The Money Pit

[Tabitha]

Thank you. We are giving him 2 weeks to respond to the "Letter of Demand" we sent and if he does not refund us the $350 then we will be moving forward to contact the authorities here. It is not right what he did. I did create a video and post it to youtube, I'm also going to share it on my website, facebook, twitter, linkedin, pinterest, and instagram. In today's society social media is a blessing and curse, I hope it reaches others so they do not purchase a trailer from him.

http://youtu.be/iFD8JW4SLCE

This is the link to the video.

[S. Heisley]

Tabitha, sorry for your troubles. These types of problems shouldn't happen to anybody. I tried to view your video but couldn't see it.
The video is marked private, which means nobody is going to be able to view it except you, unless the settings are changed somehow.

[Tabitha]

Yea I caught that and it's fixed now.

[S. Heisley]

Wow! It looks fixable but I think the guy bit off more than he could chew. Custom builds are not the same as what he usually does. He may have been trained for the day-to-day trailers that he builds but may not have the smarts to think "out of the box" and do custom. Also, unless he can supply the parts that you gave him that he didn't use, I suspect somebody was pilfering your upgrades. At least you didn't "loose" that beautiful sink! That ceiling looks to be a mess; but, the fact that it is already starting to fall down means that it should be easy to remove and replace. However, before you do very much on it, I think I would take it somewhere and get the chassis inspected, in case there are other problems that an untrained eye might miss.

[Tabitha]

Thanks, yea I know it's fixable it's a teardrop. The trailer we purchased it was a Harbor Freight trailer, good point though cause man I do not trust a thing this man did. oh I know I could add a lot of photos here because of the size but I did upload them to my pinterest.

http://www.pinterest.com/tabithajeen/cr ... p-trailer/

Oh he hid my review I gave him on Yelp and had a buddy give a good review... what a snake. I uploaded some photos there too and shared the video link to the Little Yellow Teardrop Blog he did an interview with. I don't want him to swindle anyone else, he is dishonest and praying on good people.

Oh tell me about it I was nervous for my sink, tongue box, and vintage coleman stove. We did get them all back thankfully but I am sure he used some of our missing light like he did our galley flooring on other builds. If I wouldn't have called him out on my glue I'm sure he wouldn't have used it and would have probably sold it off to a marine shop around town.

I loved finding that sink, it is an antique Chinese wash basin and I couldn't pass that up, the best part of that I found it for $24! Score me!

[vwool]

Tabitha,

First of all I am sorry your trailer didn't come out the way you expected. I put a down payment two days before you posted your review. When I read it my stomach went to knots.

I want to clear something up though that isn't true. You say his buddy wrote a review on Yelp and yours was hidden. I am the person that wrote the review, and I am not friends with John. I wrote the review based on my experience thus far. I even wrote that I would update it once I got my trailer. Yours was hidden by yelp, my guess is because you only have one yelp review. There is a video on yelp on why some reviews are hidden. I would watch that for more of an explanation.

I have expressed my concerns to John about your review and how it makes me feel. So far though my experience has been great and I can only base it on that.

I do like the changes you have made on your own.

[Tabitha]

Thank you for posting. John has not been forthcoming and when I wrote my review on that site and others he tried to remove them so when I went on to post a link on my way out of the office I did jump the gun. The photos are the same ones on his facebook page so I did assume they were from him, I'm sorry I mistook you as a planted buddy.

I'm not sure if you have seen the video and correspondence with him but it is only part I can assure you. I have to do the videos in parts because there are so many issues and this one was almost 18 minutes long. I welcome you to come up and see the trailer in person we have been very honest and have nothing to hide. Tonight we had to go get a tarp and shop towels because now not only is the galley still leaking but the whole cabin is now too. The bed is soaked and the glue he used inside (not our marine glue) liquified and ruined one of the pillows I made. I can assure you I am not making this up or blowing thing out of proportion in the beginning we loved his work we saw and he was very personable but that all changed and lie built on lie from him. We have asked him to just refund for the items he did not include and he has said he sent it and the bracket but we (almost two weeks now) nothing.

My every intention was to help him build his business and even did graphic work for him and I was going to do photography work without charge for him too but I could not even send someone I didn't like to him. He is untrustworthy, dishonest, and his work quality is substandard. We had 8 people that were waiting to see our build including my father-in-law to start a build with him, they have seen our trailer and they want us to bring a lawsuit against him.

