El Monte RV
reviews and complaints

We rented RV from El Monte in McKinney, TX in October 2021. Customer service was terrible! Good luck when something breaks on the RV. Our water pump broke, tried twice to get it fixed with no success. We were without water for 4 days (had RV for 13 days total), unable to wash hands, dishes or flush the toilet (!), and had two of our children with us. We were told "you could have used a water hose"...?!, unacceptable and RUDE! That's the whole point to rent an RV, for the convenience of your trip, so you don't have to pull over to the gas station if you or your child needs to use the bathroom, or you want to cook and wash dishes. Then only got a $165 discount. Also would NOT use their insurance as it has a $1K deductible. Caught a rock from a semi and there went $400. Also, they gave us at checkout a broken coax cable and leaking water hose. I would NEVER rent from them again and will tell everyone who wants to rent an RV to stay away from EL Monte RV rentals in McKinney.

We paid for 5 days, but were told we cannot pick up the vehicle til after 1pm on the first day because it would not be ready yet. We showed up at 3pm, and they were still replacing a tire, told us it would take another 20 mins, we waited another 2.5 hours. This was the first sign that they did not value our time.
After our long weekend, we were 3 hrs into our 4.5 hr drive home when 2 back tires blew. We were told about their roadside assistance at pickup, so initially we were not concerned, we assumed help would be on the way promptly.
The initial phone call they told us we would receive a text with an ETA soon. Our family had stopped to help, but since we were told someone would be on the way soon, they went home.

5:34 first outgoing call to roadside assistance - 5 mins
6:09 outgoing to roadside assistance- 7 mins
6:18 outgoing to roadside assistance - 6 mins
6:26 incoming from tire place asking for location - 8 mins
7:22 outgoing to roadside assistance - 7 secs
7:23 outgoing to roadside assistance - 2 mins
7:34 outgoing to tire company - 13 mins
7:48 outgoing to roadside assistance - 1hr 22 mins
8:33 Text message saying service was canceled
8:36 outgoing 3 way call to tire company while on hold, tire company was now closed - 36 mins
9:12 outgoing to roadside assistance - 6 mins
9:18 outgoing to roadside assistance - 58 secs
9:20 outgoing to roadside assistance - 19 mins
9:45 outgoing to roadside assistance - 1 min
9:48 outgoing to roadside assistance - 43 secs
9:48 FIRST CALL BACK FROM ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE! (4 hours later) Asked for mileage, told us to hide the keys, said to get everything & everyone out of the RV. They were going to tow it. With NO resolution on how we were going to be able to get home with 5 adults, 4 children and 3 dogs. Ending the conversation with "Have a good night." - 2 mins
10:16 incoming from tow truck company - 2 mins
10:18 outgoing panicked phone calls to friends & family til we found someone to help us

We were trapped in the middle of nowhere off US93. In the Nevada desert during summer, with monsoon storms all around us. Only 1 person having cell phone service. Vehicles driving passed us at 70mph + all night. We were all on edge.
It took us another few hours to get home. We had to call numerous people to find a way to get 12 of us home (INCLUDING CHILDREN AND DOGS), plus all of our gear. Sitting on the side of the highway in the pitch black of the night.
We arrived at home after 1:30am We were forced to throw away hundreds of dollars in food. Our relaxing camping vacation with family was ruined by the stride assistance.
We went to there in person as soon as they opened at 8am the next morning. They informed us that we could be held liable for the tires, and that they couldn't close out our account until they received notification from the dealership on fault, mileage and generator hours.
The staff there did not offer any compensation, no apologies. In fact.. One of the employees felt the need to point out that we had used cuss words twice… Not taking into account the pure frustration and lack of sleep we had been experiencing from this entire situation.
We left after being told we would be called by noon, so they could speak with the dealership first. When they did call all they had to say is that our security deposit would be deposited back into our acct, but made sure to mention that WE should have been held liable for the tires. They claimed they needed to wait to get the mileage & generator hours from the dealership, but we actually received a phone call from that dealership asking us where we had hidden the keys, 2 hours after they had called us with their "resolution". So clearly they were just buying time and wanted us to leave the premises.
They put my entire family at risk in so many ways. By sending us on our way with bald tires, having only fixed 1 of them. By leaving us stranded on the side of the highway for hours without any regard for any of our well being. The tire company had at least asked if we were safe, El Monte did not.
If they had just told us from the beginning that they couldn't offer us any help, we could have made arrangements to be home a lot sooner than we were. Instead they had no regard for our time or safety.
No other compensation. No apologies. Still paid full price for the trip. I think that is extremely unacceptable.
I will obviously never use them again, and will be sure that anyone I know will not use them either. I only hope my reviews will keep people informed so no other families are put at risk of a serious accident, or being stranded in the middle of nowhere, during a desert summer.

