Camper World Trust review: Scam 6

My husband and I responded to an offer we received from Camper World after we bought our trailer. "Once in a life time opportunity! These memberships don't open up to the public very often! We only have a couple available! Hurry now!" When we went to the meeting we were told that we could bring family, friends and pets with no problems. We can even let them use our membership without us there! We were told our maintenance fee would be $295.00 per year for exclusive access to 9 campgrounds here in Utah and that fee would never go up.

Since then...We found out that there are many restrictions making it almost impossible for us to enjoy our membership. They make it impossible to bring family. Not only can you not have guests with you on holidays, but they also demanded to see birth certificates (at every park) to prove they were our kids or our parents. That is such BS. We listed our family on our membership papers when we signed up. They never mentioned that we would have to pay a $100.00 pet deposit, for each pet either. They said our family and friends could bring pets. Then when they tried we were told it wasn't allowed. Not to mention that the camp ground hosts are rude as hell and constantly harass you while your there! Every park we've been to, (except Starvation Res) they've treated us with nothing more than disrespect. I guess they don't realize where their paychecks really come from? One interesting note: YOU are required to keep your pets on leashes and with you at all times. But the camp gound hosts are allowed to let their pets roam all over the place. Even into your camp site!

Last year they jacked up our maintenance fee from $295.00 to $400.00! Then they also charged all their members a $600.00 Assessment fee! We specifically asked them about "extra charges" before we signed up. They said there will never be any! So whats this "Assessment" then? And if we didn't pay it, they wouldn't allow us to use our membership nor would they allow you to sell your membership. They claimed that because of the economy it was necessary for them to charge this assessment to all their members in order for them to pay off all of their properties and be debt free! Well that's great for them because they put a lot of their members in financial hardship for their own personal gain. They didn't care about the impact this would have on their members. I wonder what they will hit us with next year? We even tried to sell our membership back to them or even someone else, but they wouldn't allow it.

Now today... we get a letter in the mail stating that we have to register our dog with them on an annual basis AND we have to have submit annual vaccination records AND a liability insurance policy! AND we have to present our "Camper World Dog Card" every time we go to the park or our dog won't be allowed in the park. I'm a good pet owner. My dog is registered with a chip, she is vaccinated. She's only 3 lbs and I'll be damned if I'm going to run out a pay for a liability insurance policy on her. Camper World is only interested in getting you locked into a $7, 000.00 contract that you have no way out of. They will lie and deceive you to get you to sign and then you will find out that in the end... you got screwed because they make it impossible for you to use your membership. Buyer Beware!

I found this posting on the interent a few days ago. Seems that Camper World has a history of charging these "assessment" fee's.

Just a note for what it's worth. We were new to RV camping and parks etc. We got an invitation to Camperworld presentation when we purchased our little travel trailer. I don't remember what the circumstances were but we couldn't attend the presentation. So, the salesman came right to our house, amazing. So, We probably unwisely, at the time, purchased a Camperworld full membership in about 2001 for about $3000. This gave us access to the 6 parks at the time. Our annual fee was $350.00. The next year the annual fee went up to $466.00. We were really upset about this and wrote Camperworld about our objection to the 25% increase. We didn't say there shouldn't be one, but another $116.00 annually seemed quite a bit to us. Still raising a family, mortgage, etc. And not enough time to really enjoy what we were paying for (our miscalculation). They sent back information on how we could sell our membership, with their approval. Still had to pay the annual fee until it sold or the buyer would have to pay the back payments. Then the next year we were assessed $1600.00. If we payed the assessment our annual fee of $466.00 would be locked in, never raised and no more assessments. Which ment to us that if we didn't pay they could raise our annual fee as often as they wanted to what ever they wanted. So, with reservations, we payed the assessment $1600.00, on top of the annual $466.00 fee. It cost us $2066.00 to camp that year, which we were able to do about 8 days of. It seemed almost like extortion. We even talked to a lawyer we were so surprised and angry. Now we received a notice that Camperworld is leasing a KOA South of SLC. I under stand this is a very nice place. They want $99.00 registration fee to register to use that park. Call it what they want it still sounds like an assessment to us, just called by a different name. Again we are angry. When Camperworld bought the old Belmont Hot Springs up near Tremonton they didn't charge a registration fee to use the new park. I thought our $1600.00 assesment covered any further surcharges, fees, assessments, registrations whatever you want to call them. Maybe we'll talk to the lawyer again, maybe we just won't pay the $99.00 and not use that campground. There may be assessments and registration fees in your future that you may not be aware of. We'd like to know if there are other Camperworld members who feel kind of "taken advantage of" and have a similar experience. Surely we aren't the only ones who are miffed. I talked to a friend of mine who's father had bought a membership years ago. She said he was really mad about the increase and assessment. With the money we've spent we could camp in several other public or commercial grounds and be financially ahead. With our initial $3, 000.00 + 4 years annual fees, and $1600.00 assessment we've paid over $6000.00 for 4 to 4 1/2 years Camperworld membership, jsut to camp. Even at $50.00 a night, that's 120 days of camping over a 4 year periond. That's about 30 days a year for the last 4 years. I don't know to many people that can do that. We could have camped at state or federal campgrounds or KOA or whatever for less that $50.00 a day for 120 days. The Coast to Coast fee is about $150.00 annually. But you still have to pay a fee to stay at the affiliated campground.