DOES YOUR RV ASSOCIATION DISCRIMINATE?

There is a new age in RVing and I am not happy about it. It used to be that the community where one was the least likely to experience snobbery was the RVing community. RVers never seemed to care what kind of RV someone arrived in. Everyone was equal and everyone was accepted.

We now find campgrounds that will only permit under a certain age to stay there. We find campgrounds that feel that only motorhomes are worthy of their facility. As if this wasn’t enough, there is a large organization that promotes itself as a social and educational association, but their primary directive is not social or educational. It is discriminatory.

One cannot join this organization if one cannot reach the living area of an RV from the cockpit. They want people to believe that this restriction is because of the common interest between owners of motorized RVs however, there is little commonality that is not held between those owners of hard sided towable RVs with towing vehicles and motorized units.

The executive director of this organization, when explaining the history of the association logo, states that the sole purpose of the logo is so that the members of his group can distinguish whether the coach in the grove across the campground is a trailer. I did not make this up. It is in the May, 2004 issue of their magazine. Discrimination is the purpose behind their logo.

The history of this group reveals that it was originally founded by folks who had converted buses. They needed a group to help with common problems and interests. That has long ago ceased to be the case. In fact, there are several groups dedicated solely to bus conversions as well as several publications.

I recently received a call from someone who was in charge of a chapter of that organization that had nothing to do with RVs. It was a religious affinity group. This gentleman was calling to invite those who could not be members of their association to a holiday rally in April. He stated that others of the same religious affiliation could camp in the same campground, but not next to them, and share a meal with them. It had to be made perfectly clear to attendees that those who were not members of their association were not together with them. I was given some kind of insurance excuse, but as a long time attendee of all kinds of rallies, it made no sense except to mask the fact that while these people were trying hard to be with others, the management of the association feared that their reputation might be blemished by the proximity of trailers.

Though this association thinks it propagates family values, it rips RVing families apart by keeping those owning trailers from joining with those owning motorized units from attending a rally together. Many times members have invited an RVing relative from out of town to attend a rally with them only to learn that their trailering relative is unwanted.

I have friends who have attended rallies of this association as vendors. They were suffered to park as far away as possible from everything lest anyone should see a trailer at the rally. They have since purchased a motorhome but they state that they will never join that association because of the prejudice it demonstrated when they had a trailer.

I believe that the only reason this organization remains exclusive to motorized RVs is because it is driven by advertising revenue from the big motorhome producers. To add credence to this belief, witness their current political activities. While The Escapees RV Club, Inc. is actively protecting the rights of fulltime RVers by closely lobbying those who are drafting the language of the Homeland Security Act and Good Sam is actively seeking redress for those who are being banned from parking their RVs near their homes to load them for travel, this association is actively petitioning the government of several states to permit out of state RV dealers to sell RVs at their rallies. RVers rights are hardly their priority. Revenue is.

Most members of this association are not even aware that they belong to a discriminatory organization. Many are not even aware that their friends and relatives in towables can’t join. They think it’s just another RV organization. Of course it’s not as just about all other non-brand specific RV organizations don’t care what kind of RV or tent a member has. The Escapees RV Club, Inc. and Good Sam, the two largest RV groups in the North America don’t even require their members to own an RV.

If you are a member of this group, you might want to bring the discrimination to the attention of the governing body. They definitely won’t care as they have a snobbish need to perpetuate their disdain for non-motorized RVs, but you’ll feel better about your membership.




THINK TWICE BEFORE BUYING A THOUSAND TRAILS MEMBERSHIP

If you are considering purchasing a Thousand Trails membership, consider that it might only be good for fifteen years. No matter what the sales people tell you, the truth is that Thousand Trails has sold all but two recently acquired properties to another company and is leasing the land back under a fifteen year lease. There are two five year extensions in the lease provisions, however they are at the option of Thousand Trails and there are no guarantees that they will be exercised.

Another thing to consider before purchasing is the fact that Thousand Trails changes its contracts with its membership at whim. We purchased our membership with Thousand Trails (TT) and NACO camping rights in 1990. In 2000 the company purchased Leisure Time Resorts (LTR) in Washington and Oregon. They made it very clear to existing members that LTR was a completely separate company and one would have to purchase an upgrade to include usage of the LTR campgrounds. Since we don’t spend much time in Washington or Oregon, we declined. We belong to RPI, a reciprocal camping program, which is owned by TT. Our home park is a NACO park in Texas and our RPI membership is through our NACO contract. TT will not permit us to use the LTR campgrounds under the RPI program because they claim that LTR is our home resort. They base that claim upon the fact that 1. they own RPI and can therefore dictate to RPI, and 2. they own LTR so by default it is our home resort even though we don’t have the right to use it. They refuse to honor our RPI membership through the NACO contract which specifically states that the NACO membership and nothing else is the basis for our RPI use.

When we inquired if we could change our home resort to another company that is not affiliated with TT, they told us that we could never use an LTR property because we did not purchase an upgrade. This is consumer punishment.

The rules promulgated in the RPI handbook state that a home resort is the place where one is a member or an owner. We are not members or owners of LTR, so that provision does not apply. If we were members of LTR, we would be able to use their facilities under our TT membership. We can’t. TT feels that they can have it both ways. We feel that if they want LTR to be our home resort, they should give us that privilege without additional charges. If they want to maintain that it is a separate company, they should allow us to use LTR under RPI.

The rule baring a TT/NACO member from using LTR is not published and is called an unwritten rule by the TT member service department. They only way one would know of this unwritten rule is to try to make an LTR reservation through RPI. Then you will be told that you can’t.

We have filed complaints against TT with the Office of the Texas Attorney General, the Greater Dallas Area Better Business Bureau and the Action Line of Good Sam’s Highways Magazine. TT has refused to reply to the inquiry of Good Sam. We have written directly to the president of TT and he, too, refuses to respond to our offers of settlement.

This new Thousand Trails management has demonstrated an uncaring and unresponsive attitude. They seem to feel that if they ignore our complaint, we will get tired of waiting and just go away. If you are considering purchasing a TT membership, consider the way they treat us as fifteen year members and decide if you want to do business with a company like this.