3.2K views
New Reviewer
32 comments

We bought a used RV from Hitch House in Barrie. They saftied it, and sent us on our way. We paid $90,000 for the 2001 Fleetwood Expedition.

Hitch House saftied it, and sent me, my husband and my 5 year old, and my 1 year old Quadruplets on our way to Florida.

We got there. By the time we did, there was coolant all over the engine.

We called Hitch House to ask what to do, they told us to put a radiator cap (new one) and it would be fine.

We got to Alabama, the engine overheated.... we found out, the fan belt fell off (because it was dry rotted), the radiator blew, the alternator was finished and had to be replaced, as did the govenor (it was aitbrake).

We lost 1 1/2 weeks of work at home, had to rent a hotel and car for 10 days... it was a literal nightmare, all because they didnt safty and inspect the vehicle. They are refunding us only the radiator. We had 30 days warranty, and of that 30 days, they had the RV for a week back in the repair shop... we are calling our lawyer and suing.

Never buy a used RV from them. New, Im sure its fine. But never get your RV fixed there. They have an incompetent service dept, and never ever buy a used RV from them. They make them look really pretty, but underneath, they're rusted out buckets of $100,000 junk!

Monetary Loss: $90.

Location: Orangeville, Ontario

Do You Have Something To Say ?
Write a review

Comments

chat-icon

Please avoid publishing any personal information and promotional content

You will be automatically registered on our site. Username and password will be sent to you via email.
Post Comment
Guest

Richard and his wife Danielle are 100% SCAMMERS! I feel so bad for their five 5 kids!

Everyone in Barrie and Alliston should stay away from this couple! They will threatened people who deal with them. I will report his clinic to Canada Revenue Agency and file him a claim to College of Chiropractor of Ontario. Richard and his wife will pay back to everyone they used to hurt and threatened!

This couple is really a big pain of ***! They will go to the ***!

Guest

Steer clear of this place. Nothing but issues when trying to get things under warranty.

They don't honour ANYTHING that they have to fix. Its absolutely ridiculous and the service staff are slimy bullshitters. We have experienced 3 years of LIES as to why this or that is no longer warrantied.

Bring your business to HEIDI'S...They have been wonderful and what do you know??...parts ARE available and service is hassle free and NO arguments. AND...they get many Hitch House customers that are fed up with the hassles and *** at The Hitch House!!

Guest

Looks like its a moot point considering the place burnt to the ground...... Karma maybe? :x

Guest

What does this have to do with the liams?? ..

Its a Hitch House complaint.. Am I the only one that finds it interesting that a *Former Patient* would just happen upon this forum??..We have dealt with Tom and I can tell you from personal exprience .. After trying have a Lemon they sold to us.. fixed, we were told PERSONLY by him..

that our busniess was no longer needed and we could take it else where .. So we did .

Guest

I am a former patient of Richard. I had seeen him for a few years.

At first I thought he was very friendly, took time, spoke highly of his family (his wife and 5 kids), shortly into starting treatment I found out a new chiro would be starting he would only be in a few times a week. Ok that was fine. She was lovely. Then just like that she was gone and he was back.

Told me some lies about why he had the time off.Next thing I see this story about him on Marketplace. Everything about him after that was hard to trust. Then just like that he abandones his patients in Nov about two years ago. He had to really sweet receptionists that worked for him, and I felt for them, just like that they were out of a job.

Richard and his wife scam patients, employees and friends. They tell lies all the time and seeing this post I see how much of a liar he is. He told ALL his patients different stories compared to this one. Marketplace really shed light on who Dr.Liem was and clearly he could not handle his own lies and he ran.

I had heard rumour that he opened another location not long ago, you could not pay me to see him again.

I feel bad for the children.I can not speak on behalf of HITCH HOUSE as I do not know anything about them, however to HITCH HOUSE please know this,Danielle and Richard Liem will do anything to take anyone down, they manipulate and lie and karma will come back around. Good luck with everything.

Guest

It was interesting reading this. The Liems like to play victim and they aren't.

They owe alot of companies money. They owe employees money. They are liars and they do everything to hurt people.

