My nightmare with Callen Campers

[18seeds]

awesome. Tamien contacted me (last night) after a nice email i sent. I forwarded them links to here and RV.net

 

[18seeds]

ohh wait she wrote back to me

here they are:
________________________________________________

Thanks for bring that to our attention. I'm going to get in touch with him and clear this up. We are not thieves by any means & we'll give him a refund or finish his camper...
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 8:03 PM
To: Tamia Callen
Subject: RE: You guys are a rip off


No but you better address situations that are arising on the internethttp://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/21745159.cfmhttp://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17491 This doesn't make you guys look good

--- On Wed, 8/6/08, Tamia Callen <Tami443@cox.net> wrote:

From: Tamia Callen <Tami443@cox.net>
Subject: RE: You guys are a rip off
To:
Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 8:59 PM

I've been in the office for the past week helping out...I"ve called back everyone I was supposed to...Sorry if we've missed returning your call. Does that make us a rip off?
-----Original Message-----
From: Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 3:34 PM
To: tami443@cox.net
Subject: You guys are a rip off



Take care of your customers. At least return their calls. It's a small industry and i hate it when i hear of bad business.

___________________________________

i guess i could have used nicer words but i was a little emotional at the time..haha

ROFSheriffHL:

Glad they are taking care of it.

 

[jeffryscott]

Welcome to expo, too bad you have had to deal with this.

Glad they are finally offering to make it "right" - but with them selling your shell out from under you after waiting so long, they could never make it right if I was the customer. That behavior is shameful and unforgivable.

Good luck getting it settled and moving on.

 

[Curmudgeon]

Glad they are taking care of it.

That remains to be seen. Saying it and actually doing it are two very different things. Up to this point they seem to have said a lot of things they never followed through with.

 

[donnyh]

After talking with Tammy Callen last night, I am completely satisfied they are no longer jerking me around, and are going to make things right.

They fully acknowledged their errors, explained the changes they've made to prevent such errors moving forward, they even issued a public apology at RVNet.

It's a shame things have dragged out this long, but in the end, it's going to work out without any courts, cops, or furthur ugliness, and that's a good thing.

Hey folks, thanks for all the support and kind words.

 

[theMec]

So what's your next step? What are you going to do for a camper shell?

I've been trading mails w/ Bel-Air (see above posts). I sent 3 questions, they answer 1 question. I sent 2 questions, they answer 1 question. I'm not getting a good feeling about them either.

If I could only find someone local to build a vertical side somewhat custom camper shell. Maybe I'll just build my own out of wood and rv windows - even though I'm hardly a great carpenter.

 

[Streakerfreak]

After talking with Tammy Callen last night, I am completely satisfied they are no longer jerking me around, and are going to make things right.

They fully acknowledged their errors, explained the changes they've made to prevent such errors moving forward, they even issued a public apology at RVNet.

It's a shame things have dragged out this long, but in the end, it's going to work out without any courts, cops, or furthur ugliness, and that's a good thing.

Hey folks, thanks for all the support and kind words.

That is fantastic!

 

[ntsqd]

So what's your next step? What are you going to do for a camper shell?

I've been trading mails w/ Bel-Air (see above posts). I sent 3 questions, they answer 1 question. I sent 2 questions, they answer 1 question. I'm not getting a good feeling about them either.

If I could only find someone local to build a vertical side somewhat custom camper shell. Maybe I'll just build my own out of wood and rv windows - even though I'm hardly a great carpenter.

Seems to me that all of the build techniques used in building teardrop trailers could be applied to building a camper. There is a fellow on this board who did build his own camper and I would recommend searching for Rob Gray's "Wothehellizat" (sp?). Rob's well documented build has a lot of valuable bits of info burried in it. Personally I would only use thin walled square steel tube for the frame.

 

[donnyh]

So what's your next step? What are you going to do for a camper shell?

I'm really interested in BelAir.

I will call them tomorrow, if they can go 48" tall and make it work with one of those bed supported roof racks, I'm all over it.

I need to get out camping, a lack of shell has been cramping my style so I really want to get something together ASAP, maybe in time for a good fall trip, say a couple of weeks around Moab in October.

If I don't like what I hear from BelAir, I'll order up one of those AREs, there is an ARE dealer here in my town.

 

[whatcharterboat]

Flaming Hole

Donnyh. As much as I love our outback, the pics you put up from Flaming Hole were postcard perfect. Going there was just added to my bucket list. So just a quick thanks for posting them. Goodluck with your camper back.

 

[donnyh]

Donnyh. As much as I love our outback, the pics you put up from Flaming Hole were postcard perfect. Going there was just added to my bucket list. So just a quick thanks for posting them. Goodluck with your camper back.

Thank YOU, I glad you liked them, here's some more, just for fun-

A couple of sunset shots at Upper Firehole-

This beach is so lonesome, I saw one other person in 3 days here, he was on land, my kayak was the only human activity I saw on the water-

It's about 40 miles miles back to paved road from here, and this is considered the "ugly" end of this lake, up this far into Wyoming it's more like a river, some 50 miles south of here into Utah the red rock walls rise, dotted with ponderosa pines, and tower over the lake, while the water gets deeper and deeper, around 400' deep at the southern end-

I did see dozens of antelope at this spot, along with otter, herons, pelicans, hawks, and this lake is loaded with fish, of which I caught very few, with this-

After a few days at Upper, I wandered the dirt roads down to Middle Firehole area-

So. Many. Camp. Spots. So. Little. Time.-

Somewhere out there is a spot called Lowes Bay-

Somewhere. Out there.-

Oh, here it is-

continued

 

[donnyh]

part 2

Crawfish are still plentiful here at Lowes, I caught these off the beach, soaked overnight, canned cat food for bait-

Please come and see Flaming Gorge, it's a big area, with a lot to offer.

The Uintas are very close to the Gorge, see em while your here, this is in August, it's over 100 degrees down the hill, but not up here-

One of those peaks may or may not be Kings Peak, the highest in Utah at 13,500'-

Closing with Sheep Creek Lake, North Slope Uintas-

 

[Sleeping Dog]

callen

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

I have been contacted by Callen Campers, they want to make things right, please stand by.

Funny how a bit of bad publicity gets attention.

 

[Overdrive]

Hi donnyh- Welcome to Expo!

I love your truck, used to have one like it, have been kicking myself since selling it. IMHO, it is the best foundation for building an expedition truck in the price class: No electronics controlling the engine, which will go a million miles without an overhaul. Super stout drivetrain. Gotta love the 20-22 mpg as well!

Have you checked out Caravan Campers? They are a welded steel frame, will carry a load on top, and will last as long as your truck. You'd see them on government vehicles in Nevada, as they are manufactured in Reno. Been in business since 1955. Great top, check them out.

Scott

 

[donnyh]

Well, I got my parts and some money back from Callen, so this story isn't quite over.

I did get a new shell from BelAir, here's the thread:http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=277378#post277378