Bad Experiences with Discount Van Truck? Good ones?

[teeots]

I am having what I would call a bad customer experience with DISCOUNT VAN and TRUCK. I am wondering if anyone else has made purchases with them and what that experience was like.



They (purport to) sell a lot of items that would be useful to me as my build progresses, but without hearing some good stuff from others here, I would not go back for things like ...oh I dont know maybe Captains Chairs, Swivel Bases, Windows for my high top, and on and on.


I have only been waiting for six weeks and my sofa bed has yet to ship. When I ask about it, which has only been twice (once at the 3 week mark and once today just past the 6 week mark) I can not get any straight answers. I do get some peculiar little white lies regarding unimportant details which just makes me feel uneasy about them as a business.

Its a little late now, but these make me feel more than a little uneasy:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/rv-parts-ac ... -57ccw.htm

http://www.scamchecker.com/content/disc ... -truck.com

http://www.ripoffreport.com/car-parts-a ... -34eba.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/truck-deale ... -9472f.htm

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fusea ... page/2.cfm

I could go on posting these for a while.

[NRL]

Can't really say anything bad but I had a successful transaction with them.

I bought two custom made seats from them a couple years ago.
Granted their seat manufacturer was someone else (subcontractor) near them, I had a pleasant experience with them in picking out the material, waiting for as promised 1 week completion and also having them install it on my swivel base with their adapter kit. Again, it was their subcontractor that made them so not sure what the main store/off may be like. Payment was thru Discount Van however.

I love my custom softer then baby cow leather-like magellan seats.

[teeots]

Good to hear. Maybe my seats do exist.

My stuff is being made by the same company as yours was. Seatcraft is the "sister company". I WAS planning on buying the magellan seats as well, but I can't imagine putting myself through this again.

I just spoke with Dave who is the production supervisor and he was well composed on the phone and promised a ship date of tomorrow. I accepted his promise and made it clear that I will be doing a chargeback through my credit card company if I dont have honest-to-goodness tracking info tomorrow.

[WVvan]

Sorry to hear of your experience. I've used them once for a swivel base and had no complaints.

[Jeffrey]

Cancel the order today and move on.

[motorup25]

What I do in a case like yours is get to know who the manager (and better yet, the owner) of the company is. Each time you call, speak only with that person. Let the manager or owner know that
you are a consistent poster on many forums dealing with self conversions---and you really want to
be able to report that their company is top notch. By the way, did you pay already? Did they give you a shipping date? You'll eventually get past this, and when you do, remember a few things. These have helped me avoid problems in the past. Before you ever send a check or give your credit card number, first have the company send you a fax (signed by the manager, or better yet, the owner of the company--find out their names the first time you ever call a company you may be doing business with) listing the complete price for everything you will be getting. The fax must also have the list of materials they will be using and a sentence that all work will be done to the highest industry standards. It must also contain the date of shipping (or completion if you are dealing with your vehicle or home). Also, get the guarantee in this preliminary fax. And have it stated in writing as to how a failure of the product or workmanship will be handled, including shipping costs. These ideas were passed along to me and I have since avoided many headaches. I just got the top of my van painted and the manager wrote me out the estimate, which included all of the above except he didn't write in the five year guarantee. Fine, I just had him handwrite it in. And sign it. In this economy, there is no reason to expect less than the best. Companies are squeezed and they want your business. When I was younger a person's word meant more than it does today. That's why you need things in writing---BEFORE YOU PAY.

By the way, I did buy a seat swivel from this company. But I drove there in the van to see for sure if it would work. I measured the bolt patterns and they were a match. So I paid in cash. Pretty old school. Good luck with your project. I have my own going, but it's on hold for awhile because a good friend just bought a house and I'm helping him with a million things that need to be done. But as for the stuff we can't do, we're getting everything in writing before payment is made. Good luck again.

[teeots]

I hardly have the energy for this. I called DVT because DAVE, the manager who promised to call with a tracking number after he personally made sure that this item would ship today, didn't call. No surprise. When I called I was told that the order didn't have a tracking number. No surprise. Then LINDA called back at closing time and told me that they would have a tracking number later tonight but they would be closed. No surprise. She will call tomorrow with the tracking number. I will be really surprised.



Its easy for folks to say CANCEL THE ORDER TODAY AND MOVE ON when they don't have close to a thousand bucks paid out and six F'ING weeks waiting. a day or two at this point would be well worth the wait. Its called protecting your investment (referring to the investment of time).

PS- TO BE MORE CLEAR I am not posting this because I am a whiny crybaby with nothing better to do. I also was not looking for solutions here.

I am posting this for the benefit of other homebuilders who may consider using DVT for similar purchases.

I am posting this because making threats to a company like DVT who comfortably lie to their customers is ineffective. Cancelling the order by way of a chargeback is also a very minor price to pay for doing bad business. They fully deserve the negative feedback posted in a place that will be seen by potential customers. PERIOD

[jwolf11]

I spoke with Discount Van and Truck about getting blinds and other parts for a custom conversion I am doing on a Chevy Express. The guy I spoke with was not very helpful and told me that nobody was making blinds or window shrouds to fit Chevy Express vans anymore. This proved to me that Discount is not very knowledgeable or up-to-speed on the conversion van market since there are two major conversion van companies who do many Chevy and GMC conversions, complete with custom blinds.

I went on to do some of my own research and found that after-market conversion parts can be gotten from both Explorer Vans and Sherrod Conversion Vans. I went with Sherrod because the price they quoted me for a full set of blinds was less than half of the cost of getting them from Explorer. Sherrod mistakenly sent me two broken blinds with my order and were very quick to fix the issue after I called. They are also working with me to order two custom blinds from their supplier because my side window shrouds are shaped differently than the ones that go in their conversions. If you have to drop the deal with Discount, you might try Sherrod as they also do work on Ford vans.

[bettyford]

Thank you for post your problem with DVT

I am still waiting for my swivel base its only been 2 weeks so i guess I will see what happens.

Thanks again

Ron

[teeots]

Thanks for the info on Sherrod and Explorer. I will be checking them out either way.

I received a tracking number late friday night from a freight company.

I had to press in order to get some action. I will hope for the best.