Complaint Review: Outdoorsy -

Here is our story.  Because of the corona virus, our family of 4 had not gone away in over a year. We decided to go on a small getaway to Clearwater beach.  We rented a cute little bungalow close to the beach.  The rental required payment in full and we only had 48 hours to cancel the trip to receive a refund.  We also rented a golf cart to get around once we were there. That was not where our trouble started.  It started once we decided to rent the camper van.  We have a new puppy and wanted everyone to have a comfortable trip. 

Since we were going to be gone for 5 days, we needed something large enough to accommodate our baggage and dog crate.  We called a company called Outdoorsy to rent a small camper van.  Big mistake.  We were set to leave on December 30th.  The van arrived at about 1:30 that afternoon.  Upon first look we were already disappointed but still excited for our trip.  The year the van was made was 1999.  Gregory was the man’s name that dropped it off and he went over how to use specific things, showed us where things were, had us sign some papers and then jumped in an uber and left. 

We took another hour to pack and then we were on our way.  The first thing we noticed was that the A/C did not work.  Since the weather was relatively cool, it was not a big deal, but my husband sent a text to Gregory at 3pm that the AC was blowing hot air. Three hours later, at 6 pm, we received a reply that he “was not sure and the system had just been serviced”.  He also tried to tell us that “hot air was trapped due to the sun beating on the roof of the van and it may be difficult to get the hot air out”.  My husband complained to me that the steering wheel felt loose. 

Since we had no other options or we would lose our money for the rental, we made the uncomfortable trip to Clearwater.  We had a great time and then made our trip home with the van that was out of alignment with no AC.  When Gregory came to pick up the van my husband told him that it really should not have been rented to anyone since it had problems.  Gregory immediately began yelling at us telling us that we must have hit something, and we would have to pay for it to be fixed.  He also said that it was dirty, we were over miles, and he was keeping our $500 security deposit. 

He told us that we should have called him and let him know and we could have brought it to a mechanic.  Since he never really answered our first text for hours and told us a bunch of crazy stuff about the AC, we didn't bother to let him know about the steering. We knew we were over miles and were prepared to pay. We paid $1,042.00 van rental and $500.00 security deposit for nothing but a headache. We have repeatedly asked for the rental contract, and the paperwork that we signed when we received the van.  According to the Outdoorsy policy on the website, in order to retain a security deposit, there must be signed paperwork from the renter and the owner upon return of the van.

He said if we made any negative complaints about him or his company he would retaliate by disparaging my husbands real estate company.  There is no proof of any damage.  I have video showing him yelling and threatening us when he picked up the van.  We were threatened by someone who knows our address and names and we have no idea who he is.  We asked Outdoorsy for his information and they are not supplying it.  They told us he was from a 3rd party company called Van Hero and we were unable to find any reputable company in Florida with that name. 

We have now received an email that they are aware that we were in an accident and we would be told how much the deductible is soon. Upon further digging, we found that there are 166 negative complaints with the BBB.  It is sad to know that a family just trying to have a fun vacation can get scammed out of a deposit and are being told they are responsible for an accident that never happened.