ComplaintsforCharlie Obaugh Staunton RV Center

• Initial Complaint

  01/11/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We took our camper (purchased through a private third party, used and not under manufacturer warranty) in Aug 2021. We took it to Charlie Obaugh for a repair to the slideout in April 2022. Due to supply chain issues, parts didnt arrive until June 2022. We went ahead and paid the bill, but when we went to pick it up it was revealed that the repair didnt actually fix the problem. Given that we wanted to get to use our camper at least some that summer, the technicians took apart the mechanism so that we could manually override and still operate the slideout. We took and kept the camper at home (where we observed marks to the exterior shell of the camper, and the interior more damaged by efforts to repair it) until September 2022 when they said new parts had arrived. They agreed to cover the further expenses, and did so. As of today, there are no updates on the camper's status. It is still sitting on their lot, and they claim they need guidance from the manufacturer and just cant get a hold of anyone. I filed a complaint with the OAG and was referred to dispute resolution. They want to be done with us as much as we want to be done with them. I worry that they are going to continue to just keep the camper until we give up, come pick it up, and drop it. I asked for email only communication in December, and this was not followed up on until I contacted the owner on Jan 6. The owner has been nothing but rude, condescending, and passive aggressive which only makes me more confident that they just want us to give up and come get it fixed or not.

  Business response

  01/11/2023

  To put aside all of Mrs. ********'s claims and pointed comments. I contacted Mrs. ******** on Jan. 11, and talked to her from a call she initated a few days ago. I expressed our apology as to how long this process has taken, but as crazy as it sounds a high  majority of this ordeal has been out of our hands due to many different variables. We have repaired everything we have charged her for her repiars while eating a fair amount more than what she has paid us. We are more than welcome to discuss further with her by phone or in person and plan to when we find out what the manufacturer of her RV reports back to us. As usual we are waiting on them to give us an answer. This may take days as they have only California specialized personnel for this unit since it is a California only build unit. As for the damage she claims we did to her unit, we cannot say we did it or not, so we are repairing it with no cost to her. As this unit is on it's second or third owner, things may have happened we have no idea about as Mrs. ******** doesn't know about or hasn't told us. Once again we have fixed everything to specs of the manufacturer and the repairs are all within margins. Now it's up to them to report back to the last measurements we sent them concerning the axles and underneath of the RV as the rear stirrups are bent to the body on one side and the other about halfway to the body leading us to figure there may have been prior damage under the RV causing the issues Mrs. ******** claims we have not repaired, which we have completed to wihithin manufacturer specs. We are truly sorry about the length of this repair, but it looks like it may have been an "underlying" issue that we would have never seen. We repaired what was damaged and what we charged for, now it may be out of our hands due to unforeseen and unseen damage to the RV leading a potential insurance claim. I have hated to have to answer all of this on social media as I had let Mrs. ******** I would be right on top of this issue yesterday after knowing about it for the first time. I let her know I would have answers for her as soon as we heard back from the manufacturer of her RV. Unfortunately, I was not given the opportunity, but we will have answer soon. We will not be refunding any money concerning this repair as we have completed everything requested by Mrs. ******** concerning the damaged parts on the RV. We cannot help there are potemtial structural issues along with prior damagethat could have caused the problems with her RV.  Respecftfully,   **** Obaugh 