I think he got in over his head used our money to build other trailers that haven't sold like he hoped and then when it came to ours he used whatever he had on hand. He's probably using our final payment to build yours. I wanted to cry seeing he made the D doors on yours because he told us that he didn't make those anymore because he couldn't get them to seal. He cut the rectangle doors for ours and didn't even ask us. Oh yeah and our windows are leaking but then he told us that he has these doors custom made by someone else. Everything is always someone elses fault, he blamed his brother a lot on our build.

I sent a formal letter of demand written by an attorney and have yet to get a response. I sent it via email and I snail mailed a hard copy. We are done fooling around with him and I urge you to get a refund and go with a reputable builder that is licensed, bonded, and a professional. The money you think you are saving you are not, we have spent more now than if we had purchased one full boat off an RV lot.

You know when you have worked with inmates for over 22 years and then get taken it's a real blow.

[wavebreaker]

All i can say is WOW.. how someone could actually think that build is acceptable to sell to some one.

Hats off to you for trying to keep a positive attitude thru this bad experience. I am sure with the people and resources here you will have what you want in the end.

Good Luck with it all.

[Tabitha]

I've been working hard on rebuilding the trailer. Gage has been wonderful and encouraging... THANK YOU. After we met with him over the trailer I started to go to work and we took it back to the bones and skin. What a mess! I've uploaded some new photos to my album and started a blog.

http://crybabyteardrop.blogspot.com/201 ... iling.html

We had a blast at our first teardrop gathering, met lots of great folks, and came home with some great ideas. We only had the wiring and insulation done when we went but it was fun. That's when I decided to splurge and get a fan upgrade for our vent. It went in very easy, I've been enjoying working on it every weekend and hate Mondays when I have to call it quits until Saturday. It's coming along and we hope to have it finished by the next gathering.

[Shadow Catcher]

We had a very negative experience with Compass Rose but the bones were good and construction done well and mostly it was things not finished and a couple of mistakes made in the electrical that I corrected. There is a reason for standards and RVIA while a bit anal in some areas does assure some level of quality. If you are going after him legally you might want to check their standards. I Hope your final outcome is as satisfactory as ours.

[Redneck Teepee]

Wow Tabitha! You and the hubby are doing an amazing job on bringing it all together. I love the wood you chose for your ceiling and cannot wait to see the rest of your handy work......Larry gives 3>>>

[S. Heisley]

Good for you, Tabitha! You're doing a good job and fixing it right!

[PKCSPT]

Been wondering how things were going with your trailer. Looking good

[mikerueve]

You've done a great job repairing/restoring your rig! I really love the interior walls. It definitely is now a reflection of your tastes and style. Even though you had such a bad experience, I want to thank you for sharing it here. It has really helped me in my quest for our own teardrop. What to watch for during construction and questions that need to be asked.

We're currently having ours built by a small company in Georgia. My experience has been the exact opposite to this point. He has sent me almost daily progress pictures of the construction with explanations of what is going on. Due to weather delays related to a real crappy spring, he is two weeks overdue and it is KILLING him that he missed the delivery date. Shoot, he wants to deliver it to us himself since he missed the date! Just yesterday, he sent me pictures of the second hatch he finished making. The first one didn't seat as flush as he wanted it to so rather than "make it work", he built another one. We should be getting it this weekend..... Fingers crossed.

[Tabitha]

Oh that is outstanding, you sound like your builder is working hard to ensure you have a wonderful trailer. That is why I have been sharing it and blogging about it and I'm glad it helped others.

Thanks everyone. I'm so tickled with how it's coming together, I may be tired, sore, and have bandages on my fingers but I know it's getting done right. I can't wait until 4pm tomorrow then I can work on it again. I'm like an addict now waiting for my next fix. lol When we had our power at work shut down for 3 hours during a test I spend that time drawing out cabinet plans in detail on paper. Still have a lot to do but it doesn't seem as large and out of control now. I can't begin to thank you all here, without this forum I would have been lost and struggling.... you all kept me focused.

You've done a great job repairing/restoring your rig! I really love the interior walls. It definitely is now a reflection of your tastes and style. Even though you had such a bad experience, I want to thank you for sharing it here. It has really helped me in my quest for our own teardrop. What to watch for during construction and questions that need to be asked.

We're currently having ours built by a small company in Georgia. My experience has been the exact opposite to this point. He has sent me almost daily progress pictures of the construction with explanations of what is going on. Due to weather delays related to a real crappy spring, he is two weeks overdue and it is KILLING him that he missed the delivery date. Shoot, he wants to deliver it to us himself since he missed the date! Just yesterday, he sent me pictures of the second hatch he finished making. The first one didn't seat as flush as he wanted it to so rather than "make it work", he built another one. We should be getting it this weekend..... Fingers crossed.