Neutral: RV Wholesalers

[Mbornzo]

Originally Posted by OnSabbatical

MBornzo, for the record, I don't consider my reviews negative. They are neutral, which is to say that, so far, my experience as a first time RV buyer and first time RV user with RVW has been okay. Nothing bad has happened. It's just my impression so far that they exaggerate the levels to which their service exceeds other dealers. As the months and years go by, I will have, maybe, more cause to praise or criticize them. But I agree with Dustman that it's a benefit knowing Durnell is on this forum and will respond to problems when raised.

Sorry OnSabbatical! I wasn't calling your post negative, I should have used different wording.

I am just looking forward to owning my first travel trailer and I hope the experience with RVW is a happy and pleasant one!


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[dustman_stx]

Originally Posted by my_crib_too

Over $1,000 dollars, I would purchase local. Work with my local dealer to see if I could get some extras tossed in to make up for spending a little more by purchasing from them.

Some members report thousands being saved. In that case, it might be worth the risk.

I guess I don't see it as a "risk" to do business with RVW. After reading the horror stories of people buying local with the expectation of having great service only to be sadly disappointed it becomes obvious that local is anything but a guarantee of being taken care of. As a matter of fact, RVW seems to have INFINITELY more reason to take care of customers BECAUSE of the fact that a lot of their business is done online, not in spite of it. The prevailing attitude of most of my local dealers seems to be one of complete indifference to my doing business with them. Therefore, the idea that you have 2 options- do business with RVW and assume a LOT of risk or do business locally and know that you are going to be taken care of seems very different from the reality of one's choices when buying an RV. With that said, there have been reports of local dealers offering competitive pricing AND exceptional service after the sale- but it doesn't really seem to be the norm. I know it isn't in my area- and when I say my area, I mean the dozen or so dealerships I've been to within 3 hours of me. I will say that there are a few of them that I think try to do business right. They offer good service and are honest, but they just don't do the volume to compete on pricing. Once again, not the norm, however.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by my_crib_too

Over $1,000 dollars, I would purchase local. Work with my local dealer to see if I could get some extras tossed in to make up for spending a little more by purchasing from them.

Some members report thousands being saved. In that case, it might be worth the risk.

i agree, if any of the 3 local dealers would have come in at $1000 more, i would've bought local.

but all 3 refused to even come within $4000, on a HTT that i ended up paying $14.5k for, from a Midwest dealer. all 3 dared me to drive there, even after i showed them a copy of the invoice with the price. and all 3 said they would refuse to do any warranty work.

so we ended up buying from the Midwest dealer and drove 4000 miles RT, to get it and bring it back. made a camping trip out of the return.
and FR found dealers that were even closer, to do the warranty work. even one of the 3, ended up being the last one i used for warranty work.

this November will be 9 years that we've owned it.

i been reading reviews on RVW, on various RV forums, for the past 10 years and i would be happy to buy from them, based on what i've read over the years.
if RVW had been closer and had the decor of the one we bought, we might've bought from them.
if we end up buying a 5th wheel next year, they'll be at the top of my list.

[dustman_stx]

Originally Posted by bikendan

but all 3 refused to even come within $4000, on a HTT that i ended up paying $14.5k for, from a Midwest dealer. all 3 dared me to drive there, even after i showed them a copy of the invoice with the price. and all 3 said they would refuse to do any warranty work.

I got a good chuckle when reading this. What planet are these dealers on thinking they don't have to be competitive on pricing????? And then to try to use a scare tactic to keep you from buying from RVW!!!!! Basically they are trying to charge you $4K for a factory warranty!!!! You could spend less than half that and get an aftermarket 5 year warranty from RVWholesalers you could use anywhere!!!!!

[Brentf]

I ended up not buying from RVW because I decided on a FR brand they did not carry. Instead I bought from the other internet focused dealer. A good experience I might add.

I too worried about the warranty coverage. The local dealer was about $4k over the Ohio dealer. I started searching for reviews about the dealer. Lots of good reviews of the Ohio dealer - lots of bad reviews of the local dealer. Shoddy warranty work, keeping trailers for 4 months to do warranty work, long waits to get in for warranty work. In addition the local dealer had pumped the MSRP by adding items back in to the invoice that were already included in the packages they were charging for - a simple look at the FR web site revealed they were 'double charging'. Then they pumped up their delivery fee by a $1000 over what the other dealer would deliver for, then added an extra $250 extra driver charge, then added another delivery fee of $200 making their total $3,000 delivery fee double the $1450 that the Ohio dealer would deliver for.

The local dealer couldn't frighten me about not doing any warranty work if I didn't buy from them because I was already frightened by the thought of having to use them for warranty work.