Georgianne

We are sorry you experienced a delay in hearing back about this issue. We were unaware that you hadn’t heard back from them directly, so thank you for keeping us in the loop about your ongoing experience. After being alerted about this again and following up, they informed us today that they have reviewed the issue and would like to reach out to you directly for the inconvenience you experienced. I've sent you a private message to get your email address, to ensure SafeRide has the correct address for contacting you. Thanks for your patience, and again, our apologies that you had a poor experience with the Roadside Assistance program. We hope that this will not be the case in the future. And for others reading this, if you experience issues with SafeRide's service, please let us know in addition to reaching out to SafeRide by emailing us at clubbusiness@escapees.com. While we cannot research the details ourselves, we can reach out to our contacts at SafeRide, and ensure your situation has reached the correct people for research and resolution. This also helps us track what kinds of concerns come up most often to inform future discussions. Thank you!

We're sorry to hear about your experience with the Roadside Assistance program. This is certainly not the level of service SafeRide, nor Escapees, wishes for their customers to have. We've contacted our representative at SafeRide and asked them to look into your issue. We're hopeful they will be able to address this appropriately and reach out to you directly.

I think there may be some confusion between Escapees RV Parks and SKP Co-op Parks. The 8/4 rule only applies to Escapees RV Parks. If a co-op adopts something similar, that is up to them, but their day-to-day operations are handled by their respective co-op boards and staff. The Terms and Conditions portion of each of our Escapees RV Park websites is where you'll find more information about the stay limits. This only applies to temporary stays, not annual leases. "Monthly/Weekly/Daily Rental: visitors may renew at the monthly, weekly, or daily rate for no longer than 8 consecutive months. After 8 consecutive months, the visitors must leave the park for at least 4 months." Regarding others' comments about shuffling guests around- that has been more prevalent in the past, but in recent years, we have moved away from doing that. We no longer move existing guests around the park to accommodate "squeeze-in" reservations for longer-term guest reservations.

Hi all! Popping in to help clear up a few things. Sadly, yes, we lost Lou Petkus a few years ago, relatively suddenly. In his absence, a couple who were active in the BOF stepped up and took leadership, and are the contact you see now in the magazine. I reached out to our chapter/BOF Directors, Jimmy and Lockie Sailer, for more information on the overall situation. Since taking over the BOF, life events have led Brock and Janine to come off the road for the foreseeable future, and we received confirmation today that they are no longer able to lead the BOF. Lockie is now reaching out to the BOF members to see if there is interest from another member in taking leadership of the group. Regarding the Facebook group, it is a legitimate group. It was created before many of the Facebook group admin tools existed, so I presume Lou had his own way of verifying membership. Currently, it is still active with posts from members. Once a new leader steps up, the Escapees marketing team will work with that person and Lockie and Jimmy to help them resolve the concern over the open FB group. If leading this BOF sounds appealing to you, please reach out to Lockie and Jimmy at chapterdirectors@escapees.com. TLDR: The Facebook group is still valid and the BOF still exists. Our Chapter/BOF Directors are seeking a new leader for the BOF so we can get information updated on all fronts.

In today's Member News email newsletter, we ask members what they (you) enjoy about RVing in the fall. We'd love to hear your favorite things in the comments below!

The updated policy that was shared with affected event attendees is as follows:

Rynosback is correct. The discount park directory is only online now, though you can download or print the list for offline use when needed. https://member.escapees.com/benefits/discountparking/discountparkdirectory/ You can also use the interactive version here https://member.escapees.com/map/ You can input your starting and end points and set the radius to see what all parks along your route offer discounts to Escapees members, as well as fellow members who offer parking on their private property. (You'll have to be logged into your Escapees account to see all of the listings, as the Parking with SKPs options are not visible to the general public.) We stopped publishing the paper version of the directory for the same reason listed- parks change management and ownership so often that in the weeks between submitting the final version for printing and distributing it to members, the information in it was already outdated for some parks. We used to publish a mid-year update and send it with the magazine, which helped, but still didn't resolve the issue. To offer a more consistent, and accurate, experience, we moved the directory to online only. When we're notified of a change in park policy, we reach out to the park to update or remove their listing ASAP. If you run into a park that no longer offers an Escapees discount, you can send that information to our Member Services Team at clubbusiness@escapees.com and it will be assigned to someone to review and address. In case you weren't aware, there are other parking discount options available to Escapees members, too. https://daysenddirectory.com/#/ lists free and inexpensive camping options such as boondocking spots, privately owned land, etc https://member.escapees.com/members/discounts/ lists the other camping programs that offer discounts to Escapees members (you'll have to be logged into your member account to see the details on discount codes, etc.) Just use the search tool to pull up "Campgrounds & Resorts."

