If you are a member of the Good Sam Club, you may wonder what ever happened to all the member benefits — the wonderful magazine, Highways; the national rallies; the lobbying efforts the club undertook to protect members — in fact all RVers.
It seems what you get for a membership these days is a 10% discount at Camping World and some RV parks (most of which will give you the same discount if you’re a member of AARP, FMCA or AAA).
Well, wonder no more. Just look at all of the “brands” of Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of the club and celebrity TV star. The Good Sam Club is just one of many companies in which the Good Sam head honcho has his fingers. It’s no wonder he can’t provide much attention to the club!
Here’s the list, from Mr. Lemonis’ website MarcusLemonis.com.
I went on the website http://www.marcuslemonis.com and couldn’t find the list of companies that this article references. It probably was there at the time, just not now. I don’t doubt he is involved or owns majority stock of all of those companies. He is definitely a person who has a lot of interests! It’s worth perusing his website, it’s impressive what he is involved in. Whether or not a GS membership worth it, however, is a different topic altogether. We joined GS last year as new RVers and the discounts at CW alone paid for the membership many times over. We probably won’t renew this year, having bought enough gizmos and gadgets and parts and this and that, y’all know how it goes! HH and BW are memberships that we have found very valuable and will continue.
This story is nearly two years old. Is the list still current?
By the way, a few years ago, he told me to stay out of his store. And I have complied.
me too, Never been in a store since he told me to stay out.
The last line of this article is disturbing and not worthy of RV Travel. Owners hire executives to run their companies and those executives make profitability decisions. I’ve owned a TT for almost 4 years and have always achieved a higher return on my GS membership than I’ve paid. The renewal credits, the Flying J discount, the discount at GS campgrounds, and store discounts all contribute. GS stores also are the dealer for my hitch, (which was not purchased at CW). I don’t shop for most RV items at CW because their prices are too high, but I’ve stopped there 2 or 3 times for items needed while traveling. If RV Travel doesn’t like the policies, prices, financing etc. of a company, let’s stick to complaining about the policy or task. That is, unless you specifically know that Marcus, who seems to have a very busy schedule, is the one actually creating or implementing these policies. I buy when it benefits me; don’t focus who owns the company.
Most of the RV parks I used give the 10% discount even if through they are no longer GS members,most owners have told us the-benefits of belonging to Good Sam’s is not worth what they charge in dues.
This article is almost 2 years old…
Yes…. overall, the Good Sam Club has gone downhill. The campground ratings are really hit or miss. We’ve stayed at a few that showed decent ratings but when we got there, they complete dumps. Probably hadn’t been inspected in years. Inspections cost money and we must cut back to increase profits. Don’t even get me started on Camping World.
Thanks for providing the “brands” information. I will avoid these brands like the plague.
Maybe we should be buying stock in Mr. Lemonis. He may buy Thor next.
I joined Good Sam once and the only thing I got was the 10 percent off at some R.V. parks. The other thing you get is a dump truck full of junk mail from them with every come on you can imagine. All a membership is is to get you on a suckers list to drown you in advertisements in the mail.
I felt the same; was constantly getting email and junk mail wanting to uptrade me. It was so irritating that I cut ties all together.
Harvest Hosts are one of his brands? Sure looks like it on this article.
Nope, Harvest Hosts is not one of Mr. Lemonis’ brands. They advertise with us, and their ad just happens to show up below the list of his companies in the article. 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
as I recall, the Good SamRoadside Plan increased in price by about $50–was it last year?(Good Sam always provided services we needed in past-no problem), but the price increase made it difficult – if you didn’t pay the increase, you lost some major benefits. Picked up FMCA roadside at close to the old price with the same benefits as before. Eventually it will probably go up too, but everything does. It’s true we don’t travel as much now (and husband recent heart attack and surgery last week for pacemaker/defib. impacts that too–but locally we could still use the roadside assistance on our other vehicles- til the FMCA expiration, then figure something else out.
Karen in central Florida
I believe he was recently indicted by the Fed for colluding with a hedge fund manager to manipulate stock prices. It’s said he’s a crook and should be locked up. Why am I not surprised?
No not indicted, but he has been sued by investors/shareholders which is not uncommon in the corporate world. My friend Google could not show me where he lost a case or has been indicted. I don’t think he is a saint, but I do think a lot of partial truths are said about him.
On a positive note, I recently called Good Sam Roadside assistance when my Ranger wouldn’t start. It was less than 30 minutes from the time I initiated the call until the tow truck parked my car at the service location. Granted, I was only 4 miles from home and less than one mile to the service location, but that is still pretty good service.
It’s nice to hear a good report about Good Sam Roadside assistance, Bill. I’m sure there are lots more good reports out there, but we just don’t hear about many of them, unfortunately. Thanks for letting us know. 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
I too have Good Sam Roadside assistance. Unfortunately, I had the reverse experience. I called and it was 1.5 hours before they were able to send someone out. When the service rep arrived, he came in a sedan to jump start my diesel pusher with dead – dead batteries. He had 2 “battery packs” that he used to try and jump start my 2 12Volt batteries that were in series. He did not seem to know series vs parallel connections. He did not have enough juice to get me going and his battery packs were quickly drained. He left mad! I assure you I was unhappy too. Wound up disconnecting my 2 batteries – took them to a auto parts store and found they probably would not hold a charge. Wound up buying 2 new batteries and installed them, myself.
