Lazydays Tampa - RV-Dreams Community Forum

French Bikers · RV-Dreams Family Member

Lazydays Tampa

cejones4210 · RV-Dreams Family Member

We bought our 2001 Airstream from them, used in 2005. The service was wonderful, thorough, timely and reasonable. In fact, they replaced some items on the AS, and didn't charge us a penny, even though it was a used RV, they took in on trade. I would buy from them again.

Also, our friends bought their class A from them and had an excellent experience with the sale team and the service team when it had some issues a few months later.

Alie and Jims Carrilite · RV-Dreams Family Member

And don't forget the TV show that is doing nothing but advertising for them.

Hdrider · RV-Dreams Family Member

We bought our current RV from them. They ARE very large and seem to have plenty of salesman to go around but from what we experienced, once the sale is over the salesman is done with you (But that's ok). They also have tons of service bays but in my mind they are overwhelmed and it is not ran in a orderly manner. We stayed there way to long buying our coach and heard and witnessed many many war stories.
They are not known for being the best priced but I assure you that they can be worked like any other dealer and we actually got the best price from them after shopping 3 or so oher dealers on the exact same coach.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

I am surprised that Dave and Diane got the best price from them, but they do sell alot of Tiffins. They did not sell Newmar when we were buying, anyway.

Lazydays is known as the place to get the best payment price, not purchase price. Remember with sales you can go for payment price, purchase price and if applicable, trade in price. Once they find which of these two or three prices is important to the buyer, they can manipulate the others to make the buyer happy and still make money. Lazydays found financing deals for multiple buyers we know, who could not find such deals on their own. They also dress up their deals with exclusive clubs and free meals, making their buyers feel important and special.

Lazydays does not have a good service department reputation. Lots of horror/war stories.

French Bikers · RV-Dreams Family Member

Well so far it seems that my gut feeling was right about this dealership. In fact we spoke with a saleswoman, I asked for two brand and models, she took us on a golf cart ride for 45 minutes on their 100 acres site. She talked a lot about their VIP Club and what you get when you are part of that group. After 45 min of turning around she was unable to find the two RV but she knew by hearth her sales speech about the VIP Club. When we left I told my wife this place is not for me I don't think I would be able to be treated has a client unless I joined their VIP Club and purchase a $700.000 RV. I don't need free food or free water I just want an RV and be treated like a client even if I purchase an RV around $200.000 cash. Well like Arnold Schwarzenegger said in one of his movie " Lazy Days You've been Erase¨

Hdrider · RV-Dreams Family Member

LOL!!! They think very highly of the Crown Club. And it was a treat at first but it certainly is NOT a reason to buy from them. For the record you don't need to buy a $700K rig to get the Crown Club thing. Instead of the year they normally give they gave us 5 years because if the troubles we went through. To be honest I'm not sure we will use it again even though we have 5 years LOL!!
And I think the grand tour is part of what they have to do in an attempt to impress you. I know we were taken through the service center right from the start.

Rob_Fla · RV-Dreams Family Member

We recently bought our Redwood 5th Wheel from Lazy Days.

I always swore I would never purchase from such a Mega Dealership, but I held my ground and they beat all other dealers quotes / packages.

We did not finance or get any insurance with them so payments never came into the discussion but we did trade in our old 5th Wheel with them so all I was looking at was the difference in dollars between the two.

I really did not care how they got there, inflate this number, discount that number, I told all the dealers we were quoting with, the bottom line was the cash difference would be between our trade and the new unit, to my surprise Lazy Days had the best bottom line $$.

PDI and Delivery went well, no complaints.

Do not know about service yet, guess we will see.

Thequiltqueen · RV-Dreams Community Member

We bought our 2014 Thor Tuscany from them in July. It has spent more time being repaired than being used for trips, and with mixed results from Lazy Days' service department.

Our sales lady was very friendly BUT, I feel we were rushed to close the deal on a coach that they knew wasn't road ready. What I mean is, after we chose our unit on a Sunday she asked when we would like to take it home. We told her we would like to pick it up the next Saturday. On Tuesday, she called us with "wonderful news". Our coach was to be ready the next day. Now nobody held a gun to my head and forced me to pick it up, but I did feel pressured to complete the sale. Once the papers were signed, SO, SO many problems came to light. Like water pouring in at the front windshield. That problem took 3 visits to the service department before a true fix was achieved. The main TV had been replaced with a smaller inferior one. It did not even fit on the bracket, but they acted like it was the one that was supposed to be in the coach. Luckily we had the literature that proved a switch had been made. The front window shade had been removed and bare electrical wires were sticking out of the wall where the shade should have been attached. How was this missed when we were told our coach was ready earlier than expected?

We had repeated electrical issues that completely drained the coach batteries in less than a day while we were connected to shore power. That one took 3 tries to fix as well.

3 weeks ago our speedometer stopped working on the way home from a weekend trip. I called for an appointment and could not get in until yesterday. When I talked to the service advisor yesterday he said there were 70 coaches ahead of me that hadn't even been looked at yet. 70????? Seriously? What was the point of me making an appointment and waiting 3 weeks if there were still 70 people ahead of me?

On the other side of the coin, while we were in the Lazy Days Campground during our "working out the kinks phase" our awning would not retract and a pretty bad wind storm was moving in. Unfortunately it was 4:55pm on a Saturday. Mother Nature does not punch a time clock, but the service guys do. Within 10 minutes we had 4 guys at our site manually retracting the awning so it would not get damaged. I found out later that they had already clocked out but came over to help anyway. That is pretty remarkable.

I am not going to outline every problem we have had with our MH. The original question was what did I think of them as a dealership?

I think the sales woman needed her commission before Saturday and pushed through a not-ready coach. I think they act like they are the only game in town and can treat customers however they want and we will accept it. I think there is going to be a big change here soon because General RV is opening up a new location 5 miles from Lazy Days this fall! (and only 5 miles from My house!)

kb0zke · RV-Dreams Family Member

Deanna and Mike, I suspect that the sales person you encountered is more typical than we would like. I've run into a few of those at various times and places, not just in the RV world. I generally don't give such a person a second chance. I just walk away and go elsewhere. Last summer, after a particularly bad experience at a car dealership, I wrote a letter to the president of the company (actually a group of dealerships) saying that I had a list of all of their dealerships and that I would not be buying anything from any of them - ever. They didn't care because they have plenty of other customers, but, after all, it is my money and I ought to be able to spend it as I wish. Over the rest of my car-buying lifetime I may spend a couple of thousand dollars more by not buying from that group, but I don't care. I don't care to be treated the way I was and there are other car dealerships.

I just looked up General RV, and it does look like things could get "interesting" in that part of the country.