motorhome dealers and the brown stuff.....

Several years ago bought an ex demonstrator Bessacarr from a well known dealer in Cannock, can't exactly remember the name but it began with Brown and ended with Hills. Van was beautifully prepped (NOT) but beside the many many faults it had the final straw was the cassette was well matured matter when we looked at it once home.

Spoke to our son today, hugely excited, just bought his very first van, a Laika, obviously well prepped by the dealer that supplied it because after spending a day and a half fixing all the things they were supposed to sort out he opened the toilet drain guess what came out.... a tank full of 

NICE TO SEE CUSTOMER SERVICE HASN'T IMPROVED OVER THE YEARS!! 

(Marquis Plymouth excepted )

Ouch!!  Not a nice discovery at all! 

We once lent a young "lady" use our caravan on the drive in front of the house for a week.

As she had full access to the house it never dawned on us that the cassette toilet would be used any time other than on a "casual" basis but we did explain that if it needed emptying all she had to do was ask and it would be emptied.

Apparently the "lady" didn't realise that "full" was when the cassette was full and NOT when the cassette AND the bowl was full.

Three days after she waved goodbye and left to catch her plane I though "Oh, oh!  I'd better nip out and empty the cassette in the caravan."

This particular "nip out" turned into a two hour scrub and clean job with many buckets of water, mops, sponges, scrubbing brushes and bottles of bleach before I was satisfied enough to leave the van and go and have a very hot shower.

Nowadays, we would NEVER let anyone stay in our motorhome for more than 48 hours: and even then the toilet would be checked before they were allowed off the premises! 

Best regards,

Nasty, interestingly we visited a dealer beginning with Brown and ending in Hills too. Hugely unimpressed with their so called sales staff. Not in the least bit surprised to hear about the continuing customer service. In fact have to say most dealers seem to have little in the way to recommend them.
  I do have to say however I have been very impressed with Marquis Golden Cross however, knowledgeable helpful friendly nothing has been too much trouble so far.  Hope it stays that way once we take delivery.

Just to clarify the Laika didn't come from bh, the comment related to dealers in general.

My cousins inlaws bought an American RV from the dealer beginning with Brown and ending with Hills in Newark (some years ago now) and that also was handed over with the loo still full (and RV loos are not small).

Being relatively new to MHing I must say I am very unimpressed with MH dealers. The sales staff are normally wonderful and promise the earth and yes nothing is too much trouble. Then you get to the after sales 'quality of work' and that is when despair sets in as all they seem to want to do is get rid if you as quickly as possible, do as little as possible along with the bodged work.  AS service centre exempt from comment this of course

one of the reasons Heather wanted a new van (I was only looking at 2nd hand) was she liked the idea of knowing nobody else had "used the loo".

good call I'd say

dbroada wrote:one of the reasons Heather wanted a new van (I was only looking at 2nd hand) was she liked the idea of knowing nobody else had "used the loo".

good call I'd say

erm.......don't forget the worker in the factory where they make them who has to test them for quality control purposes before they ship them over to UK.

Cheaper to buy a new seat than a new van?

Sadly my endorsement of Marquis at Golden Cross was in error on handover, far from happy with their service today I have to say.. Wished I had not bought a new motorhome from them so far.. Sales staff friendly and did his job. Manager apologetic but his workshop fitters are useless @@@@@ who are as much use as a chocolate tea pot! Just can't get people to so things properly these days, its slap dash sloppy workmanship that certainly would not have been allowed to pass apprenticeship standard years ago.  I also do not like being fob'd off by incapable staff. 

Sorry to see that, congratulations on getting the new baby let's hope its teething problems are not too many!

groundhog wrote:Sorry to see that, congratulations on getting the new baby let's hope its teething problems are not too many!

Umm I hope so too, already booked to go back for work to be done to put it right, not a promising start although has to be said 100% marquis bad workmanship and lazy PDI is 99% to blame here. I told the manager in no uncertain terms had I still been working for Anglia Caravans, as I was many many years ago such bad lazy workmanship by my staff would have seen a sack in first week of employment.   Sadly I am not a happy bunny today even though now bribed with a free Flamma bike rack to say sorry!   Just hope they fit that properly as they did not do the awning properly!

Sadly my experience to date has been the same as m8form8's  (except for AS service centre who seem to be on top of their game).

m8form8 wrote:

groundhog wrote:Sorry to see that, congratulations on getting the new baby let's hope its teething problems are not too many!

Umm I hope so too, already booked to go back for work to be done to put it right, not a promising start although has to be said 100% marquis bad workmanship and lazy PDI is 99% to blame here. I told the manager in no uncertain terms had I still been working for Anglia Caravans, as I was many many years ago such bad lazy workmanship by my staff would have seen a sack in first week of employment.   Sadly I am not a happy bunny today even though now bribed with a free Flamma bike rack to say sorry!   Just hope they fit that properly as they did not do the awning properly!

