Dedicated to Doug and Brian at Lance Camper who wouldn't know how to provide Customer Service if their lives depended on it. - November 2006

Disclaimers:
1. If you're a proud Lance owner, in love with your camper, and not the least bit unhappy with it - stop reading right here. Enjoy your camper and be happy.
2. I am not trying to change anyone's opinion about Lance or any other camper. I am merely stating my opinion based on my experiences.
3. If you continue reading and disagree with my opinion, fine. If you decide to send me an email, go for it. You'll find the link as you continue.
4. If you send me an email full of foul and hateful gibberish, I may or not post it here along with your email address as well as forward it to your ISP/email provider.
5. I may or may not respond to any emails. It may take me a day or it may take me a month. Depends. I work for a living and don't check the email for this site every day. Please don't get upset and send me more hate-mail for not responding within the hour (see item 4.)
6. Any and all letters sent to this site become the property of the website owner. I reserve the right to publish (post) or not publish (post) letters sent to me. In this context, "letter(s)" includes but is not limited to emails, text messages, snail mail, etc. I also reserve the right to edit any letter sent to me prior to posting.
7. Some have asked me lately, "When will you take this site down? You're hurting Lance owners and sellers." Answer: "As soon as the inventor of the internet (former VP Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.) decides to un-invent it." Hey, it's a free country and just because it may not suit your needs, it is still MY opinion. You're free to create and host your own Lance-lover site, more power to you. Fair enough?
8. By sending me an email, letter, text message (see item 6 above for details) you agree to and give me permission to edit and publish (post) your letter!

(If you're interested click here to see a couple of pictures of the Lance I used to own. A new window will open.)
Updates added Apr 26, 2012 - click the "Other Owners'" link at the bottom of this page.

On with it:

This is the story of a fool (me) who parted with his money in October 2004 and bought an inferior product made by a company whose entire belief in customer service consists of the phrase "Well, it wasn't MADE by us only ASSEMBLED into our finished product by us. The vendor is the one who should back up any warranty of the (insert any component name of a Lance Camper here)."

When asked why any car manufacturer will stand behind its product, whether they built the window lift motor themselves or purchased it in New Zealand, Doug's (Lance Customer "Service" Rep.) best reply was "That's an entirely different product backed up by the manufacturer." Huh?! What did I miss here? That's all I'm asking, the manufacturer (Lance) standing behind their product. They stand behind it all right - WAY behind it, hiding behind dozens of suppliers.

I finally told him (Doug) how I feel about their (Lance) product; he didn't even try to convince me otherwise or started listing reasons why Lance Campers are better than the competition. His first and only reply to my criticism was "Have you looked at the other builders and how bad THEY are?" Yes, Doug, I have. And like I told you on the phone already: If Lance is the best camper on the market it is a sad day for any camping enthusiast who ends up owning these pieces! And it tells me a lot if the best defense for your company product you can come up with is telling me how much worse "the others" are! Let me repeat this: Doug-Lance couldn't tell me any reason why Lance is better - only how much worse others are. Think about it for a moment.

It all started two weeks after taking my camper home, Halloween 2004, all proud and giddy like the idiot I am. The wife and I took it out to Calico Ghost Town in California and sure enough the fridge decided to quit about ten minutes after setting up. The error code told us that we needed to take it in to a service center.

Okay, easy enough - or so I thought. Well, we called Lance the following Monday and had the distinct "pleasure" of speaking with Brian (those of you who have shared this pleasure, know the reason for the quotation marks) who must be driving an 18-wheeler with a 50-foot dry-van. It is the ONLY way his ego would fit into any vehicle. Anyhow, after being subjected to one of the most ignorant (see "ignorant" definition here), yet unbelievably arrogant customer "service" reps imaginable, from the beginning it was made clear to us by Brian that this is not a Lance Camper problem, but a vendor problem and as such has to addressed through the vendor and not Lance. Brain finally in his greatness was willing to reveal the vendor customer service contact.

After pulling some serious teeth with the vendor (never mind the brand, but you all know there aren't many RV fridge builders out there) we were permitted to take in the brand-new Lance to a local service center, which then reset the error code. Interesting enough though, the vendor first wanted to give us the bum's rush back to Lance at first!

Following were other issues, most minor but irritating. One not so minor is the holding tank issue, which was never resolved. The 6 gallon gray tank is full after the first night of camping, brushing teeth and washing hands only. We don't run the tap: get wet, soap, rinse for fear the tank will overfill again. It is my belief that an obstruction is in the tank, taking up volume but without taking the holding tank apart, it can't be confirmed. I will not disassemble any holding tank, gray or black!

