By Russ and Tiña De Maris
Marcus Lemonis’ bold plan to expand his recreational territory isn’t playing out as well as expected. With Camping World stock sliding 40 percent this year alone, Lemonis announced Monday that CW will shut down somewhere between 27 and 37 of its stores that don’t directly sell RVs.
Evidently Camping World’s CEO feels the pain, and sees the need to get back to basics. In a statement Lemonis said, “We believe the sale and/or servicing of recreational vehicles is our core and most important offering.” Emphasizing the company’s determination to stick with the recreational vehicle lifestyle as a target, Lemonis added, “We will continue to operate our RV sales and/or service locations under three banners: Camping World, Gander RV and Outdoors, and Gander RV.”
The sell-off is a major retreat from the company’s 2017 trumpet call when CW pumped $100 million into buying up outdoor retailers Uncle Dan’s and Rock Creek, along with bankrupt Gander Mountain locations. At that time Lemonis touted the move would “give us access to a more diverse base of outdoor lifestyle consumers” and attract a “loyal customer following that we believe will leverage over time by cross-selling products and services.”
Company stock has tanked, recently hitting a $7.12 per share level, compared to its high point of $47 per share in December 2017.
The crooked b a s t a r d s deserve to go completely out of business.
Don’t feel sorry for CW because the ranting he did about 6 months ago re: Conservatives. Basically said I don’t need or want your money! So he hasn’t had any of mine for a while now.
I’ve had my 5th wheel in to CW of Hanover PA. Over 8k spent on a water leak in the same place on 2 different occasions. The second time they tried telling me it was a different issue from the first and it would not be covered under warranty until I showed pictures of the damage from the 1st leak. Then I was told it was a window not closed properly and the shabby work by a tech that was no longer with the store. Agreed to pay any cost for repairs that were not done the 1st time. Interestingly it cost 4K the same amount as the first repair and I still have a leak. Will never do business with CW again. They have ruined the Good Sam reputation as this was the only reason I used them.
Mid season, this past summer, the built in microwave, convection oven in our 5th wheel RV took a dump. After a $110 repair that lasted a week I started shopping for a replacement. Spending days looking on the internet and calling local RV businesses I was ready to give up on finding a replacement when I ran across an add for a microwave at Camping World. A phone call and an hour later I had my replacement microwave that was a direct replacement for the factory installed model.
The staff at the Grand Rapids Camping World store were professional, kind and a pleasure to work with. I couldn’t have had a better experience. Add this to the fact that the cost for the microwave was several hundred dollars less than I would have paid for a replacement unit on eBay or Amazon, and almost $400 less than the quote from a near by RV dealer, I am a very happy Camping World customer.
Do your homework, research your purchase and buy where you find the value that fits your needs. Whether it is Camping World or any other store.
So maybe Marcus should have done his market research to learn about his customer base before throwing insults at them. We too spend as little as possible at his store after his insulting remarks about Trump. Business and politics don’t mix well. With his background he should know better. He needs to apologize or go down. Not to mention the experience we had when. They installed shocks on our motorhome and forgot to tighten the bolts.
Camping World should pay for what they’ve done to customers. RVers dreams and excitement are dashed after dealing in any way with that sorry excuse for a business.
In my case, the service department in Tyler, Texas charged me over $3000.00 to fix my slide out and jacks. Jacks-yes, slide out-NO and had it for 5 months. I was told it couldn’t be fixed, parts not available, try to sell it, rent it out, even burn it!!! THANK GOD for HAYES RV SERVICES in LONGVIEW, TEXAS. They began working on it right away. Mike Smith, Michael and Larry fixed it! The kitchen slide out issues and hydraulic leaks were Replaced and Repaired in less than 4 weeks!!!!
I’m a HAPPY CAMPER again THANKS to HAYES RV CENTER, LONGVIEW, TX
He basically said “I don’t need your business if I support Donald Trump”! Well I abided by his wishes and while I mean him and his business no harm, I don’t support any business that doesn’t want my business based on my political believes, Starbucks being another one! I know I probably do support many business’s with opposing views, but they at least don’t throw my believes up into my face. Apparenlty a lot of other Conservatives have felt the same way.
I have known several people who have bought RV’s from Camping World, and nearly all of them had major problems with their units. In all those cases, CW would not honor the warranties on the new units and kept sending them to the RV manufacturers, or chassis manufacturers. CW has created their own problems, they have all but wiped out all customer service that Good Sam built up after many years of working to build up the trust of their customers. The Good Sam road side assistance program is now nothing but a big joke. I have heard many stories where the members were told they would have to wait a couple of days, because the drivers didn’t work on the weekend, or some such excuse. It’s too bad that this overpaid CEO has made such a mess of things!
First of all, our experience with CW couldn’t have been worse. Our new very expensive RV was in for repairs for more than 6 mo. of the first year….meanwhile, we couldn’t use it…right? They offered no compensation at all or warranty extension. Second of all, if you are a patriot and follow what’s really going on in the world behind the scenes, it won’t surprise you to learn the CW is part of the CABAL. Makes me sick to my stomach that we ever dealt with them. They hire morons to do their work. If you are forced to deal with CW, always make them show each and every repair made to make sure they done properly. Never using CW again for us.
When Lemonis threw politics into shupping at his stores, I left. Will not spend any money at CW.
