Back From Newfoundland

Back from my vacation to Newfoundland with the family. We had a great time, but it was not without it’s challenges. Specifically dealing with Newfoundland RV Rentals. It wasn’t exactly like the Robin Williams film, but you can read my Google review here:

The positive reviews of this company are perplexing. The most recent 1-star review was identical to the experience we just had with Newfoundland RV Rentals.

The RV we received was in poor condition:

• the refrigerator/freezer didn’t work
• the entire side-awning was ripped off
• the latch to the bathroom door was broken and would fly open when driving on the highway
• screens were missing from some of the windows
• blinds were being held up with cardboard tubes
• the new radio didn’t work
• the grey and black water sensors were showing full even thought they’d been emptied

But we took it anyway, because, what choice did we have except to make the best of the situation? There were no car rentals or hotel rooms to be had. This was our first family trip in 2 years thanks to covid. My wife had been researching and planning for months, we rented this RV 5-6 months ago. With all the positive reviews we figured even if things went wrong, the company would have our back.

So, we bought a powered cooler as they said they would reimburse us the cost. It drained the truck battery on the second night. We couldn’t find the jumper cables. Some nice people at the park helped us. When we got going, we noticed the A/C stopped working, the engine would begin to shake at 60-80kph and the Check Engine light came on. When we stopped in Clarenville our fresh water tank proceeded to empty onto the street.

So we called Rod. He blamed us for not postponing our vacation for a day so they could fix the issues. He sent us to a couple of places to gets things fixed in Clarenville.

We were informed that the shaking was a result of one of the pistons misfiring. They couldn’t fix the A/C issue while we waited. When we were told how long it was going to take to get fixed, we asked to just get us back on the road so we could get to our next destination at which point we had plans to stay a couple of days. We told Rod he had 2 days to take the RV, fix it and give it back so we can finish our vacation.

He took it and he never gave it back. He told us he thought we were done with it. Our correspondence was VIA text, everything is clearly documented we were clear that we needed the RV back on a specific date. It seems the issues would require more than 2 days to fix he wanted to make sure it was right for the next renters…how nice for them.

We were stranded 4 hours from St. John’s. Eight of us with four kids with no car, and no accommodation…forget all the plans we had made along the way. For this Rod offered us 60% of our money back and a ride back to St. John’s where we can stay at one of his motels.

Discussions got heated, we had just found out that our long-awaited NL vacation had just been ruined. Rod mentioned his lawyers and stuck to his contract.

That is what he thinks about your family and your long-awaited vacation. You’re nothing but an entry in his ledger. If you’re lucky enough to have things go well, good for you. If, heaven forbid something goes wrong, he’ll just write you off as a business expense and get his vehicle ready for the next renters.

What could Rod have done differently? First of all, these aren’t hotel rooms you can just clean between renters and be done with it, these are complex machines that can break down with prolonged use. So how about leaving a day or two between renters to make sure everything is in as good condition as possible? If he had given us dates a day or two out when we booked back in Jan-Feb, then we would have been happy to adjust our trip plans. Don’t tell us on the day that we’re supposed to pick up the RV that you need a day to fix things. That’s putting the burden on the customer, when it should be on the company.

The very minimum we should have received a 100% refund.

The fact that our vacation wasn’t a complete ruin had everything to do with the beautiful people in Newfoundland and absolutely nothing to do with Newfoundland RV Rentals.

So, to say the least, no, we would not recommend Newfoundland RV Rentals to anyone.