I should have been suspect from the start

We purchased our Palomino Puma in 2021 from a family owned dealership, FlaggRV in Massachusetts. A few months later I learned the dealership was purchased by CW. No problem I thought. But the problem was festering.

In January 2022 we decided we didn’t need our trailer anymore because we had purchase a different RV, we then called the original dealership to see about its value and any warranty issues. I was told that the dealership had been swallowed up by Camping World and that all pertinent vehicle information was no longer available. Basically there was no information related to our 2021 Palomino Puma 31FKRK. As there was no information forthcoming I reached out to the sales department for some guidance. I was directed to the he purchasing manager who expressed an interest at purchasing our Puma as it was still under warranty and in decent shape.

I forwarded photos, VIN etc as required and received an email with a low-ball figure (far below NADA wholesale). It turns out they based the buy-in number on the basic model. Our model in fact is the Limited Edition with added features (a fact they would be able to confirm with the VIN). After a few short discussions on the phone, we then received a counter offer of $25000 that was acceptable to us.

A date was set to bring our RV into a dealership. As the closest CW was in Windham Maine, a near two hour drive from our home we made the decision to bring our Puma to Camping World. After all we had what seemed a solid offer based merely on a mechanical inspection which we were confident our RV would pass.

After driving to the dealership our Puma was directed to service department and we then went to see the salesperson who took copies of the registration and the buy out information. He told us to come back after a couple of hours.

On our return he told us there were major issues with our RV. The main one that the roof was rotted out. There were also a number of other short comings including issues with some factory installed features as well as a few dealer installed items, none as distressing as finding out the roof had rotted out in less than ONE year.

Okay I said, is it covered under warranty and can you fix the problems?

The answer was affirmative and the service department opened a work order and a claim to Palomino/Forest River.

As it turns out Camping World is not an authorized service dealer for Palomino Puma as confirmed by the manufacturer. However, as a Forest River dealership the Manufacturer had no issue with any warranty work being done by Windham Camping World.

The next day the service department emailed me back claiming Forest River had denied the claim.

I contacted Palomino Puma and they stated they never declined the claim, they just wanted more photos before the start of any work.

After the service department went up on the roof the last time to take the required photos, the conclusion was made that there was NO rot and that it was in the material dimensional quality used in the build. There is NO rot and no leakage of any kind.

I then received a call from the buy-in department claiming that they did not want to stick by their original offer even though there was nothing wrong with our Puma RV except for a few incidental issues. Their offer was below what we actually owed, not a big deal other than we had put a significant down payment AND now we were being offered less than 1/3 of it’s ACV. I checked with service on the cost of repairs and made a reasonable counter offer of 22K which was turned down.

I drove back to the dealership and retrieved our RV.

In retrospect, I should have been suspect from the start. This is the standard used car reverse bait and switch SCAM that left us with a bad taste after wasting our time and money playing Camping World’s game. As it turns out the internet is filled with Camping Worlds questionable sales tactics. I soon will add our documented story of the dealers lies and deceit will be added to these stories.

Name: Craig Hunter