Misleading Info from Sellers

[Mike Hohnstein]

Glad to see you learned from the trip, I was in awe.

My first 'bird' trip was a lone traveler deal, sure am glad. The 'bird' was a hell pile, but the whole experience was very positive. Wouldn't have been if I had brought company.

MH

----- Original Message -----

From: "ryanpwright@gmail.com"

To: "WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com"

Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 12:32 AM

Subject: Re: [WanderlodgeForum] Misleading Info from Sellers

On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 1:00 PM, Pete Masterson <"aeonix1@mac.com"> wrote:
>
> Sounds like the real error was bringing along the wife and family.

I second that. Of course, had the seller not been a lying scumbag (I'm
being polite), Hoss's decision would have been fine.

I flew my wife, two kids and my dog all the way down to Texas for my
coach. Thankfully I was dealing with a reputable seller and the coach
was in excellent condition, exactly as described and we were all very
happy. It's a good thing, too: Imagine, for a moment, you get up at
five in the morning; spend several hours in the air, plus 13 hours
stuck in the Phoenix airport, with two children, a wife and a dog,
finally landing in DFW well after midnight. You call every hotel
imaginable and they're all full, since the tornado that delayed your
flight also delayed every other and now a whole barrage of aircraft
have landed at once and weary travelers have packed the hotels.

Finally, you find an available hotel but they don't allow pets. You
book the room anyway and sneak the dog in, since you don't exactly
have a choice in the matter. Oh, and the driver who takes you to the
hotel rips you off, $40 for a 15 minute ride. By the time you get
checked in, get the kids settled down, etc, it's 3 in the morning and
you're lucky to get 4 hours of sleep, then it's time to get up, find
some breakfast, and hook up with your ride.

Now imagine the coach is junk. Oh, and you spent $1,200 on one way
airfare. And your ride from the airport hotel was the guy selling the
coach and he's not taking you back to the airport after you argue with
him over the misrepresentation. So now you all get to figure a way
home.

Yeah, that's exactly my trip, except the "worst nightmare" last
paragraph didn't happen. The guy from Mr. Oliver's picked us up from
the hotel and everything was smooth as butter after that. We settled
into our new coach and finally were able to relax and enjoy the
experience and a huge thanks to Mr. Oliver's for their hospitality.
They turned the experience right around for us. I'll tell you what
though, the nightmare of that final paragraph was going through my
head non-stop from the time I made the offer until we saw the coach in
person. My wife was already just luke-warm on the whole idea to begin
with, and was ready to go home after the first couple of hours stuck
in Phoenix. If the last bit had come true she'd have never come along
on another - ever.

If I were to do this again, I'd definitely go down alone, then fly the
family down after I checked the coach out. Although all turned out
well, it could have been a disaster had we been dealing with someone
else. It also would have been infinitely easier to outfit the coach by
myself (we went to Costco and Kohls and a few other stores and loaded
up on bedding, towels, food, toiletries, etc for our two week journey
home). Also, the dog stays home next time, too. That was probably the
worst decision of the whole trip. It was hard on both him and us.

-Ryan
'86 PT-40 8V92