RV YouTuber Called Out Over BS Fees- Finance Manager Reacts

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]There has been some drama happening recently in the RV YouTube space between Josh the RV nerd and the RV Wingman. And today I want to give you guys an unbiased third-party perspective at how I'm analyzing this whole situation. And then I also want to get another third party perspective from the finance manager here at RV Select in Sephner, Florida, Bradley. Now I've been very critical of anything they sell you in the finance office in the past. I'm not a fan of extended warranties. I'm not a fan of any other fees. But today, I want to go over the fees that we saw in the video where RV Wingman was basically talking about fees that came on a finance contract from Bish's RV. And we're usually playing with the high dollar RVs like, you know, the Numar, uh, Tiffen, Integra, but I believe Bishes is more of a travel trailer dealer. So, there's a lot of different opinions on aftermarket fees, but I say we go hash it out with Bradley in the finance office here at RV Select. So, we've got this contract in front of us that RV Wingman brought up, and I want to get your unbiased opinion. You worked at some big box stores before you started working here with RV Select. So, I think you understand this on a deeper level than most do, and I understand it on a on a pretty deep level myself, too.

[00:01:18]So, right away, uh, and we're going to show this screenshot on the screen, but this is the contract that was in question. So, the base sale price was $22,923.

[00:01:29]And the first thing that that caught my attention was was at the bottom, only $100 down. And then they're financing $33,385, which I think should be illegal to be financing $33,000 on a $22,923 trailer.

[00:01:48]Bradley, any thoughts on that? Before we dig into these fees here and all of the into the weeds here, what's your initial thoughts about that?

[00:01:55]>> I mean, my initial thoughts is somebody in finance took advantage of this customer.

[00:01:59]>> Really? Wow. So, you know, we're talking about a $23,000 rig and they sold them like 10 grand worth of aftermarket stuff. Not quite. Well, so, you know, obviously you're going to have a dock fee, which their dock fee is only $180.

[00:02:15]Your title and plate fee is $71 and then sales tax is $1654.

[00:02:22]Now, if those were the only fees that we saw, I would say this is a pretty clean deal. I know you guys just do one single fee here, a $799 like a dock fee or or an initial fee, which >> is $799 dealer fee. The state of Florida has a dock stamp. Um, it's not a dock charge, it's dock stamp, but um, that varies depending on the price of the coach, but we're not we don't play the fees game at this dealership.

[00:02:48]>> It's strictly $800 plus the sales tax.

[00:02:52]Now, you do offer some of these aftermarket programs that I think these were probably sold to the customer, but they thought that they were fees, but there's a a little difference between a fee and something that's sold in the finance office. Can you explain that?

[00:03:07]>> Correct. So, a fee is basically going to be any charge that a dealership tacks on to the initial sale to try to gain more profit. A lot of your big box stores call it integrity pricing. And what that means is that, you know, they'll have an $1,800 outbound prep. They'll have a $2,900 freight charge. And they tell you that, you know, this is what it costs to bring this down. And we're just showing this to you because we disclose all our fees. The problem is when you stack up that $4 to $7,000 worth of fees in that deal on top of the original sales price, it's geared to make the customer panic and have a reaction based off of those additive fees. Because when they get emotional about buying their coach and you know that you're on a buyer and they're really excited about it, the first thing that they're going to bulk at is another six to eight grand in fees, right? So, as anybody would, but the idea is to negotiate down the fees so hard that they forget about the sales price. So, they hold all the gross in the deal and that's where they make all the money. And that's what we try to do different here. Because on the opposite end of that, if they don't negotiate the fees and they're like, "Hey, this company is great." You know, they're disclosing all this upfront with us.

[00:04:20]Then the company just made $8,000 more dollars in profit because those fees actually mean nothing. They're for nothing. every every every freight charge is already built into an invoice at a dealership. So, when they buy that coach and they price that coach, that freight charge is already built into that price. The only time that you're going to get any kind of special deals is if you're like an RV show or something and the manufacturers put rebates on the coaches to try to move them. We don't do that here. A matter of fact, we will never do that here as long as I'm working here or as long as Jeff is the owner of this place or Jared or anybody. We don't play those games. We actually argue all the time over the $799 fee. And if we didn't have a lot of uh, you know, residual notes that come out for financing and everything else to cover those charges, then we would be lower than that. But um, we're significantly lower than everybody else.

