Caravan Dealers

When will caravan dealers start to give us,their customers,better service ?

Whilst on site at Poolsbrook a Coachman arrived on the pitch opposite us in the midst of absolutely torrential rain and a thunderstorm.

Giving them a bit of shelter and some tea under our canopy it transpired that the couple were from Essex and that the van was brand new having only been collected from a dealer in West Yorkshire a couple of hours before.

Whilst driving down the M1 in the deluge they had lost one of the fridge vent covers which had not been attached correctly either at the factory or during PDI.

On discovering this on their arrival they had stuffed a blanket in the hole to stop water getting in,with little success.

The chap said he would ring the dealer in the morning and see if someone would come out to rectify the problem.

Speaking to him the next morning no,no-one was coming out they had to return the van to the dealers,so that was forty miles north,then turn around and travel two hundred and odd miles back down to Essex making an extra eighty miles travelling.

Much the same happened when we stopped at Sandholme Lodge.

The couple next door arrived with a new van from a local dealer eight miles away.

Problem with the jockey wheel,the lock barrel to an outside locker and the TV aerial.

Once again they had to trundle off back to the dealers the following morning.

It is high time that dealers were compelled to come out to vans with problems within the warranty period instead of us having to return them every time at our expense of course,no-one reimburses fuel costs,why not,it’s not our fault but we foot the bill.

A radius of fifty miles say could be stipulated and anyone outside this area could be dealt with by a more local dealer.

Dealers seem very happy to take our money thank you very much but provide a shabby service in return.

Some dealers of course are better than others but from what I read these are the exceptions.

I read recently that Bailey have a “Rapid Response” vehicle for just this sort of thing but I can’t see that setting off from Bristol in a hurry.

"Should more complex vehicle repair be required, such as that caused by storm or road accident damage, Bailey has commissioned a new 8-bay Service Centre at South Liberty Lane staffed by a team of fully qualified Technicians to carry out this work. This facility is supplemented by a fully equipped Rapid Response vehicle which, where necessary, will attend to vehicles on Retailer premises, Storage facilities or even on Customer driveways."

It is high time the caravan industry dragged itself out of the mid 1960’s into the present day and started providing a proper customer service instead of the mostly shabby set-up it is at present.

They do not seem to realise that in many cases returning a van to their premises for a simple repair that may take weeks is a time consuming and costly affair for most people.

 
 Come on,get off your collective arses and start giving us what we pay you for.