We took a chance on Outdoorsy for the very first time and rented Walter for our one-week road trip to Yellowstone (6/21 - 6/30).While our vacation ended 3 weeks ago, we’re still dealing with the headache of renting Walter via Outdoorsy. We’re sharing our experience so that if you do decide to rent from Outdoorsy you can take measures to ensure you don’t end up spending a lot of money on a bad travel experience and then chasing Outdoorsy to make it right.Upon checkout, Walter had a list of idiosyncrasies and minor damage from previous renters that had not been fixed. Roya told us to ignore the scratches to the top of the van saying that lots of people forget how tall the van is. Checkout was loose and rushed. I was okay renting a van that wasn’t in perfect condition that needed TLC and “patience” as Roya described it. We hit the road with confidence because we’d purchased the Rest in Peace insurance from Outdoorsy ($500 extra!).Here’s the list of issues—with the van, with the owners, and with Outdoorsy:
The inside panel on the sliding door fell off as soon as we got the van home to pack for our trip. We were able to snap it back into place but the sliding door was tough to open and close.. We stopped using the door two days in. A real hassle with 4 of us traveling in a van with only 2 working doors. We showed the panel issue to Patrick when we returned the van. He said it was okay, thought they could fix it.The first day we were driving, the kitchen sink faucet mysteriously turned on while we were driving. We pulled over on the side of the highway and used towels to soak up the water. We were too afraid to use the sink during our trip so we stuffed a dry towel for the duration of our trip. We never used the stove top. Upon return, I shared with Patrick and remembered there was standing water in the sink when we checked out the van. Roya had used a paper towel to dry it up. I recommended having the faucet looked at.The battery died repeatedly. Roya insisted we must be leaving something plugged in. When the van would no longer start with a jump, I contacted Outdoorsy Roadside Assistance. The first representative couldn’t understand the situation. Someone else from Outdoorsy called back and wasn’t helpful: they recommended we take the van to a Mercedes dealership and didn’t know where one was. We were in the middle of nowhere, Montana. The nearest dealership was 3 hours away. Our goal was to get back on the road as fast as possible so we decided to use our own AAA membership to tow the van to a local mechanic. Turned out the battery had a faulty connection that needed to be repaired. D&D Auto fixed it for $97.20.A copy of the battery repair invoice was provided when we returned the van on 6/30. Patrick jotted down a note that we would be fully refunded for one day. Two weeks after we returned Walter, Outdoorsy finally refunded us the money for the battery repair. This only happened after I emailed Jeff Cavins (CEO) & Nino Cavenecia (VP Customer Operations). I had to guess at their email addresses because Customer Support told me they were not “at liberty” to give me their emails. In case you need it, use their first name @outdoorsy.co. As of this post, Outdoorsy has still not refunded us for the one travel day we lost to the battery issue.When we returned the van on 6/30 (much cleaner than when we received it), we did the walk through with Patrick not Roya who did checkout. The van was parked in direct sunlight, and Patrick noticed a set of scuffs down the driver’s side. That was the first time we’d seen them! They appeared superficial given they did not break the surface of the paint. Patrick said he thought they might buff out. Beyond the battery repair which I paid for, the scuffs were the only issue we agreed would be claimed.Roya then messaged that the sliding door was broken and no longer locked. I explained the issues with the door during our trip and the fact we stopped using the door altogether.I filed a claim with Outdoorsy that night for the battery repair (with invoice) and a request for the one day refund (with a photo of the document that included Patrick’s note). This kicked off a lot of email back and forth with Outdoorsy Customer Support—back and forth that’s still going on as of this post.I asked Roya to get an estimate for the scuffs down the driver’s side before the van was rented out again. Instead, here’s what happened: The van was rented out on 7/1 (with a broken door?). Roya filed a claim for damages on 7/2 with a longer list of damages:1. There is a deep scratch running almost the entire length of driver's side of the vehicle. It covers multiple panels, as well as the wheel well cover. It looks as though they scraped the van along something while driving or parking.
2. there are multiple scratches running the entire length of the van on the passenger side, on the upper portion of the van. The scratches are on the fiberglass, so this portion is not replaceable, and the paint wraps the entire top, so the entire top of the van would need to be repainted in order to match properly.
3. The sliding door was bent downward, as though someone or something was hanging on it. As such, the door was unable to be shut and locked properly. As a result of the door being bent, the locking mechanism that lets the car know that every door is shut, is now broken too.
4. The 2nd burner on the stove top is broken because there is water in the propane line, which came from overflowing the sink.
5. There is some sort of engine issue, but I'm not sure what it is exactly. When in neutral and idling, the engine will sound totally fine, and then all of the sudden it will start making a "revving" type of noise for no reason, which will last for 30-45 seconds or so, and then it will go away. After a few minutes, it comes back again. I would need a mechanic to inspect it in order to truly know what is going on.After the van was rented by someone else, Roya provided photos on 7/9 and the estimate was conducted on 7/10, which included different and more new damages:1. Rear lamps?
2. Rear bumper?
3. Overside cover/bag?
4. Awning?We are confused and surprised by the owner's claims.In Nino’s (VP of Operations) last email on Wed, 7/17, he wrote, “So for now, we will say $900 is the very least we'll be refunding but we are working on increasing that amount. Once I hear back from Chris in the next few hours, I will update this thread with the exact amount.”It’s now days later, and I haven’t heard back from Outdoorsy.
