The wife and I had originally gone to Barrington Motor Sales RV in Bartlett, IL to purchase an RV. We found the salesperson deceitful and as you exited one RV to look at another he would cut down the previous RV and talk highly about the one you just walked into. He didn’t seem to care if you liked the one you just walked out of. He knew very little about the actual RV itself and seemed to make things up as he went along. Including this fact that ALL RV floors warp and discolor around the toilet. I had only seen this warping in the RV he was trying very hard to talk us into even after I told him I didn’t like it.
So, we decided to go elsewhere to purchase our RV, 138 miles away in fact. I can recommend Abel RV right across the street but they just didn’t have anything we were interested in. They were helpful, they returned calls and our salesman even went out of his way to call me on his day off to give me an update. When we are in the market again we will be looking at Abel very closely as they worked hard for our business.
Getting back to Barrington RV, when we bought our RV we called Abel and found they didn’t have 24x7 access so that rules out storage in their lot so we went over to Barrington figuring that this was storage, how could they screw that up right? 24x7 access and a person who is there to provide security and they have security cameras. So I dropped off our RV on 8/1/10 and took pictures of it just like I did at the campground, not to document anything except our first storage place, we thought it was kind of cool. Little did I know that these pictures would come in handy just 5 days later, or at least they should have come in handy, if Barrington RV had honest owners.
I go there on 8/6/10 to pick the RV up for the weekend and was shocked to see that the entire front end was speckled from rocks and mud, there was mud caked in the wiper blades and the windshield had new nicks and a few chips in it now. Unfortunately during the that week there was two large storms so much of the junk had been rinsed off of the RV, but enough remained to tell the tale. As I was standing there with my jaw on the ground Bryan comes over in his golf cart to “see how its going” and I mention that the entire front of the coach is chipped now. I show this to him and he tells me there is no way it could happen there. I responded look at it, this wasn’t like this when I dropped it off, he told me he knew somebody that could “air brush it”. I told him there is no way this can be air brushed. Then he drove away. Leaving me standing there like an idiot.
Anyway, long story short I emailed him pictures of the before pictures and the after and his response was to find a different storage lot, this is just storage after all and he can’t be responsible for every nick in the paint on my coach. I responded I am not holding him responsible for every nick, just say it was possible it happened there, my insurance is covering the damage and we have not asked them to. Lesson learned I will never do business with Barrington RV and I’m writing this so others can avoid them if possible as well.
In fact Bryan recommended I head over to Abel RV across the street from Barrington RV, I whole heartedly agree!
End of rant, I will be storing the RV at a new location going forward after I get it back from getting the front repainted and the windshields replaced.
UPDATE 10/13/10: Just found out that a Beaver model RV was damaged at Barrington RV as well, what was the ownerships response? DIDN'T HAPPEN HERE!!!! I'm going to contact the owner of the RV and see if I can get his story so I can post it as well, if I can get pictures that will be even better! UPDATE 12/1/10 - I was unable to locate the owner of the Beaver RV, but have now heard more stories of Barrington RV, unreal.
UPDATE: 2/2/11, we finally have the RV back in storage after having the windshields re-installed AGAIN, the front end re-painted AGAIN and the coach had Seal Tech done to discover the leaks and have them repaired, our dealer "Shabbona Creek RV" had installed the windshields wrong, painted the front of the coach wrong and never fixed the leaks they promised to fix, they didn't even bother checking for the leaks, then they ignored a work order to replace the engine belt that was cracking because the "owner" didn't hear any noise, is he a mechanic? No, did the belt have to be replaced, yes, by a qualified mechanic from a different shop, one that actually looks into a problem and repairs it, as requested.
If it seems like we have had bad luck with RV dealerships, it's because we have, unfortunately most of them are worse than used car lots. :(
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Why you shouldn't shop or store at Barrington Motor Sales RV in Bartlett, IL.
on 7/31/2010, only blemish is dead bugs
on 8/06/2010, speckled with rock chips, camera doesn't do it justice. Multiply what you see by a lot, the chips are everywhere.
The wiper arms were just painted, these chips are fresh
The gravel parking lot after the rains washed away all tracks, stay away from this crooked dealer!!
7/31/10, no chips
