CW Direct By Camping World — Attraction in Elkhart

Update 2 - After having to submit a BBB complaint, I got a response from Corporate. They had a lot of issues with this site opening and as such have replaced the people that were a problem (GM, finance guy, etc). They compensated me for the keys and my time as well as supplying my paperwork. I now have a number to call have people poked if necessary. Much happier! (+1 star)

I purchased a camper at the beginning of May. The experience started out great. The sales guy was a delight and we came to an agreeable price on my trade in and the date was set to close on it. My wife and I drove down with our old camper and did the walkthrough and really liked the new one. We went in and signed paperwork while they were getting it fitted to my existing vehicle hitch. Once we were done signing the paperwork, we were provided a folder with all our paperwork in it and we walked out to our camper. Everything seemed great. What we learned when we were waiting over by our camper is that they had lost the keys. We were assured that they would order a new pair and sent us on our way with 1 master key for the door, nothing for the compartment. I wasn't concerned at this point because our first camping trip wasn't until this past weekend (6 weeks later).

I have spent the past month calling them about the keys which I was never able to get anyone to tell me "yes, we ordered your keys". What else is that my loan on my old trailer still existed so I was also calling them about that because a payment was going to be due and I would need to pay it if they were going to take long on processing it (3 weeks from the day we bought it is when the payment was due). Finally after 2 weeks I got ahold of someone in finance and she assured me she'd put a rush on my payoff. She called me back and said they got it expedited but I'd probably have to make a payment on the old one so I wouldn't take a credit hit which I did. When I was talking with her, I found that I wasn't given my financial paperwork at all. The guy who did our loan put 3 copies of the warranty we purchased in the folder and never gave me any of the financial documents that I signed. So finally after 4 weeks, my old trailer loan was paid off and I was told I would be mailed my documents.

Back to the keys. I had the GM, another manager and several people in service assure me they have my keys on order. I received a text from my sales guy to go look on the door handle as he needs a code to order my keys(5 days before my first camping trip). I found that code but there was no code or number at all on the compartment locks. I called up the number on the door and it took me exactly 3 hours (2 of which I just waited for a callback to talk to a l live person) to figure out which keys were for my unit and have them ordered and on the way. So yes after 4 weeks of them "assuring me" that the keys were on order, I had to solve it myself and pay out of my own pocket to get keys for my brand new camper.

This is not the end of the nightmare because we are at 6 weeks and I don't have my financial paperwork they assured me I would get mailed to me and my new loan which the paperwork stated I'd make my first payment on June 17th, does not exist as of yet. This I believe, will be an altogether new nightmare because I highly doubt they are going to be able to submit 45 day old paperwork to the bank and have them accept it. This means I will likely have to drive 2 hours....again...to take care of this.

I have sent emails, text messages, and called (they have a standing order to transfer me to service apparently). They have done nothing to fix any situation that I have brought up with them and have not responded to me in regards to the money I had to pay just to have keys to my brand new camper.

UPDATE: 2 total months for them to get me the loan. I still do not have financial paperwork. I General RV for warranty because CW direct does not service my model (another lie told to me) and they couldn't submit for warranty service CWD didn't register my RV (2 and a half...

Forest River (Coachmen) and their dealer Lazydays sold me a new travel trailer that had 20+ pre-existing issues, including a defective roof, water leaks, toxic Chaetomium mold, rusty parts, along with several parts that Lazydays own service department calls "worn", which would indicate that this trailer was not new, but was used prior to my purchase. And to boot, they told me that these "worn" parts were not going to be covered by their warranty, leaving ME to pay for replacement. This is a BRAND NEW trailer! Their own documentation at the time of sale claims my trailer was brand new with no issues. Their quality control inspection processes turned a blind eye to finding these issues prior to delivery and sale. Forest River GM Mike Gaeddert, Lazydays (Indiana) GM Charles Gore, and Lazydays (Tampa) GM Jeff Dillard all refuse to provide me with a brand new trailer, which is what I paid for.

In the Forest River/Lazydays contract, they charged me for a final inspection that was never performed. The final inspection, which is located on the Warranty Form, was left blank at the time of sale. This would indicate fraud and a breach of contract. They also said they performed a PDI inspection (Pre Delivery Inspection) on my trailer just days prior to the sale. My sales rep even said via text that the PDI inspection "went very smoothly". Their own PDI inspection results allege that the trailer had no issues (all check marks were in the "OK" column) just prior to the sale. But, it was instead sold with 20+ pre-existing issues.

