Most everyone who has an RV, travel trailer or another style of camper has heard of Camping World. Many may have bought their first RV from the “big box” RV retailer, or at a minimum purchased supplies and/or had repair work done at Camping World. Why does it seem that everyone loves to hate Camping World? We’ll explore that subject and more in this edition of Rolling Home.
Welcome to another edition of the Rolling Home Podcast where I discuss just everything I can think of – and relate to – when it comes to camping and traveling in a small Class B camper van.
Most of us have been to or at least driven by a Camping World somewhere in the United States. The retailer is a major player in the recreational vehicle market and seems to grow larger every year.
The website, drivinvibin.com, listed a number of issues with the company in the September 2021 article, “Why I Dropped Camping World After Years of Loyalty.”
Complaints included 1) Negative press, 2) Steep In-Store Prices, 3) Having to buy a Good Sam membership to get lower prices, 4) Sub-par customer service, 5) Service department woes, and, 6) Profit and growth seem like it’s the priority.
The author’s conclusion is, “I encourage the leadership team at Camping World to put more focus on the consumer and the community. Stop selling so hard. The RV industry is booming right now. We, as RVers, need more businesses with good intentions.”
According to Wikipedia, “Camping World Holdings, Inc. is an American corporation specializing in selling recreational vehicles (RVs), recreational vehicle parts, and recreational vehicle service. They also sell supplies for camping. The company has its headquarters in Lincolnshire, Illinois. In October 2016 it became a publicly-traded company when it raised $251 million in an IPO. Camping World operates over 180 retail/service locations in 46 states, and also sells goods through mail order and online. It claims to be the world’s largest supplier of RV parts and supplies.”
Like many American success stories, Camping World started from rather humble beginnings in 1966 with a small store in Beech Bend Park, an amusement park outside of Bowling Green, Kentucky, which billed its campground as the world’s largest, according to Wikipedia.
“Campers at the park were requesting a store where they could buy supplies, so David Garvin —son of the park’s owner — took out a loan and opened the store. Garvin amassed a large customer list as the years went by, which proved to be sagacious later when he added a mail-order division to the company. That division thrived, fueling the company’s growth for years to come. In 1997, Garvin sold the company to the current owners, Good Sam Enterprises (formerly Affinity Group), of Ventura, California.”
And one final thing that you may not know is, “In 2017, the company expanded into hunting and fishing gear by the acquisition of Gander Mountain, which includes the Gander Outdoors and Overton’s brands.”
I, for one, have had good experiences at Camping World. In fact, after our first travel trailer was stolen, we decided to move up to a Class B Winnebago Travato camper van. While researching camper vans I had settled on the Travato as being the rig for us, but also was aware that the Travato was not sold at any of the RV dealers in the area where I lived, including Camping World.
Then one day while checking out the website of our local Camping World I noticed they had a couple of camper vans, and one of them was Winnebago Travato. I drove over to look at it and was impressed. It was pretty much the model that I had planned to buy, and I wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of buying it out of state or placing a custom order through Winnebago. We negotiated with Camping World and bought it locally and have never been happier with our decision.
A few months after our purchase I made an appointment to get some warranty work done and the folks at Camping World did what they were supposed to and fixed the issues in a timely fashion. I haven’t had it back since.
What I have discovered since my buying and warranty service is that it seems many people have had some horrific experiences with Camping World, a few of which I’ll share today. So I guess when it comes to buying and having your RV serviced at Camping World your mileage may vary.
A simple Google search reveals disgruntled customers, employees, and accusations that Camping World is nothing more than an RV company more concerned about its bottom line than serving its customers.
Camping World’s review at Indeed.com based on 857 survey responses lists three areas for improvement needed at the company: 1) Trust in colleagues, 2) Sense of belonging and 3) Overall satisfaction.
A former sales associate reviewed the company in 2019, “Long hours but good fun people to work with. No training plan. Management does not give you the proper tools to succeed. I found myself spending a lot of my own money buying office supplies. I didn’t have a phone for 2 months. Lots of people come and go. Good leads go to the same two salesmen.”
Another former sales associate posted in April of this year with the heading, “Terrible”: “Stay away. Not appreciated, way too political. Have to know the managers from outside of that place to get anything you want from it. Spent too many years there.”
Finally, a former “Quality Control, Ambassador” posted this also in April with the heading, “Camping World is a great place to work!!!”: “The people are very good to work with. I personally worked at New Braunfels and at Colorado. I moved back from there for personal reasons and was readily received back at New Braunfels. Then the pandemic struck!”
From this limited sampling, it appears the employee experience at Camping World mirrors what many customers have said – some have good experiences and some have bad experiences.
In August of 2018, rvtravel.com published an article titled, “Camping World customer satisfaction poll deeply lopsided.”
“We hear plenty from readers about experiences with Camping World – usually bad ones – and it’s tough to draw conclusions from “what you hear” in a wide-open environment. That changed last week when we posted a poll asking readers who had bought an RV at Camping World how happy they were with their experience with the company,” wrote authors Russ and Tiña De Maris.
“A recurring theme of many present and former Camping World employees across the nation is that of poor management, both at the local level and among “higher ups.” Complaints of favoritism and a general self-serving attitude is frequently underscored. If that’s the attitude of management, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the customer is going to come out on the bottom.”
The article concludes with, “To be fair, there were positive comments about the Camping World experience among our readers.
“Perhaps these comments point to the best way to deal with Camping World – or any other RV dealership for that matter: Get educated before you walk on the lot. Look up reviews of whatever dealership you’ll be visiting. Talk to your credit union or bank before you shop – get preapproved for financing so you’ll know what you’ll be paying in the long run. Like anything else, that old Latin expression rings ever true, caveat emptor: Let the buyer beware.”
“Do your homework” and “Let the buyer beware” is excellent advice when buying anything, and particularly when purchasing a big-ticket item like an RV.
There you have it. It seems some have good experiences at Camping World and others – many more it appears – have bad experiences. The good news is that Camping World has competition in many areas of the country, so if you don’t like your local store, you have options.
Do you agree with my take on Camping World? What has been your experience? Please visit rollingforhome.wordpress.com and leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!
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