RV's For Less - closed thread

[derrickg]

I wanted to share my experience dealing with RV dealers.
I am in the Republic of Panama until December, when I will return to the States.
I have been e-mailing dealers to gather information/prices regarding different products. Very often I would not even get a reply to my questions. When I decided on a Heartland, I contacted RV's For Less in Tennessee, because of their agressive, no-nonsense pricing I had seen on sites like RV Trader.
Yesterday, I e-mailed them for a price quote and some answers regarding ordering/delivery time. In only a few hours, I received a very informative email from Karen at RV's for Less. She answered all of my questions and quoted me the absolute best price.
To sum it up, I think that if more RV dealers had this kind of attitude towards dealing with customers, they would probably reap the benefits.

Derrick George
Boquete, Panama

 

[Midastouch]

I know that is why some of us have dealt with and are dealing with Butch and Karen now ... I feel very fortunate to have been referred to them and look forward to my trip to Knoxville in 8 weeks or so, hopefully!

It nice to have feelings affirmed and I think I have made the right decision to make the drive!

 

[dieselengineer]

Yes, we have purchased our Bighorn from Karen and Butch and it is well worth the drive. Very very happy with the whole process and also was able to work in a camping trip at the sametime. We would do it again in a heart beat. Jim & Cheryl

 

[Deb]

I have to chime in here. We returned a couple of hours ago from our maiden voyage in our new 3055 Big Horn that we purchased from RV's for Less. We arrived in the Knoxville area with our trade in Cardinal in tow on Monday. May 29. We stayed in a KOA campground about 20 miles away. We arrived at RV's for Less on Tues. morning @ 9:00AM. They had the AC running on the new 3055. That was a lifesaver as the temp was in the 90's. I (we) just don't have enough kind words to say about Butch and Karen. They are a wonderful couple and went out of their way to be helpful. They took our truck down the road to get air bags installed while we transfered our stuff - what a job. We were about to leave their lot when Butch asked us when we had the shocks changed on the truck. Allan (my husband) said never. Butch suggested that we get some heavy duty shocks and we did. Had the shocks installed in Pigeon Forge by a man that Butch recommended. RV's for Less also puts their customers up in Cross Creek campground in Pigeon Forge for two days. It is a great campground. We stayed an extra day so I could get the new camper and all our stuff organized better for travel. We will go back to Cross Creek one of these days.

On a scale of One to Ten, I would give RV's for Less a PLUS 20. We drove about 500 miles (from Wilmington, NC) to buy from them, and would do it again in heart beat to quote Jim & Cheryl.

Deb

 

[nscaler2]

What if ????

Deb,
I agree that the purchasing experience is a very important one. Having a selling dealer that takes care of you on the day of PDI is very important. However, what does one do when something needs to be fixed by the dealer and the dealer is 500 or more miles away. That is a long haul with fuel prices being what they are, not to mention the time an trouble to do it. We purchased from the closest dealer to us and did in fact get a good deal financially. Having said that, they are still 120 miles away which makes for at least a 2.5 hour drive to get there. The other day, I posted a question to Scott regarding taking our Bighorn to a Halmark dealer that is 10.5 miles away. His reply was that we could do it but, "don't expect to be placed at the front of the line." I'm not sure what the implication is here, but I'm not sure that they even are required or obligated to do anything for us at all. Sorry to be so long winded, but what do all the folks that purchase from far away dealers do? I know we will all have problems, these coaches are far from perfect.

 

[dieselengineer]

nscaler2
You have a good point about service. I weighted the distance against the number of items I needed the dealer to fix. For me, I do most of the work myself and like to upgrade and customize the mechanical and electrical systems. I have already addressed a number of items when I removed the underbelly and storage sides to add things like outside entertainment center, bike rack, backup lights, additional LP gas outlets, satellite radio, LED lights, golf cart batterys, inverter (I don't like sound of a noisy generator). For the most part the coaches are not hard to work on. The breakers are std CH type, the appliances are all std in the RV industory.

Great camper, an enjoy to have!

Jim & Cheryl

 

[Deb]

Tom

The closest Heartland dealer was 192 miles -so we went 500 mile to RV's for Less to save $$$. If we have any problems in the future we will go to a local RV shop that has done work for us in the past. This RV shop is not a dealer ship - just a good repair shop. They even made a house call one time.

Deb

PS: Do you make house calls?? My husband is outside right now trying to figure out where all his stuff will go in the basement.