##Warning##
I rented an RV on the 25 of June 2018. It was my first time using an RV so everything wasn't unfamiliar. you first look outside the vehicle to see if there's any damage that wasn't caused by you. so I walked around and pointed out some scratches, nothing serious. on the 28 of June I returned the RV after I was using all of its facilities. when I returned the RV, the girl at the desk also took a look around the RV and signed that everything was the way the RV was received. they told me they released my deposit (1000$ when you take the RV). after a few days, I receive an e-mail from El Monte RV, saying I damaged the grey waste tank and that it was covered with duct tape. while I was traveling with the RV, I noticed the duct tape when I removed the waste, but never thought it was something irregular since it was my first time in an RV. and of course I would never put one myself. what would be my motivation - if I had an issue with the waste tank I would just call their support as they require, which is much more simpler to me than trying to fix something I know absolutely nothing about. so they took all the 1000$ for damage I did NOT do. I tried reaching out by mail 5 times and no one answered. I called repeatedly, and every time they pass me through to someone else and said the manager will get back to me. they ignore me completely and stole my money. no other way to put it. I highly recommend not to rent there. it completely ruined my honey moon. of course I plan to take legal action, but everyone also deserves to know.

I know this is late, but last year we rented from their LAS Vegas office, first of all they drove off before we got to the early pick up point, a service we had paid extra for, so we lost half a day there. Then the RV wasn't ready, so we wasted more time. Then 3 days into our 7 day trip, the sewage tank fell off the old RV that they had given us, in the middle of nowhere, I was then told I needed to drive it for 6 hours to salt lake city to get a replacement, because they don't deliver replacement vehicles. After a couple of hours of major negotiation they agreed to send us another RV, but we had to wait x2 days for it to be delivered and then it was almost 4 hours late when it finally arrived. The manager Alex, a german guy, agreed to refund x4 days for losing almost half of our holiday, we were promised numerous times, that the refund would be immediate and ###ted by the manager about how corporate would be calling us before we left the country to apologise and refund us, which they never did.

After we got back to the UK, I spent quite a lot of money on phone calls to Alex, who continued to promise me the refund of four days, my wife also called and he was extremely rude to her, refusing to talk to her as it wasn't booked under her name, even though he had and spoken to her several times. In the end we received 2 days refund about 2 weeks after we'd gotten back. Do not use this company, they are major cowboys, who just take your money and don't care about their customers!

Purchased a used RV from these people 3 months ago...have driven less than 2000 miles -- had a major engine failure. Their warranty states 12, 000 miles/1 year on the engine/drivetrain. Contacted them...they have NO intention of honoring the warranty...kept coming up with excuses and stating that a spark plug that blew a hole in the engine was not covered -- although NOTHING on the warranty document so states. Their Customer Service was extremely unprofessional...they don't live up to their promises...if you have a choice in purchasing a used RV, my advice is NEVER purchase from these people. Moreover, while on the road, we ran into folks who had rented from them and they were FULL of complaints about the unit they had rented. Their fridge had failed and they had lost $150 worth of food and El Monte (when contacted) had NOTHING to offer and no help to give these people.
Don't buy from them...don't rent from them...save yourself a LOT of hassle.

El Monte RV provide rentals and sales. They have a disgraceful General Manager who EXPECTS/DEMANDS quantity instead of quality from their already hard working employees. The RV's are NOT being sanitized properly because they are on a "budget", therefore their disinfectants and cleaners are all being diluted, thus not working as effectively as you would expect. If you happen to rent from this company, make sure you do a "quality control" with a microscope for your own health and peace of mind. Remember this very important saying..."you get what you pay for". I certainly hope that the executives at this place really take a step towards earning the satisfaction of their customers by doing something about this. If ANY of their employees are terminated or reprimanded because of this personal complaint, I will return to this website and submit another complaint informing any and all of this interested in this very important matter.