Camping World

[Old Radios]

It pays to shop around. We have a Camping World about 15 miles from us and drive past there often. Yes, many items are higher but I have found several things on sale there that were considerably lower than on-line. I don't expect a brick and mortar store to have as low a price as the on-line retailers. Then again, if I'm heading out and need something right away I would expect to pay a little more to have it immediately.

The problem is stores now have to compete with on-line retailers. A franchise like camping world has a problem. They sell on-line and have retail stores. If you discount everything on line then people expect the stores to sell for the same price which the retail stores can't do across the board and stay in business. Do you lower your prices on line and hurt your stores business or do you try to sell at the stores price on line and not be competitive with other on-line retailers? It's a tough situation for a company.

For the stores, well informed sales people and on the shelf inventory make the value added difference. For the consumer its a choice you have to make for every purchase. Can you wait? Then maybe buy it cheaper on-line. Need it today or not exactly sure which item you want? Go to the store and pick it off the shelf and pay a little more.

[Fred1609]

When I absolutely need something, I will drop into CW, otherwise I will shop around and generally find it for less somewhere else. But when we are on the road, I definitely shop at CW.

[Wizard]

We bought our present motorhome from CW in Ft. Meyers and got the extender warranty as this was a used unit with a diesel. Had two warranty repairs done. The Byron Ga. store replaced the microwave. three weeks later we went on a trip and the microwave didn't work. They replaced it again and this one worked but a few weeks later one of the 12" installation bolts fell out. Took them 4 hours to get the bolt back in.

The dash air quit working, the same Byron Ga store replaced the compressor. 300 miles later it quit working again. I took it back and they said that the refrigerant system had trash in it and they would have to replace the compressor again along with the filter dryers and it would not be covered by the warranty due to the trash. HUH they was the only ones to open the system and let trash in also i had always been told that and compressor change needed the filter dryer changed.

I did get Marcuse's Rapid Response Teem involved through RV.net and long story short, its still working now a year or more later and didn't cost me anything, well except the let refrig oil run down the front of the motorhome and I had to clean and rewax it, didn't notice until I was home, just wanted to get away from there.

Will never go back.

OBTW, when they installed a RediBrake, they drilled through a wiring harness in the driver step well when installing the control box. The tech used a 2" self drilling screw to attach the sheetmetal box tab to the plastic sidewall. Ford had to figure out why my window wouldn't work. Never did get them to pay for that.

[gthunts]

I recently called them for a price on the rubber roof maintenance. The girl on the phone first said they didn't do that. Then when I told her it was advertised in their paper she put me on hold and came back with a price of $320. I found a local business that detailed my MH outside (wash & wax) and cleaned and UV treated the roof for $400

[TeJay]

I've discussed CW before but will make some general comments. We had a local dealer bought out by CW about 2 years ago. I know the GM of the new CW and he is committed to quality service. When he took over he observed the original staff for two weeks then made changes. The original dealer had a back log of units. Some had been on the lot for months. He fixed those and honored other repairs that were not completed satisfactorily.

My world for 35 years was teaching and preparing individuals to enter the automotive service industry. We almost never were sent quality students. If they were smart, had good grades and tried to sign up for my class they usually had to fight the school counselors. The school counselors usually sent me those who were doing poorly in their college courses. Usually around 10-20% of my students were special needs with learning disabilities. "If you can't use your mind then maybe you can use your hands."

Most (not all) High School administrators believe the only intelligent choice is COLLEGE, COLLEGE, COLLEGE. I fought that for 35 years.

Now exactly what do you think can be done to train individuals with those entry level skills??? Good luck with that.

Our own Son who has 4, (that's four) College degrees: Computer Engineering, Computer Science, MBA and Air War College, is a Lt. Col in the AF (18 years) and is working at the Pentagon. Every time he signed up for HS classes he had to argue with the counselors because he wanted to take a Vocational Class. Every time!! That's ignorant. He had great grades and simply wanted to take an elective class.

For 25 years I worked at Springdale HS here in AR. Our vocational courses were second to none in the state. Every year for 20 years we would bring home 25-35 gold, silver and bronze medals fro our state contests. We won many metals at Nationals. Very few bound for college students with good grades EVER head about our courses from the counseling staff. If you were smart you took the college prep classes.

Not the complete answer but it goes a long way in understanding why good service technicians are few and far between. Mant received training in the military. Some finished 1-3 years of college and were not happy so they tried vocational school because they were interested.

I know good techs who are making well over $50,000 a year. I also know a lot of people with college degrees who don't make that much or are out of work. I have one student who graduated in 1985 and currently owns FOUR motorcycle, 4-wheeler, marine sales and service shops in the NW AR area. No telling how much he is worth. He does not have a college degree.