  Customer response

  01/12/2023

  I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.As I have repeatedly said, my husband and I very much appreciate the efforts of C Obaugh to resolve this issue. We also appreciate and acknowledge that the shop will take responsibility for the visible exterior damage to the camper. I dont feel that posting a negative google review, or filing complaints through available resources is wrong, or unfair. Nor do I feel we "have" to communicate via google review, BBB, etc. But when I asked Mr Obaugh about maybe a weekly check in with himself or Mr *******, I only received a "received" email followed up later by a passive aggressive response to my google review posted one month ago, and a "maybe later today, maybe later this week." It's been nearly a year, and my husband and/or myself have had numerous conversations with various staff and supervisors at the repair shop. Jan 10th was my first conversation with the owner himself, although we've had conversations with the general manager, a Mr **** ****** who was named on our receipt as point of contact regarding dissatisfaction, and the lead technician on the case. After repeated incidents of unreturned phone calls, failure to provide any sort of update (even a "nothing to update" email would've sufficed to be quite honest) over these many months,, mixed explanations of what was actually happening, I went to the owner. I received a response over the phone that changed details over the course of our conversation-at one point Mr Obaugh told me he'd sunk 36k into the camper, later he said 7k. He told me he'd "finally heard back" from FR just that morning, and later in an email said again that he was "waiting to hear back" from FR. He mentioned 70 hours of labor, but until this week we've not seen the camper move from the lot into the bay since we were last told in September (by Mr *******) that labor hours were at 40.   I can certainly understand and empathize with the obstacles presented by supply chain issues, relying upon a third party for help, etc. I can also empathize with the struggles of a locally owned business having to invest money into repairs that dont wind up resolving the issue. But, I do NOT think that is my problem so much as Mr Obaughs and his staffs for their difficulty with inspecting and planning an adequate resolution before acting/investing. I am not ignorant to mechanical issues. I've been changing my own oil since I was 15. My husband and I have  never heard anything about the rear stirrups or axles. Given that those are fairly clear to see upon inspection of the camper, I'm not sure why this wasn't brought up already or considered as an underlying issue. We owned and used the camper from August 2021-April 2022 with no issues. In addition to numerous camping trips, we would move the slide in and out in the building it was stored in over the Winter. The repair the shop originally completed and charged us for immediately broke after maybe only 5 or 6 trials in the shop. If the issue is actually something related to prior damage before we even owned the camper, wouldnt it have busted the mechanism sooner just like it did in your shop during testing? The "repair" we paid for that Mr Obaugh refers to as completed had to do with the slide out system itself, not the undercarriage of the camper. That repair is what we paid for with the IMPLIED GUARANTEE AND WARRANTY that it would fix the problem. That mechanism broke one or maybe even two more times when tested in the shop, and if the real reason was the undercarriage issues then that should have been figured out long before the shop invested in other costly efforts. Again, it is not my responsibility as the customer to make sure your technicians accurately diagnose a situation.  As I said, it's been almost a year and over those many months we've actually only called maybe 10-15 times total. I'm not sure how Mr Obaugh might feel if he were in our shoes, but I dont believe I am being unreasonable or difficult here. AS I mentioned to Mr Obaugh over the phone the other day, I would love to take it elsewhere at this point. Unfortunately, we've dropped more than our budget allows into repairs already & its apparently not clear if further damage was caused to the camper while in the shop. We will not be taking it out of the shop until it is COMPLETELY fixed, or we are refunded our original investment at which point we will plan to cover extra damages that "may or may not" have been caused in the shop.  Regards, ****** ********

  Business response

  01/25/2023

  Our staff should have repairs completed by the end of this week. As for Mrs. ********'s continued comments concerning our store and staff, we have gone above and beyond trying to fix their RV and it will be fixed shortly with no charge to her or her husband outside of what they have already paid. I can easily say I have done everything I told her I would do from the first day I talked to her a few weeks ago. We are sorry for the length of time it took to repair, but it was out of our control when the manufacturer of her RV couldn't tell us the correct information or even send us the correct part. I will also stand by what I said earlier that the unit has had damaged underneath the RV, but we will let her take care of that when she picks it up. Sorry I fell short of her expectations of me helping out along with not liking what I had to say, but as I said let me get involved and we'll get it fixed. We did what I said we would do, not sure what else someone could ask of me when we got it fixed. Hope you have a nice evening.  Respectfully, **** Obaugh

