Camping world sucks

[Maverick50]

My DW and I were talking about CW the other night. I believe, if the salesmen went to Tech School and learned how to repair RV's it would be a great benefit to CW. Their work schedule would be a swing shift between sales and repair, so many days in sales and so many days in repair. Most CW salesmen are sitting around BSing anyways. They could possibly increase sales and service by taking this approach. They would learn a lot more features about the produces they repair and sell. As retail sales they need to find a new purchaser and do price matching.

[wahoonc]

TeJay,

I will agree that our entire education system is in disarray. I currently work in the industrial roofing and wall panel industry. We are always challenged in finding any workforce. Our traditional workers are aging out very quickly and we aren't getting many younger ones in to replace them. Average age of our crews is around 52 years old.

I think CW has a management issue. I know at the store nearest me they installed a new GM right after the takeover and one of his first moves was to fire anyone making over a certain amount, a few other people I know left very quickly after that because they didn't want to work for someone with that type of management style. They have a huge turnover in every department but sales, and I suspect that is because they are on commission vs hourly rate.

I have no problem with a business making a profit, but too many businesses today treat their employees as a commodity rather than as an asset. We have a couple of offices in our company that cannot keep people due to the management team in place. Some have guys that have been with the company and the same office for over 20 years.

I am afraid it is only going to get worse. I am getting very close to retirement and really don't want to start another business, however I might on a small scale. I do the bulk of my own RV maintenance, repairs and mods because I know what I want and I know it will be done right the first time.

Aaron

[Notlad]

Originally Posted by Maverick50

My DW and I were talking about CW the other night. I believe, if the salesmen went to Tech School and learned how to repair RV's it would be a great benefit to CW. Their work schedule would be a swing shift between sales and repair, so many days in sales and so many days in repair. Most CW salesmen are sitting around BSing anyways. They could possibly increase sales and service by taking this approach. They would learn a lot more features about the produces they repair and sell. As retail sales they need to find a new purchaser and do price matching.

A few decades ago I spent about a decade as a Sales Manger for automobile dealerships and I can tell you that the skill set needed for selling vehicles is much different than the skill set for working on them.

We don't need mechanics and service technicians selling RV's, we just need RV dealers to hire sales people with a passion for the product and then insure they are trained on basic RV knowledge and then the particulars of the brands and models they carry.

I have only spoken to one Camping World salesperson and he was a young guy in his early 20's. I have never owned a RV myself (researching for my upcoming retirement) but my knowledge from a few hundred hours on the internet was greater than his and he was selling them!

[Rossi6998]

Originally Posted by edgray

You will find great service and good prices at : rvupgrades. com. It is an online retailer of RV related products and is owned by the guy who started iRV 2. Support them because they support us.

Absolutely!

[JC2]

Originally Posted by edgray

You will find great service and good prices at : rvupgrades. com. It is an online retailer of RV related products and is owned by the guy who started iRV 2. Support them because they support us.

I also agree 100%. Their service and quality is second to none.

[nothermark]

FWIW went over to a local camper show put on by Meyers. It's their first one since they stopped being Camping World. Had a chat with one of their sales people about service problems. His point was that under CW all parts had to be ordered through Chicago with added delays and shipping problems. Now that they dropped the affiliation they can go factory direct so part turn around should be a lot faster.

Given the repair experience we had last year waiting for parts I believe him.

[HD4Mark]

Originally Posted by nothermark

FWIW went over to a local camper show put on by Meyers. It's their first one since they stopped being Camping World. Had a chat with one of their sales people about service problems. His point was that under CW all parts had to be ordered through Chicago with added delays and shipping problems. Now that they dropped the affiliation they can go factory direct so part turn around should be a lot faster.

Given the repair experience we had last year waiting for parts I believe him.

Meyers RV in NY is no longer a CW? Fantastic. We bought our first MH from the Syracuse Meyers. Tried to buy a second but they wanted to screw us on the trade in.

[Hit_the_Rhod]

Had the electric heating element in our Dometic exploding refrigerator go out just before heading out for Florida last year. Local dealerships didn't have one, and we didn't have time to wait for one to arrive by mail, so I called Camping World along our route south. Found an element in Chattanooga and asked them to hold it. When I picked it up, they asked me if they were going to install it. I asked them how much it would cost, they quoted 1.8 hours at $149.00/hour, you do the math. They stated that the refrigerator had to be removed into the inside of the camper to access the heating element.

I had already been in there from the outside panel in order to troubleshoot, and said no thanks.

Two days later during our evening stop I replaced the element. I had never replaced one, but it took me all of 20 minutes, from the outside, without removing the fridge.

I wonder if they would have kept us waiting for the extra hour and 28 minutes at the shop in order to justify the extra labor cost!

There may actually be units that require the refrigerator to be removed, but they never even went outside and looked at the RV, so they couldn't have known.

Oh, and for those who say the shop probably just charged "flat rate" no matter how long it took, they ALSO had a sign posted that said something to the affect of "We charge flat rate labor rates. However sometimes the job takes longer than the flat rate time, so in those cases we charge the actual time involved!"

No mention of charging less if the job took less time than "flat rate"!

[mel s]

Originally Posted by Hit_the_Rhod

Had the electric heating element in our Dometic exploding refrigerator go out just before heading out for Florida last year. Local dealerships didn't have one, and we didn't have time to wait for one to arrive by mail, so I called Camping World along our route south. Found an element in Chattanooga and asked them to hold it. When I picked it up, they asked me if they were going to install it. I asked them how much it would cost, they quoted 1.8 hours at $149.00/hour, you do the math. They stated that the refrigerator had to be removed into the inside of the camper to access the heating element.
I had already been in there from the outside panel in order to troubleshoot, and said no thanks.
Two days later during our evening stop I replaced the element. I had never replaced one, but it took me all of 20 minutes, from the outside, without removing the fridge.
I wonder if they would have kept us waiting for the extra hour and 28 minutes at the shop in order to justify the extra labor cost!
There may actually be units that require the refrigerator to be removed, but they never even went outside and looked at the RV, so they couldn't have known.
Oh, and for those who say the shop probably just charged "flat rate" no matter how long it took, they ALSO had a sign posted that said something to the affect of "We charge flat rate labor rates. However sometimes the job takes longer than the flat rate time, so in those cases we charge the actual time involved!"
No mention of charging less if the job took less time than "flat rate"!

Hit_the_Rhod
A "flat rate" should be exactly that...a "flat rate", (aka: a specified dollar amount for performing a particular repair).

The dollars charged based on the hours it takes to do a particular repair makes it an "hourly rate" job.

Apparently that Camping World shop charges whichever of those 2 rates that are most beneficial to their bottom line
(The "flat rate" if the hours needed to complete a particular job do not exceed the hours specified in the flat rate for that job, OR the "hourly rate" if/when they can't complete the repair job in the hours specified by the "flat rate").

IMO that's "NOT ethical"... (but very few people have ever accused any Camping World shop of being "ethical").

Mel
'96 Safari

[mwwade]

From what all goes on at camping world, it looks to me like the sales staff has 85% of the work force. The remainder is parts, service, and technicians.

[hillman]

Only dealing i have had with camping world was last year looking for a motor home. Drove 370 mi to buy MH from camping world in NC arrived found sales man had lied big time.Salesman did not show up for work that day said after saying he would meet us.