I’m disappointed after attending a so called RV Outlet Show that was supposed to have factory direct pricing. Upon entering the county fairgrounds and seeing the name of one of the country’s largest dealers, we should have turned around and went home. This was not a factory outlet show; it was sponsored by a well known dealership that we’ve walked away from in the spring. I thought we would be dealing directly with factory reps, but this was not the case. There were no other dealers there.
We figured as long as we were there we might as well continue on in and see if there would be any difference in price and sales tactics that we experienced in the spring
. The faces were new but the crap was still the same. We were met by a very likable fellow who claimed not to be a salesman; he was a technician that was helping out at the show. We spent a considerable amount of time with him going over a camper we are interested in buying. He had us sold on this model, and we were looking to purchase it until it came time to meet the manager.
Things went rapidly downhill from there. First red flag was when we met the manager; he was in the middle of eating his lunch at his computer. He wanted the tech to take us and buy us lunch then come back to work out a deal. We refused his offer but came back as we liked the young tech and promised to meet back with him. The second red flag was when the manager claimed to be a family-oriented man and cares about all of his customers, but I’m thinking until the sale is final then I don’t matter anymore. I heard that story before.
The manager gives us a quote, and it’s not much different than the quote we got at the dealership in the spring. So this special factory direct pricing show was just a come on. The final red flag was when we wanted to take a copy of the quote home to talk about it. He refused to give us a copy and then brought in another manager
. At this time the DW is ready for battle and beginning to lose her pleasantness. Needless to say we didn’t buy a new camper.
In the quote we were given the dealer wanted to charge $2500 for destination fee and $1900 for dealer prep
. Elkhart, Indiana, is less than 200 miles to northeastern Illinois. For that much money I’d go get it myself if it was allowed. What I learned from this RV Outlet Show is that you cannot buy an RV directly from the manufacturer because they are not licensed to sell them. This come-on show was deliberately misleading
. There won’t be a new camper for us because we won’t do business with the country’s largest dealership or the other dealership that camps in its own world.
What a great way to spend the day though...checking out all the incredible RV's and price tags 
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