[00:05:07]And like I said, the fees game is just not what we do here. And any RV dealer or car dealer that you go to, the sales price is one thing, but I would really, you know, drill them down. When you go into that finance office, that's when you really need to pay attention. when you're going to sign because the salesman can quote numbers out on the lot, but these are the real numbers that you're on the hook for when you're signing. And a dock fee has been standard everywhere I've gone. I, you know, car dealers, I remember when it went from 200 to 500. I know there's dealers locally charging at least $1,000 for their dock fee and then they throw another dealer prep fee, you know, just another thousand bucks out of every coach or whatnot. So, definitely pay close attention to those fees cuz that's all smoke and mirrors. Now, there is other stuff that you do sell here in the finance office. Um, I'm not a fan of a lot of this stuff, but you know, everyone has a difference of opinion. I know some people do like extended warranty. I personally don't like extended warranties, but I want to go over some of the fees here. So, the service contract for $2,777.17.

[00:06:11]I'm assuming that's an extended warranty. That's literally over 10% of the value of the vehicle. Is that normal?

[00:06:20]>> So, it it depends. This is another I'm glad you're bringing this up cuz there's so many different angles to this. Okay.

[00:06:25]So, if you're not in the state of Florida, primarily the majority of your other states, you're allowed to, you know, raise the price of those warranties to however you like. In the state of Florida, they're controlled and whatever you set it to in the beginning is what you're stuck with, you know, for your duration of being in finance. If you want to remit a change, you have to remit through the state for those changes. But in this sense, on a a travel trailer that's 22 grand, I think that's a little steep on that warranty.

[00:06:54]You know, maybe >> that's 10% of the value of the vehicle.

[00:06:56]Like we just filmed a bunch of coaches out there that are, you know, three $400,000.

[00:07:02]We're playing with more luxury coaches, but those at that same, you know, price point, it'd be like 30 $40,000 extended warranties. Are you, you know, if you're at 10% of the value of the vehicle, are you selling warranties back here for 30, 40,000 bucks?

[00:07:17]>> Absolutely not. We could sell an entire VIP package in our finance department and stay in between 15 and 25 depending on the coach that they buy.

[00:07:26]>> 15 and $25,000.

[00:07:27]>> Yes.

[00:07:28]>> And I personally, hey, everyone does it differently. I recommend people save and Brad's gonna Bradley's gonna have a different opinion, but I think people should save that money, keep it in their pocket, negotiate with cash. There's other people out there the school of thought if they have a catastrophic um issue or I know some people like the service department you called the service technician and and asked him about it and he was saying well with the service with an extended warranty you know if we were you know switching a compressor on an AC unit and billing a customer for it if you're building an extended warranty company they may just service the whole AC unit or or they may just replace the whole AC unit. So that could definitely be debated, but I think 10% of the value of the vehicle for an extended warranty is absolutely absurd.

[00:08:18]Would you agree with that?

[00:08:19]>> Yeah, let me and let me elaborate on what I said. When I say the full VIP package, that's every warranty that you could possibly get to fully protect the coach.

[00:08:28]>> Okay. We haven't even gotten started on all the stuff they sell this guy. We'd be up to 50%. you'd be selling you'd be selling $200,000 VIP warranty packages if you were on the same percentage as these guys.

[00:08:38]>> Before I came here, um you know, the last company I worked for was really great and they had good integrity with their customers, but there was some senses to where my job was to sell the products and when I would sell those products, I go home at night sometimes just feeling bad because like, you know, for instance, I was glancing over here while ago, you know, selling tire and wheel.

[00:08:59]>> Oh, yeah. We'll we'll we'll get in there. Yeah. So, let's let's look. So, so let's go through here. Now, you have a gap waiver, an environmental waiver, but you brought up the tire and wheel. I mean, you've got a lot of stuff here.

[00:09:10]Let's go line by line through this.

[00:09:11]We're going to get to tire and wheel.

[00:09:13]Um, but gap waiver, what what's the gap waiver? What do you think of that? Do you sell those here?

