Tag: texas camping world

Camping World of San Antonio in New Braunfels, TX

My name is Lowell Unruh and I am a recovering Sales Consultant for Camping World of San Antonio located in New Braunfels Texas. I was discharged Wednesday, January 22, 2020. Ergo, I have a lot to say about whether I would recommend this dealership to friends, family, and acquaintances.

Not Just a Disgruntled Employee

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! sign

To begin, I’ll give you a little insight into the attitude you should expect from the top down at Camping World of San Antonio. I had the privilege of attending a training session led by Mr. William Heinrich, the dealership’s General Manager. The entire sales staff learned from Mr. Heinrich that
“RV OWNERS ARE STUPID!”

Mr. Heinrich is the person who has been charged with increasing RV sales for Camping World in New Braunfels. Therefore, his sales staff is basically taught that anyone walking through the front door – you and your family for instance – should be considered stupid and treated as such. Further proof that you may want to reconsider doing business with Camping World.

Recommend Camping World of San Antonio to friends, family, or acquaintances? Not likely!

Deposit Sham

Late Sunday afternoon, January the 19th, Robin and Nancy drove in from Waco to look at a specific travel trailer they found on the Camping World of San Antonio website. They fell in love with the rig, but the Sales Manager wanted to leave. We were technically closed, it was 5:05 p.m. They simply did not have the time to complete any paperwork to hold the unit.

pen on contract

However, by Tuesday the 21st they had everything in order. They offered less than the published price over the phone but then decided the asking price of $7,599 was a fair number. They provided their credit card info and approval to use it to hold their unit. Here comes the part that is simply wrong.

The travel trailer was advertised online for four days at $7,599 + fees. The unit actually should have been priced between $9,500 and $10,000 but there it was online listed at $7,599. The General Sales Manager was not happy, but he agreed on Tuesday, January 21st, that Camping World would honor the advertised price. Ergo, he agreed to sell the travel trailer to Robin and Nancy for $7,599.

Not Held – For Sale

On Wednesday, January 22nd, my client’s travel trailer reappeared online at $9,995 + fees. By noon that day, Camping World of San Antonio’s new management team made a call to sell it to another buyer for the increased price of $9,995.

After that my client contacted me. On Wednesday afternoon I got a call asking why their credit card had not been debited. It fell upon me to explain how they had been, in my opinion, mistreated, and that the results of the general sales manager’s actions were the cause of what I will call a “screw-job.”

In addition, the client called the San Antonio store and had a conversation with the GSM, Jimmy Spurlock. He told her he didn’t know anything about her offer so he couldn’t help her. As I said, this is just WRONG!

Management Team at Camping World of San Antonio

Bill Heinrich, general manager
Jimmy Spurlock, general sales manager
Rico Pena, finance director

Another One-Star Review

one star in a five-star review of Camping World of San Antonio

On Friday, January 31, 2020, another one-star Google Review was posted from Michelle W. Michelle shared her experience of getting a call from a Camping World Sales Manager that she’d been screwed. The finance team had taken her deposit and had assured her three times they would indeed hold her unit. After that, she heard from that manager her RV had been promised to someone else.

She went on to say that, after speaking with the sales manager, she “…talked to the owner/general manager who was rude, bad, bad, bad.”

A Pattern Emerging

While once could be an aberration, twice within 10 days seems a lot more like a pattern. A pattern became prevalent approximately three months ago after the senior management team decided that Camping World of San Antonio should continue its trend of filling leadership and finance positions with folks from the car business. From my perspective, senior management would rather have you exposed to the typical car-buying experience vs. a professional approach. Experienced associates who actually know something about motorhomes, travel trailers, toy haulers, and or 5th wheels trailers are unnecessary.

Recommend Camping World of San Antonio to friends, family, and acquaintances? NOT!