Then the door window started to leak after every little drizzle. When we finally took it apart to see why it leaks it was so obvious it was almost laughable: the acrylic sheet was simply placed on top of a molded plastic frame! Period. If you have ever looked a these frames, they are bumpy and uneven since nobody at Lance took the two seconds to trim the burrs and rough edges prior to assembly. Not even five-cents worth of caulking around it. No wonder it leaked. I remember looking at my wife saying, "I wonder what else will leak because Lance was too cheap to do it right." Sure enough, there were more leaks to come. Read on.

Now, what has really gotten under my skin and is the reason for this web page is the last conversation with Doug at Lance today. This incredible collection of bolts and plastic parts is leaking more than a colander. While the conversation with Doug started out nice enough, it went south after he couldn't stand my outspoken criticism of his employer's product. His response to my complaint of a fridge that won't stay lit unless the unit is perfectly (if it's tilted more then one inch front to rear, the fridge will shut off!) level and no wind to disturb the light: "Would you expect your house heater to stay lit if was all windy and stormy outside?" Heck, Doug, like I told you already: You bet I do! What, if it is windy outside I am supposed to accept that my heater doesn't stay lit like your Lance fridge? Pardon, like your Lance-procured-from-an-outside-vendor fridge?

Back to my leaky Lance. After describing the location and nature of leak we both agreed that roof seals and seams are separating and thus leaking. I can still hear that smug voice when Doug informed me "if you had read the manual you would know that you're supposed to reseal the roof every six months." Excuse me, Lance-Doug, what about the 12-year roof warranty? Seems I didn't read far enough into the disclaimers that this is only for the structural integrity and does not cover the seams, seals, or any sort of water damage. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the structural integrity weren't compromised there wouldn't BE any water damage in the first place! But as Lance-Doug was very quick to point out: "Since your camper is just outside the two-year warranty, we would have to bring the unit to a Lance dealer, take photos, determine the cause and extent of damages, and send a letter to company management to see if they would provide any sort of relief in this case."

So Doug, what are the odds of Lance providing any sort of relief with my camper three weeks past the two-year period? "To be honest, I don't see why Lance would pay for this, considering you didn't re-seal the roof every six months as we told you in the manual." At this point the conversation dried up really fast and came to a sudden end after Doug, the Customer "Service" rep told me with a mocking chuckle that he could see why I would have had problems with Brian (see earlier reference) in the past.



That's all fine now. I have accepted the fact that I have made a bad decision purchasing a Lance Camper. I am firm in my opinion about their shoddy product, sloppy workmanship, and no intentions of ever backing up their shoddy product, even if it's still within the warranty period. I am also convinced that I am not the only Lance victim, excuse me, owner who regrets buying this piece every time I set eyes on it. If this one page of my groaning and moaning can save one person from having the same experiences I have had with Lance it will be worth the registration and hosting fee.

Now, remember: this is a free country. This is my honest and never humble opinion of Lance Camper. For those of you who disagree and decide to send me nasty hate-mails, go for it. I will cheerfully and outright ignore you. Don't expect any response to any flame-mails. But if your hate-mails are riddled with misspelled words and really bad grammar: you bet I will post them here! Just for chuckles. Also, the troll sensor is on high, for all you trolls out there.

If you have similar stories or photos you would like to share, email them to this address and I might post them occasionally. But please don't get upset if I don't respond within two hours of your email and please, please don't try to email me a 5 MB photo ... 8-|


P.S. --- As a final note: even the dealer where I had purchased my Lance Camper was aware of the Brian-issue and had petitioned Lance numerous times to please remove Brian from handling any Customer Service calls. Too many of his customers had been on the receiving end of this Numbskull.

And whatever you do, don't ever expect any sort of reply when emailing to Lance Camper. I've tried several times over the past 18 months and have yet to receive any sort of reply. It's simply not going to happen. You'll stand a better chance of them honoring a warranty claim - and that's not going to happen, either.

April 2008: It's been a while since I've updated this page. I have received so many horror stories of other Lance victims and finally got energetic enough to post a select few (see link at bottom).

As for my Lance: I sold the piece. Yup, it was a happy day for us when we saw it disappear down the road. What was the lesson learned? "Don't buy a Lance (or any other RV). If you really feel the urge to go camping but don't want to sleep in a tent: RENT one (an RV) and leave the headaches and warranty hassles to somebody else. No payments, no storage, no maintenance cost!"

Oh, I almost forgot: Lance was kind enough and totally went overboard in their commitment to customer disservice and shipped me a brand-new and unopened cartridge of roof caulk! Imagine that! The roof of their quality product leaks because in their cheapness they use half-inch long wood screws to hold down the nose trim so it pulls up under its own tension only to leave holes where the water then penetrates the roof (all within the first year of ownership!) And Lance considers it adequate to ship a tube of caulking. Actually, they couldn't even do THAT. Lance had the selling dealer ship it. I guess Lance is too ashamed of their product to even do that. But then again, my experiences above and the ones of the other owners (next page) pretty much clarify this thought.
Updates added Apr 26, 2012 - click the "Other Owners'" link below.

[Other Owners' Experiences]

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