[00:09:18]>> We do, but I mean, I'm looking here and I'm noticing that it's $13.95 for a travel trailer. I mean, >> that's 5% of the value of the vehicle, of $23,000. they probably wouldn't need gap insurance if they weren't getting sold 10 grand worth of aftermarket stuff on a $22,000 uh contract here. And you know, gap insurance, just to explain it to you guys out there, it's basically a policy where say you do have a catastrophic uh accident where the vehicle is a total loss and say you owe $300,000 on that coach, but it's only worth 250 and your insurance is only willing to pay out 250. That gap insurance is going to cover that additional $50,000.

[00:10:02]So, if you're upside down and you're buried and you have negative equity, that would be the only time that someone would need gap insurance.

[00:10:09]>> Absolutely, Andrew. I've been here for, you know, quite some time now and I can count on one hand how many gap insurance policies that I've sold. I mean, our units are in such an advance and they're such good priced and our customers are, you know, they come in with quality down payments, quality trades that have equity in them. So, we don't really touch on that a lot. Now, it's more for the customers that do roll over the negative equity that are payment buyers and they can afford the coach's payment, but they can't necessarily just afford to buy the coach >> or or if something catastrophic happened, they wouldn't want to pull 50 grand out of pocket. And I think we are seeing more and more folks with negative equity during that COVID boom, the RV industry was uh was really >> holding strong on gross and then we've seen some depreciation in the last couple years. So, there's some people with some serious negative equity that may have to lean on GAP insurance.

[00:10:59]>> I regardless of the the negative equity or not, charging $13.95 for a $22,000 travel trailer for GAP is insane.

[00:11:08]>> What do you charge like if you you know, >> you can buy a $700,000 bus off our lot and it's 1,500 bucks.

[00:11:14]>> And how much gap was that what what will that cap at? Like 50 grand or 100 grand?

[00:11:18]There's got to be a cap on that policy.

[00:11:20]>> So, yes. Um, most of your coaches and and let me back up a little bit. Most of your coaches once you hit that $400,000 mark, gap's typically not allowed on it just because of the level of depreciation. So, the sweet spot for your gap's going to be about 250 and lower to be honest with you.

[00:11:37]>> Okay. I don't recommend being negative equity on a coach, you know. Um, I don't want to tell people how to spend their money, but I'm personally more of a um, you know, I'd rather not I don't want to ever be overextended and I wouldn't want to see people overextended. These are luxury toys. You know, at the end of the day, they're luxury toys. So, I don't recommend people overextend themselves, but, you know, gap insurance, I'm not I don't I'm I'm not going to really have an opinion on that either way. But, let's go through this other stuff here.

[00:12:07]Now, the environmental I don't know what this is. It's environmental for $1,395.

[00:12:13]The same price as the Gap Waver. What do you think that 1,400 bucks was for?

[00:12:17]>> Uh, when I see environmental, it's like Paint and Fab, um, Eco, something like that. I mean, it's a small trailer. I think 1,300 is a little steep on a little small travel trailer. You know, if they were selling this policy for right at a,000 bucks, $999, then I could understand because not only does the people believe in the products, but at the end of the day, the people that do believe in them, the warranties that come with them are supposed to validate that. But that's still a little steep for a travel trailer. I mean, >> it's a gel coat. It's not even full body paint at that. So, how >> if it's sticking 10 and it's not even fiberglass, I don't know why they're putting it on there. And what I mean, I come from the detail world, so it's not like it's an insurance policy. Like I there's only so much stuff a detailer can do. I think that that's a total BS.

[00:13:05]I mean, I don't think there's any reason. I don't I I think it's totally BS. Now, on a full body, >> I would have never sold that to that travel trailer customer.

[00:13:12]>> Yeah, it's we we'll leave it at that.

[00:13:14]And I'm going to make a statement here in a little bit that may ruffle some feathers of some folks out there, but I'm not I'm not afraid to double down.

[00:13:20]And if I truly believe something's right or wrong in my heart, I'm going to I'm going to call it how I see it. Um, we may ruffle some feathers here in a second. So, uh, the tire and wheel for $1695.