They run and hide when the going gets tough. The most unprofessional irresponsible people I have ever met.

Guest

It was interesting reading this. The Liems like to play victim and they aren't.

They owe alot of companies money. They owe employees money. They are liars and they do everything to hurt people.

They run and hide when the going gets tough. The most unprofessional irresponsible people I have ever met.

Guest

We wary of peoples comments. The Liems are scammers themselves and have a record for not paying bills AND EMPLOYEES.

Dont always believe what you read. The Liems should take a look in the mirror and see what they have done to so many people!

Guest

I am here to present The Hitch Houseรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs position regarding Mrs. Liemรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs accusations as there is always another side to the story. For those of you who wish to know who I am, my name is Tom Stoate and I am the President of The Hitch House. This all started with Danielle Liemรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs posting. Foolishly we thought that the comments had been cleared up ages ago in 2009 as we were told they would be by Danielle Liem. Frankly we were shocked when the comments first came out because we had substantially assisted the Liems financially plus we offered them additional service and those facts appear to be conveniently left out of Mrs. Liemรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs posting. On behalf of the Hitch House I will now tell the other side of the Danielle and Dr. Richard Liem story. The Liemรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs versions of the events have gone unchallenged and it is time for us to share with everyone our side of the story and the last communication that was written and sent to Mrs. Liem. It includes everything we did to help the Liemรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs and a further offer of assistance. For example, I personally worked directly with the Alabama truck centre (M & M) regarding their repairs and approved payment. The Liemรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs were not out of pocket for their repairs as The Hitch House was invoiced directly. In fact we had issued and sent the cheque to M & M on Sept 18, 2009 in the amount of $3,517.19, which was four days before Mrs. Liemรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs first posting on this site. In addition, I completely refunded Mr. Liemรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs flight to Toronto ($1,040.75) even after a call to our receptionist one evening where he verbally insulted her and used extreme profanity.

Danielleรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs posting was a very one-sided version. Also, the Liems were offered and declined protection products and services that would have made their experience dramatically better.

Now I will clear up some misconceptions that are in this site about us. One person claimed that I, รขโ‚ฌล“the little *** who is the owner told us not to come back.รขโ‚ฌย Only one type of situation has required me to do this and it was when a customer was verbally abusive to our staff. Now I did tell Dr. Liem not to come back to the Hitch House after I discovered how he treated our receptionist. Dr. Liem called the Hitch House at 8:00 pm one evening, which was closing time and demanded to speak with me. Most RV dealerships are closed before 8:00 pm. Our receptionist correctly informed Dr. Liem that I was attending an RV Show in Hershey, Pennsylvania and she was not sure if she could reach me. At this point Dr. Liem became quite agitated and began screaming profanities at our receptionist. Our receptionist did reach me that night and we did our best to assist Dr. Liem that evening and in the following days. It was not until I returned to the Hitch House and discovered from the sales staff, who were working that evening that Dr. Liem had screamed and swore at our receptionist. Frankly I will not tolerate anyone swearing at our staff especially a young lady. If we lose customers because I will not allow someone to verbally abuse our staff then so be it. No one deserves to be spoken to the way Dr. Liem spoke to our receptionist. It was only Dr. Liem that was verbally abusive not Mrs. Liem.

There was a posting from รขโ‚ฌล“Lucyรขโ‚ฌย that we were bankrupt once. That is true and we donรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt even try to hide it. The story is on our website! Please have a read www.thehitchhouse.com/hitch-house3.htm. The bankruptcy took place in 1990 nearly 22 years ago. Dave McKee had several businesses then including a 50% ownership in a manufacturing company based outside of Ottawa. That venture along with poor market timing pulled down everything. The Hitch House was profitable right from its initial founding in 1969 and was profitable in 1990 when Dave shut it done. But The Hitch House could not compensate for the manufacturing company. Dave McKee made the very difficult decision to put The Hitch House into voluntary bankruptcy. As a result he lost everything and had to declare personal bankruptcy. Just imagine how devastating that was for him and his family.

