Hi Everyone
I've been thinking of writing this for some time now and was initially a bit hesitant, but think I'll feel better getting it off my chest. Moderator please remove if deemed to suitable.
Until May this year we were the owners of a little old 1984 Jayco Jayfinch which we had used a few times and loved. Over the summer we had decided to move towards a camper trailer and took our time researching and making enquiries about our purchase. We had less than 10k to spend and wanted to buy Australian made etc,etc. After a couple of months we decided to go with a mob based in Cambellfield, Melbourne. Our initial enquiries made us feel sure that it was the camper for us and the guys seemeds genuine and honest. Although we'd made pretty much made our decison we still wanted to check out the Supershow in Sydney to touch, feel and see all the models in person. If we had a bigger budget we definitely liked some others we'd seen but still felt confident we were making the right decison and suck to our budget.
In the meantime, I had made several phone calls to the mob in Melbourne, often which we're not returned, but I remained patient and listened to their excuses. We advised them we wanted to place an order and would make our decision on the Sunday after the show. they offered us a great deal on a 'demo' model which we were happy with.
We promptly sold our Jayfinch and were excited at the prospect of using our new camper for one last time before winter. The camper trailer mob knew we wanted delivery in time for the scheduled weekend away for our mate's 40th. After numerous unanswered phone calls and emails the penny still did not drop and I foolishly listened to more excuses. From then on it was excuse after excuse.
I was starting to get annoyed but had paid a deposit so nothing I could do. I even did an ABN search of the business name which came back as another company but I stupidly thought it was a system error. When more calls were not returned I did a google search and it looked like the premises were closed up. I took comfort thinking the satellite was out of date. I even contacted the business across the road who said I wasn't the only person looking for these people. Luckily that afternoon I received a phone call from them and when I questioned this, I was given yet more (very believable) assurances.
Eventually, we got our camper. We took the morning off work and arranged to meet in a small town about half way between our destinations. Mind you, we were kept waiting for six hours. By the time they arrived in their absolute bomb of a car, we we given more excuses. My husband was furious at this stage and not as forgiving as I but I urged him to let it go.
Overall we are generally happy with our purchase except we'd paid for many extras not received and it is clear to see the camper had been used as more than a demo. We were advised some items would be posted and would be refunded for the items unable to be sent. despite numerous follow ups, guess what, no response!
Funnily now, Adventure Camper Trailers (not to be confused with Adventure Offroad Campers) are out of business and we have no way of getting the items we'd paid for. After stewing on it for a while I think that by sharing this story, it might make us feel better, but it's a shame our new camper has left such a bad taste in our mouths. Hopefully come camping season we'll create many happy memories to erase the crappy experience we've had.
A lesson learnt by us, dont buy anything sight unseen and trust your gut instincts!
