It’s buyer beware when purchasing a motor coach online

Never make a commitment until you can inspect the coach

As described in my last column, it’s buyer beware when it comes to online motorhome auctions. Here is the scam.

I ran into this before several years ago with my first experience with an online auction looking for a computer. The bad guy gets a Skype phone number (you can get any number you want with whatever area code you want). The RV scammer picked a Texas area code. Then he searches the internet for something that has the photos he will need for the ad. When you win the bid, he will tell you everything you want to hear and then ask for a small deposit of one or two thousand dollars. They almost always want to be paid by Western Union, since it’s not traceable.
The dealer I bought from told me of someone walking into their office wanting to pick up the trailer he had bought online. He described a unit that the dealer had sold a few weeks before. The customer had paid someone a $2000 deposit via Western Union. He was out $2000.

That said, searching online is still a good way to find what you are looking for. In the end it worked for me. I bought a very nice coach that I could easily sell in Canada for a good profit. You can be sure that many of the RVs you find in Canada are being sold by curbers who have brought them in from the U.S. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the last two motorhomes I bought in Canada came from curbers selling units they brought across the line. I made money on both units when I sold them.

Do not fully commit until you can inspect the coach. They never look as good as they do in the photos. Photos do not pick up the detail that separates the showroom condition coach from the lived-in motorhome loaded with rock chips and worn-out, stained interiors.

I got lucky and the coach I bought turned out as good as the photos showed it. However, there were a few surprises.