Camping World review: Holding my RV Hostage until I pay twice for their fire hazard installation error

I had been told by the Camping World Store on Sep 12, 2022 my RV Inverter/Converter 3000 watt may not be working properly. They could not get one that large but did look it up and told me where I could get one.

I picked one up at Home Depot on Sep 21, 2022 in case that was the issue. I took the RV to camping world same day after I had just Bought 4 new batteries. The place I bought them from did not work on RV’s so they said to have Camping world hook them up. I made an apt with Camping World and let them know that my lights and fan on the inside worked intermittently. They were going to hook up the batteries, and if the batteries were not the problem, I had the Inverter/Converter there if they needed to change that out. They said the batteries were not the issue, and then they said the Inverter was not working properly. So, they changed that out. They were having a 10 point inspection sale & a slide out maintenance sale, I agreed to both. They found 2 shorts with battery & electrical, I paid to have that fixed too.

They said it was ready to pick up. I had my friend Edria take me there to pick it up on Jan 13, 2023. Nothing was working still. I turned it on, and it smelled funny. The batteries started burning. I shut it off, and they had a service person come out and they said they fixed it, I can take it now. I said no, nothing is still working. We were yelled at, degraded, treated like we were stupid because we were female by the manager. I was told by the manager "I do not guarantee our service work, unless you bought the RV from camping world. Did you buy the RV from Camping world?" We were treated horribly, talked down to like we were stupid and we walked out. As we were leaving there was a poster that said “‘If you are not happy, I am not happy’ Call my office [protected] Or Email me at [protected]@campingworld.com” So as I was leaving I was calling this corporate number and left a message. Before I got home I got a call back from them. I was told Corporate would speak to Camping World Grain Valley MO and get this fixed.

After a few days, Camping world Grain Valley said it was ready again. I talked to Corporate, they said they double checked everything and it was good to go, please go pick it up. Camping World Grain Valley MO charged me another $350. So I went to pick it up and once again it was not working. This time I was very angry. This was ridiculous. The service manager came and walked me through it. He told me that the only problem was the batteries were not charged up. He said if it does not work this time, he will personally take care of it, and I will not have an issue. After about 30 min, I paid and took the RV around the end of January.

I took it to Wolds of Fun Village and plugged it in for a couple days, nothing. It was still not working. I called Corporate let them know what was going on and it still was not working but I was at WOF Village plugging it in to charge the batteries. Corporate told me they would keep working on getting this taken care of, to give them an update after I figure out what is going on with the batteries.

I called corporate again to give them an update on the batteries, They told me they would get back to me. Corporate did NOT get back to me but I did get a phone call from Kevin Zawachi about Jan 5, 2023 from Camping World Grain Valley. He apologized, and said he can see that the paperwork did not reflect all the work done on the RV. He will make sure when I bring it in he will have his service manager correct all the paperwork to show all the work they did on the RV which should be covered by the company warranty. Kevin told me specifically "do not bring the RV in without an appointment with me personally." Kevin said "I will have the service manager make sure the paperwork is correct, document all the work they did, complete any work that wasn't done, and make sure the RV is ready for travel." I let him know I had surgery that day (so he emailed me his contact info), so It would be about a month or so before I can drive again.

I contacted him as soon as I was up and around on March 6, 2023. I then got the run around from him, and he would not correct the paperwork, or the issue. I have many emails to show this. The last time Kevin responded to one of my emails was May 26, 2023. I emailed him last on June 2, 2023 I then called multiples times to make sure he was still working there and try to set up an appointment to take the RV in to Camping World Grain Valley.

I took it to Wolf Lodge on Aug 7th 2023 to show someone the unit, and when I went to slide out the slider, it did not work. It stayed out some, because I did not want to screw it up more, I took it to the local Camping world KCK on Aug 7th 2023. I let them know what was going on and that everything should be under warranty. At this time it was within the 1year warranty for another 6months. When I dropped it off with Camping World KCK, I specifically told them "I want all warranty work done FIRST, before you look at anything else or do anything else; because I don't want to owe you a bunch of money and still have an RV that is not working."They said no problem. I said once the warranty work is done, then we can talk about anything else that needs done. But first I need this warranty work done before I will agree to any other fees. They said no problem.

We had a bad winter, and they called a few times saying they were waiting on a price for parts, then they could not get to the unit because of the weather. Camping World (KCK) called me last winter, while the RV was in their care and told me they had a special sale. KCK asked if I wanted to have it winterized, since it's going to be there through the winter. I was told there was too much ice in their parking lot and the RVcouldn't be pull out to have my unit worked on properly, so they wanted to winterize it. I OK'd the price to winterize it. Camping World KCK did not winterize the RV even though they held the RV the whole winter, I still do NOT know if anything broke on this RV do-to non-winterization. Camping World KCK never let me know of this extra part (quarter turn ball valve) that needed to be replaced before it could be winterized (I found this on my own looking through the estimates they gave me Jan 20th 2023)and Camping World KCK just chose not to winterize my RV while they held it ALL winter long for repair.

