This week has been busy at work. Some short days and some very long. I will head in at noon today for what will most likely be a long one.
Yesterday I had a day off. Ours plans were to go looking at 5th wheels. Camping World in Katy was having a sale. But first we had to go to the dealership to leave the truck off to have some things done that were promised.We had not given them the check that came in a week ago from the credit union. I was afraid if we paid them, then the work would never get done. Well, we headed over there at 10am and had been promissed a loaner for the day. Got there and we were told that they couldnt give us one because Chrysler had filed for bankruptcy. Have no idea why that changes things but we were mad. They also informed us that they would put on the rim covers and mud flaps, but that would be all they could do. They still had to order the running boards and they hadnt taken out the electric brake from the old truck. Once again we were not happy. We went next door for a bite to eat while they did those few things. We had to turn the check over to them and are now taking their word that they will come thru with these last few items. They also still have to wash and detail and put in floor matts. We left there after 2 hours.
Now we were on our way to Katy, but a quick stop at the racetrack to bet on the Preakness Race. Ok, now we are on our way.. The exit we get off to get to Camping World goes by another dealership that we spoke to at the Houston RV Show in February. So we stopped by there to take another look at the Montana that we were a bit interested in. This stop turned into 2 hours.
Our heads were filled with quite a bit. The salesman has been selling Montana's for 9 years and really knows alot. Of course he is a salesman, and you know where this is going. He completely downed Heartland products and Camping World. He told us this particular Camping World is in big trouble and will most likely go out of business. He said they had to borrow quite a big sum of money from Thor and that Thor made them promise to sell their products, so they will be doing away with Heartland. He also said that Heartland is in trouble and probably closing one of their factory's. Hmmmm. You just never know what to believe. Anyway it was getting late at this point and we wanted to make it home for the Preakness, so we never did make it to Camping World. I still want to plan another trip to see what they have to say. Of course they most likely will tell us that Keystone is no good and that they are in trouble! Oh and the bad news for us is he said the banks are requiring quite a bit of money down right now on RV's. We may be out of luck until we can sell some real estate.
3 comments:
Salesman! You are so right--who do you believe. We have learned so much in our (almost) two years of rving....but it is still hard to know who to trust. Good luck!
That's exactly what we were told last weekend. We'll find out for sure what's going on when we GET to the factory on June 1. We're going to Heartland and Carriage. We have special appointments from both places. Salesmen are always putting down other dealerships. Not sure about Camping World, they're "in trouble too". We'll see if we can get the facts. Good luck!
Wow. I am very sorry for this. Let me first tell you that I do work for Camping World at Katy. I am one of the managers here. It’s sad when sales people do this. I know the manager at holiday world and have even had dinner with him and can tell you that I don’t think he would support this kind of talk just as I would not with any sales people here. The way I look at it and have talk to him about it is we don’t want either one of us to go any where. Why would we? At this point and time when ever you want to go look at a RV in Houston where would you go? I’m sure where two of the largest dealers in TX are plus when I spend any money or they to bring people in I promise that people will stop at both stores. So as you can see it would only hurt the other one if one of us went out. I can also tell you both Heartland and Keystone are doing very well. In fact it’s a down market right now and most places are not making money and both of them are. Keystone is own by Thor and they are the largest RV builder out there today and Heartland is taking the ranking by storm as well and they own every one of there factories out right. They pay cash for everything so you will see both of them around for a very long time. As for the stores go Hoilday world has been there a very long time and there roots have grown to big to be going away and as for us we are camping world we built this store from the grown up around 3 years ago and spent way to much money to shut it down. Camping world is the largest RV Company out there today and there is no way we will go under and no one wants to see that because that would only hurt the RV market. Yes we did get some money for Thor. They gave us some cash because they do want us to sell there units and since 1 out of 3 RVs sold today are from a camping world they are doing what ever they can to make sure they are in the same boat with us. The money they gave us is to buy only Thor units. There are deals like this all the time. It’s kind of like factory rebates. “Will give you this if you will do this”. As far as what unit to buy both are very nice RVS and the first thing I always say to look at is floorplan. Now when I came here to open this store I did pick Heartland because I myself love what they make because of how they make it. It as about 2x the R factor as any Keystone line, They are all aluminum box frame walls, roof, floor, with no C channel steal that bends and rust, they build there floor just like a class A does and laminate it, they use the biggest 12” rolled chaise on there large units. I could go on for ever on it but I’ll wait till you come in for that, But I have to say I have RV in both and have had a great time in both. Please when you come in ask for me and I would be happy to help you in any way.
Again I am sorry that happen and that is not the norm for them or us.
Joe French
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