I have an answer! As suspected (and promised) your Escapees Roadside Assistance policy (which is serviced by Saferide/VAS) does include all vehicles under the same policy. The only exception to this is what I mentioned previously regarding MDT & HDT tow vehicles that have sleeping quarters. Those specific tow vehicles need a policy of their own, per VAS. Roadside assistance is roadside assistance- as long as your vehicle isn't included in the exception above, it gets the same coverage as your RV, your towed vehicle, and/or any other vehicle under your ERA policy. If for some reason you are told otherwise when trying to make a claim, ask for a supervisor or call back and speak with someone else. Keep notes of what you're told, and copies of your receipts/invoices. Customer service representatives can and do make mistakes, but VAS will make it right. Each call is recorded, and when they learn that something was handled incorrectly, they pull the recording to review the situation and do their best to make it right for the customer.

Checking in to update that we are still working on this answer with VAS. Between our own office closures due to hurricanes and other scheduling conflicts, we haven't been able to connect with their president just yet. We hope to have an answer on this soon! I will check back in once we do

You are correct, Kirk.

Good morning! To answer the question about tow vehicle coverage- our CEO is reaching out to the president of VAS (parent company of Saferide who services our roadside assistance program) for clarification. The only exception to tow vehicle coverage that we are aware of is if your tow vehicle is a medium-duty or heavy-duty truck which has it's own sleeper cabin. In those cases, they must carry their own policy per VAS, in addition to the policy on the trailer. Now to the overarching concern- The majority of the complaints we learn about stem from uninformed customer service staff. Each time we learn of a poor customer experience, we go directly to our contacts at VAS to open a discussion and work on a resolution if possible. When VAS has made a mistake, they do their best to make it right with their customer, our member. Sometimes, the lack of service comes from members misunderstanding their coverage, though, which is tougher to resolve as smoothly. In each case, VAS tries to resolve the concern directly with the member. Because of this, we don't always learn the details of the outcome, and due to the personal nature of some, we don't post them publicly even when we are involved. Please know, though, that we would not continue promoting a service to our members which we knew to be subpar or intentionally misleading. We respect the trust our members have in this organization we have built together. To put this in perspective, more than 1000 Escapees members have subscribed to roadside assistance through our program (which is serviced by Saferide). While poor customer service is not ok, and is especially frustrating when you're stuck on the side of the road or in another stressful situation, it isn't the typical experience for the majority of Escapees members who use our roadside assistance program.

Thank you for the update! My apologies for the delayed response- we followed up with them regarding your complaint and were waiting for them to complete their research into the issue. It appears they reached out to you directly, instead Please know we are still working with them to resolve the miscommunication that led to your experience in the first place.

I'm so sorry to hear about your experiences, @daveandmary. From your comments, you're right- your experience doesn't align with the service promised. I've notified our CEO about your situation so he can follow up with our liaison at SafeRide to see what's going on, and will let you know as soon as I hear back. You're welcome to send me a message with any additional details, if you'd like. Thank you for sharing, and I hope we can help make this right for you.

I'm the Communications Director for Escapees, and want to chime in to let you know that I've seen and shared your comment with our board. This is not my area of expertise, so to avoid giving you inaccurate information, I've sought their input. I'll let you know what I find out. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!

