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On November 18, 2017 I co-signed to help my son purchase a new Coleman RV from Camping World in Jackson, MS, and had included in the purchase GAP insurance, extended warranties, and Good Sam membership to insure he would be covered "anywhere in the US, at ANY Camping World" because he was going to work on power lines and travel across country; I was assured he would get help in any state, if there was a problem.
Despite all these additional and expensive warranties/memberships, he was unable to get any services done on the camper, because they kept telling him to take it back to Jackson, MS, since that is where he bought it. At one dealership, they actually came out with a forklift and LIFTED the camper, which caused damage to the frame, and later denied not only damaging it but refused to fix it.
This bad service and refusal to address service issues went on for a couple of years, until my son finally quit the job and returned to Jackson, MS with the camper. Of course, Jackson refused to fix it, despite calls with Coleman Mfg. assuring they would honor the warranty, if he would take it back to Camping World.
Finally, after years of trying to get the camper properly fixed, he took it to Camping World of Biloxi, which is close to his new residence in NOLA; it was taken there in August 2020. By this time, there was a leak in the roof over the bed and he asked that the roof leak be fixed. Despite this supposedly being covered by the warranty, Camping World did not fix the leak. They stated that parts would need to be ordered.
After several months, my son went to Biloxi to check on the camper, and found that it was sitting on their lot, with the roof uncovered. He addressed this with the manager and asked him to at least cover the roof with tarp while waiting on the parts.
Another trip a few months later, as follow-up, showed not only was the camper left uncovered, but the service manager had been replaced with a new manager. Again, he advised them he was waiting for service and to cover the camper. The parts were still "on order". Finally, in June or July 2021, he received a call from Camping World, telling him the parts were in and to please bring in the RV for repair (they had "lost" it on the lot, and didn't even remember it was sitting there).
He called to let them know the RV was already there, and told them to fix everything that was under warranty. In late August 2021, he was contacted by Jonathan Gray, Service Manager, and told that the RV was ready for pick-up, and the price for repairs was $10,721.35. He was very upset and asked me to accompany him to Camping World of Biloxi, to find out why the repairs weren't covered and to see what had been done to the camper.
At this point, the story gets quite ridiculous. Jonathan Gray had us come in late in the afternoon, making sure no other customers were around, and tried to demand we pay the $10,721.35 before we could take the camper. He could not provide an itemization of labor/parts/charges, he stated, because all the computers were down. He stated we could not take the camper until the charges were paid, however, despite not giving us an explanation of charges. He further stated that if we didn't have the cash to pay it, we could have our credit run and take out ANOTHER loan to pay the service, or there would be lot fees for each additional day the camper sat on the lot.
Jonathan Gray then suggested we file a report with the insurance, telling them to pay it by inventing a day for the leak, which had worsened over the course of the year it sat on their lot, uncovered and unfixed. We were then allowed to see the camper, and for the $10,721.35, there was NO visible repairs that my son could discern from its original state upon bringing it in. The cabinet was still cracked, there was silver duct tape on the inside of a cabinet door to hold it together, and the camper looked as bad as when it was brought there.
Camping World then offered to buy it back for $17,800.00, deducting from that payment the $10,721.35, leaving us with a total of $7,078.65 payment, to offset the approx. $32,000.00 still owed to the bank for the original loan. What a great deal!
On 8/18/2021, I asked in writing for an itemization of the bill, including hours/labor charged, and was ignored. I asked again for the itemization this month, and finally received a 3 page itemization that had no dates and outlined $1,776.14 was for actual parts and $7,408.70 was for labor listed as "Straight Time", not including hours or hourly rates.
For instance, to repair a peeling piece of vinyl, trim and board on the slide out, which totaled about $117.00 in parts, costed $4,309.00 to stick back on the wall. Yeah. Right now, they are STILL holding our camper and refusing to release it, while we look for an attorney to handle the case.
If you want to avoid a story from hell, just buy an RV from Camping World... any location. The same bad service is almost guaranteed to be yours, regardless of the dealer, the model/mfg, or the warranties you buy. They are terrible.
Name: Gayla Lameier