New Purchase Travel Trailer Lemon Law?

[timjet]

I don't know if the OP will get credit for the tax paid on the defective unit but tax in FL is 7% on the full purchase price.

[Matt A]

Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer

Since you bought in Florida, I'm guessing your attorney is citing Florida Lemon Law? I don't think you will get much help there if Dutchman/Keystone/Thor digs in their heels. It's not a motor vehicle and the problems are not chassis related, so technically not covered by FL law.

I'd hope the lawyer is also looking at the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act. It's federal law governing consumer product warranty. It seems a refund would be attainable.

The pertinent part:

Under a full warranty, in the case of a defect, malfunction, or failure to conform with the written warranty, the warrantor:

• can remedy the consumer product within a reasonable time and without charge;may not impose any limitation on the duration of any implied warranty on the product;

• may not exclude or limit consequential damages for a breach of any written or implied warranty on the product, unless the exclusion or limitation conspicuously appears on the face of the warranty; and

• if the product, or a component part, contains a defect or malfunction, must permit the consumer to elect either a refund or replacement without charge, after a reasonable number of repair attempts.

For a basic overview you can listen to Steve Lehto's podcasts on the subject. He is an Attorney in Michigan but a lot of the topics carry over to most other states. http://lehtoslaw.com/michigan-lemon-...boats-and-rvs/

[keymastr]

How stupid are the people in charge at Thor to have allowed this to go so far. The OP used his real name, the real dealer involved and pictures of his unit. A simple google search would have alerted them that he was posting pics and story for all to see. They should have settled with him months ago with a better trailer of his choice for free in return for signing a non disclosure agreement. The story would have stopped with us wondering how he made out getting his floor repaired and that would have been worth a couple trailers at least.

Hope you get them to give you the new unit free of charge.

[jeck]

Hello all,

This will be my last update on this whole ridiculous situation. I have been beyond frustrated this entire time with these clowns running Dutchman and the dealer here in Ft Myers. At every turn everyone has wanted to push the blame on anyone else.

After growing up camping with my family and loving it as I am older, this brand new product I purchased from Dutchman has caused me to never want another camper/trailer again. These products leaving the factory nowadays are thrown together with the cheapest material and in reality, they fight you at every turn if you ask them to back their product up when they fail. The RV industry has turned into a dark, shady, cheap environment much like a car salesman type industry.

It has now been 8 and a half months that I haven't had my trailer in my driveway all while making payments on it. I have possessed my trailer 4 of the last 13 months that I have ever owned it. Ridiculous and almost criminal on their part!

My advice to other in a future situation is to be prepared to wait. Wait awhile!

When I updated my last update this was back in August/September, I had made the approval to receive the new unit that I went and looked at when it was at another dealer. That was the second to last week of September. It took two weeks for them to deliver it to my location dealer where I inspected it. I found numerous defects with it. Jacks didn't function, half of the LED porch lights didn't come on, doors were warped and didn't even close, furniture wasn't even secured to the floor, there were holes in the outside bottom skirt where a jack switch used to be etc. I left frustrated and expecting to wait another month before all of this would be fixed and it turns out I will have waiting a month and a half.

And to top it off before the first inspection, I received a voicemail message from an individual at La Mesa calling on behalf of the Service Department Manager stating that they have put their hands on the trailer and inspected and "And didn't find anything wrong with it," and I was clear to come pick it up at my connivence. UNBELIEVABLE. Everyone just wants to kick you down the street because you are a problem to them and they just want to be done with you.

Before I arrived to inspect the unit in the first hand, it was expected of me to sign the release that day and pick it up the next day.....I was livid at this point after finding all these things wrong.

So, I sent a very fuming email to the contact at dutchman demanding a different unit. She even sent me an email prior stating that she knew I was going to the dealer to inspect the trailer.

Following this email she told me the unit had not been through their processing and needed all these issues to be resolved. She told me the estimate for repairs were 2 weeks. That was a month and a half ago. (So your telling me products leaving you factory are in terrible disrepair?)

After doing a second inspection two weeks ago, I just now got the approval that all things were repaired and I can pick up the unit tomorrow. FINALLY!!

Even though its a brand new trailer, I can't wait to sell this thing. I don't want to own anything by Dutchman.

In total my attorney fees have been just under $2,000 to get this whole thing done.

They have removed the requirement for me to pay all the new sales tax and title fees. So essentially I'm getting the trailer for free. Minus my out of pocket attorney fees and time and payments that have been going on each month.

After all this I would highly recommend anyone looking for a Dutchman product to look elsewhere. You are a problem to them after your purchase and will do everything in their power to discourage you from pursuing a remedy.

I have spoken with a family friend who purchased a Dutchman product from a local Camping World and they have found wood rot in the wall and when they contacted Dutchman, Dutchman threaten them to not contact a lawyer. Crazy! They found the wood rot in the wall in April 2016 and were told by Dutchman that they couldn't get it repaired till February 2017, even while its under warranty. I believe this was because they hadn't had an attorney to help them. I gave them my attorney's phone number right away when I heard this.


I would highly recommend anyone looking at any product that a La Mesa RV dealer has, to look elsewhere. I had my original salesman state to me that something like this has never happened here before. While just the day before the Service Manager told me they went through something like this with a customer four months ago. Salesmen are just plain liars.

This is the only advice I can give to someone who has read this thread from the beginning that will provide you with monatery savings in the future. Please, learn from my example.

Thank you.