I shared the discussion here with our CEO, Shawn Loring, who leads our advocacy efforts, among many other things. From what he shared with me below, he and others in our leadership are trying to work with the local Census administrator to determine the best way to approach this situation honestly and with accuracy. The response below is from Shawn: "Please know we maintain that our members are establishing a domicile, not a residence, when they use our mail forwarding service to connect with an area. The rules of the 2020 Census discussed in this forum allude to a residence—where one sleeps at night. Establishing and maintaining domicile requires active engagement with a chosen county/community. And, when one establishes and maintains a proper domicile, we contend that they should be counted, in the census, in that area. We are attempting to contact the local 2020 Census administrator to have our members’ counted."

I reached out to our parks management team to make sure I had my information correct before sharing it: Rainbow Parks managers are promoted not hired. They are trained by our in-house trainer after they have worked as a host and or workcamper. Regarding the leash issues- my suggestion is that you speak with an on-site park staff member when you encounter that problem. It is much more effective to address the individual situation than to issue a blanket statement to all parks and park guests. As you pointed out, many follow the rules as expected. Also, people don't always realize they're pushing the limits of the rules and as such, assume that general reminders don't actually apply to them (since they don't think they're breaking a rule).

I highly recommend you call Escapees headquarters to get more definitive answers to your questions. They are more familiar with RVers in situations like yours, and can also connect you to an attorney who deals with domicile/residency/small business concerns related to RVing. 936-327-8873 Sidenote- yes, you typically can use your Rainbow Drive address as your business address, too, but you need to let them know when you set up your account. There are some procedures they handle differently to help accommodate that particular need.

Yes, both Escapees and FMCA use Saferide as their roadside assistance. I can't speak to how FMCA got their member rate. However, the only way we would be able to get our cost (to the member) down to match their rate is by subsidizing it with other members' dues, which we won't do. We don't expect all members to pay into something only a portion of members want to use.

This is correct. With Saferide, a single policy will cover all of your motorized vehicles EXCEPT it only covers one vehicle w/sleeping quarters. So, if you pull your 5th wheel with a medium duty truck that has a sleeper cab, you will need a separate policy for each the 5th wheel and the tow vehicle. I'm happy to see they gave you the correct information the first time, as there was some confusion with this when we first started with Saferide.

Hi all! Thank you for your feedback about ERA. To get caught up on the current conversation: 1) Thank you for the request to include the fine print on the website. I'm currently at Escapade, and believe Ed Thor will be here as well. I'll meet with him to discuss some of the general concerns I've read here and elsewhere, and will see about getting the fine print to add to our resources. Our CEO, Shawn, is also here and will likely have a more in-depth conversation about the success of our partnership so far. 2) I have been in touch with GaryN about addressing his situation. Ed has been informed, too, and we're working together to get Gary a resolution. 3) I appreciate all of you who have considered ERA, even if you opted to go with another company. Please keep your feedback coming- we can't make a program better if we don't know it's weak points.

Also, we've had members asking in other forums "why the difference in price between Escapees and FMCA?" and "why leave Coach-Net?" In case you're curious about either of these as well, here is the answer that was shared with someone earlier today: We think it is important that you understand a little bit more about the history of this program and how it came to be. Roadside assistance services, such as Coach-Net, began to increase in price. Along with this, they no longer offered special membership services or special support. We felt the need to look elsewhere or create an alternative solution for the benefit of our membership directly. As such, we created a relationship with SafeRide in order to provide a roadside assistance program directly to our members. During the course of our negotiations with SafeRide, we negotiated the least expensive Roadside Assistance Service in the market. However, that changed when FMCA lowered their prices. Please know we pursued the best deal possible. The only way for Escapees to provide a cheaper rate would be for Escapees to directly subsidize the program. While this could be possible, it would mean increasing membership dues. This is not something we are comfortable doing because we understand that not all members would want to use the Escapees Roadside Assistance program. And, therefore, some members should not have to pay to cover the costs of others.

GlennWest- I'm not sure if the modifications you've made would change the way SafeRide categorizes your HDT. It may be worth a call to them to see.

