Manager who himself called to explain why we’d have to pay still more. Finally irritated, my wife asked for the phone calls to stop. Apparently Mr. Sales Manager didn't tell Mr. Salesman, because our phone log shows he called back in 9 minutes and suggested we put a two-day hold on the unit. Salesman asked me for a reasonable deposit to hold the price for 2 days. Unfortunately the Salesman changed the amount to $2,000 after I handed the phone to my wife for a credit card number. She thinks he said if she'd allow more on her card, our potential purchase would get him a sales bonus and he assured her we would find no lower pricing within 48 hours. We did find the same, new RV for $2,450 less. The next day when we went to Boise C.W., the Sales Manager said there is no such thing as a refundable deposit to hold a price.

When we tried to negotiate, the Sales Manager said he couldn't come down on the price to beat another dealer. He used the word “legality” a lot. (Why didn’t the Daily Manager correct Mr. Salesman who repeatedly said he’d “meet or beat”?) The Sales Manager said he had ordered transport the day before (on a national holiday) and couldn't change that order. Our deposit money was gone, he said. In fact, he could have cancelled the transport, because the driver didn't leave until 72+ hours after the alleged departure.) We almost walked out, but were disenfranchised by the loss of our $2,000 deposit.

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