Has any has anyone here used this site, RVGuide.com? Your thoughts about it as a resource?
Sherry
Edit by moderator: Activated link. Terry
-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Monday 11th of February 2013 09:46:36 PM
WestWardHo said
08:34 PM Mar 3, 2013
Hummmm, I'm thinking that no one has an opinion on this website or wasn't impressed. Looks like mostly advertising to me and not much valuable information?
Sherry
Lucky Mike said
08:44 PM Mar 3, 2013
I find that they do the same as consumer reports and weigh there opinions toward all there major advertisers....and if you do a little sluethe work on it you find it is true.
Terry and Jo said
09:53 PM Mar 3, 2013
Sherry, I had never replied to this in the past because I had not had any personal experience with RV.org. However, because of what I have heard about two other ratings services in the U.S., I take the ratings from ANY rating service with a large grain of salt.
While I've still not had any personal experience with RV.org, I have heard from a source (to be unnamed) that worked for a highly rated manufacturer with information about RV.org. Rather than try to paraphrase their comments, I'll post just a wee bit of what was told to me. I'll follow that information with another person's comments about the Better Business Bureau, and then I'll provide my personal experience with Consumer Reports.
The following comments are from two other people who had personal experiences with RV.org and the BBB:
RV.org
"This was what I saw of the RV rating organization: They wanted access to everything and for their suggestions to be followed; it was like 3 days of basically wine and dine and pay for the hotel bill, then, the sales of the brochures which were expensive along with publications from the organization. If that was not enough, the person doing the rating, which at that time was the guy that started the whole deal, asked for a generous donation for passing out brochures at the shows he would attend. It just came across to me as "buying" a rating. Probably was worth the cost. I realize that the organization has expenses but if you can afford to wine and dine with money and time, the rating could easily be off target."
Better Business Bureau
"I put very, very little stock in what BBB says about any business. When we were running our businesses there came a point where we dropped our BBB membership and our ratings for all went down drastically when we dropped the membership with the local BBB. If you are a member it seems you always get a great rating regardless of how bad your business is."
Now, this is my personal experience with Consumer Reports, as posted in another forum:
Consumer Reports
"When I was a manager of a retail store of a "major national electronics store" we would get folks in wanting to buy "such-and-such" model of a product. It was normal for them to suddenly find that the model they wanted had been discontinued by our company because the technology had gone beyond that model's features. CR had a backlog of reviews to publish, so the subscribers and purchasers of their magazine for evaluation purposes were getting outdated information, and thus, were wasting their money."
So, with all the above information provided from three different people who had personal experience with the respective rating entities, you can see why I take all ratings with an eye of skepticism.
Terry
Lynn and Ed said
10:05 PM Mar 3, 2013
I have not used RVGuide.com. However, the below captures potentially some relevant information that might assist you (i.e., I pulled this from another discussion thread).
If your desire is to look for the best for your needs, I would suggest purchasing a subscription to RV Consumer Group (http://www.rv.org). I know when we started our research, I looked at various websites, read almost everything on RV-Dreams, etc. and I thought my head might explode due to all the RV brands and non-comparable information available ... ok maybe not that extreme, but there were so many "opinions" based upon people's personal needs/situations as well as so much RV manufacturer website hype versus facts, which just did not allow for a true comparison ... in my opinion. ...
Once you have a short list, beyond looking at some of the actual RVs (e.g., layout, quality, etc.), if you have the opportunity to speak with current owners -- to gain their insights about their specific experiences, lessons learned, etc. -- that can also be invaluable (and you ideally also make some new friends ).
WestWardHo said
05:09 PM Mar 5, 2013
Thanks for all your responses. Terry, am I misreading your thoughtful reply or did you discuss a different website?
I, personally, did not find RVGuide.com of any use.
Sherry
NWescapee said
06:56 PM Mar 5, 2013
We didn't find RVGuide.com of any use.
We did subscribe to the RV Consumer Group and found that to be helpful as we selected our unit.
Terry and Jo said
07:26 PM Mar 5, 2013
WestWardHo wrote:
Thanks for all your responses. Terry, am I misreading your thoughtful reply or did you discuss a different website?
I, personally, did not find RVGuide.com of any use.