  Customer response

  01/27/2023

  I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. While I am thankful, and appreciative of the owner's efforts these past few weeks, I don't believe that I am wrong to say that up until he got involved none of this was handled properly. It seems that since the owner became involved, there is a lot of progress and proper evaluation of the situation. I waited to contact the owner for so long, as I assumed his head technician and general manager would be doing exactly what the owner would do.Even now, there continues to be this concern about the underneath of the camper. We had not heard about this until recently which leaves us anxious that the damage may have occurred while in the shop. It also leaves us anxious that if Mr Obaugh and his team believe this damage could be contributing to the slideout issue, then the repair of the slideout itself will not fully fix the problem. This will leave us needing to take it elsewhere for further diagnostics, likely having to repair the slide out mechanism AGAIN if it jumps the track in transport to a new shop, AND the damage to the underneath which is apparently new since the camper arrived at the shop. We want the camper FULLY and reliably repaired so that we do not run into this issue again. Our plan at this point, on a past recommendation of *******, is to immediately turn around and sell the camper. We cant do this with a broken slideout. If Charlie Obaugh will purchase the camper from us at our payoff amount, we are happy to do that. I am happy to provide you with that amount if this is something that can be on the table for discussion. If the position of Charlie O'Baugh is that the underneath damage occurred prior to us bringing it to the shop, why was this not mentioned to us before? Especially if that might be the underlying problem to the slideout.  Regards, ****** ********

  Business response

  02/13/2023

  We have admitted that the length of these repairs was excessive and a portion was our fault, but we are not going to shoulder the entire blame when the manufacturer of the unit and the slide manufacturer took so long to get us proper information and the proper parts that were not under a recall. Plus this was a unit built under California guidelines, niot Virginia. We shouldered at least $5-6,000 of the time and cost put into repairing this unit that is on it's second or third owner, while she only paid $2,000 and all we hear is how bad we are. What's wrong with this picture? As for the damage under the unit, it was there when brought to our facility in this shape. I am appalled she would even make these false accusations that we damaged their camper in this manner. Simplely said, their RV never left our lot that is paved and properly gravelled and that would have definitely not led to any damage. Now I'm sorry I even pointed it out what was obviously damage done before it got our store. In closing, I believe we have done everything in our power plus way more to fix a slide that we were not given the proper info from the manufacturers and customer along with parts until the past month. I'm sorry we could not please her, so we wish her well in finding a business that will meet her needs. **** Obaugh  

  Customer response

  02/14/2023

  I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. I can't understand why Mr Obaugh doesnt see this situation as problematic. Was there ever any mention or documentation of the damage any of the times we brought the camper to the shop? Not that I am aware of. This damage was only ever mentioned in January 2023 which I think most people would be concerned about given that we've also never noticed it. Is it my responsibility that Mr Obaughs technicians wasted 5-6k on repeating the same repair which continued to prove ineffective? Absolutely not. I would assume that Mr Obaugh ensures that his technicians are thorough in their assessments, and try to work as efficiently as is possible. It is my understanding, per one of Mr Obaughs emails, that the shop will be reimbursed for the incorrect/erroneous or whatever you want to call them parts that they paid for out of their own pocket. Will we be reimbursed for the stress, numerous missed/cancelled camping reservations, 2k we put into incorrect repairs that the shop will be reimbursed by the manufacturer for? No. Are we thankful to finally have our camper back in what SO FAR seems to be working order (knock on wood)? Yes, of course. Do we believe this would've ever happened had I not filed these complaints and contacted the owner directly? Seems highly unlikely. If Mr Obaugh wants to prevent a situation like this in the future, he might want to check in with his staff. Somehow he was able to accomplish within a few short weeks what we asked of his lead technician and GM for nearly a year. Now that we have the camper back, I doubt we will have any further dealings unless the slideout breaks off again in the next few weeks/months, in which case I will be contacting a lawyer. I do think, though, that BBB should publish this complaint to the business's BBB profile as it is VERY valid.  Regards, ****** ********

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