I have an answer from Ed: This hardly ever comes up but there is no problem on medium duty because they do not usually have ‘sleeping quarters’. Some HD trucks do have ‘sleeping quarters’. It has been our policy that if the vehicle has sleeping quarters it is an RV and the towable unit is also an RV so 2 policies. Only 1 RV per policy. Still this combined cost of $189/yr is far below what they would pay in the marketplace. So, if your HDT also has a sleeper cab, you will need a second policy for it. If it does not, you are fine with a single policy.

Hi all! I hope I can help answer some of the questions I see floating around here, as well as any new ones you may come up with I hosted the webinar/interview with Ed Thor earlier this week. Most of the questions here were answered in that interview. You can review the FAQ that came out of that session here: https://www.escapees.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=498 First off- there is no ill will between Coach-Net and Escapees RV Club. We wanted to bring our own product to our members for a long time, and the opportunity finally arose to do so. Because we cannot legally promote our program and theirs per contracts, we had to break ties with Coach-Net. On comparing Good Sam, AAA, Coach-Net and others to Escapees Roadside Assistance- you will find that most of these programs offer the same benefits. Towing, jump-starts, technical assistance, mobile repair, trip interruption, etc are all standard offerings. What makes SafeRide different is the depth of coverage. Before repair centers can be considered 'qualified' by SafeRide, they have to pass a multi-point review that includes liability insurance, availability of equipment commonly needed for RV repairs, etc. There is no cap on the number of times you can request assistance, unlike other companies. SafeRide is also more willing to 'meet in the middle' when a member needs help outside of SafeRide's typical services. I mentioned above the issue with Mexico and how SafeRide can take over from the border. They will also do things like tow you to an RV park for the weekend when you've broken down after hours on Friday, then pick you up and tow you to the repair center on Monday, all covered by your policy. Regarding Cheifneon's Alaska experience, I can't say for sure how SafeRide would handle it. Though it doesn't feel good saying this, I understand why GoodSam didn't cover it initially. With most roadside assistance companies, they have agreements in place with service providers and they prefer to stick to those with whom they have an arrangement. I also understand why you did what you did, given the lack of cell signal. And, because their priority is safety, the officials needed to remove your rig from the roadway, so they took initiative to make it happen. Something similar happened to my husband a few years ago with a hit and run on Thanksgiving day- his disabled vehicle was in the middle of the highway and the officer called a tow company before he even spoke with my husband. Thankfully, after some persistence, our insurance company covered the tow. Typically, there is not a universal answer to situations like this, as they are the exception and not the norm. If you all have any other questions, feel free to take a look at the FAQ to see if they're answered there, or to shoot me a message. If I can't answer your question, I'll relay it to Ed for his input. Georgianne

Hi there! I am the marketing director for Escapees, and earlier this week, hosted a live interview with Ed Thor, the manager of RV services for SafeRide. SafeRide is the servicing company for Escapees Roadside Assistance. Allow me to apologize for the misinformation you received. The questions you asked above were posed to Ed during our interview, with different answers than what you told by our call center. I will share that with them. Also, depending on when you called, it may have been while the office was closed due to inclement weather last month. But to get to your questions- "Almost anywhere" refers to the fact that SafeRide does NOT cover Mexico. We at Escapees know our members enjoy traveling all over North America, and didn't want to mislead anyone. SafeRide will cover you from Alaska, through Canada, down to the Mexico border, but not across it. Per Ed, if you have a breakdown in Mexico and can get your vehicle or rig across the border, SafeRide can assist you from there. To support what our operator told you, the speed and efficacy of the service you request will be affected by the area in which you are stranded. As Ed pointed out, there are some extremely remote areas in our country which attract RVers. For example, you can travel for hours on highways through Montana and not see a hint of a town. SafeRide has also experienced difficulty in assisting members in some national parks, where the size of tow vehicle needed to assist you is prohibited within the park. They have still been able to help in those situations, but it wasn't a straightforward resolution. Regarding HDTs and MDTs- they are covered by SafeRide's services. Ed and I spoke about this in depth, both on and off the broadcast. In all of our conversation on the topic, he didn't once state that an additional policy would be needed. However, to confirm this, I'll reach out to him with the direct question and update you. I appreciate you sharing your concerns! Georgianne