 

[Zac]

ok, now I'm really curious. I live just outside of Washington, DC (or as I like to call it, ground zero). We have a dealer within 1.5 hrs of us. Not to pry, but is RV for Less chosen more for service or for price? Can anyone give me a ballpark of how much $$ we are talking about in savings over any old dealer? I mean, hundreds, thousands, give me a sense of it so I can decide if the 500+++++ mile trip might just be worth it. Thanks to all of you for some really great info in this forum!

 

[Midastouch]

In my case ... thousands!

Not only can you save money but the personal attention that I have received, just in emails and phone conversations has convinced me that I have made the right decision to make the drive soon! I'm going to make a vacation out of the trip with the nights stays at the RV resort in Pidgeon Forge and hang out there for a couple days!

I can't wait for the trip!

Call them!

 

[Midastouch]

BTW ... I can only go by what I have been told and my gut feeling when I've talked to them, but the service (PDI, etc) is outstanding.

 

[Trap]

We live up here in Alberta, the difference in price from RV's For Less and the local Dealer up here is substantial. On the 3055RL its about 8k US dollars. On the 3400RL its about 15K. The dealers up here won't budge. I guess they figure with the boom in the oil patch they don't have to. I am concerned about warranty work though. It would cost about 2k to get delivered to the US Border. How ever our stepson lives in Alabama. So it may make for a nice Trip.

Trap

 

[svd]

Lakeshore RV in Michigan

I would also recommend Lakeshore RV in Muskegon Michigan http://www.lakeshore-rv.com/ ask for John. We were very pleased with their pricing and service attitude, although we have not had any repair issues. They are shipping units out all over the country, and will also deliver a unit anywhere if needed. Good luck, we are pleased with our choice!

 

[jpmorgan37]

Give Butch a call. Check him out at www.rvsforless.net. I drove 1000 miles from Texas to Knoxville to purchase my Grand Canyon from him and I will tell you that the personal treatment, the attention to details and the price differential made the entire transaction well worth the trip. If you want to deal with someone who does what he promises, then Butch Burson is the right person for you.

John

 

[Trap]

I have to admit that I was amazed with the speed of return info from my E-mail, and the no BS pricing info they provided. I had E-mailed them with the model Nos. I was interested in and all the options that I wanted. They priced all options seperately and I received a return e-mail the next morning from Karen. I was impressed.

TraP

 

[seamo]

Purchase a new Landmark

My experience with purchasing a Landmark Golden Gate outside of my living area (I live in Eureka Ca and purchased my fiver in Seattle Wa). I had abosolutly no problems with Heartland by having a local RV repair shop do warranty work. His shop was 10 minutes from my home. The dealership is 12 hours away.
GO HEARTLANDNone

seamo

 

[v92c]

...His reply was that we could do it but, "don't expect to be placed at the front of the line." I'm not sure what the implication is here....

We took our RV in for the initail warranty repair list to the dealer we bought from. We were not put at the front of any list. After it had been there two weeks, they said it was ready. I went to pick it up and looked at it, there were numerous things on the list that had not been addressed. So to make a long story short, I inspected it and told them what had to be completed on the list TWICE I went back to make sure they were still working on it. After 6 weeks, I finally took it even though they had not finished the repairs.

I wonder how long it would take if we were "at the back of the line"?

 

[svd]

I wouldn't expect to be put at the front of the line, whether I purchased there or not. The only exception I can think of is someone who is in the middle of a trip and has a problem, I wouldn't mind that (like PK!). Otherwise I would make an appointment and take it in. If after the unit was at the dealer, my work was being rescheduled to accomodate someone who bought at that dealer (if I didn't), I would be unhappy.

 

[DougLynne]

Trap, I too live in Alberta (Calgary) and pricing hasn't come up as yet but we really would like to get the Bighorn 3055. I talked to a fellow in Whitehorse who bought his locally and service was REALLY bad. Likes his coach but the local dealers service seems to be a problem..../Doug

 

[GaryB]

Just curious for those of you that have gotten quotes from both RVs for Less and Lakeshore RV (In Michigan). Which place gives the better deal?

Thanks
Gary

 

[williamsfamilytah]

GaryB, I am curious about this also. The local heartland dealer told me that lakeshore strips down the units and that is why they are so cheap. I think that is a bunch of baloney. Then the dealer told me in so many words that he wouldn’t service a product from any other dealer. This almost forces me to have to buy local or learn to travel 8 to 14 hours for service. SVD, how was your experience with Lakeshore?​

Thanks,
Wes