This is apparently an epidemic, as the Lazydays in Tampa tells their customers to bring their trailers in for warranty service within the 1st 30 days (to fix any issues they find) in order to by-pass the long service wait times (2 months on average). The mere fact that Forest River and Lazydays continue to use the word warranty and direct me (and others) to warranty repair perpetuates their deceptive inspection practices and accentuates their failure to disclose/repair pre-existing issues at the time of purchase. If records were pulled from the Lazydays service center, I'm sure we'd find that 50%-75% of the customers that buy new trailers end up making service appointments in the 1st few months of ownership.

FOREST RIVER AND LAZYDAYS PERFORM 4 DIFFERENT INSPECTIONS (ON EVERY NEW RV OR TRAILER) PRIOR TO CONSUMER PURCHASE. Inspection by Forest River after manufacturing is completed Inspection by Lazydays when they receive the trailer from Forest River PDI Inspection by Lazydays just prior to sale Final Inspection & walk through (with customer) by Lazydays at time of sale

Also note that Forest River is saving money on repairs when issues are not disclosed in these inspections because many issues are not caught by consumers during their 1-year warranty period. After the warranty period expires, Lazydays charges customers roughly $200/hour for labor, in addition to the money they make off customers on parts. But even if issues are caught during the warranty period, Lazydays charges Forest River.

So now my trailer needs mold remediation (by a licensed company) to remove the pre-existing toxic Chaetomium mold that came with their trailer at time of purchase, which requires dismantling and replacement of the ceiling, roof, walls, and floor to get rid of all the mold. The licensed mold inspector (that I hired b/c Lazydays refused to pay for a mold test) also told me to stay out of the trailer due to the health risks.

NOTE: The Forest River/Lazydays warranty does not even cover mold!

It's now been 31 days since I've received any email communications from Forest River or Lazydays regarding this matter, including Mr. Gaeddert, who says he wants to talk to me by phone, yet refuses to put in writing (email) the topics for our conversation, and instead just ignores my email requests.

I paid for a brand new trailer and want this trailer replaced with a brand...

We bought our used 2019 Forest River Georgetown from Total Value RV - here's the Good, Bad and Ugly of our experience.

Before I dive into the experience, I will tell you we would take our business back to them.

THE GOOD - A large dealership who truly seems to care about their clients. We called before we arrived to make sure the RV we were coming to look at was still available and the salesman Chad not only confirmed it's availability but sent me several texts showing the items that were damaged/flawed before we arrived.

Chad showed us the RV and since we got there late was willing to hold it and show it to us again when we returned a few days later.

The finance manager Matt was excellent and not only got us set-up, but had everything he was responsible for taken care of before we returned to pick-up the RV two weeks later.

Billy was the lot tech who spent two hours with us the day we picked the unit up. Not only did he explain everything, but he showed us a few tricks specific to the unit.

Chris is the service manager and he does a great job of managing his crews despite the fact they are currently kicking out 3-5 RV's a day.

The dealership has six overnight sites outside their main gate for you to spend one or two days after you pick-up your RV to make sure everything works correctly. In our case we had several maintenance issues that need resolved after spending the night. The dealership fixed everything we identified in our walk-though - no questions or hassles.

THE BAD - Chad had promised us several items would be repaired on the unit before we picked it up - some were, but most weren't. While the service manager and his crew fixed everything, 50% of what needed to be done wasn't because Chad had forgotten to write it down or Billy who was responsible for prepping the unit hadn't finished. When we looked at the RV online and in person there was a 25 foot 50 amp extension cord and extra water filer in the unit - they were not in the unit when we picked it up.

THE UGLY - When we first looked at the unit it was dirty - remains spoiled food in the refrigerator, dirty windows, the roof was covered with grime and the gas tank was empty so we couldn't take it on a long test drive or fire up the generator. We were assured the unit would be cleaned. When we picked it up it looked like someone had spent about an hour in it and quickly moved on. I spent an hour just power-washing the roof when we got the unit home and another five hours washing and vacuuming. When we were doing our overnight in their sites and I was walking around barefoot, my soles turned black - the unit had not been mopped. The bed over front seats had never been cleaned and we had to literally run a vacuum over it to remove grass and pet fur. There was the remains of kitty litter in the track to the shower we had to vacuum out. The propane tank that was supposed to be full wasn't and Billy wanted to charge us to top it off - fortunately the amazing guy that did all repair work after our first night apologized and topped it off. Finally we discovered after the staff left the grey and black tanks were completely full on the unit. Seems Billy tested them and then forgot to drain them - as a result we had to clean up a mess when the shower overflowed.

We've purchased used units before and in both cases they were completely cleaned and in one case the dealer claimed the unit had been sanitized - this dealership could learn from the smaller dealership. While this was a used unit, we spent a boatload of money on it and expected that it would be clean and ready.

I've share all of this so you don't have the same issues. Like I said, we'd likely return to this dealership that's four hours from our home if we ever decide to upgrade again. They eventually made everything right.

I added some drone photos I took of their lot.

Overall...