Selling Practices

Business Reply

Response to Complaint

October 1, 2009

Wagner's RV Center, Inc. sold a new Puma travel trailer to customers on September 17, 2009. The contract stated a price for the trailer and a value for the trade-in. Customer was not required to trade his unit in, he could have sold it outright, however, once he traded the unit in it became the property of the dealership. Business practice dictates that we may sell a customer’s trade-in for whatever we determine we can sell it for. Our advertised prices do not necessarily mean we will sell it for that. Anything we generate in profits is the way we stay in business, and the deal we make with the buyer of the trailer is protected by the privacy laws, thus we are not obligated or allowed to share that information with the customer who traded in the unit. Although the expenses we incurred on this unit is dealership business, we do incur expenses on all units that we sell because our service department spends time on each and every unit before it leaves our lot, we have holding costs and overhead, and our employees expect to be paid every two weeks. The sales department is required to add a portion of all of these expenses to the unit when they determine their cost in the unit. As a courtesy to this particular customer, Wagner's RV dropped our price on this unit and sold it to their buyer for the amount he was originally going to pay them. We tested appliances and repaired the unit to his satisfaction (something he would not have gotten from them)! Yet they are still complaining, about what?

Please let us know, specifically, where we mislead the customer. We feel that they were very aware of the value of their trade prior to bringing it to our lot since they were in the process of selling it and could have continued that process had they wanted to. Businesses have high enough expenses and have the right to make an income to stay in business for the benefit of the owners and the employees. Frivolous allegations like this add to overhead that must be paid for somehow!

Sales force lied to a private party that almost purchased the travel trailer from us that we ended up trading into Wagner's. They told the party they fixed many things and they had traded for the trailer at thousands of dollars more than what they did. However the trailer was still in the same spot and position we left it at less than 16 hours earlier. Very dishonest and completely not there to service the customer. More about units to them then satisfaction and building loyalty.