An educated consumer can do well dealing with Camping World. Knowing what you want, knowing the true features, benefits, and specifications of the RV, knowing the true “rock bottom” sale price, knowing how to fix things yourself, knowing a good service manager at the CW location who is truly responsive to you, can all lead to a satisfactory experience.
An uneducated consumer can get royally screwed dealing with Camping World. For the most part, my experience has been that the sales staff not only has little knowledge on the RV’s, but they actually mislead customers on true features and benefits in an attempt to sell the prospective customer an RV, any RV, regardless of the true needs and wants of the customer. The film flam phony MSRP ending up with incredible 15, 20, 30 even 35% OFF MSRP (manufacturer suggested retail price) give the customer unwarranted comfort that they are getting a GOOD price. With the sales emphasis on storage space, its no wonder many RV’ers are operating their vehicles seriously overweight.
The F&I person has card blanche financing for you, as long as you blindly purchase a club membership and an extended warranty that they gladly finance for you with your 20 year RV mortgage. The RV “eye candy” can certainly blind you to the addition of incredibly expensive extras !
When it comes to service and warranty, CW has some of the least qualified mechanics in the truck and automotive industry. CW stocks nothing in the way of OEM replacement parts, causing huge delays repairing RV’s, especially if it involves warranty repairs. You can actually expect to wait many weeks, in some cases, months for your repair to be completed at Camping World. Let’s face it, CW emphasis is strictly on sales. If you expect stellar after sales support and service, you will be terribly disappointed with Camping World.
But if you are an educated consumer with realistic after sale expectations, and you get that “rock bottom” sale price at point of purchase, you should be relatively satisfied dealing with Camping World.
I have always received good service from Camping World for yeaars. I bought a travel trailer from them in May 2019.
.
I started FT RVing 4 yrs ago, I had some wiring work to be done on my new tow vehicle, the technician treated me like an idiot! Same store (Henderson NV, winter home base) gearing up to transition to FT, staff acted like we we “bothering them” spending over a grand, apparently didn’t matter….same year early fall, ending road season, blew tire west of Albuquerque! 45 minutes to ANSWER phone! Got wrong location, contract tow truck driver calls me, I’m forty miles west of what he was told, they didn’t answer phone for him, over an hour! I cancelled tow, and “locals” helped me… got to Henderson NV for winter, cancelled Good Sam road service, switched to AAA Premium! Done with CW! Drive by Henderson, NV store (6miles) for WALMART or Johnie Walker in LV
I very, very rarely buy anything from Camping World for the simple reason I “ Price Shop” on the Internet and have for years. I definitely wouldn’t have any work done there or would I ever buy a RV from their lots. There is lots of cheaper, better choices.
Hey Tony I’m a novis rv’er just starting the process of buying one, I’m handy, a former mechanic so I’m leaning toward something 3 to 5 years old that I can work on to bring it up to current standards. Can u recommend some web sites and any advise from anyone out there will be greatly appreciated.
Kind of sad it has come to this as I remember our local Camping World to be efficient and friendly service. As I understand it Gander are the stores that may be closing. I hate to see people getting ripped off and hate to see employees losing jobs and hate to see all the hate spewed on social media. Some in this group sound like Facebook posters. Part of the problem seems to come from Facebook rumors advising people to drop their service’s that were paid for, drop their roadside protection, drop this and drop that. The strange thing is that people are doing all of that because of these FB posts. Now that is the scariest thing of all.
Perhaps if Camping World service departments operated in an honest manner they would not be in the position they are today. Providing honest, quality service in a manner that respects customers might be a good place to start. Consumer beware.
Their quality of sevice fails. I had to go back 3 times to have a problem made right. The Service Manager had to be there with the Technician to see it got done right. I was also there. What a nightmare! !
Mine is first hand experience! CW has bought up all these local dealers, and have exploited their reputations, now full-circle!!!
This sounds like a Camping World sponsored reply !
I am pretty sure that Marcus Lemonis is the same CEO that said “He did not need my business if I supported President Donald. Trump” so I quit going there to purchase anything. I guess there were a few of us that felt that way. 😉😉😉
Gerry, In defense of him, he never said that. What he said has been distorted and passed around social media where it has been presented as truth. In this case I’ll stand up for Lemonis, who is not my favorite person.
Chuck, stand up statement. Kudos to you.
Chuck, what DID he say?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/camping-world-ceo-trump/
Gerry, I am one of those who stopped shopping at CW after Lemonis made that statement.
Yes, it is! That is my 2nd reason!
Lemonis is the guy that said “he hated RVs but wanted to sell warranties” on TV at the time when they floated their public stock offering a few years ago. He values the income stream, not the customer. Check it out—his attitude is reflected in store service- no wonder they are in the tank !
Karma is a real *****…and what goes around…comes around.
Another example of you reap what you sow. This outfit has screwed over several friends/relatives over the past few years and I, for one, hope they go belly up so they don’t ruin anyone else’s life.
The writing has been on the wall for a while now.
I don’t like to see folks lose their jobs, but I don’t shop at Cramping World since the nearest one to us is over 50 miles away. The folks at that store are rude and not customer oriented,
Much easier to buy from on-line companies that have better prices and options.
Long before cw goes out of business many or most small businesses will fail. I actually like my local cw location. But the industry has overgrown during the boom and should be brought into reality. 250,000 units annually would be a good number.