In this phone call they also said they were waiting on a pricing for a part, when I asked what part I was told they were not sure and that they would get back with me. I assumed, it had to do with the warranty work on the converter. Camping World KCK never got back to me.

I spoke to Beth on Monday April 8th 2024 and was told she would get this done for me. She gave me a price of about 500 or less for extra things they found wrong. I said great, but do not fix anything until the warranty work is complete. She said no problem. Then my daughter called and was told it was fixed, they took it to camping world in Grain Valley, they fixed their installation error, and it was ready to be picked up. I owed 1200. To pick it up. She explained why I needed to pay the $2248.40. I asked for an itemized work order, because that is not what we spoke about earlier that week. She then said Wait.. Let me figure this out.

She got back to me April 11th 2024 at 5:23pm and said NO Work had been done on my RV YET. She said Grain Valley will not approve the work. I said let’s call corporate then. She said she can not, she instructed me to call corporate. I then called corporate and was told Terry in Grain Valley was typing and saying I never even paid my bill in Grain Valley, and she will not cover anything. She also said that Grain Valley does not cover their work, only their parts and because I did not buy the part from them, there is nothing Grain Valley will do. I was very angry!

The estimate Camping World (KCK) gave to me on Jan 20, 2024 is incorrect. They have my Drop off date on this estimate to be incorrect considering they have had it since last year on Aug 7th of 2023. The InService date should reflect the proper date that I dropped my RV off with Camping World KCK.

May 1st 2024 NOW I'm being told that if I don't pay for it FIRST (they haven't fixed anything) then pick it up by May 10th 2024, I will start being charged storage. Yet it was only April 8th 2024 that I was told that Camping World KCK already completed the work and fixed all the warranty work (converter, slide out, light bulbs), and it was ready for pick up. To come and find out once again it was all a LIE, I was told by Beth that not one thing had been fixed on my RV. Terri Bartlett (Region Customer Service Manager from Grain Valley Claiming to be Corporate) told me I had to pay $1600 to pick it up, even though no work has been done (This sounds like price gouging.) At that time Terri Bartlett (Region Customer Service Manager from Grain Valley Claiming to be Corporate) also told me "You need to pay to have the converter put in properly because right now it is a fire hazard." The $1600 for me to pick it up was just the price for the estimate to prove that Camping World Grain Valley MO screwed up putting in the converter. Yet Grain Valley refuses to cover it even though Camping World KCK had it for a total of 6months while it sat in their possession still under warranty.

I can attached a couple email examples shared with Kevin starting immediately after pickup, and with Terri Bartlett (Region Customer Service Manager from Grain Valley) who claims to be corporate but can't look up the picked up or dropped off dates or any correspondence. Terri Bartlett (Region Customer Service Manager from Grain Valley Claiming to be Corporate) is now resorting to sending me multiple emails with the exact same thing in it, all in one day. I also corresponded with Corporate before I ever even picked up my RV in the end of Jan 2023. I have stated everywhere to everyone it was not working that is why I originally refused pickup on Jan 13, 2023. I brought my witness Edria with me on Jan 13, 2023, because I was being treated horribly and I needed help.

The RV was dropped off at Camping World KCK AUG 7, 2023 that was 6 months before the warranty was up. I had already OK'd the warranty items to be fixed under warranty. What I did NOT OK was any other charges, which I have said multiple times on multiples occasions. I have also said on multiples occasions that I want the warranty items fixed. Yet, instead of fixing the issues under warranty they held my RV until the warranty was out then said your warranty is up even though they still have the RV and have had the RV since Aug 7th, 2023 when it still had 6mo warranty left on it.

Again I am not sure why any of this back and forth between Grain Valley, Kevin Zawacki (General Manager Grain Valley), Terri Bartlett (Region Customer Service Manager from Grain Valley Claiming to be Corporate), Corporate, and KCK is any of my problem since it is all Camping World Holdings Inc. and this seems like it should be an internal issue and not one that Camping World should be publicly displaying to their customers. This is how you lose customers, get bad reviews, bad publicity, complaints with BBB (by the way they just lied to BBB earlier today), complaints with the state and/or legal actions taken. Corporate should be handling this properly in-house, instead of giving customers the run around and sending them to other people who refuse to handle things properly (AKA Terri Bartlett). I am very disappointed in the Customer Service and unbusinesslike practices of the Camping World Holdings Inc employees that I have so far had the displeasure of having them manage my Customer File.