[00:13:32]I mean, just highway robbery. Whoever this customer is, I feel extremely terrible for it's a travel trailer. I mean, everybody has a tire connection and that you're talking about a 50 to a $75 tire. If it blows $1,700, they'll never use that amount of money over the span of this contract.

[00:13:50]>> You could replace your tires like I mean I think it's a single it's probably a single axle travel trailer. So there's at the most four tires. Um I mean you could I like that's that's insane. You know for hundred more dollars we do seven to 10 tires and the rims for our diesel pushers and one tire blows and the rim goes with it. It's going to cost you know almost double that. I mean, it's just a travel trailer is ridiculous.

[00:14:15]>> A set of tires for a diesel pusher motor home is grand.

[00:14:19]>> A set of tires for a travel trailer is is probably under a,000 bucks at the very most. How much do you sell? And I don't >> 1,750 bucks.

[00:14:27]>> I would feel much better if I did get a $1,000 tire, but I I still am of rather than spending that 1,700 bucks, I'd rather keep that 1,700 in my pocket to give $100 bills to a guy on the side of the road if I need. But that's my personal opinion. this circumstance, I'm I'm inclined to agree with you.

[00:14:43]>> Yeah. Now, um highway robbery here, and this is Bish's RV, so we are calling them out here. Um now, the RV assistance package, it seems like a lot of this stuff is kind of repetitive. What the heck is RV assistance for 1,400 bucks?

[00:14:57]>> I'm going to go out on a limb and state that that's probably a roadside assistance policy. Um, >> but you can get one from uh >> if you're buying a travel trailer or a fifth wheel, your insurance policy usually covers what's being towed behind it. So, if your truck breaks down or the RV breaks down, don't let them tell you any different. You know, I I've ran into this before where I had a flat on one of my travel trailers and I called Progressive and they came and helped me and it wasn't even it was just attached to my coach. So, you know, maybe selling a roadside assistance. The only time I would see this beneficial whatsoever on this deal specifically would be if you're a first-time, you're scared to death.

[00:15:35]>> You don't know what you're doing. You're you're an old person, you know.

[00:15:38]>> Yeah. But for $1,700, you could get a good Sam or what's the other one that everyone used to go with?

[00:15:45]>> Coachet Coachet. Good Sam.

[00:15:46]>> Like 300 bucks or something.

[00:15:48]>> You have um >> I think Good Sam is >> assist like stuff like that. You know, it's $300 a year, but $1,300 for a $22,000 travel trailer. Again, this it's highway robbery. So, >> and true. I'm glad we don't sell tables here.

[00:16:02]>> No. And and you know, I'm very thankful because, you know, with all of you guys subscribing to this YouTube channel, I've had the luxury of kind of choosing who I work with, and I turn away a lot of people. I mean, we only work with the best of the best. We've worked with the top 10 luxury motor coach manufacturers.

[00:16:17]So, like, my integrity, I have to I I can't sacrifice my integrity. I was always told it takes a lifetime to gain a reputation and one wrong decision to ruin it. And I don't ever want to be involved with any of this nonsense of these crazy fees. You know, we deal with mostly the two three million dollar stuff, but I'm very impressed with the way you guys do stuff here at RV Select.

[00:16:38]But I do have to say like with Bish's RV, I don't think that Josh is a bad guy. I think he's a very nice guy. But to write a service contract like this and feel like you're not doing something kind of shady, you either don't have integrity or you're ignorant. One or the other. So either I mean would you agree with that?

[00:17:01]>> I I mean every customer that comes through these doors, I tell them when I look them in the face, I'm like, "Look, this is what you need if you're going to buy some stuff. This is what you don't need." You know, all products aren't good products. All products aren't made for everybody. Um, so I do agree with that because that that $25,000 contract that they might sell across the street, I'm going to sell it to you for eight grand. I mean, Andrew don't believe in back-end products. I do. Uh, we're both we've we've come to an agreement on that part. But what I will tell you is if you are, you know, a product buyer and you do like warranties and you like the extra protection and it makes you feel better, then there's no better place to come than here because we're going to treat you like a customer. we're not going to rip your head off because we want your future business. And when you come back in to trade it and and and you're upside down, what does it look like I did to you? You know, so integrity is everything and that's what we strive to be here is integral and and we want to make sure that, you know, we take care of our customers. But from the looks of this, I feel bad for whoever bought that travel trailer, Andrew.

