El Monte RV

We are seasoned RV renters. We’ve rented RVs for 15+ years from several different companies and have had +/​-​experiences with all of them. We were initially thrilled with our camper! 2014, beautiful, new, 16k miles on it. We thought, WOW! Finally a camper has redeemed all of the other nightmares we have had over the years. We went through the camper with a fine toothed comb.
Fridge work? yes.
Generator work? Yes.
Brake/​running lights work? Yes.
Stove not falling off? Fabulous!
We have an awning! and it works! Boo-​ya!
There were some minor wear and tear issues that we were aware of and ok with.
Cabinet door falling off, outside door latch broken and temporarily fixed, radio that never shut off and could potentially drain the battery. No big deal. However we failed to flush the toilet before driving off.
BIG MISTAKE!!!
The staff person at the rental company «helped» us by putting the toilet chemicals in the toilet as we were doing the walk through. Nice gesture, but something we have always done ourselves. Had we done it ourselves, we would have noticed that the toilet was broken before we left. As we were driving we could smell a strong odor of toilet chemicals. At first we didn;t think too much of it. When I went to use the toilet, the valve was stuck in the open position. Step on the flusher and water flushed, but the valve did not close! You can’t have an open toilet pipe or else it sloshes around and STINKS! After driving all night to our destination, we immediately called the office who had us call road side assistance. Road side assistance could not help us because there was no one in our area who could fix the problem. We spent hours on the phone trying to rectify the problem. They wanted us to drive 2 hours to someplace that would fix it. We had just arrived at our music festival which has a no re-​entry policy. We spent our first day trying to arrange for a repair man to enter the festival, not an easy task tracking down the right people in administration who could escort this person in.
Our whole first day should have been spent enjoying our vacation, watching music, but it was spent on the phone trouble shooting this nasty, unfixable problem. I spent close to $ 1600 ($ 299/​day) for a camper with a broken toilet! The whole point of renting the camper was to have a toilet and NOT use portojohns that thousands of other people were using! We had to literally stick our hands in the gross toilet every time we had to use it. Disgusting. Roadside assistance asked if we could use a stick. Thanks MacGuyver, but again, I paid $ 1600, I shouldn’t have to use a stick.
Upon returning the camper, they weren’t even going to give us any money off for our inconvenience! This was a HUGE, gross inconvenience. This was broken when they rented it to us and they should have know it. We asked for $ 100 off/​day ($ 500) thinking that was reasonable for sticking your hands in a crappy toilet for 5 days to make it function. They didn’t even negotiate with us. They gave us a little over $ 200 off which was unacceptable. It is impossible for them to not know it was busted before we rented it. I’ll bet that the next renters got screwed too.
Also NOT EXPLAINED, is the MANDATORY $ 39.95 «starter kit». They touted free propane, because we get charged $ 39.95 for it. The starter kit charge includes propane, 1 roll of TP, 1 chemical pack for toilet, sewage hose for dumping toilet and leveling blocks. You charge for the sewage hose? We are seasoned travelers and have leveling blocks, TP, toilet chemicals and a RV plug adapter in case you need to plug in. We certainly don’t use $ 39.95 worth of propane and can;t believe that you itemize for a sewage hose which is essential to the camper.
We will NEVER use El Monte again.