Nightmare of a dealer
My wife and I went to a dealership in Indiana. We live in Ohio. They had a Jayco 4112 toy hauler for sale that we really liked, but there were a few things that needed to be addressed.
We agreed on a price, and they agreed to replace the tires and fix a few issues on the inside of the camper. We signed the paperwork to purchase it.
A few days later, they called and told us they had taken the camper to a tire shop. On the way back to the dealership, a wheel fell off, sheared the studs, and damaged the hub. They replaced the hub and told us they were waiting on a replacement rim.
We agreed that I would come back a week later to pick it up.
I drove approximately five hours round trip to pick up the camper. When I arrived, it was sitting in the service bay, torn apart, with wires hanging out.
I couldn’t find my salesperson, so I found the sales manager. He told me, “Oh, no one called you? Your salesperson quit.”
I told him, “Well, buddy, that’s your job to call me. You’re the sales manager. Why is the RV torn apart? What’s going on?”
He said he wasn’t sure and went to find out.
When he came back, he told me they couldn’t find a wheel that matched the damaged one, so they were replacing all six wheels.
I said, “Okay, but that doesn’t explain why the camper is torn apart.”
He then told me the breaker was tripping whenever they used the water heater on electric instead of gas.
At that point, I was frustrated because I had just wasted five hours driving there and back to pick up a camper that clearly wasn’t ready. They offered to deliver it to us once everything was finished.
About a week later, they brought the camper to our house.
When they arrived, they couldn’t even get it off the truck because there was no power to the entire camper. The delivery guy spent about an hour trying to figure out what was wrong. Eventually, he found a tripped breaker near the batteries.
On top of that, the camper hadn’t been detailed, washed, or cleaned.
At that point, I told him I wasn’t sure I wanted the camper anymore because I was starting to feel like they were trying to sell me a lemon.
They asked if we could at least go through the camper and talk about everything afterward, so I agreed.
The delivery guy then went to show me how the generator worked. There was no fuel in it. I own a land-clearing company, but all the fuel I had available was diesel, so I had to drive into town, buy gasoline, and come back.
After that, he spent another half hour trying to get the generator started.
Then I went through the inside of the camper and discovered that none of the interior repairs they had agreed to make had been completed.
At that point, I had had enough. I told the delivery guy to take the camper back to the dealership because I didn’t want it.
The next day, I called the dealership four times trying to speak with the sales manager. When I finally got through to him, he said, “Yeah, we have a few things to fix. We’ll get it fixed and drop it back off.”
I told him, “No. Call the bank and unwind the deal. I’m not buying the camper.”
He told me, “Well, there’s a lien on it. It’s yours.”
I told him to read the paperwork because I had 40 days. I also pointed out that I had never accepted possession of the camper and that the dealership still had it.
He then threatened to bring the camper to my house and dump it in my front yard.
I made it very clear that they were not permitted on my property. I also sent that to them in writing through both text and email.
I told him that if they came onto my property after being told not to, I would consider it trespassing. I also told him to ask his delivery driver about all the cameras around my property.
He again told me that the camper was mine and threatened to dump it in my front yard.
At that point, I told him that if he was going to escalate the situation, I would have no choice but to contact an attorney.
He said, “That’s fine. We can’t talk anymore,” and hung up on me.
About 30 minutes later, he sent me a text saying he had spoken with the owner. He said they didn’t want to be the “bad guys” and that they were going to contact the bank and unwind the deal.
It took approximately two weeks for them to get the financing unwound and another four weeks for me to receive my money back.
However, I didn’t receive all of it.
We had put $6,000 down, but they only refunded $5,000. They kept $1,000 and claimed it was a “nonrefundable deposit.”
I have gone through all of the paperwork I signed, and I cannot find anything stating that there was a separate $1,000 nonrefundable deposit. We simply made a $6,000 down payment.
Since then, they have fired the sales manager I was dealing with, so now I’m basically talking to random employees whenever I contact the dealership.
The entire experience has completely deflated the excitement my wife and I had about buying a camper.
My wife is now planning to hire an attorney to deal with the remaining $1,000 and everything that happened throughout this process. I don’t care much about the $1000 but the principal. I want to bury them.
Has anyone else experienced something like this with an RV dealership?
This was in Peru Indiana.