After each attack, Erwin Hymer Group was sent written requests to keep Mr. Hammill away from Sam Carswell, his family and friends. April 29, 2018 Mr. Hammill blasted my name and personal information on Roadtrek: The Group. That is a 17,000-member open public Facebook group. The post received 179 reactions, 49 comments and 3 shares before the site administrator blocked further comments. Mr Hammill's public attack on my name has now been seen by countless people around the world.
Mr. Hammill's posting to Facebook is contrary to my repeated requests that EHG control Mr. Hammill and stop him from contacting me, my family and friends. Given the content and forum I feel his latest post was placed in malice. EHG has let the post stay on the site and has not issued the requested apology so after consideration I withdrew my previous offer to hold EHG faultless.
Some cheerleader joined in believing that Mr. Hammill's post was well founded. I wonder if any of them are compensated by Hymer and should be included in any legal action. Maybe it's not too late to apologize, give details and be forgiven and forgotten. hymer.whistle.blower@gmail.com
P.S. Thanks Bobby Spencer and Ceci Gross for not attacking. Bobby, did you get unfriended?
Hello Folks,
I find it difficult to make posts like these, but there is a significant issue being caused by a man on another site named Mr Sam Carswell.
He is a retired engineer as I understand it, from the aerospace industry. I’m not aware of any qualifications.
He has been studying the fire codes around RVs and feels his Truma Combi water heater has been unsafely installed by us. He informed me of this a couple months ago.
We had already been aware of the concern, and we had contacted Truma, who had looked at our installation and found it to be safe, as they have internal controls that shut off heating if temperature and pressure rise past a safe threshold.
Mr Carswell is a Hymer Aktkv Owner. He has been contacting my staff and demanding meetings with myself constantly since he purchased. He writes emails all the time to everybody. He writes to consumers, dealers, and us.
I have offered to buy his unit back many times. Just in order to eliminate the problem for us, and for him. He won’t accept that, saying he loves his unit.
The regulatory authority (RVIA) has reviewed his complaint about the Truma install, and after investigation with Truma has given us a written response saying it is not a safety issue.
I have informed Mr Carswell of this, and he refuses to back off, continuing to libel us on his blog and in correspondence to others.
I am left with no choice but to tell the story publicly, and to explain why I have to take legal action against Mr Carswell. He is wrong, and it is unfortunate he just won’t stop. Sometimes, people can take far too much implied knowledge too far.
My goal is to ensure the truth is told.
We have to trust Truma, the RVIA, and the laboratory that tested the appliance. There have been no issues with safety whatsoever with this installation on ANY units anywhere. I say that again. There are no safety issues at all. There will be none.
I apologize, but the word has to get out. Sometimes we have to stand up for ourselves.
Jim Hammill
President and CEO
Erwin Hymer Group of North America
179 Reactions 49 Comments 3 Shares
Comments
Diane Mann Oh, my! Sometimes there is no other choice but to take legal action. Some people just cannot admit that they don't have the correct answer, even when confronted with the evidence. I'm sorry you have to go to this extreme.
Gary Miller Well said, Mr. Hammill! In my working life, I had similar encounters, but lived to a nice (Roadtrek) retirement.
Mark Bryant I'm with you, Jim.
Bob Teegardin Key word,ex engineer,analysis trouble.
Jackie Rankin My hubby calls it "analysis paralysis"
Timothy Akin These people think they know everything about everything, even engineers specialize, he can't possibly know everything about engineering much less be qualified to decide on an issue such as electronics, propane or how to change a tire
Bobby Spencer We care....why?
Jim Hammill You might not, and I respect that. But there are those who own a Hymer Aktiv who deserve to know the truth, and those who have ordered one or are planning to. They also deserve to understand the truth. It isn’t fair to have to worry.
Bobby Spencer Disparaging your customer publicly, whether you're right or wrong, is not going to bring you business.
Jennifer Fawcett Um, no. Jim's comment was spot on. This guy is a gadfly par excellence. So, Bob, if you don't care, then move on.
Cal Thompson Bobby Spencer , yeah actually it increases credibility.
Way overdue for companies to both admit and pay up when they’re wrong and to take a stand and refuse to be abused when they aren’t.
Bobby Spencer By coming here, you simply assure I will never buy your product.
Jim Hammill That’s fine by me. You have choices. I participate constantly on this site to help people. And I sponsor it. As such, I am a member. So I have a choice. As you do.
Lori Grosse That’s odd.
Because Jim Hammill tells the truth?
Mark Bryant Bobby, this seems an odd reaction.
Jim Hammill Thank you. It is very important to me, when we are wrong, we also say so. And that has certainly happened in the past. And we take care of people. Heck, I fix people’s Coaches made by other manufacturers ALL the time. With my own hands. We do what is right. And in this case, we are being attacked by someone who is wrong.
I welcome anyone to write to me to discuss this case, and I will answer and discuss anytime. JimHammill@icloud.com. That comes to my personal cell phone and iPad.
Thanks
Debbie Sue Bobby—spend some time searching Jim’s participation in this group. He is incredibly helpful and straightforward in his posts. How many companies have executives willing to provide product support to owners free of charge? How many companies provide a 6 year warranty on their product? He stands behind his product.
Robert Brandt better you buy a brand X anyway.
Rick Edgar Jim Hammill, you have done all you can do. Say no more. People's perceptions are almost impossible to change.
Robert Brandt I will still keep my RT.
Jennifer Fawcett This is a Class B lifestyle group; most own Roadtreks, but many own other brands.
Jim Hammill I agree with Jennifer Fawcett. It’s an open group. And lots of units have a Truma Combi from different manufacturers so maybe it’s a good piece of info for many people.