You are probably wondering how Dave actually resurrected the Hitch House from absolute zero with no money at all 22 years ago. Well here is how. All it took was a $25k loan from his mother-in-law, a very far seeing banker (Stu McBoyle รขโ‚ฌโ€œ retired VP, TD Bank), considerable RV business experience and an entrepreneurial spirit, not to mention blind faith in himself, and seven days a week for about five years solid. Also he was almost fanatically cost conscious - he put up with flea bag hotels when away on business and spent almost nothing รขโ‚ฌโ€œ he just worked. Plus he had lots and lots of faithful customers. I bought half the business from him almost 11 years ago. We have been 50-50 partners ever since and it's been great. I have reference letters from our bankers that I can provide upon request and by the way we still work with the same banks today. If there is any doubt about our current financial ability I will provide our TD Banker's name and contact information, please give me a call (705-722-****).

We are not perfect and have never professed to be perfect. Neither is Dr. Richard Liem as you can see in the following article by CBCรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs Marketplace www.cbc.ca/news/story/2010/03/25/consumer-marketplace-low-back-clinic.html or view the video at www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2010/stretching_the_truth/main.html. Perhaps this information along with the email below will help put the comments that Danielle Liem made about us into perspective. You can make your own decision about The Hitch House knowing both sides of the story.

THE EMAIL TO DANIELLE LIEMรขโ‚ฌยฆ

รขโ‚ฌล“Danielle,

I have a family so I completely understand your situation. As I explained to Richard, it makes no sense for us to have unhappy customers. That is why on our used motorhomes we provide a 30 Day Powertrain and Major Appliance warranty. I believe you have a copy of the warranty policy. I am prepared to go above our policy from time to time to accommodate our customers. I would ask that you put yourself in my position and understand why I feel that we have done that already.

Please understand that I have been receiving conflicting stories between M&M, Freightliner, and Richard and based on your email below you as well. The items and issues that have been presented to me have not supported each other in almost all cases. Unfortunately, I donรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt know who to believe so it makes this entire situation very difficult and as you can likely appreciate very frustrating. Just for example, you said below that, รขโ‚ฌล“We sat in the interstate with trucks and cars whizzing by us for 4 hours. I felt unsafe, and when Richard left to get a rental car, I was there alone with the kids, on the side of the interstateรขโ‚ฌย. When I spoke with Richard regarding your radiator, he told me that he drove the motorhome into the campground. That fortunately the breakdown was right near the campground and that the motorhome is in the campground and canรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt be moved and it has to be repaired there. M&M had already been onsite.

With respect to the alternator, Freightliner replaced it and Matt from M&M told me he canรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt understand why it had to be replaced. Matt said as well that they couldnรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt figure out what the problem was with the air system and that they replaced the air governor but that didnรขโ‚ฌโ„ขt change the situation so, according to Matt, the air governor was not the problem. Then the Freightliner Dealer told me that the air system was operating properly. However, when I spoke to Richard that evening he told me that the air system was malfunctioning.

I can go over the entire radiator situation again however it appears that we will never quite agree. As I said above, we are willing to bend the policy to accommodate our customers. The radiator never leaked during testing or your first trip out, it failed in Alabama. The radiator is not part of Powertrain. I spoke to Matt as I promised Richard I would. I felt that although the radiator was not part of our warranty policy nor is it part of a safety, as Matt agreed, that we should take care of it for you as part of goodwill. In addition, I listened to Richard and decided that I would pay his airfare as goodwill even though manufacturersรขโ‚ฌโ„ข warranties or extended warranties do not. Even after I discovered how Richard treated our receptionist I still stood by my commitment to him and you. I know you said he was irate but that does not excuse him from using the language he did that evening, especially to a young lady.

I received the invoice for the radiator and the air governor that was replaced by M&M. I did not authorize the air governor, which also is not covered by our 30 day warranty. As I mentioned above, M&M said that the original air governor was not the problem and the Freightliner dealer confirmed that the air system was working without fault. It appears that I paid for unnecessary repairs for the sheer reason that no one else was going to pay that part of the bill. As far as I can see I have been forthright, accommodating and did exactly what I said I would do and then some.