My Next Steps

Next, I am thinking about updating and adding additional reasons for not endorsing this dealership. My plan is to edit and update a Google Review on a weekly basis. A few items that may be of interest and that may be addressed are:

  1. The “sales technique” applied to a 74-year-old widow by the Director of Finance.
  2. There is a lack of employee background checks and how it could impact your family. For instance, one former and one active salesperson was arrested for felony sexual child abuse at the New Braunfels location within the past two and a half months.
  3. Seriously consider the value of various “products” sold to you on the back end in the Finance office. A sneak preview of this discussion: How do you know you are even getting the products that you will be paying for over the next 20 years?
  4. Is it bank fraud for the Director of Finance to knowingly allow inflated NADA valuations of pre-owned units to be submitted to lenders? This practice results in buyers almost assured of being upside-down even before they pull their RV off of the lot.

In Closing

Above all, I am convinced that there are times when speaking out and educating the public is simply the right thing to do. It is possible that I may face some form of retribution or be threatened with legal action. Some may consider this just a case of sour grapes. Yes, it probably is to a certain degree. But, hopefully, sharing my first-hand experiences serve as a Public Service Announcement.

In conclusion, I encourage you to share this post with your friends, family, and even acquaintances. While there is no guarantee that they will get a screw-job at Camping World of San Antonio, you may just want to give them a heads-up. In other words, warn them on what they might expect from both the local and regional leadership teams of Camping World…just saying.

Camping Worlds Sucks Warning

Take time to read our other posts. Our slimy sales experience with Camping World of Monticello, Minnesota, and attempted service screw job at Camping World of Bartow, Florida. In the event you don’t have time, be sure to check out Camping World Purchase under “Badgering” before you buy an extended service plan from Camping World. It will save you THOUSANDS!

To contribute your experience to Camping World Sucks click here. Also, there is a Facebook group, Camping World: The Awful Experience to share your experiences.

In conclusion, I always offer contact information for Camping World corporate headquarters. Please share the results of your attempted contact.

This blog is informational only. No advertising is allowed. The Camping World locations in Bartow, Florida, and Monticello, Minnesota inspired this blog. In addition, visit KeystoneRVsucks.net.

Keystone RV & Camping World

Keystone’s largest retailer is Camping World (Gander Mountain). Similarly, the Keystone RV company is building a rep of poor workmanship and questionable service. We chronicle our experiences at keystonervsucks.net. Click to contact Keystone by e-mail. Let us know how that works out for you. However it ends, please share the results with CampingWorldSucks.net readers.

Another option is Keystone’s parent company, Thor. Thor offers a customer support form and phone support, (877) 855-2867.

Keystone RV experiences are welcomed at KeystoneRVsucks.net.

Camping World Nightmare

This is the Camping World nightmare experience of one of our guest posters . . .

I’ll leave out our first two Camping World nightmare experiences to your imaginations, but they were bad.

Sherman, Texas CW

Jayco RV

The Sherman, Texas store was our third visit to a Camping World in an attempt to purchase a 2020 Jayco RV. We stuck with CW only because we wanted a Jayco. They are the only Jayco Dealers remotely close to us.

Our salesman in Sherman was very accommodating. As was the pre-delivery inspection (PDI) staff. However, every person that we dealt with in Finance and all of upper management was nothing less than atrocious.

Passing on CW Financing

First, we informed them from the very beginning that we had our own financing and would not need CW financing. We asked them to send the Purchase Agreement to our banker.

Hacking Our Info

bandit with laptop

Of course, the agreement was never sent. We called them back to get it done. They told us they had contacted the Oklahoma store for our financial info. Ergo, instead of sending the agreement, they took it upon themselves to waste our time by contacting the Oklahoma City store. They hacked our private financial and credit information without our permission. Above all, they violated several laws including the:

After voicing our disapproval, Sherman Camping World finally sent the Purchase Agreement to our bank. Immediately our phone was ringing. Our banker called to tell us that the Purchase Agreement was not correct. They wanted us to pay tax, title and license fees at the time of purchase. They said it was “state law”.

