Camping World of Akron OH

Overall, viewing and negotiation process wasn't fun, but not too terribly painful.  Similar to buying a car.  Sticker was $17,995 with sale price marked down to $15,995.  The unit was in excellent condition.  After negotiations, we came to $13,300 for the unit, all fees, an Anderson hitch with weight dist and sway control, brake hookup to my TV, and the labor to install.  Compared to what we've seen other R-Pods go for, felt like we got a great deal (feel free to be honest and tell me otherwise!).  I signed the contract and gave my down payment.  BIG MISTAKE, lesson learned.  Don't do that until you talk to Financing and have the finalized paperwork.  

Financing was a different story.  I spent 4 hours in there.  First 2 hours was hearing about memberships, clubs, other benefits, and insurance.  It was all a ploy to wear me down, I'm sure of it.  She even called an insurance agent (prearranged, I'm sure) and "haggled" a great price for me.  I declined and went through my own insurance company having already received a quote from them.

Financing paperwork and discussion was all about the monthly payment, not the total price.  After insisting to see an itemized breakout of everything, I found they tried to sneak in an extended warranty/service contract for $2,300.  Tried to back it out and she informed me my monthly payment would go up, because the service contract brought total financed amount higher allowing for longer loan term and therefore smaller monthly payment.  Stood my ground and insisted she resubmit to the bank without the service contract amount.  She said it would never go through.  After threatening to leave, she said she could fax in a request and let me know Monday.  I was fine with that, asked to void my down payment.  She said they would just hold on to it until they got the loan approval.  I told her no way was I walking out of there without my down payment voided not knowing what the financing was going to be.  She then magically found a way to get approval for the loan on the spot without the service contract.  

Moral of the story: if you're new at RV buying like I was, research everything about everything until you're sick of researching.  When you get ready to buy, read everything, ask a lot of questions, and by all means don't make a down payment until you've talked to Financing and seen the actual contract and loan payments.  It worked out for me in the end, but not before 4 hours of frustration.