Fife RV Center Price padding & over charging for add ons to the sale--Empty promises & no help after the sale. Fife Washington

       If I could rate them a “ZERO”, I would! I bought a nice used travel trailer from Fife RV Center in Fife. I should have listened to my instincts though. The salesmen who were not working any deals with customers were loudly visiting with each other in the sales center office and dropping "F-Bombs" constantly. I told my salesman that their offensive language bothered me and it was inappropriate. He got up and said something to one of them. They quieted down, but the foul mouths continued. I should have walked at that point, but the used trailer was just what I was looking for and at first the price was fair.

     Then came the add-ons, the promises that turned out to be empty, that all the normal things like owners manuals, awning pull handle, combination to the installed safe, etc. would be with the trailer when I picked it up. They brought me a paper that had a higher figure on it than the price of the trailer, which I specifically questioned. I asked if this was the price including tax, etc. which would explain the difference. The salesman said yes, I made a note on the paper that I was OK with the price if it included all that, and off we went to the finance department. There I was informed that the higher price was actually because they charge a $2500 pre delivery inspection on top of the price. This on a trailer that looked and smelled like new. I thought it was excessive, but continued anyway with assurances that they had to spend a lot of time thoroughly checking everything on the trailer, stem to stern, top to bottom, and then they would spend a couple of hours with me making sure I understood how to operate everything, etc.

      We finished up, and then learned it would be days before we could actually pick it up, and the trailer would have to go to Gig Harbor to their service center. They would bring it back or I could travel to Gig Harbor and pick it up. The lapse in time gave me time to more thoroughly investigate their add-on prices. I learned that most places only charge $300-500 for a pre-delivery fee, not $2500. I called them out on that and they dropped $1000 off the price. After lots of arguing, I finally got them to remove the fee completely. They then only checked what they had to by law, the gas pressure test and a quick safety check, I guess.

     Later I found I was overcharged for the extended warranty by an average of $1200 over what other companies would have charged, for the same coverage from the same insurance company even! And, I was overcharged by an average of $400 for the GAP insurance coverage on the loan. Stupid me, for not totally doing my research prior to the deal, but perhaps the good out of this is that others will learn and benefit from my mistakes.

     In the end, I still have a nice trailer that will serve me well, I am sure. But, even after I tracked down the previous owner and found they had left all of the stuff with the trailer, and after spending almost 2 months now trying to get what was promised to me after the sale, like the remote so I could operate the built in DVD surround sound system, which is somehow missing and no longer available, and which was a major selling point because I travel with grand children all the time, I can say unequivocally, that FIFE RV CENTER , based on my experiences, and in my opinion, will tell you anything you want to hear to make the sale, make you promises they have no intention of keeping, overcharge you for anything they can to make a profit, and they will ignore you after the sale. 

     I like my trailer. It took me a while to find exactly what I was looking for, but I sure wish I could have found the same thing at a different dealer. Now I have to go and have a new DVD system installed because it is totally inoperable, and quite evident that FIFE RV CENTER could care less about making this right. This is going to cost me several hundreed dollars to do, but I think I will take it to my local car audio guy in Lacey, where the service I have recieved is always top drawer.