Complaint Review: Motor Home Specialist RV - Alvarado, Texas Texas

Some time in the beginning of August we started looking on line to see about finding a Motor Home so we could go and do some traveling.  After a few months of looking on line we found one we thought we really liked at Motor Home Specialist RV in Alvarado, Texas.  The pictures on line reflected everything we were looking for in a large class A Diesel Motor Home.  We eventually called the dealer and after talking and hagling about the price finally agreed on a price and started making plans to fly to Texas.  We were in Utah and the dealer is in Texas.  They demanded that we put a $3000.00 deposit on the unit so that they could hold it for us untill we arrived to inspect it and see if we wanted to purchase it.  Both my wife and I work part time so it was a couple of weeks before we could make arrangements to fly to Texas which we eventually did.  Reluctantly I gave them my credit card number for the $3000.00 deposit because from looking at the pictures the coach was everything we had been looking for.  At no time did the sales person or anyone else from this company tell me during the inquries on line that my deposit would not be refunded if we decided not to purchase the coach after inspecting it.  We flew to Dallas airport and were picked up by one of MHSRV's shuttle drivers and taken to the salesman that we had been dealing with.  He took us by golf cart to the Motor Home we had placed the deposit on.  My wife went inside and I inspected the outside and found a number of scratches in the paint.  Upon closer inspection on the inside we found a laundry list of things that didnt meet our standards.They included the following but not limited to -- Scratches in the tile floor, induction cooktop caulked with white caulking which was pouring out of the sides of the black cooktop.  A hole was cut into the toe kick under the sink and not covered up, the wood moulding came off when the individual showing us the coach opened the slide and he said oh wow I thought they had fixed that, a eight inch scratch on the leather passenger seat, torn wall paper behind the passenger seat, the combination lock to the door would not work, the dining room table almost fell off when we sat on the dining room bench seats which angled down more then needed and you kept feeling like you were going to slide off, there were several other things and when we mentioned the discrpencies to the sales people and the finance manager there, they told us to just take the coach to the factory in Indiana and they will fix everything.  Well we are from Utah and didnt have time to go to Indiana to have everything fixed.  At some time during our inspection of the coach the finance manager got involved and basically demanded that we purchase the coach or you forfeit your deposit.  Prior to inspecting the coach the finanace manager wanted to have the rest of our deposit which was a hefty sum.  They had wanted the deposit in a cashier check or have it wired to them prior to us coming there to inspect the coach but I refused to do that and to our luck i am glad we didnt agree to that as we would still be trying to get back $150,000 instead of the $3000.00 we placed on deposit in good faith.  Had everything been good on this RV we would have had our bank overnight the deposit to us as we were staying at a motel right next door to the dealership as we figured that some things may need fixing but never imagined the laundry list of things we found wrong with the coach.  When we were in the finance managers office he was on the phone with our personal banker back in Utah and basically demanded that she wire funds for the deposit which I am glad she was unable to do because we were not there to authorize the wire transfer.  I didnt bring a cashier check for the down payment as I figured there would be some items that needed fixing and then our banker could over night the deposit to us in time to finish the transaction.  The finance manager got very angry with our banker and with us for not bringing the full down payment as instructed by them or to have it sent to them prior to our arrival.  Finally I said to my wife we are finished here at this dealership and grabbed our suit cases and walked over to the motel where we we going to stay.  While at the motel i texted our sales man (David Garza) and asked him if he could get me into another coach of our choice but never got a response.  We now had to make reservations to fly out of Dallas and back to Utah as we had planned to drive back.  

It is my opinion that this dealership is not honest and does not represent the items they advertise on line honestly.  They are a high pressure dealership and I would caution everyone dealing with them not to give them a credit card over the phone for a deposit as it has now been three months and we are still trying to recover our deposit even having gone through our credit card company with no positive results.  Be aware of dealing with this dealership they as far as i am concerned are crooks and it is amazing to me that the Better Business Buarau has not done something to advise people like us of this business.  I certainly hope that this report/review helps someone else not to get screwed by these folks. The dealership has lost not a penny on us as the coach we had placed a deposit on is not listed in their inventory any longer and has been sold to some other fool, hopefully he is able to go to the factory in Indiana to have all of the problems fixed.  It is beyond me that a dealership can keep a deposit for something you have never looked at and have not purchased.  We placed the deposit in good faith and upon inspection if all was correct we would have purchased the motor home but it failed missarably at our close inspection.