Wow....what a stressfull and learning journey this has been. After searching for over a year, we finally found our "dream RV" a 2001 Holiday Rambler, Ambassador, diesel pusher (70K miles on it). We found it via the internet, from a dealer in Corbin, Kentucy. We're actually from Kansas City, Missouri. We traveled to Corbin in March 2013 and decided, this was the one. Following is the "Reader's Digest" version of our personal nightmare!
- We made the deal, and left the coach with the dealer for upgrades and additions. The coach was to be ready for us in four weeks, so we booked air. The night before we were to leave, the sales manager called, the coach wasn't ready.
- After many phone calls, sometimes daily, finally end of June and the dealer notified us that the coach was ready.
- This time we decided to drive the 600+ miles, as we were going to buy a tow dolly.
- We arrive in Corbin and the dealer had the coach set up at the local KOA waiting for us. The employee that set it up, hooked the coach up to the city water, but didn't reset the switch to city water and left the switch in the tank position. This caused a leak, which leaked in to the coach and underneath the laminate flooring, buckling it!
- Also we disovered the dash air and the cruise control were not operational.
- The dealer took the coach back to the service shop and gave us a loaner, to stay in while the appropriate repairs were underway.
- A week later, and finally, we take delivery and on our way back to Kansas City. We're about 50 miles outside of Corbin, and the coach is steering erratically and we begin to smell smoke! We pull over on the closest exit, get out and there is smoke billowing out of the front passenger wheel. We contact the dealer and he directs us to the nearest KOA and he'd send a repair crew out the next morning.
- Two weeks later, 3 or 4 phone calls a day and we are still stranded at the KOA, with the coach up on hydraulic jacks and listing to the back and drivers side. "Waiting for part"
- We decide to leave the coach at the KOA and wait for the dealer to once again, repair the coach.
- In July, we're notified by the dealership that the coach is ready, but.......
- In the meantime, we begin hearing from friends we'd made in the area, that the dealer was declaring bankruptcy and the bank came in and repo's all the units on his lot, including ours, which had been paid for in full!
- FINALLY, we hire an attorney and found out that the dealer had received the clear title in May and signed it over to the bank to generate more reveune for his failing business!
- Fast forward many sleepless nights, the bank decided to give us free and clear title, releasing them from any liability.
- As I write this, the dealer and his wife are in jail, under 10 counts of fruad, 1M bail each.
So we leave tomorrow to pick up the coach and hopefully close this chapter in this horror story. We thought we'd taken all the right precautions, check the dealer's BBB rating, talking with other customers. Now we find out that there was one unit he had sold to 3 different individuals! Many of folks were in our same position. I suppose at the first sign of trouble, we should have hired an attorney to represent us in the transaction/s. Who knows?
We are looking forward to meeting Rainbow RV folks and making new friends.