[00:18:01]>> Well, and with the internet, you know, someone could do the same exact thing to us. They could take a camera, someone could go buy a coach from RV Select, have this same contract that you wrote and be in a in a YouTube video. So, you know, with the internet and with social media right now, I think it's really exposing some of these shady tactics.

[00:18:17]And I don't think Josh the RV nerd is a bad guy. I think he's great, you know, like RV Wingman says, I think he's great at, you know, showing the coaches, but sometimes like when we're out showing the coaches for these different dealers and we're just talking about the product, we don't know what happens here in the back office. Correct. And I think, you know, for Bish's RV to do this to this customer, um, I I wouldn't do business with them personally. They could not pay me enough money to come make a YouTube video and and promote them in my opinion. And that's I have no skin in the game. I don't really know much about them, but I think this is absolutely wrong what they did to this customer. And that's that's my take on it.

[00:18:55]>> Well, doing stuff like this to customers is the reason that customers have a bad taste in their mouth about the industry in a whole. Um, you know, I remember being on the sales floor and I'd have customers come in, I'm not buying today.

[00:19:06]Uh, I'm not financing. I'm not doing this. I'm not doing that. And you know, I was patient and understood it, but I never really understood it until I got in the position that I'm in because I can see with these deals that coming in on trades, you know, and these warranty cancellations. I'm just starting to understand like how bad people take advantage of these customers. And this is supposed to be something that, you know, you enjoy with your family. You're not making an investment when you buy an RV. Everybody in the country knows that.

[00:19:33]If if they say that you are, they're lying to you. Um, you know, but you can't put a price on the memories that you make with these things in your family and you have accidents, you know, and whether you choose to pay out of pocket or be protected on that, that's on you. But, you know, stuff like this takes the fun out of it because now when this poor person comes and trades this RV in, wherever they trade it in, they're going to think that the dealership's ripping them off. And it wasn't the dealership, it was whoever did the financing on this, took full advantage of this customer.

[00:20:01]>> And that's what this channel's all about. We're trying to be as transparent as possible, help you guys through the buying process as much as possible. I mean, we're I know we're always trying to, you know, look at the $3 million coaches and the coolest coaches, but at the end of the day, helping educate buyers is really the reason that I started this channel. So, I know you and I, we we, you know, and it's not we have disagreements on stuff, and it's, you know, some of this stuff is not black or white, but everybody has their own opinion. But Bradley, really appreciate you. Any final thoughts about uh RV Wingman or Bish's RV on this whole deal?

[00:20:33]>> I mean, I could say so much that I'm not going to say, but I will tell you this. Um, whether you buy from us or not, my phone line's always open. You know, please call me. I'll give you the best advice I possibly can coming from somebody that's going to do right by you and not somebody that's just trying to take advantage of you because there's no benefit of me helping a customer that's buying from another dealership. But um Andrew, you know, he works beside us and and does videos and stuff.

[00:20:59]>> Yeah. And if you want to talk to me, um I do not want to put my phone number out there, but you can always you can schedule a consult call at rvingwithandrewsteel.com.

[00:21:08]And I do enjoy some of the uh the consult calls there. But absolutely, >> Bradley, really appreciate your time, sir. And um you know, no hard feelings.

[00:21:15]I probably lost a lot of RV YouTuber friends out there because I know a lot of the RV YouTubers were really backing up Josh at Bishes, but I got to call it how I see it. So, got to keep it real for you guys. So, >> but Andrew, at the end of the day, man, what you're doing is something nobody else is willing to do. You're just you're speaking the ugly truth in existence and you're explaining to the the customers and the quality buyers that are, you know, future buyers that, you know, this can be fun and what's not fun is just taking advantage of people.

[00:21:42]So, it's really honorable that you're doing what you're doing and I'd greatly appreciate working beside you, man. Hey, we really appreciate the opportunity likewise and appreciate all of you out there liking, sharing, and following.

[00:21:53]Uh, and if you want to see see their inventory, you can check out rvs selectsales.com. This is not a sponsored video. This is we're just hanging out here at RV Select today. But I got to give you guys a plug. Appreciate you, Bradley. Thank you, buddy.