When Mike and I talked about making a sponsorship to this group many many years ago he asked me if I wanted it exclusive and I said NO WAY. We don’t play the game that way.
Folks, you buy the units you want. We sponsor here because the lifestyle and support in our RV life is a terrific thing to share with everybody. I have met great people who own every type and age of unit.
What could be better than this? You need anything from me folks, you ask, please. Cheers, Jim.
Lisa Lisa Ugly attitude usually means an unhappy person. I rarely see negative comments with this group which is why I appreciate it so much. Great resource for advice and tips. Keep Trekking y'all !!
Tom Evans Hang in there. Great RVs. If you get it back I be happy to take it off your hands🙂
Jeff Scott You can't fix stupid!
Hickory Taylor I'm driving an 18 year old unit you guys made. I trust you 100%
Dave Steinheider Jim Hammill and RT stood by us when we had some early issues. No other company we have EVER dealt with has been as honest and responsive. 👍👍👍👍
Robert Geers Well said, great to have management care about owners getting the real information. Coming to the RT factory was like a visit home, and despite arriving at an extremely busy time with an unannounced problem, we were well taken care of.
Cary Alburn Jim, speaking as a retired attorney, I’d like to suggest that any further posts you make here, or any other comments you make publicly or on behalf of RT about this issue, should be first vetted by your attorneys. In the last decade before I retired, I became very aware of how emails and social media posts can come back to haunt.
Jim Hammill That’s reasonable. I tend to just tell the truth. All I have done here is recite what has happened to date with Mr Carswell in order to ensure our owners and future owners have the truth. I have lots of attorneys and I thank the lord we don’t have to use them much....because we stick to the truth.
Bobby Spencer Which is why I said what I did. Ask your P.R. people also 😀
Jim Hammill Well, it’s interesting. See, we didn’t get to be number one in our category by having “PR” people and attorneys. We did it by having great product and by being good human beings who do what is right.
People come to us because our product is superb, our warranty is superb, and we back our owners completely. Almost all people don’t just like that we are human like this....they love it.
Try calling one of my competitors CEOs. Good luck.
And if we all really think that I just fell off the legal turnip truck.......well, look again. I actually like turnip a lot. But folks, I have attorneys. And I speak to them. But I do appreciate it. I appreciate the fact you care enough to worry about us. Thx
Jim Hammill Transparency is a good idea. And having a message reviewed is a good idea. 😁
Robert Wright Thanks for the information.
Tom Evans Jim Hammill stands behind his product. Show me another company where their Presidents are helping their customers while at home on the weekends. Please tell me if you know and I will be there customer when I can.
Ceci Gross I love my Hymer Aktiv. I really have no choice but to suspend judgement since I am no where near technically qualified to understand the issue or to understand if there even is an issue.
Debra Scheufler Have you consulted with an attorney? Do you have in house legal? You can get really good advice as to how to handle this from competent counsel.
Jim Hammill Yes, i definitely consult attorneys on this stuff. But in the end, the folks who have these units need the truth. Or they worry. That’s not fair to them. So I had to be open about it. That is separate from legal action. Certainly we are being damaged. But people are what matter.
Mr. Carswell matters. He definitely matters the same as all of us. But he is simply wrong on this issue, according to the regulatory authorities. I’m not interested in win or lose. I just want to get on with productive things.
John Spears Jim Hammill, glad to see you standing up for your company and your customers. All it takes to damage a good company's reputation is one person not accepting reality and making disparaging remarks everywhere they can. You have lots of support from us.
Joe Campbell engineers. oy. you'd think 40-50 years of experience building RVs would count for something, but not to an engineer.
I had written something different but, in retrospect, I'll just say that I appreciate you sharing your perspective on this matter While I don't see anything disrespectful or libelous in your statement, and urge caution even though I'm sure you have enough personal experience and advice from counsel, I do appreciate your level of communication to your customers.
Anyway, this kind of openness makes me more comfortable in choosing to buy a RoadTrek as my first RV.
Mark Fawcett My Roadtrek is 28 years old and it is still going 100% strong.
In fact just a half hour ago I returned from a weekend trip in it, in which I drove 15 hours in a row in it on Thursday, and then 15 hours straight home today. Not an issue. It was a joy to drive.
Stephanie Alexander Jim Hammill is a man of integrity. I met him years ago and discussed my need for a c-pap machine and my batteries not lasting. He took care of that and more.
He and the quality of Roadtrek are why I recently bought my Zion SRT.
He is someone on my short list of people I trust because of their integrity!
I’m sad someone would do this to him after all the thoroughness Jim did to check that mans system
Brian Barker Jim, you have no choice but to defend the truth.
Lisa Gruner Thank you, Jim Hammill.
Don Glisson Well put...
You’ve done what you can.
Dennis Foley Keep being open.
Larry Sovey There is always one. Think they know everything and know nothing.
Mike Wendland Our team of wonderful moderators does its best to keep negative comments and complaints about dealers and manufacturers off this group, promptly deleting those kind of posts and even removing the people who posted them at times. We, in fact, did that with a post about the complaint Jim is referring to. Making such unwarranted claims and using our group as a vendetta against a dealer or manufacturer is simply not allowed. But other groups on the Internet do allow and, sadly, even encourage such material, and many of you reading this may have been exposed to this elsewhere. So I'm glad Jim shared this with all of us. I've known Jim Hammill for seven years. I can attest to his integrity. I know Jim's posting this here was not something he wanted to do. But unsubstantiated charges as serious as are being made here can do great harm to a company. I thank Jim for letting us all know of this situation. You have the facts from Jim and it is not our place to debate them or arbitrate this matter, so to avoid lot of back and forth discussion about this, I am closing future comments on this or spamming and trolling by those who just like to be jerks. Onward and upward. Thank you again, Jim, for your candor.
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