Kirk W

Could it be that you would have had the premium increase even if you had not moved?

I agree with both comments. Had we stored furniture when leaving to go fulltime we would have paid that monthly fee for 12 years! That would buy a lot of furniture and it would be new. Health insurance has become a major problem for those who retire early and you need to make sure that you know where you will get yours and what it will cost you. In our case, my retirement included health insurance that I only paid a small portion of, but make sure that you know the cost early in planning. A major part of this expense will be the choice of where you wish to stay and what you will do to stay busy while you are there. Remember that this is your life and not just a vacation so you will need your hobbies and things that you do to keep occupied just as you do today. If you enjoy living in parking lots and truck stops, you can live as cheap as some suggest, but we do not find that an enjoyable lifestyle. I do suggest that you get yourself one of the lifetime senior park pass cards as it will cost a total of $90 but is a real bargain! With one of them, you can stay for half price in any of the Army Corps of Engineers parks and many of those are beautiful and often have full hookups or at least water, sewer, electricity, and a dump station. If you are willing to stay a bit longer you can save a great deal by getting full hookup RV sites as a campground host or other type of RV volunteer. You can read about what we did as volunteers at this link. When you look at the expenses of others, remember that it is pretty easy to manipulate numbers when you have an outcome in mind and very often what one posts doesn't tell the entire story. You need to have some sort of reserves for the bad things that can happen like a complete engine failure or replacement of a major appliance. Without a reserve, your RV life may end in financial disaster! If you do not have any reserve, then consider the purchase of an extended warranty. I suggest that your best way to estimate your living cost is to keep very detailed records of what you are spending now and realize that living in an RV is not going to change that a great deal. You will still wish to eat the same foods, take part in the same hobbies, and enjoy the same sort of activities. The best description of how to know what it will cost you can be learned from this old magazine article. Full-time RV Living, What Does It Cost?

And so far this continues to be the case. Teri may be nice to do business with, but not so nice as to share any explanation with those who relied on her. Don't you wonder why? Don't you think that loyal customers deserve to know some answers? To me and the general public, the whole thing is just interesting news but I have always believed that loyalty between a business and the customer base should be a 2-way street. Some of her customers must be amazingly kind, forgiving people!

Revenge isn't usually a very satisfying motive for most actions. I really don't see where wanting the people to be open and above board is seeking revenge. Perhaps there was some event that caused the company to fail in only a few days? Even so, it would have been better received if they had chosen to be more open with the facts. I wonder if Teri knew much in advance. I doubt that it was anything criminal or illegal in nature or something would have leaked out via the media. Since I have never used them, it really doesn't matter to me, but I do have some curiosity when what seems to have been a healthy business suddenly fails. I hope that everyone affected by this finds a good solution and resolves any related problems.

So can you now tell us exactly what happened and the reasons why? Clearly, nobody at the business in question has been at all forthcoming about this. If I had been one of the customers who got notice so very late, I'd be pretty unhappy about the complete lack of any answers.

If this is the case, should she not then be responsible for and subject to the USPS regulations about mail forwarding services after the business closes? One thing which has impressed me through all of this as an outside observer is that Terri must do a remarkable job of presenting herself to those she came in contact with through the business since there seems to be a great loyalty to her even by those who were left "holding the bag," so to speak. I marvel that so few customers have even complained about her failure to keep customers informed or to warn them of the coming business closure. I also wonder if anyone will ever know for sure what happened to cause such a sudden business closure? I wonder if it will ever be revealed what the reason for the abrupt closing really is? The BBB still lists the business "Dakota International Services, LLC" doing business as "My Dakota Address" with Terri Lund, Vice President as the contact.

You read the regulation much as I do and I know that Escapees told me that they had to keep a reserve for that purpose. If I were you, I would contact the USPS regulators.

She may well be a good person who didn't know, but that doesn't change the USPS requirements that apply to the company or the owner. Nor does it make this ethical.

With tomorrow the last day and they have already stopped accepting mail? Not a very ethical way of doing business, in my opinion.

Welcome to the Escapee forums! Would you mind sharing your source of that information? I have seen lots of speculation about the reason but nothing that is verifiable. I think many of us would be interested to know for sure.

As an interested bystander with no real involvement, I do have a question for those who are upset. My question is, have any of you gone to the USPS to complain of what is going on and to share what the company is telling you? If you have not and if you wish the required process of USPS is applied, then someone needs to make sure that the postal inspector's office or some other authority is made aware of the short notice.

He should be easy to find if the USPS should want him. It would seem he is an employee of the bigger company.

The owner was/is president of a bank?

I think that if I were a customer of theirs, this would be the issue that bothered me most. Even after the discussion began on this and other RV forums, there was no general announcement or notice on the website.

I wonder what Teri received for that endorsement? Perhaps nothing, but then again.... 🤫

I suspect that there could be a lot of possible reasons. If Teri is an employee she is probably in the clear but I’d not be so sure about the owner once someone reports it to the USPS. The feds take mail very seriously.

And those companies all have insurance.

Unless something has changed recently you are correct. I wonder if the USPS has been made aware of this plan?

I’m not sure why you are asking me this as my only connection to Escapee Mail is that I’m a subscriber. Have been since January 2000.

To see what the cost of having it driven & insured, check these links: Driveaway USA Bennett Transport All-Pro Transport Reliable Driveaway Cross Country Driver

It would probably be helpful if one of you would share what you learn with the forums. I would also suggest you consider the Escapee's SD mail service.

Welcome to the Escapee forums. There are services that will drive a vehicle across the country. I am sure that you could arrange to have it trucked across but it will be much more costly. I suggest that you contact one of the freight companies such as Freight Center and compare rates to see if this is economically feasible.

With any small, one owner business there is a clear possibility that it will end at some point unless the owner has family that wants to take over that business or they choose to sell. That happens with many small businesses when the principal owner wishes to retire or has health issues.

CO is not heavier than air but mixes well with air. In the bedroom, it should probably be just above the height of the bed, where you are breathing. See this link. What is heavier than air is your propane and that detector should be near the floor or even in the stairwell. It is pretty common today for RVs to have a combination detector of LP and CO and it is for the LP that they are mounted low.

That is a real classic RV! We had friends who owned one on a Dodge chassis as I remember. Or you might not wake up at all.... 😕