Renters beware! This review is for the 3 different parts of Outdoorsy that you may have to deal with: The vehicle owner, customer care support, and Outdoorsy business plan.
The summary if you want to skip he details: This is the worst company I’ve dealt with by far. They rely on things working well, but guess what, you are dealing with vehicles, they break, and you need to have a plan that protects both the RV owners and the renters when problems arise.
Betting on things working out well and disappearing when there is an accident or a car breaking down is not good business.
If I had this problem in the middle of the woods instead of in a straight road, I would have been seriously injured, and you would have washed your hands as you did.
Background: I rented a campervan through outdoorsy for 7 days to travel from Pennsylvania to the Smoky mountains, TN and back.
Within 24 hours, while being on a traffic jam in Virginia, 280 miles from my departure, the van’s brakes stopped working, the ABS and brake lights came on, and I almost crashed into the truck in front of me.
I assumed it was a brake line, because the brakes would barely work only when I pressed on the pedal all the way. Without brakes, I took the next exit from the highway into a gas station. I turned off the van.
When I turned it on again, the ‘engine check’ light came on, and the engine would only stay on as long as my foot was on the gas pedal, otherwise it would turn off. I took a video of the brake lights and sent it to the owner.
They quickly replied and discussed over the phone the problem. We all both agreed that it wasn’t safe to continue and that I needed towing assistance. This was a first for them and for me so we both reached to Outdoorsy.
I called the number for road assistance and they starting looking at verified service centers that could fix the van as well as a towing company to take me there.
I didn’t want to keep using that van, since 1) I wasn’t going to risk putting it through switchback roads in the woods and have another accident happen again, this time with a worse outcome.
And 2) I don’t know how long was going to take until they fix it, and I didn’t want to use my holiday time waiting for a vehicle that is not mine to be fixed.
I was then told that I would have to call Outdoorsy (a different number) to discuss this. So, I did.
The first person I talked to from customer care, after I explained the situation, she told me that it was up to me to decide what to do next, and that I could rent another RV, at my expense, to continue with my trip.
The other option was to rent a hotel, at my expense, while waiting for the van to be fixed. She also mentioned that I wouldn’t get my money back on the RV that broke down until I opened a dispute with the owner once everything settles.
When I challenged her that there is no way that I’m going to spend another dime through outdoorsy and that I wanted to speak to somebody with more knowledge about Outdoorsy’s policies, she put me on hold and then hung up on me.
I tried to contact again, this time with Vincent. He tried to help but he didn’t. Finally, while waiting for the towing company, I ended up talking to Jennifer. We spent a long time talking about options: The easiest solution (for them) is to rent another RV, but at my expense.
She said that she cannot guarantee that I will get my money back from the broken van unless the owner agreed to do it through their website so that there is proof.
This is a bad solution that Outdoorsy hasn’t even thought about, because your (personal) car is in a different location from where you are. You are trying to rent another vehicle 280 miles from where your car is.
So I asked these questions: If I rent another vehicle in Virginia, I will have to drive back to Pennsylvania to get my car. Will I be able to do that? Am I going to get charged for the extra mileage? The answer is that it would depend on the owner of the vehicle…
Obviously, this theoretical solution would never work, since no sensible vehicle owner is going to want to figure out a way to pick up their vehicle hours away from them, at their expense…
While Jennifer was looking for another vehicle, I contacted the owners again saying that unless there is proof that they will give me my money back, outdoorsy wouldn’t help much.
Thankfully, the owners understood the situation and sent me a message through the website confirming that I would get a refund. Back to Jennifer, there weren’t other vehicles available in the area.
The last option was to rent a car that I could take back to where my car is, and cancel my holidays, wait for it… at my expense. That is right.
If I needed help finding a rental (no internet where I was), or transporting me, my dog, and all the camping stuff for 1 week from the van to the rental, I was on my own.
Jennifer said that I could keep the receipts of everything and open a dispute with Outdoorsy after the fact. She was clearly empathetic with the situation but couldn’t be of much help because the company sucks.
At the end, my wife managed to rent a vehicle so I could go back to get my personal car and forget about this nightmare once for all.
In summary: -RV owners: I was lucky that these owners understood the situation and were as helpful as they could be. It was an old van, vehicles can break and you can’t predict that.
However, if they weren’t as cooperative as they were, this would have been an even more expensive problem. So, my recommendation is do not use Outdoorsy at all, but If you do, research the RV owners because you depend on them, and you cannot rely on Outdoorsy.
Outdoorsy customer care: It will depend on who you get that day. I was left hang to dry by one of them. Jennifer was as helpful as she could be. I could tell she was sorry for the inconvenience, but there isn’t much she could do given Outdoorsy’s lack of plan.
Outdoorsy business: This is the worst company I ever dealt with by far. They rely on things working well, but guess what, you are dealing with vehicles, they break, and you need to have a plan that protects both the RV owners and the renters when problems arise.
Betting on things working out well and disappearing when there is an accident or a car breaking down is not good business.
If I had this problem in the middle of the woods instead of in a straight road, I would have been seriously injured, and you would have washed your hands as you did.
I will open a dispute, and if you disappear (like in reviews from other customers) and do not take responsibility I’m going to sue you, not only for what you make me spend due to your lack of cooperation but also for the time off that you made me waste.