Sherry
Nope. You didn't misread my reply. I must confess that I was commenting about an entirely different website. Unfortunately, as a moderator, I find myself sometimes doing a "quick read" instead of a "thoughtful read," thus, I missed the difference between the RVGuide.com and RV.org.
Please accept my sincere apology for taking your thread completely out of context and discussing a completely different source.
I'm sorry for that.
Terry
WestWardHo said
07:33 PM Mar 5, 2013
Terry, actually everyones comments on here are good & helpful! No apology needed.
Sherry
krackle12 said
10:44 PM Mar 5, 2013
I had never been to the site before but after looking it over it doesnt seem to have much info, just rv sales. Its a bummer because it has so much promise with a name like that.
Has any has anyone here used this site, RVGuide.com? Your thoughts about it as a resource?
Sherry
Edit by moderator: Activated link. Terry
-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Monday 11th of February 2013 09:46:36 PM
Sherry
Sherry, I had never replied to this in the past because I had not had any personal experience with RV.org. However, because of what I have heard about two other ratings services in the U.S., I take the ratings from ANY rating service with a large grain of salt.
While I've still not had any personal experience with RV.org, I have heard from a source (to be unnamed) that worked for a highly rated manufacturer with information about RV.org. Rather than try to paraphrase their comments, I'll post just a wee bit of what was told to me. I'll follow that information with another person's comments about the Better Business Bureau, and then I'll provide my personal experience with Consumer Reports.
The following comments are from two other people who had personal experiences with RV.org and the BBB:
RV.org
"This was what I saw of the RV rating organization: They wanted access to everything and for their suggestions to be followed; it was like 3 days of basically wine and dine and pay for the hotel bill, then, the sales of the brochures which were expensive along with publications from the organization. If that was not enough, the person doing the rating, which at that time was the guy that started the whole deal, asked for a generous donation for passing out brochures at the shows he would attend. It just came across to me as "buying" a rating. Probably was worth the cost. I realize that the organization has expenses but if you can afford to wine and dine with money and time, the rating could easily be off target."
Better Business Bureau
"I put very, very little stock in what BBB says about any business. When we were running our businesses there came a point where we dropped our BBB membership and our ratings for all went down drastically when we dropped the membership with the local BBB. If you are a member it seems you always get a great rating regardless of how bad your business is."
Now, this is my personal experience with Consumer Reports, as posted in another forum:
Consumer Reports
"When I was a manager of a retail store of a "major national electronics store" we would get folks in wanting to buy "such-and-such" model of a product. It was normal for them to suddenly find that the model they wanted had been discontinued by our company because the technology had gone beyond that model's features. CR had a backlog of reviews to publish, so the subscribers and purchasers of their magazine for evaluation purposes were getting outdated information, and thus, were wasting their money."
So, with all the above information provided from three different people who had personal experience with the respective rating entities, you can see why I take all ratings with an eye of skepticism.
Terry
I have not used RVGuide.com. However, the below captures potentially some relevant information that might assist you (i.e., I pulled this from another discussion thread).
If your desire is to look for the best for your needs, I would suggest purchasing a subscription to RV Consumer Group (http://www.rv.org). I know when we started our research, I looked at various websites, read almost everything on RV-Dreams, etc. and I thought my head might explode due to all the RV brands and non-comparable information available ... ok maybe not that extreme, but there were so many "opinions" based upon people's personal needs/situations as well as so much RV manufacturer website hype versus facts, which just did not allow for a true comparison ... in my opinion. ...
Once you have a short list, beyond looking at some of the actual RVs (e.g., layout, quality, etc.), if you have the opportunity to speak with current owners -- to gain their insights about their specific experiences, lessons learned, etc. -- that can also be invaluable (and you ideally also make some new friends
).
I, personally, did not find RVGuide.com of any use.
Sherry
We did subscribe to the RV Consumer Group and found that to be helpful as we selected our unit.
Nope. You didn't misread my reply. I must confess that I was commenting about an entirely different website. Unfortunately, as a moderator, I find myself sometimes doing a "quick read" instead of a "thoughtful read," thus, I missed the difference between the RVGuide.com and RV.org.
Please accept my sincere apology for taking your thread completely out of context and discussing a completely different source.
I'm sorry for that.
Terry
Sherry