Glad you had a good experience with ANY roadside service group. I NEVER had anything even close to help from those groups, though I was often said to be covered by two or three groups SIMULTANEOUSLY during 13 years of year-round traveling all the Lower 48. A friend gave me a 5yr Good Sam membership when they were lower price with better “plans” & happy members. Later, GS benefits shriveled & seemed to evaporate. This looks like I was correct. After (mostly) surviving a depression that took houses from millions of Americans, we must now deal with another round of runaway inflation thrust upon us by a different, bigger group of domestic terrorists. The house & huge mortgage went, & I now live in my travel trailer with only lot rent & electricity to pay. If Good Sam is down the tubes, what are the semi-decent insurance & travel plans? Or, are any out there?
IMHO this is a legitimate line of inquiry (although I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Lemonis).
I dropped my Good Sam membership two years ago because it provided no value – ever – to me in the year I owned it. I saved nothing at CGs and saved nothing on items I needed to buy. I get better insurance rates and services elsewhere.
It appears to me it is only used to funnel people to Camping World now.
Is his stock traded on the New York Stock market?
CWH is a publicly traded company. Earning reports and a Q&A by analyst is available to read every quarter.
Overton’s was a pleasure to shop, and great deals were to be had when the family own, and operated the business. I shopped yearly for 20 years. I have taken my business to other venders. It appears Mr. Lemonis has different ideas for great deals and has removed many boating items.
I too in the past 20+ years shopped at Overton for my boat parts, trailer parts and customer service was great. A couple of years ago needed to rollers and brackets the cost unbelievable. Called to verify the price and customer service without missing a beat “as marked” and hung up. Purchased from a vendor in Minnesota.
I find this a great opportunity for FMCA to step up their game.If you buy from CW you get free Good Sam membership. FMCA should be working with the other dealers but their membership just doesn’t seem to change much. I’ve been a member for many years. Also very few campgrounds I go to give a FMCA discount. I am also a member of good Sam mainly for camping discount and flying j 8 cent diesel discount. I travel an average of 6,000 miles per year.
Your happy with 8 cents off a gallon of diesel? I use the EFS card at Loves, TA and TA PETRO. The TA is usually my best discount and I would say it averages about .25-.30 cents a gallon with our best .47 cents off a gallon. We use to fuel at Flying J and Pilot but Mr Lemonis put a stop to that and complained to Flying J and Pilot saying he had an agreement with his RVers so they pulled out. The way we use The EFS card is by setting up a separate bank account that we can transfer funds into so that if by chance it gets hacked it’s not a lot of $$$ EFS simply pulls out $$$ for the fuel along with a very small small amount for their cost. Look up EFS on the web, you won’t be sorry.
@Tom Moeller ~ Just looked at the EFS site. Lots of card choices there. Which one have you found works for you that will work for a single vehicle/person account? TIA.
Dennis
This would be an EXCELLENT topic for an article!!
EFS is the transaction provider. Most RVers I know use TSD Logistics. Another one is TSC through FMCA.
So, what exactly is the author of this article attempting to do? The premise is or may be legitimate, but listing every one of Lemonis business interest is not. This appears to be yet another petty obsession with Lemonis in an attempt to damage or discredit his business interests. The same point could have been accomplished by saying Lemonis has 40+ other business interests that consume his time. Keep in mind, like him or hate him, he employs many Americans. When you damage him, you also damage working Americans. I suspect the author would be crying foul if Lemonis were to use his vast resources to personally attack RvTravel.
I agree. It seems every issue is always bemoaning Lemonis. Enough already – we all get the picture. How about more positive articles – surely there must be some. If not, I feel sorry for the publisher
I agree. Warren Buffett owns a bunch of businesses. I don’t hear too many people complain about him. Not a fan of Camping World or Good Sam…I don’t do business with them.
Well, I’m not a Thor fan either….many unhappy owners.
Thor also owns Airstream. Don’t see them complaining so much.
So as long as a business employs people it doesn’t matter how crappy they are run or who they rip off since they are employing people.
Like the mafia? 🙂
Just like the government, wait until The Lemon gets to be President. ;-p
I also agree however I do believe he would do business with the Devil if he had the chance!
Thank you for your letter Marcus.
He did some years ago- Chuck Woodbury challenged him to a debate (sort of) where he could have had an opportunity to defend his positions on rv related issues. His investing and business strategies have always left casualties as a result. He’s not a good guy.
Lemonis took over Gander Mtn when the went bankrupt and reopened as Gander Outdoors. Gander Outdoors in Scranton Pa seemed to be doing good. Than I went into the store one day and it was slim on merchandise and everything was on clearance. I asked the clerk what was going on. He didn’t seem to know, than the manager said Loomis is closing Gander Outdoors stores that don’t sell campers. The clerk was in tears, he needed that job and Lemonis didn’t care. I sent Lemonis an email, but never heard back. With everything I’ve heard about that man, he should change his philosophy to. I’m not Happy, unless your not Happy.
He’s killed plenty of jobs with making over the last several crappy RVs. Purchased RV small companies the great produces and trashed them. With that said maybe we should on RV travel support loudly those vendors that are delivering exceptional quality and balue products. Rather it’s Costco, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart etc. And 90% of what you purchase at CW or any Lemonis establishment is made in China or somewhere outside this country as well.
These are investments he made with these companies, most shown on his TV program
I only recognize 3 of them.