Here's another issue that can be verified by almost anybody who is trying to hire good entry level individuals. It's very difficult to find kids who want to work. How about just showing up on time. How about the desire to just learn. Throw in some problem solving skills and you are asking for the world. Kids today have had to much, for to long and they don't have to hardly work for it. And there's almost no responsibility attached to anything they get. That's what you get when everybody gets a medal for just showing up. They expect to be Vice-President of the company with all the perks.

Most shops are having a very difficult time finding quality individuals who can work on our rolling homes. This shortage of quality individuals is felt in most service and repair industries in this country.

Springdale's CW so far has proven to be a decent repair facility. It is a work in progress but the GM is trying. The CW is only 10 miles from us and they do sell the WBGO line so I use them for warranty work.

Thanks,
TeJay

[gbburgess]

Yes, and Yes again! I agree completely with the problem of getting employees that want to work. Most just seem to want to be the vice president or CEO. When we were looking for a new A Class in Destin FLA the sales people would not come out. When one did, he knew nothing about what he was trying to show us. We left and headed back to Iowa. There is a new CW in Cedar Falls Iowa, about 60 miles from me. I gave the sales people the criteria DW and I wanted. I could just as well saved my breath and the e-mail discussions. They were only concerned with what they wanted in both cases not in what we were willing to purchase. It appears they were failed used car salesmen that CW hired. We eventually purchased a Diesel pusher elsewhere. I only go there now if no other supplier is available.

[ernest917]

Yeah - I had a service center install a new water heater and change my oil and filters this past March and they included their "free" inspection and part of their service.... Yeah Buddy....

Since we were leaving the next week for the FMCA rally in GA, I decided I'd do my own inspection of their inspection.... Good thing I did...

All coach batteries needed water, two tires needed air, but the kicker was my generator was low on oil..... So that free inspection sucked - he probably stood in front of my rig and said - "yep, that's a Motorhome" and that was the extent of that free inspection....

[djbmsu]

CampDaven You are not defending CW ? but you don't want others to express their opinion in saying they had bad experiences with them ?
25 opinions stated this far and it seems about a 5 to 1 negative experience.
CW has only itself to blame for it's reputation.

[CampDaven]

Originally Posted by djbmsu

CampDaven You are not defending CW ? but you don't want others to express their opinion in saying they had bad experiences with them ?

25 opinions stated this far and it seems about a 5 to 1 negative experience.

CW has only itself to blame for it's reputation.

I will not bash CW as a whole. Some of them provide good service, as I have stated earlier. So, 16.67% are good. That is not "all" bad.
Those that paint broadly with the brush often cover up good stuff.
Choose carefully! I did.

[DallasOregon]

My local one is Wilsonville. Haven't been yet. We went to one down in Southern CA, and was upset with the lack of stuff for tent campers. We will be trying Wilsonville next week, just to shop. I have a list of stuff to buy on Amazon though, thanks to all of you.

[slick60]

Originally Posted by lenjen

The three local RV service shops that I have used offer a 22-28 point free inspection. It is a visual from the ground walk-around inspection. They have never noticed a thing, until I pointed something out. 2 of the 3 don’t top off any of the other fluids when they change the oil. I’d trust CW as fast I as I would one of these.

I would recommend Integrity RV in Douglasville, Apalache RV in Auburn. Both give excellent service. Cummins South is also excellent. CW is not a place I could recommend.

[Dutch Star David]

Originally Posted by Ernie Ekberg

I won't even buy toilet paper from them

Darn; That's the only thing I buy there. Now I have to look elsewhere for that too.

[mojoracing]

Tents don't have the profit margin that RV's do. Camping world buys dealers that are struggling financially as well as dealers that do well. In many cases the people they inherit know what they are doing and have good customer service. The problem is Lemonis is all about procedure. They come in and put there way of doing things into action. Problem is the guys putting together the procedures have NO EXPERIENCE in actually running a retail automotive / rv establishment. They are looking at it from the outside and in many cases don't know the realities of dealing with customers during a sale or service procedure. Many times these situations are very fluid and change based on customer needs and they just don't see it. They take a cookie cutter approach that works for a small percentage of customers and only in a textbook interaction. Usually the GM's are left to run the store as if they had ownership but within strict financial parameters which may or may not work depending on how far along the store is in its development. I have seen them buy stores for pennies on the dollar and I have seen them make many an owner rich with ridiculous purchase prices. It depends on the market and how quickly they are trying to brand a territory. Most of what I refer to comes from what lemonis did with autonation but he carried most over to camping world. Very few of the people at the corporate level in the past had much retail automotive experience. Not sure how it is today but reading the complaints I assume not much has changed.

[DallasOregon]

Well, hubby had a point. It is called Camping WORLD. That should cover all types of camping, and it doesn't, not even close.