Community Forums

Jim Martin PA · 04-28-2006, 09:14 AM

Hello all,

Elaine just received a mail offer to visit a local Thousand Trails Camping Resort.

What do you folks know about these types of programs?

Anyone have a feel for the membership fees?

I'm always suspicious about any mail offer.

Your comments please

Thanks

Jim & Elaine

Jim Martin PA · 04-28-2006, 09:14 AM

Hello all,

Elaine just received a mail offer to visit a local Thousand Trails Camping Resort.

What do you folks know about these types of programs?

Anyone have a feel for the membership fees?

I'm always suspicious about any mail offer.

Your comments please

Thanks

Jim & Elaine

Kazoo Tom · 04-28-2006, 09:34 AM

I understand that Thousand Trails offers some very nice facilities. I would guess, however, that you invitation involves a night or two of free camping along with a tour and some very high pressure sales pitch. We have attended some in the past at other membership resorts. The sales staff does not like hearing the word no. In fact, at one we had a very pushy sales person, when we said no, we only came for the free stuff, they loaded us up and virtually kicked us out of the campground. Be prepared for the pitch, and know you have the absolute right to say no!

Jestme13 · 04-28-2006, 11:45 AM

Jim we are members of TT. Our home resort is Hershey PA, it is a nice place. The only thing I think is a minus about TT is there are almost no resorts in the North East USA. I know they sell the H-ll out of Hershey and we cannot get in for Memorial day. Take advantage of the FREE camping, and when the time comes to make the deal GRIND the H_LL out of them, they will negotiate. By the way TT was just sold to another outfit, it is supposed to improve the services.

machman72 · 04-28-2006, 03:08 PM

Tom is correct. A little "free" camping and a lot of super high pressure sales pitches

. Yes they are pushy and no they do not like to hear the word no

. We went to the Hershey facility a long time ago. If you make the deal there is no getting out of it. All you can do is try to sell your membership, at a much reduced rate as far as I have seen. Again, they have nice facilities, BUT, there are regular campgrounds all over this great country of ours. Why lock into one branch?

Toby · 04-28-2006, 04:18 PM

Jim
We went (and stayed 3 days)to the TT out of Orlando (Clermont) and went thru the sales pitch. They went from $9000 down to $3000. I told um everything was great but we could not afford anything now and to give me his card. They still tried everything, but we stuck to our story--no money. Its hard to beat that excuse. I think the TT would be alright if you go full time, but not for occassional trippers. BTw, you can get the same thing, as I understand it from the re-sealers for a fraction of the price. If you want discount camping try good sams and Passport America--some of their CGS are okay. s/Toby

SeeTheUSA · 04-28-2006, 05:41 PM

We are members and like it very much. Bought our membership from an individual - couldn't afford Thousand Trails' sales price! Earlier comments about getting your money's worth are important to consider --- too much money for someone who would use it now and then. While we like trying to get into as many locations outside of Texas when the opportunity presents itself, our main benefit comes from the seven locations in Texas --- keeps us on the go in the winter when travel out of state is better in other seasons of the year.

rogueii · 04-28-2006, 05:52 PM

We are Premier members of TT and we enjoyed our 5months on the road last year. We use TT and ROD and Pasport and Enjoy America whenever possible. Our travels were mostly in the west last year and we used all the dues $$ . They have some very nice facilities and with the new Regs. we can stay three weeks in one camp ground and ccheck right into another for three weeks. As mentioned in another post, we don't have as many TT on the east coast. They are supposed to be adding some.

We had the advantage of having our Dealer pay the Membership fee when we purchased the first RV for 90 days, we then picked up the dues payment for the next 9 months. I am 66 and my dues are locked in to what they were two years ago. There are some good advantages, and there are some cons that may not fit your travels.
Take a hard look at what your investing in---do you have children that you can pass the membership (and DUES) to? Look at the whole package. You need to be able to use the CG enough to offset your cost.

Winnobego · 04-29-2006, 06:16 AM

We are a member but there are alot of Preserves (as they call them) near us. Take a look at their web page www.1000trails.com
Now as far as high pressure they are a little beyond that. So stick to your guns. Yes they are weak in the east cost.

If you are interested there are always some memberships available on E-Bay but please remember there is over 125 different memberships types out there. They use to be 3 different groups so some one can be selling just one part of that and it would cost a ton to get everything. Best recomendation is, if you find a re sale ask for the member number then call member service and find out what type of membership it is.
There is also a Yahoo group that is for TTN members and interested people located at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ttnmembers

TwoJacks · 05-08-2006, 04:49 AM

We signed up for a free stay at TT last summer when we were at the Redmond, OR Rally. They offered to provide us with $75 worth of fuel for free, just for attending their sales presentation. We traveled several hundred miles out of our way to one of their preserves where we got the high pressure sales treatment.

Then the fun began. The free fuel offer was a certificate we had to mail to another company in order to redeem the offer, which we did. We then received an envelope with three coupons, each for $25 worth of fuel stating that it would take 8-12 weeks. But wait, there's more... Each of the coupons had to be mailed back separately by certified mail but, only one could be mailed each month! We followed the written direction precisely.

It has now been more than 8 months since we sent in the certificates and we have yet to have TT honor their offer. We wonder if that is how they operate with people who are members too.

Jestme13 · 05-09-2006, 06:33 AM

We got the gas offer too, it took forever but we did get the money.

One thing that really pi-s's me off is when they give away the camp sites to potential buyers on Holidays, when us paying members can't get a reservation. Da-- we paid, they did'nt.

Hitchhiker · 05-09-2006, 07:37 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">It has now been more than 8 months since we sent in the certificates and we have yet to have TT honor their offer. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Carole & Ken,

That's not very credible of them and certainly doesn't speak well of them. Have you contacted them regarding it?

TwoJacks · 09-14-2006, 04:18 PM

Update! All is forgiven. We haven't updated this post because we were in Alaska all summer.

We did write a letter to TT about our experience with the gas offer. They responded. It seems that the company handling the promotion had closed its doors and failed to notify TT about which promotional offers it had fulfilled.

TT explained what had happened and sent us $100 worth of gas cards which more than made up for the inconvenience and hoops we'd jumped through.

TT has redeemed itself in our opinion and in the future we will again consider membership when it fits our travels.

BIGRED1 · 09-26-2006, 08:53 AM

I've been told by several people to never buy the memberships direct from TT, but purchase from someone trying to resell them privately, through e-bay or through a broker. And as one of the early posters said, make sure you know what membership level and benefits you are getting and what the yearly maintenance costs are. I've even heard of people giving away the membership just to get out from under the anual dues.