Boise mobile RV repair company kept customers’ money with work undone, state says
A Boise business that touted itself as “Idaho’s Best Mobile RV Repair” won’t have the opportunity to compete for that title any more. It has been forced out of business by the Idaho Attorney General’s Office.
Gem State Mobile RV Repair agreed to cease operations, and owner Wesley Rives is prohibited from owning or managing another repair business in Idaho.
“I appreciate consumers who took time to file complaints with my Consumer Protection Division about this company’s business practices,” Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said in a news release. “Being alerted to problematic businesses helps my office ensure a fair marketplace for Idahoans.”
Customers paid Rives more than $9,000 for repairs that were never provided, the AG’s office said. He also failed to provide refunds to customers who made prepayments for their repairs.
Garden City resident Kim Cartright said Rives was paid $924 to replace a hot water heater but never did the work.
“An individual came out and took payment upfront and then never returned to do the installation and will not return any of the money we paid him, Cartright wrote in a complaint to the Attorney General’s Office. “He does not return phone calls. He will occasionally respond to texts with absurd excuses that are obviously false.”
Cartright was one of five customers who filed complaints with the Attorney General’s Office.
The business was registered with the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office in August 2019, according to online records.Its website is no longer active.
“We provide mobile repair service for all of your coach needs,” Gem State Mobile RV Repair’s website said in a screenshot provided by the Wayback Machine, an Internet archive. “If you’re in a bind and need it fixed right and affordable call today!!”
Rives: I couldn’t afford lawyer to fight state
In a phone interview, Rives denied that he took customers’ money and didn’t provide the service. He said he provided partial refunds even though he had a no-refund policy that he said was listed on work orders that customers signed.
“There’s always three sides to every story, and so it is what it is,” Rives said. “I can’t make comment without my attorney, but those people are not telling the whole story.”
Rives said he was hampered by product shortages caused by factory shutdowns in response to the coronavirus pandemic. He said 90% of the supplies he ordered came from China, and products were back-ordered for months.
“We couldn’t get boards, we couldn’t get fridges, and to this day you can’t get air conditioners,” Rives said.
He said he agreed to the settlement because he didn’t have tens of thousands of dollars to hire a lawyer to fight it.
“I had no choice,” he said. “I was forced into it by the attorney general.”
He plans bankruptcy. BBB gives business F rating
While a restitution order was part of the agreement, Rives said he plans to file for bankruptcy protection next week. That could affect claimants getting their money back.
The Better Business Bureau gave Rives’ business an “F” rating, saying Gem State Mobile RV Repair failed to respond to seven complaints filed against the business.
An Ada County magistrate awarded $2,319 in a default judgment against the company in January. A second default judgment, against Rives for $1,159, was awarded by a Canyon County magistrate, also in January.
Online court records show that nothing has been paid in either case.
A second Ada County lawsuit against Gem State Mobile RV Repair, filed last month, is pending.
This story was originally published September 6, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
