I’m beginning to understand what it must feel like to be a NASA astronaut.
Specifically, the Artemis astronauts — the ones who were all suited up, sitting on top of a brand-new rocket, ready to go to the Moon… until the rocket sprang a leak and the whole thing got scrubbed. Grounded. Again.
That’s pretty much where we were this week.
As I’m writing this, I’m waiting on an RV inspection report. The plane tickets to Tucson are booked and ready to go. If the inspection comes back clean, Mrs. Weeble and I are cleared for launch and heading southwest. If it comes back anything like the last inspection report, then just like those astronauts, we’re grounded — disappointed, frustrated, and wondering what just happened.
So yes, I feel their pain.
Houston, We Have a Problem
On the day of the inspection, I was sitting in the dentist’s chair when my phone rang. Thanks to my Apple Watch, I could see it was the inspector calling. I immediately knew this wasn’t going to be a quick “everything looks great” call.
Unfortunately, asking the dentist to remove her tools from my mouth so I could take the call didn’t seem like a reasonable option. So I let it go to voicemail.
When I got home, I returned the call and spoke with Deb from Deb’s RV Services. She started off by telling me she had some bad news. That’s never a sentence you want to hear when you’re already mentally packing for a trip.
She explained that the RV had a major rot problem. To make matters worse, a dealer representative had been following her around during the inspection, repeatedly telling her that if she did a good job, they’d have more work for her in the future. That immediately raised a red flag for her — and instead of backing off, she pressed on with the inspection.
The deeper she looked, the more issues she found. In a few cases, the dealer even tried fixing problems right on the spot as she discovered them. By the time she finished, she felt it was important to call me immediately.
These are my words, not hers, but the message was clear: run.
When she emailed the report — all 71 pages of it — I printed it out and sat down to read. I was very glad I was sitting down. If I hadn’t been, I probably would have ended up on the floor. There were so many red flags that listing them all here would turn this blog into a short novel.
Let’s just say the report was screaming, “Get away from this RV as fast as you can.”
The Sales Call Shuffle
I called my salesman, Jerry, and told him about the inspection. I mentioned the rot problem and said we wanted to cancel the sale and get our deposit back. He said he had gone over the RV himself and hadn’t seen anything.
I told him there were multiple other issues and that we absolutely wanted out of the deal. He agreed, and we said our goodbyes.
About 20 minutes later, my phone rang again. Jerry put another fellow on the phone who told me the problem “wasn’t that bad” and offered to FaceTime me to prove it.
He also explained they don’t receive copies of inspection reports — which makes sense, since I paid for it, not them — so they couldn’t review or address the issues. I told him I didn’t need a FaceTime call. I already had pictures in the inspection report. He abruptly hung up.
Another 15 to 30 minutes went by, and Jerry called back again. This time, his tone had changed. He admitted he found the rot behind the TV, apologized repeatedly, and said our deposit would be returned.
Lessons Learned (Again)
The moral of the story is simple: if you’re buying an RV — new or used — have it inspected by a certified inspector. It can save you from making a very expensive mistake.
Deb also offered some valuable advice: Be cautious with consignment RVs. Often, these are units dealers haven’t been able to sell because of unresolved problems. That doesn’t mean all consignment RVs are bad — it just means you should look extra carefully.
Mrs. Weeble and I talked it over and decided it might be time to start looking for new RVs. New units can have problems too, but at least we’re not inheriting someone else’s.
Back to the Search
So back to the internet we went. We found a unit in Raleigh, North Carolina, that fit our budget — only to discover it already had a deposit on it. I won’t say it was a bait-and-switch situation, but I’ve been around long enough to raise an eyebrow.
We’ve been watching Matt’s RV Reviews for years, so we reached out to see if getting “the best deal in America” was really possible. We haven’t heard back yet.
This weekend also happens to be the Maryland RV Show, so we’ll be heading there to see what’s available and what kind of damage we can do to our optimism.
So that’s where things stand for now. We’re still grounded, still searching, and still hoping the next inspection doesn’t come with a 71-page warning label.
What do you think?
Have you ever had a deal fall apart at the last minute? Leave a comment below and let us know how it turned out.