I do have a problem with paying for the alternator. The alternator is right next to the radiator. We, The Hitch House, have no control on the actual repairs and what took place to remove the old radiator and install the new radiator. Prior to the radiator issue the coach did not have a problem with the alternator. This is likely the reason that Matt from M&M was surprised that the Freightliner dealer replaced the alternator. We are not the ones that should be held accountable for that alternator. If the alternator had a problem as you claim it had when it was here, the coach would never have made it to your house let lone Alabama.

With respect to the engine A/C, the first thing you do when trouble shooting the A/C is to ensure that the components of the A/C are working properly. We found that the receiver/dryer needed to be replaced. A receiver/dryer is a filter and the existing one was completely full so it would not function properly. It would have been very nice if the receiver/dryer had been here for your delivery but just like you experienced from M&M with the radiator, parts are not always available when we would like them. Once that receiver/dryer was replaced the A/C functioned normally. Furthermore, the A/C unit is cooled by a radiator-style device normally referred to as a condenser and it is not part of the engine radiator. I am not sure who is giving you the information about the dash A/C but the A/C system is a closed, high pressure system that contains Freon. It is entirely separate from the engine cooling system and therefore independent of the engine radiator. When your coach was brought back for the receiver/dryer there was no evidence of either a potential radiator leak or alternator failure and neither of you noticed anything.

Danielle, it is in our best interest for customers to have a good experience with their motorhome. We offer our customers the products and services to help them, but I can not force people to take them. You and Richard declined the protection products รขโ‚ฌโ€œ Extended Warranty and Coach-Net (Roadside Assistance), perhaps you felt the washer/dryer, satellite and awning were more important. Had you purchased the protection products your situation would have been significantly less stressful.

Below are just some of the features of the Coach-Net Service:

รฏฦ’หœ Specialized for RVs

รฏฦ’หœ Unlimited Towing

รฏฦ’หœ 24/7 Unlimited Road Service Coverage

รฏฦ’หœ 24/7 RV Technical Assistance

รฏฦ’หœ Unlimited RV Mobile Mechanic

รฏฦ’หœ Coverage in any personal vehicle

รฏฦ’หœ $2,000 Emergency Trip Interruption Benefit

For $175 that is a bargain. If you had only purchased one service this should have been it. I am not sure if you are still eligible to purchase a used warranty without another inspection. Typically, the RV owner has 30 days from the day of delivery to purchase a used warranty from the warranty provider. I can check with the warranty provider to see if they would allow you to purchase the warranty without going through another inspection and save you that expense. Please be aware that these warranties are not of our creation. They are provided to us for our customers by the SAL Group. SAL sets all the price levels and policies and we do not have any control over them. Extended warranties on Used Vehicles are more expensive than extended warranties on New Vehicles. SAL expects that the older vehicles will have more repair issues than newer vehicles. I am prepared approach SAL on your behalf to see if we can arrange a discount. However I want to ensure that you understand that I have absolutely no control over their pricing policy. To date I have never arranged a discounted extended warranty from a warranty supplier. I am prepared to try my very best for you.

With respect to the water pump, if it has indeed failed I would be prepared to have my staff look at it and replace it if necessary, under warranty. However I have one condition. Richard is not involved in the delivery of the coach or the pick up and he is not to speak with my staff. Please understand that my staff is very important to me. The Hitch House has good people and I want to keep them. I do not want any member of my staff to experience what my receptionist experienced that evening. This is an issue for me as Matt from M&M told me exactly how angry Richard was at him when the radiator was not received when expected.

Danielle, the Hitch House has taken care of items over and above what any other dealer would do on a used coach. I am prepared to try and negotiate a more favourable extended warranty for you and I address the water pump issue. If you can accept this we can move forward.

Thank you,

Tomรขโ‚ฌย

As I said before we are not prefect but we do try very hard. I think it would be impossible to grow to the size we are with over 40 people on staff (40 winter; nearly 50 summer) if we were as lousy as a couple of contributors to this string claim. We serve a few thousand customers a year over all departments and The Hitch House has been in business for over 42 years. That is a lot of people. Unfortunately it is impossible to make everyone happy but we do our best and we try to be fair. Please consider that there are always two sides to every story. All the best with your RV or Motorhome search.

