Just want to let everyone who owns a Sundowner know about my current situation. In October of 2002, I purchased a 2001 leftover Sundowner Trail Blazer III 4H living quarters because Sundowner was offering a "voucher" back on the trailer. The deal was, you keep the trailer for three years and you send in some paperwork in a 7 day timeframe and this trust company in New York sends you X amount of dollars depending on the trailer you buy. In our case, we were to receive back $20,000.00 on our trailer since we have had it three years. We sent in all of the needed paperwork to this address in New York, and after a few weeks we received a letter from them complimenting us on our sending in the papers and that they were processing our voucher. On December 28, we received an envelope in the mail saying the Consumer Trust Corporation in New York had filed bankruptcy. We are in total shock. Today we contacted our Sundowner dealer (Sundowner of OKC) and they said they had also found this out and that the Missouri Attorney General has filed a suit against them and "froze" $10 Million of their money so far. They also informed us that we might, if we were lucky, receive around $3,000-$4,000. If anybody had bought a Sundowner using the voucher, please contact your dealer and find out as much as you can! This could cause serious problems for Sundowner if this really catches on and people find out....

If anyone else knows anything, please post and let me as well as others know what is going on! Mr. Truck and Mr. Trailer??? I think alot of us are needing some answers!

Sounds like one of those "too good to be true" situations. I had never heard of this voucher deal thing until now. Sounds absurd.

This is not Sundowner's fault and I really don't think it will cause "serious problems" for Sundowner.

I too looked at this "Voucher" deal.  It sounds like the same one.  As I figured it out, the Dealer paid "X" money to this trust company.  The dealer would then sell an inflated price trailer.  The buyer of the trailer would then get a trailer and this "Voucher" to claim a large refund amount in exactly 3 years.  The buyer though he was getting a $ 20 K trailer for $ 5 K after the voucher was paid.

 The sucker alarm sounded for me as I read the fine print. The actual trustee was "offshore", the  "testimonials" were foreign, (used words like "solicitor" ) and there were loop-holes if more people made claims than there was money available.

I sorry that you got taken.

Sundowner of Oklahoma is owned by Sundowner Corporate (John Shipman) They were involved with this store while this voucher scam was being sold.  I agree they bear some responsibility for letting it happen and knowing less than 2% ever collect. 

I was looking at a trailer several years ago and the dealer had a simialr scheme- buy it now, send in all paperwork in a few years to get your rebate. When I added it up, I saved nothing ( since I was financing the trailer I would be paying the interest cost on the whole purchase price.).It was a pretty silly idea so we passed. While I would agree Sundowner bears some responisblity,don't bet your life on any kind of settlement. I would seek some legal advice.

The program, I recall, was a 90 day program which Sundowner used to promote sales.  I don't know the details, but I have heard that corporate offices are aware of the situation and we should hear more details soon. 

I sit by and watch the people in these post jump at a chance to bash a certain brand the minute there is a problem, especially about Sundowners.

If people would shoulder some of the blame and responsibility and take the initiative to really explore the situations you get yourselves into maybe we wouldn't have these issues.

All trailers are going to have problems. All schemes are going to have an unhappy ending. You need to deeply investigate all areas before jumping in head first.

We finance with a company that has been very helpful and successful in getting customers financed with no schemes or strings attached. You have to admit that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is folks. The lure of money is an evil thing and we all have been sucked in at one time or another.

Has anyone received an e-mail from someone who had their 3 year old mare get a foot ripped off by what they called a design flaw in a gate of a lower end steel trailer? They are taking no responsibility in that maybe they shouldn't have put a horse in that kind of trailer to begin with. Maybe they tried to slam the gate on her.

Who knows, it is always easier to blame the other guy.

We are sorry for all misfortunes but we need to be accountable and realize that coffee is hot!

I think it is sad when any company, not just Sundowner relies on schemes like this to boost their sales. I know maybe that is the way big business works but not everyone reads the fine print like they should, and does get taken advantage of.

Very important reminder to read the fine print, don't believe everything the salesman says, do you homework, ask questions, if in doubt don't do it regardless of how good it seems.

We all live and learn, unfortunatly at a cost. Sometimes a very high cost. DK

I wish the world were filled with happy peaceful people who gave us everything when we need it. Every thing would be decided for us by wonderful men that had our best interests at heart.

Then we wouldn't have to think or be responsible for our decisions.

And everything would be perfect . . .

MI farmbabe ... You've put the whole discussion in a basket with the wish that the LIONS win a game.  If that were to happen, then some other team has LOST. 