We called Camping World again to explain that we do not pay Texas sales tax, we live in Oklahoma. Several phone calls and arguments ensued. They conceded that we only had to pay Oklahoma tax, but that it needed to be paid when taking delivery.

Next, they told us that we would have to bring a Cashier’s Check in order to take delivery of the RV. We headed out on a four-hour round trip to meet with the banker personally and pick up a Cashier’s Check.

Camping World Nightmare Continues

Everyone involved at CW was very aware that we were on a serious time crunch when picking up the unit. They knew exactly when we would be arriving to take delivery. We called at 8:00 a.m. that morning to follow up with the salesman. We informed him that we would be there around 9:00 a.m. The dealership is an hour from our home.

We arrived at the dealership a little after 9:00 in the morning. Our RV was just being taken back to be cleaned up. We waited patiently (kind of, we were on a time crunch, as stated). Finally, we started our walk-through. At least the walk-through staff was very knowledgeable.

Next, the paperwork. We finally sat down with their Finance guy to sign the paperwork. He initially apologized that we hadn’t had a better experience at other stores. I brought up that we had concerns with our purchase there, but he quickly moved on to the paperwork.

After signing the guy started walking away without payment. I asked him if he wanted checks. He says, “Oh, yeah.” He walked back to the desk and we handed him a Cashier’s Check for the financed amount. I began to write out a check for the fees that they were insisting that we pay upfront. Oklahoma taxes, even though we live in a different state. The salesman says, “Oh, my general manager says that I cant take a personal check for that.”

What?! CW Nightmare Continues

We had driven for hours. Then, we spent hours in the dealership and hours on the phone. No one EVER bothered to mention to us that we needed to bring cash for that?! Does anyone carry that much cash in their pocket daily? Right?!

He said, “Just put it on a card.” The amount was over the daily card limit set by our bank.

At the time, we were over three hours from our nearest bank branch at noon on a Saturday! He handed us back our Cashier’s Check and said, “sorry.” At this point, the sales guy was in disbelief as well.

I have NEVER been treated as poorly at a dealership during the purchase of ANYTHING in my life!! I’m appalled!

To make matters worse, afterward, we checked the purchase agreement when we stopped for lunch. The Purchase Agreement was for $2,000 less than the agreed-upon price; less than the Cashier’s Check. Ergo, they could have taken that extra $2,000 and put it towards the Oklahoma sales taxes. We would have been good.

Camping World Sucks!

In conclusion, we were now in a dire situation. We need to leave town for work and, due to our Camping World nightmare, we are without an RV. Obviously, we have a VERY bad taste in our mouths from this establishment. The way we were treated was astonishing.

Camping World, please do your future customers a favor and better train your staff in regards to customer service and desk-side manner. We feel bad for our sales guy as he did his job and was snuffed out of this sale due to no fault of his own.

–Guest Poster

Camping Worlds (now Gander RV) Suck

The list of complaints has just skyrocketed. It is amazing that this business has any customers. If you need to contact Camping World with one of these horrific experiences, contact corporate headquarters by clicking here. Please report back with your results.

In addition, on Facebook, Camping World: The Awful Experience is dedicated to warning consumers about CW/Gander.

Please consider sharing your Camping World Sucks experiences here.

This site, CampingWorldSucks.net, is strictly for information purposes. We don’t advertise here. Our horrible experiences with Camping World of Bartow, Florida service and Monticello, Minnesota financing departments inspired this blog. Click below for our KeystoneRVsucks.net experience.

Unethical Keystone RV

Camping World sells more Keystone RVs than any other dealership. This major manufacturer has a reputation for poor workmanship and worse customer service. We can attest to that, personally. Keystone customer service e-mail contact is ownerrelations@keystonerv.com. Thor is Keystone’s parent company. Click for Thor custom support or call (877) 855-2867.

Share your experiences with Montana, Cougar, etc. at KeystoneRVsucks.net.