Comments on: Total Travel Disasters: Outdoorsy Road Trip Rental Edition

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 03:21:44 +0000

In reply to Short & Sweet RV. Thanks for all of this advice Gordon! It's super insightful, sounds like we'd be lucky to rent with you :)

By: Short & Sweet RV

Short & Sweet RV — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 16:08:13 +0000

In reply to Jorge Calderon.

As an RV Owner that has been renting out my RV for two years on Outdoorsy – stories like this really gets my anger up! That RV owner should be banned and the poor renter should have received 100% refund in short order. This is totally the RV Owners fault!
Following Outdoorsy instructions, I take about 1 1/2 hours to train each renter on how every part of the Camper works. I also made a 20 page booklet instruction manual to keep in the unit for the renters use. Most of my renters are first-timers, and it only makes sense to spend the time to make sure that they are comfortable driving and using the camper.
So far, I have had 16 very happy renters, and no issues that required Outdoorsy intervention. Oh, things happen when travelling (Hailstorm shattered roof vents, bad injector on the engine) – but with good communication (and some duct tape) most things can be patched until the unit returns. Major problems described by Jorge, (did the hood really fall off??!! Wow!) should never happen in properly maintained units. That unit was over 20 years old and in bad shape to boot.
My Advice to New RV Renters: Stick with Outdoorsy – they are far better than the alternative rental companies. Look at the age of the RV and go for the newer ones. Plan your trip to stay several days in each place – don’t change parks every day as you will be worn out by the end of the trip. It is a vacation, not a marathon. If possible, arrange to see the unit months before your trip, so you can choose a different one, if this one looks like a lemon.
Finally, ask a lot of questions from the guy you might rent from. If you are getting weak or evasive answers, or he/she isn’t readily available to talk to you – red flags should be going up. Communication with the owner during the trip, is vital to a successful vacation!
Cheers! – Gordon

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 18:49:02 +0000

In reply to Jorge Calderon. I'm so sorry to hear that :( Sad to see all these trips ruined.

By: Jorge Calderon

Jorge Calderon — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 21:44:04 +0000

on 06/30/2020 I rented an RV via the outdoorsy platform from Owner Alex Ahlstrom, A 1999 National Tradewinds. My total cost was & $768.30 and a $1500 deposit. This rental was a complete nightmare from start to finish. After leaving San Antonio TX towards my location of Las Vegas NV, I experienced the first issue. I was pulled over for missing headlights, i prompntly stopped and purchased the headlights totaling $35.62 and installed them myself, thereafter The generator failed and i was forced to stop and pay for an rv park located in brownfield, tx that was not included in my travel plans, I called Mr. Russell and located a generator for sale near by for the total of $703.61 and the cost of a new battery and oil for the generator costing $125.83, I removed and replaced the new generator myself after 6 hours! After leaving brownfield i noticed the rv would not exceed the speed of 35MPH. After driving all day at 35MPH it was around 10pm pitch dark on a country road on the outskirts of Roswell,NM we lost all power to the dash and the headlights shutoff, we where forced to exit the vehicle on a dangerous road and complete some additional troubleshooting, i called outdoorsy roadside assistance and was told that they could look at the unit next week which was after my trip completion date. I then called outdoorsy and waited on hold for 3 hours! I was told not to worry that everything would be taken care of and i would receive a callback. I never received that call and continued on my trip at 35MPH. On the bored of new mexico and Arizona The battery light came on the dash and again we lost all poer in the dark of night and we were forced to stop again. i completed some repairs charged all of the batteries and contacted outdoorsy again. i waited 2 hours, they assured me not to worry that everything would be taken care of., I never received a call again. I then started to notice that the carpet was getting extremely wet and after doing some troubleshooting found a major leak on the interior of the wall . After being told by outdoorsy my only option was to keep the rental or be left with no transportation i continued down my path, arriving to las vegas at 35MPH going over the hoover damn i heard a loud smash on the front of the rv. we were again forced to pull over. After inspection the hood had fallen of the front of the rv. we pulled into vegas at 35mph after 3 days of living a nightmare. we spend the next 2 days walking around huge wet spots in the carpet caused by leaks. I contacted outdoorsy Multiple times with several hour wait times with no solutions. I was forced to drive the death trap back to San Antonio and put my life and others life at risk. i started to hear major wind noise fromn the front end at 35mph so inspected and found the the winshield was seperating from the cabin and had a 2″ gap! i pulled over and did some quick patch work. at this time the a/c was inop and we where driving throught the Mojave desert with no a/c. again the gauges went off and we where forced to stop. Note that since the beginning of then rental the steps never worked and we where forced to jump and climb back into the rv which was 3ft high. I again exited the rv and completed some repairs and jerry rigged the batteries to continue on my trip. on my way passing through new mexico the rv again started flashing warning lights. i stopped and inspected the vehicle and called outdoorsy and waiting on hold for 4 hours and no answer. At his time i am a day late for work already. I changed the oil in the rv after noticing that it was completely empty and spent another $120! i turned on the rv and put it into drive. the rv would not move! no drive or reverse. Again i excited the rv and checked batteries and transmission. i did some research and found out how to reset the Allison transmission. i got the unit on and drove to San Antonio at 35mph. I drove day and night mostly night with no A/C of headlights or gauges. Outdoorsy has notes of every instance on my account as i have been told by there representatives

As of 07/23/2020 Refund Was Declined

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 12:20:22 +0000

In reply to Larry. I'm glad your credit card at least was on top of it! Hoping it all gets resolved in your favor soon.

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 16:36:10 +0000

In reply to Alex. Yes, we filed a dispute right away. They credited our card and are going after Outdoorsy. It is an ongoing process since the owner was dishonest and is trying to justify his actions of accepting the larger payment from them after he had already fixed the scratches. It will be resolved soon in our favor whether or not Outdoorsy is able to reverse their payment to him. Outdoorsy is admitting their errors in not following their own policies.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 14:45:44 +0000

In reply to Larry D Sudweeks. So sorry to hear about your experience, Larry. Have you tried filing a complaint with your credit card? Wishing you luck.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 14:22:58 +0000

In reply to Maggie.

OMG. That sounds like a nightmare. I’m so sorry! I’m afraid of rentals with bathrooms — for exactly this reason. So far I’ve only tried ones without!

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 14:17:24 +0000

In reply to Beth. Sorry to hear you also had a bad experience :-/

By: Larry D Sudweeks

Larry D Sudweeks — Sat, 19 Oct 2019 20:01:06 +0000

We would like to warn current and future customers of Outdoorsy; that their staff is inexperienced in handling claims and that they have accepted an RV owner on their site who they know is taking advantage of renters.
We have been involved in a claim issue since our rental in July 2019. In September our credit card was charged $1458.38 for a repair that was never done within 6 days of being notified that the owner had submitted a claim through them after he had already had the $500 repair done, submitted a bill to us and we had agreed to pay him directly. Outdoorsy’s claim representative was negligent, inexperienced and unprofessional and would not let us speak to a supervisor. We finally were able to email a supervisor on Oct 18th who agreed to refund us, but, because of the negligence of the representative, they say their hands are tied and we have to wait until December 16th to resolve the claim. The RV owner has received 3 x the amount that he spent on the repair and will not respond to our messages on their message board. We filed a complaint with BBB today and want to warn others to be aware that the company does not follow their own stated policies; in that we were never given an opportunity to provide our statement in the claim process and our card was charged without letting us know beforehand and our agreement to work with the owner directly was ignored.