My point is for the world to balance, everybody has to work at doing their best for their own interest.  (Including reading the fine print)   We all have competing interests.  The only thing that keeps us from killing each other is the rules or law we agree to live by. 

In the case of the voucher offer, I didn't see anything that was against the law, just not very favorable to me.

Deleted double post...

 I'm curious to hear there response!

No bash here...but if the shoe fits!... I'm just waiting for the facts! I'm sure all of us have read the fine print on our credit cards, auto insurance, and, warrentys. You really need to get a lawyer to read it to make sure!

Hard to believe that Sundowner of OK was involved with such a silly and obvious scheme, it's obvious what was happening, they were jacking up prices and profit margin even more than normal for Sundowner while leading the customer to believe they would end up better off so the mark up was no big deal.  While I agree something would have screamed illegal, scheme and fraud I can see why people want to believe in this things and fall victim to it.

 But.. to those who say Sundowner has no liability in this, Ahh come on half of the things Sundowner does is a scheme, why do you think those 30k trailers cost you 60k, advertising and schemes.  Like this year at the Riechert Celebration they paid a large sum of money to be the only barnd there, that's driving prices up.  This is still the most outrageous thing I've heard of though, I can't believe dealers were even stupid and greedy enough to push a scam like this, they are as fault as much as anyone, right up the chain.

I'll say this whole sorry epic was driven on both the trailer seller AND the buyer by GREED. 

The infamous Nigerian scam is still going strong because the scammers still find someone greedy enough to shut-down their common sense.  The buyers of these trailers had to know, in the back recess of their brain, this was a scam.  At best, a pyramid scheme, the first person gets paid from the later suckers. Eventually the whole thing collapses on the last poor suckers.

This whole thing is out of line unless Synco had a whole lot of hard facts or anyone for that matter who has pointed a finger right at Sundowner and placed blame.

This happened around three years ago for a limited time as Dave said. Sundowner was apparently approached by this finance company to promote the deal.

It would be no different than if your local bank offered you a great deal and then went bankrupt.

We all should explore the “to good to be true deals”. Yes, Even Manufacturers.

1. Banks that go bankrupt are insured buy FDIC...(maybe). And they are regulated up the yang for just this reason.

2. I suppose when the hanchos at Enron told there employes to BUY BUY!!!!! It is the deal of the lifetime....I suppose it was the employees fault they wanted to make money! There was greed all over the place! But one was a stinking stealing liar! Oh but thats OK! Stupid people! To good to be true!

I have no issues with the Mfg in question. They just don't build my type of trailer. But I have no room for any type of misleading shell game type DEALS! Yea buyer beware!...I agree but if you get stung by one it is kinda nice for the rest of us to hear about it. Buy looking at the view count 1760...!!! there are alot of people watching this exchange! I'm gonna wait for an explanation. Not critisize someone for accepting an apparent good deal in there eyes! But if they were hoodwinked I'd like to know!

CRK:
 This voucher concept was discussed at length by ALL the Sundowner mangers of the "Super Stores" which included: OKC, Tulsa, Ohio abd Florida, along with the vocher promoters, over 3 yrs ago . Everyone knew the "Deal" and the odd's, customer risks, rewards, etc. The rest of the local competing dealers tried to tell everyone the risks, but now you know the rest of the story(some didn't listen). I blame Sundowner dealership for launching this and using the "shell game" to take trusting customers for some extra money. Even though this was through a "dealership" not the Factory, they(Sundowner Corp.) knew of all the details and could have stopped this dealership from using this scam. CRK, I doubt your trailer dealership in Wyoming would be around very long if you did this, so backoff let the public speak. This is not bashing,this is fact!!

" Hard to believe that Sundowner of OK was involved with such a silly and obvious scheme, it's obvious what was happening . . ."

Yes, it is obvious and should have been obvious to the customer as well. It doesn't take much to see that the only reason to participate in such a deal is the hope of getting something for nothing.  Oh well, the state lotterys do very brisk business based on similar hopes.

Of course, nothing will be resolved on this board by all the commentary; nor should it be. It will provide fodder for those that feel the public should be protected from themselves (their own gullibility and/or stupidity) for weeks or months to come.

We have seen no "FACT" Duckman. Unless you are an ex-executive with Sundowner or the financial institution and have an insight to the story about something that happened apparently over three years ago you are blowin’ smoke too.

Sundowner has no control over a company going bankrupt.

If you ask me this post should be removed because it is bashing and borderline slander.

I'm surprised Dave hasn't stepped in.