Hey Chad (glad to see you still exist since Outdoorsy can’t find you to pay for the damages you caused!) -So sorry your rental didn’t work out how you planned.Let’s start with the facts - you requested a significant discount on our trailer because you were in a tough financial situation and needed to provide shelter for your family while you were visiting to help your Dad with some repairs on his house. Despite our concerns and against our better judgement, we decided to help you and your family out.You showed up in a vehicle not properly equipped to tow the trailer. Your father made unnecessarily rude comments about “how can we not have the right plug for towing” because the truck was easily 25 years old and from a time when vehicle manufacturers used a different style of plug. My husband spent over an hour (after working a 12 hour day) troubleshooting with multiple hitches on the vehicle you brought in order to find one that would allow you to adequately tow the trailer. During the entire rental handoff, you were smoking a cigarette. My husband and I informed you multiple times there is to be NO SMOKING in or around the trailer, and if it returned smelling like smoke you would be charged for a full detail. More on that later.In spite of your initial difficulties even getting it out of our driveway, the rental went forward and all was going fine. in fact you even asked to extend the rental because it was working out so well, and we had to decline because we had it scheduled in for servicing. After we declined to extend it, it became clear someone associated with your rental had rummaged through our trailer and found our personal documents. To be fair, this was an oversight on our part. Nevertheless, a respectful individual would have tucked the papers back where they were found and maybe let us know they were there so we could remove them, but that’s not what happened. Your father, or someone pretending to be your father, began texting my husband intimidating and threatening messages, calling us “scammers”, telling us our “trailer is a piece of sh*t” and demanding a full refund for your rental or you would call the police, the bank who financed our trailer, and our insurance carrier. The messages increased in hostility, and at that point I reached out to you via Outdoorsy saying based on these texts, you clearly are not satisfied with the trailer and that the rental wasn’t working out and that we were terminating the rental immediately. At first you apologized for the messages being sent, then denied knowing who sent the messages, followed by arguing, only agreeing to end the rental and return our trailer once I gave a hard deadline revoking your access to the trailer and informing you I would be calling the police to report it stolen if it wasn’t returned. We have screenshots of all of these communications, in their entirety.After exchanging messages, you agreed to return to our trailer to the agreed upon location no later than 4:00pm the following day; you failed to show, and failed to communicate. We didn’t hear from you until two days later when I messaged you again asking for the location of the trailer so we could retrieve it. You told us where you abandoned it. My husband and I spent four hours of our Saturday, driving two and a half hours, to retrieve it. We were escorted by Linn County Sheriffs deputies to make sure the trailer was in tact and there was no threat. A nearby camper also told us about your generous offer to sell our trailer to them for $20,000 if they could give you cash that same day. Classy.When we entered the trailer, we were hit instantly with the thick smell of cigarettes. Upon inspection, we discovered:A - someone had CLEARLY smoked in the trailer
B - There was a knife with the tip bent and burned black (consistent with drug use), a burned spoon, and brillo pads left to rust in the sink (have pictures of)
C - Both propane tanks were empty (have receipts for filling them)
D - Fridge was full of rotting produce (have pictures of)
E - Our electrical adapter was melted and not functioning.
F - Cupboard was full of open food, and one drawer was filled with open and spilled spices (have pictures/video of)
G - Microwave plate was black, as if something had been cooked too long and burned (have pictures/video of)
H - Every surface in the kitchen area was covered in a greasy film (have video of)
F - Memory foam mattress topper was missing (have pictures and video of)We immediately filed a dispute with Outdoorsy, who informed us you do not have personal auto insurance to cover the cost of a detail to get the odor out and replace our belongings. After providing Outdoorsy with the literal receipts from filling up our truck’s fuel tank, filling up the propane tanks, the mattress topper you STOLE, estimates for a full detail including smoke removal, along with the texts your father sent my husband and our messages, you stopped responding.The card you have on file also declined. Multiple times. Shocking.We went against our better judgement to help out a family (you have a small child, yes?) in need. We got burned and you have left us with no option other than to pursue legal action, simply to get our trailer back to the condition it was in before YOU rented and destroyed it. After you looked my husband and me in the eyes and told us you would “treat it as your own” and respect it.Owners - BEWARE. This renter does not have personal insurance to cover your trailer and the damage they cause. They will decline additional protection, then abandon your trailer and stop responding. Your trailer will come back smelling of cigarettes. Should you accidentally leave any personal information in your trailer, they will obtain whatever information they can and then use it to attempt to steal your identity (Funny, we NEVER applied for a payday loan…ever. Until you found our information, then suddenly we were applying for them multiple times per day). IF you choose to rent to them, make sure you take the time to protect yourself and your property by verifying their personal auto insurance, increase your deposit, and triple check your trailer for anything containing personal information.Chad - I look forward to our arbitration meeting and resolving this issue.
