Truck and RV Time

Hello all and welcome back to another exciting installment of Just One More! We last left off absolutely kvelling over our experience in South Dakota domiciling. Next stop was to Salt Lake City to pick up our truck and BRAND NEW RV (please read that in the same voice as the voice of The Price is Right who announces the showcases).

As a little aside, the last time we purchased a car was in 2015 and after that experience, I vowed that I would never be in the same room with my husband while we purchased a car again. There are just some things that married couples can’t do together and the financial paperwork side of buying a car is one of them for us. 

Now imagine my utter shock and surprise when our car buying experience in Salt Lake went just as smoothly as getting our driver’s licenses in South Dakota. We bought a new Dodge Ram 3500 Dually Truck without ever seeing it in real life until we went to sign the paperwork and pick it up. Shout out to Devan and the team at Doug Smith Dodge Dealership in Draper, Utah. https://www.dougsmithchryslerjeepdodge.com/  They were wonderful from the texts, emails and phone calls to the inspection, paperwork, and financials. Everyone was friendly and helpful and similarly to the DPS in SD, I kind of wanted to go back just for funsies. We even ended up taking Devan out to lunch to thank him for all of his help. We left very happy customers. 

And that, friends, is where our luck ran out. 

We first stopped by General RV of Utah to check out our new rig on a Saturday afternoon as soon as we arrived in Utah from South Dakota. We did a walk through to check it out and see what we had purchased for the first time. We purchased a washer and dryer through General RV and they assured us that they would install them as well as extra solar panels and lithium batteries that Jerry had bought and had sent there as well. We were assured more than once that everything would be ready for us. That Saturday, we noticed that the washer and dryer were not installed.  Actually, nothing looked like it had been done at all. But we were told that they would be fine by next week. 

Now, for those who are new to the RV purchasing game, purchasing and picking up an RV takes quite a while. Not only do you have to do a full walk through to make sure that everything looks right and is working, but you have to learn how everything works and how to hook it up to your truck. It’s quite the process. 

So, with that being said, we were told our RV would be ready to be picked up at 3pm on Tuesday. They closed at 6pm so right off the bat we were a little apprehensive that everything would go smoothly. We knew we would likely need more than 3 hours. But we went anyway and sat in the waiting room waiting for someone to come and do the official walk through with us. At 4:30pm (an hour and a half after they told us it would be ready), we were still sitting there and finally decided to find the front desk to see what was going on. The woman at the front desk informed us that no one told her we would be coming (red flag number 4 at this point) but promptly found someone to help us out.  His name is Tyler!  Big Shout out to him. He was amazing!  I wish the rest of the General RV employees were as incredible as Tyler! 

Sure enough, when we went out, the washer and dryer still weren’t installed. By this point, we were pretty upset. We were in no hurry to go anywhere, but because they said everything would be ready on Tuesday afternoon, we checked out of our hotel and reserved a spot at a KOA campground nearby. Thankfully, the team was nice and told us that they would cover our hotel that night as well as the camp spot that we would have to forfeit. They promised us that everything would be ready to go the next day. 

So back we went on Wednesday , hoping for the best and preparing for not the best. As we are doing one final walk around (with the washer and dryer installed, thankfully), Jerry noticed that the solar battery system that General RV installed didn’t look right. Remember, Jerry was the chief engineer of a hospital for 37 years. He knows his way around “everything that makes a house work” as I like to say. Jerry’s hackles were up and he spoke to the manager and mechanic and was basically told to take the RV or leave it. They were clearly sick of us and wanted to get rid of us by any means. Beyond rude.

Both Jerry and I were taken aback by this ultimatum, but what choice did we really have? We put so much money, time and energy into this new home. We couldn’t go home empty handed because that was our home. So we signed the damn paperwork. 

Jerry took a bunch of pictures of the install and when we drove off the lot, he sent them to Battle Born Battery Co. They called us immediately and with alarm, told us that not only was the installation done horribly wrong, but also that they posed a safety hazard. The batteries were so negligently installed that it was dangerous. I just have no desire to have “RV fire” printed on my cause of death paperwork. It’s just not my style, you know? 

So we stopped in Reno on our way to Sacramento and met with a solar installer, who worked on our rig for six hours at his home! It took that long to repair the shoddy job that General RV did. I am still in shock at the blatant disregard for our concern and basic safety. It’s horrifying and I am so thankful Jerry realized something was wrong when he did. 

We are currently in a bit of a battle with General RV of Utah for them to reimburse us for all of the extra labor and parts to repair the damage they inflicted on our brand new RV. We will keep you updated on all the drama. We may or may not have gone a bit ballistic on them. (Sometimes it’s necessary, ok, especially when we could have gone up in a fireball)

Just One More…Glass of Prosecco. I need it after this crazy week. 

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