From: brucec@tekgen.bv.tek.com (Bruce Cheney)
Newsgroups: tek.general,tek.consumer,pdx.consumer,misc.consumers,pdx.general,or.general,or.forsale,tek.forsale
Subject: Consumer Alert: #1 RV Rentals Tualatin,OR
Keywords: bait and switch, contract violations, bad attitude
Date: 22 Jul 92 20:32:25 GMT
Followup-To: pdx.consumer
Distribution: usa
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.


(The following is the opinion of the author)

If you are in the market to rent an RV, I strongly suggest 
you AVOID using Number #1 RV Rentals in Tualatin.  They screwed 
me royally. They might screw you the same way if you do 
business with them.  They lied to us, misled us, broke a signed 
contract, and may have ruined our family vacation to boot.

Here are the gory details:

About 10 weeks before our vacation, we started looking for 
an RV to rent.  As my family now includes 18 week old twins 
and a 2 yr. old, my requirements in terms of floorplan, 
accessories, and capabilities are very specific. We visited 
Number #1,  explained our requirements, and they showed us 
several floor plans and actual units (if they were in). We 
strongly rejected some, but we did find one that was acceptable 
and available, although the actual unit wasn't in at the moment. 
So we signed a contract and put a deposit on it with the 
agreement that when the unit came in, we could inspect it and 
approve it or not. They cashed our deposit. We thought 
everything was taken care of.

Then about two weeks before our vacation we got a call from 
them telling us to return the RV one day earlier than planned, 
because #1 had somehow overlapped the bookings of our RV. 
Although somewhat inconvenient, we agreed to this.

But when we went to inspect the RV, we found they had 
substituted one of the models we had originally rejected!  
Our family wouldn't fit in the new one! They did not mention 
that they had switched RV's  when they called about the early 
return.  We had a contract on the other one! When we pointed 
this out, the woman who handles the front desk, Terri, was 
unapologetic and very unhelpful. So much so, that we decided 
that we would explore other paths rather than rent from these 
jerks!  This was one of the worst forms of 'bait and switch' 
I had ever seen!

If you have a beef with someone, I feel you should discuss 
it with them directly so that both parties can better understand 
the situation and take the proper corrective action. So I 
called back and asked for the owner.  I calmly outlined the 
situation and asked for my deposit back. He agreed to this. 
When I tried to bring up the difficulties I had his help, he 
cut me short and told me he was not interested in hearing my 
side of the story at all.  His attitude and total lack of 
willingness to  listen was  worse than Terri's!  Not once 
did anyone at #1 RV ever offer an apology or offer to try 
to work things out.  Their attitude was always 'take it or 
leave it, we don't care how it affects you, or what we agreed to."

So, despite starting my quest for an RV early, despite making 
our requirements clear (and referenced in writing), and 
despite having a signed contract, two weeks before our family 
vacation I do not have an RV.  If you have ever tried to rent 
one of these during the summer, you know that you can't find 
anything on two weeks or less notice. In terms of obtaining 
an RV, we're screwed.

In my opinion, #1 RV is incompetent and disorganized (double 
booking units), deceitful (not mentioning the switch), and 
on top of all of this, rude and  uncooperative.  

My advice is to go somewhere else..... anywhere else.

Bruce Cheney
Newsgroups: misc.consumers