LARGO, Fla. (WFLA) — Two more victims have stepped forward to complain about Largo’s Consignment RV.
This follows an 8 On Your Side investigation into why a woman’s bank loan was not paid off by the company, even though it sold her RV three months ago and collected more than $150,000.
This time, a couple says their RV was sold and they were owed $135,000. They say they weren’t paid for the RV and ended up taking it off their consignment shop lot themselves. They’re holding the RV until the shop pays them, leaving the new owner – who already paid the consignment dealer – with nothing.
“So now I’m in a spot, what if I do find another buyer and sell it, are they going to be able to tag it?” Michael Lizotte said. “Because now, we’ve got two tags on it.”
Michael and Pam Lizotte traveled the country in their RV and turned to Consignment RV to sell it for them. The company was successful in just two weeks but then drug its feet when it came time to pay the Lizottes. And the couple say they were asked to pay off their bank loan themselves. That cost them $190,000.
“He said if I paid off the loan, we could complete the deal quicker,” Michael Lizotte said.
Michael and Pam Lizotte are not the only ones who are upset.
Lornora Lundy is stuck with payments for an RV, even though her RV sold in July.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I need help.”
Lundy turned to 8 On Your Side to get answers. Her husband, David, passed away in September, after complications to exposure to agent orange while serving in the Vietnam war. The couple had used the RV for about a year, to explore Florida campgrounds together, as David’s condition worsened. So in June, with David too sick to travel, the couple decided to sell the 2001 Fleetwood Pace Arrow RV through Consignment RV in Largo.
“He wanted to make sure his wife was taken care of, and he didn’t want to leave this RV as a burden on me,” Lundy said.
At first, things seemed to work out great. In July, the couple received this paperwork, showing their RV sold and their $19,000 loan would be paid off with their lender, USAA. Then in September, David passed away. Lornora’s account, however, continued to get debited from her lender for three monthly payments.
It turns out the RV company failed to pay off the loan, even after they sold her RV. She had even paid the company the difference between the $18,000 sales price and the $19,000 she owed to the lender.
She says she got only excuses and empty promises from the RV company.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called them, numerous, once, two, three times a week. i get same old story,” Lundy said.
Frustrated, she called the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and found investigators were already looking into two similar complaints. After that investigation begun, the RV company paid off the loans for those two customers, but not for Lundy. So she called 8 On Your Side.
We reached owner Jeremy Raney. He says he got behind on these three payments because of “an embezzlement issue.” He said the check for Lundy’s payment was issued and mailed on Oct. 20 and should be on its way to her lender.
Raney said he also needed to pay off the loan because consignment companies only have 90 days, he said, after a sale, to secure the title for the new owner.
He sent a picture of the check to 8 On Your Side and to Lundy. That check has not yet made it to Lundy’s bank.
Meanwhile, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is now looking into all of these complaints.