Thank you for listening.

Tom Stoate

President

705-722-****

877-722-****

For more information on the Hitch House please go to www.thehitchhouse.com.

Guest

According to our Lawyer whom we contacted because we were seriously thinking of suing the @%%$&@! HAVE been Bankrupted at least once already :roll .

Do your homework folks it can get pretty expensive when dealing with them... after the fact.

Guest

I was going to get the Hitch house to sell my motor home but based on the above I should look else where. anybody have suggestions.

Guest

I'm in the market to buy a motorhome. I went out to tHitchhouse and was not impressed by their attitude towards used vehicles.

Now I'm looking at new, and once I read this board, I will go anywhere BUT HitchHouse Barrie. I do not wish to deal with slimeballs! Thank you all for posting. Just think, your comments have cost them another paying customer and a bug chunk of commission!!!

I guess one day they will go under for being so terrible to customers! WAY TO GO - they desirve it!

Guest

The Hitch House in Barrie........ Could care less about the Customer!

Words of advice *Beware of Wolves* We bought a used RV from them in 2009 and it has been a nightmare ever since , it has cost us THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of dollars to try and have it fixed only to have something else go wrong with it ! ... 1 step forward 3 back!.They wouldn't help and they told us our * Business* was no longer required and that they were *Finished* with us. In our opinion they are no better than Thieves, right up to that little *** of an owner who told us personally never to come back....

Anyone who asks where we bought our RV , is told in DETAIL... from the feed back we get, it's sad to know that we are not the only people to be treated in this manner. I suppose losing their business once wasn't enough for them ...

In short.....We are stuck with a unit that is a money pit and WILL not pass off to another unsuspecting customer!

Might be wise to remember a little thing called .... Karma

Guest

Of course they don't They do have glowing reviews on their web page mind you..... IMAGINE that!

We bought a used RV from them that has done nothing but cost us money. After 6 months of trying to have something done we started to complain.. They told us OUR business was NO LONGER needed and we are not allowed on the property. So hows that for costumer service?

Their refusal of fixing a product they sold us is THEIR loss , we took our business down the road to Bella Vista ... wonderful people! We will buy our next RV from them ... that is, after I drive the piece of *** from the Hitch House over a cliff .

We will NEVER deal with them again , anyone who asks about our Unit.... well. we just LOVE to let them know ALL about it :) :p

Guest

Wow I guess it`s always good to check out a companies reviews. Thanks all.

I will avoid this place.

I wonder if the Hitch House checks out the reviews? :?

Guest

Eyespy,withmylittleeye. .

. .

. You must work for the thieves.

Guest

I was looking to buy new when at hitch house they were happy to show us lots but when we called to make arrangements for a test drive they said we had to put in an offer in writing first. we ended up going to outdoor travel in Hamilton and were treated royaly looked at many motorhomes took them for a drive and they never even

asked to see my license .

We were so pleased and happy we bought a 32 foot georgetown that day. I would recomend them to all my friends and to any one looking to buy a motorhome or travel trailer.I wish you good luck with your problems with hitch house.

Guest

:x I am absolutely shocked by the comments on this forum. We have driven by the Hitch house in Barrie for many years and stopped a couple of times to see what we would like.

(And.. as many of you reported, we were treated royally.) Now that we are seriously looking at a small motor home, we thought we would look at the Hitch house. Thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences. Are there no reports of customers being satisfied.

We won't be buying brand new, so now I don't know what to do. Where do some of you suggest going in Ontario?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-268850

They always treat you like royalty .. Until you buy from them

Guest

to bad Danielle that they threatened to sue you for treating their customers like

sh... But we know whats going on.

View more comments (12)

Hitch House Reviews

  1. 2 reviews
  2. 1 review
  3. 0 reviews
  4. 0 reviews
  5. 0 reviews
Hitch House reviews