I am so sorry to hear of your problems with your new van, how awful,  it takes the shine off it.We  Had this with a brand new caravan first time out in it, the whole back end had to be replaced, bad water ingress , refused to have it but dealer said as it can be repaired we had to have it,

So hope yours is a happy outcome.
Best regards,
Margaret

Thanks Margaret, both feeling rather deflated today and I did at one point say "I would like a 100% refund", but ended up with a free bike rack instead .   It's not the end of the world, but as you say does take the shine off it. It also makes you wary of anything else not having been done properly, it certainly will not go there willingly for anything I have to pay to be done now. I shall take my business elsewhere instead.  At the end of the day it will be their loss, when I was in sales we were taught one dissatisfied customer results in a 100 lost sales.  :look here:Best Andie

You will forget all this hassle in a few weeks time when your sat outside your new van with a glass of wine, enjoying the beautiful scenery and fresh air
Have a nice time touring, chill.
Boaby

m8form8, I'm sure Boaby's right and you'll be out enjoying the van in no time. The industry has a lot of work to do to improve it's image, stories like yours do nothing to show there is will to do so. I was seriously considering a van (not an A/S) from them and had telephone contact with two of their branches. Suffice to say it was enough for me to drop my interest. I know there will be folk with good, or even great, experiences, but why does it have to be a lottery about what service you get? 

I went to visit dealerships with low expectations, and I wasn't disappointed  If all else fails in your "negotiations" with them, tell them you will get your gang of mature friends to come and sort them out 

My best wishes to you with your new van for many years of happy touring 

m8form8 wrote:Sadly my endorsement of Marquis at Golden Cross was in error on handover, far from happy with their service today I have to say.. Wished I had not bought a new motorhome from them so far.. Sales staff friendly and did his job. Manager apologetic but his workshop fitters are useless @@@@@ who are as much use as a chocolate tea pot! Just can't get people to so things properly these days, its slap dash sloppy workmanship that certainly would not have been allowed to pass apprenticeship standard years ago.  I also do not like being fob'd off by incapable staff. 

I hope this is a one off - I still have a couple of months to go before I get my van from them.

As I'm not as experienced as you in buying a "proper" camper van can you tell me what they got wrong and what I will need to look out for? (PM if you don't want to say in open forum)

Hopefully it can all be sorted and you have a van that you are very happy with by the time the camping season is upon you. And have you made your parking extension long enough for the free bike rack?

Not so many years ago a work colleague disclosed the great amount of stress he was under what I understood to be unresolved problems with his motorhome. The seemingly underperforming dealer to the many issues he raised eventually led to ill health and being signed off sick by his GP. My involvement was purely professional as his union representative overseeing his welfare with our employer. At the time my interest in motorhomming/ caravanning was absolutely nil, a way of holidaying that would never attract me in a million years. The irony being I'm now corresponding on this forum. Such a bad experience he suffered affected his mental state, the tragedy being he was denied the expectations of discovery to the pleasures of what most of us enjoy from the outset (give or take those niggly problems). Happy to report that it was not an A/S problem (? a foreign make) he made a full recovery and to this day regularly see each other at our retirement association gatherings. Like other bad experiences in life, the scars albeit healed never go away. Colin

At least with an A/S motorhome as a last resort the vehicle can be taken to A/S. I recently purchased a camper from an Autotrail dealer - took it in for warranty issues and had all of them sorted apart from an issue with the gas hob - which they did not sort.
As I live 200+ miles away they told me they would arrange for a Thetford gas engineer to fix at my home address - 2 weeks later after no contact I phoned the factory and was informed that no repairs were to be done at the factory due to rebuilding!
So dealer appears to have no interest and manufacturer also will not help!
I have understood the tv falling off the wall, the gas tank gauge not working, legs falling off the bed, bottom falling out of the drawer, clips falling off window blinds - all this is now sorted, but lack of interest once the vehicle is sold really cheeses me off!!

Footnote really, I am still unhappy at the way Marquis Golden Cross fitted my Awning originally, however they did deliver in regards to doing what they could to put things right and deal with a few minor issues under warranty. So I guess I can say they were amenable in trying to resolve things in the end. I just hope things continue to be OK as time progresses.    It seems to be a problem these days in so many areas service is sadly lacking in comparison to what most of us would expect to be acceptable standards.

m8form8, I notice that your avatar shows that you use clips on the side of the van for the awning legs.
Can I respectfully suggest that you use those at your peril!  If there is the slightest wind then the pressure on the awning will try to remove the clip fixing screws from the side of the van.  I would not expect the fixings to be very robust, certainly far less robust than the supplied pegs for pegging the legs to the ground. If a strong wind blew up quickly I suspect that you would find some rather ragged screw holes in the fibreglass shell of your Executive(?) and maybe the awning blown over the top of the van.
We had a wind (Mistral/Tramontane?) blow up fairly quickly last year on a site near Narbonne and I had to get my wife to control the awning flapping while I wound it in despite having had it firmly pegged down plus restraining straps!

I was advised by Spinney not to use those, reason as given, also can damage the van putting the legs in.

Only used in no or lightwinds, but itssomeoneelses problem no w a  s that is n     ot my van now. Not changed the picture yet, are pics of Benimars allowed lol.  tablet here wont let  me correct typos.

Thought this was a great example of "Dealer PDI"
Whilst at Sandyballs last week a brand new 16 reg massive motorhome must have cost well over £70k, anyway guy was friendly and showed me around Electric drop down bed and all.
Anyway opened bonnet as I wanted to see if Peugeot had a solution for water staying in the air intake (they hadn't) anyway under the bonnet was a BIRDSNEST. How can you miss a birdsnest in a PDI

And that also means they didnt show him the
service points under the bonnet. I.e oil, water etc.