Can of worms please read and comment
i would like the club to take on the caravan industry by making any dealer having to do warranty work weather you bought it from them or not as long as they have a franchise with that brand of van. also stories of people having to wait 6 months to get the
van in for a repair thats ridiculous
theres not another industry in britain where you are treated like that
if it was a car they have to honour the warranty so why not caravans?? never heard of a car part not available for 6 month
there are enough of us in the club to make our voice heard
if anyone knows how to start a petition for this then please go ahead i will be 1st to sign it and start lobbying
our members of parliment
Comments
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We brought our present van in Sussex but live in Norfolk so went to a Norfolk dealer who said they would be happy to carry out any warranty work as they didn't turn down business. The CC are not likely to support your call to take on the industry as they
wouldn't want to risk loss of revenue.0 -
I sympathise with your cause, Armourer, but fear it's a lost one as CC and the industry are buddies.
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"The Caravan Club is not a campaigning organisation". This is a direct quote from a meeting I attended earlier this year. I can't remember if it was the chairman of the caravan club who actually said it But it was certainly said in his presence.
Unfortunately I didn't have the presence of mind to ask why not.
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With regard to 'any dealer should be able to do warranty work', I believe this is possible if you have a Bailey caravan, as they have a system for dealing with this. We have certainly had warranty work done
on our Bailey caravan at our local dealer (which was not where we bought our van from). I don't know if a similar arrangement is in place for other manufacturers. I'm not really sure how this works as the contract is always between the purchaser and retailer
(as far as I am aware, not between the purchaser and manufacturer) - I guess there is a certain amount of goodwill involved!Although 6 months seems a long time to wait for a spare part, I can understand there being more of a delay for caravan parts than car parts - the caravan industry is far smaller and there are less retailers/ repairers perhaps? Maybe there is a higher proportion
of caravans that are in need of warranty work (!!).If you wish to start a petition, maybe the place to do it is at change.com?
Just some immediate thoughts.
David
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A TV crusader such as Dominic Littlewood might be an avenue to pursue.
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In relation to Boff it is very interesting when it's compared against the Caravan Clubs
'Articles of Association' which is on the Membership part of the website. Paragraph 4.1 makes interesting reading about the role of the 'Company'. One of its objects is '...to maintain and conduct a club for the benefit...(of members)'. How
it can do things for the 'benefit' of its members without campaining is beyond me. I have copied the paragraph below. If you would like to read it all here is the
link.Objects and powers
4. Objects
The Company's objects are:
4.1 to maintain and conduct a club for the benefit of the persons, including mobile caravanners and those connected with mobile caravanning, who are admitted to Club Membership in accordance with these Articles;
4.2 to encourage social interaction between such persons;
4.3 to promote caravanning generally; and
4.4 to carry out or promote leisure and travel related services and products, including but not limited to caravanning and related pursuits.
5. Powers
The Company has power to do anything which is calculated to further the Objects, or any of them, or is conducive or incidental to doing so.
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We brought our present van in Sussex but live in Norfolk so went to a Norfolk dealer who said they would be happy to carry out any warranty work as they didn't turn down business. The CC are not likely to support your call to take on the industry as they
wouldn't want to risk loss of revenue.Write your comments here...
"The Caravan Club is not a campaigning organisation". This is a direct quote from a meeting I attended earlier this year. I can't remember if it was the chairman of the caravan club who actually said it But it was certainly said in his presence.
Unfortunately I didn't have the presence of mind to ask why no
we are the caravan club every single member not just the people at the top of the tree remember who votes them into there position
if we want change we can do it we are the people buying the caravans there not buying anything from us
so who has the power
the man at the top of the tree is only our spokesperson nothing more
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I suppose it could come down to what profit there is in warranty repairs. If the caravan manufacturers are not paying enough to the dealer to adequately cover costs / provide a profit, you can hardly blame them for not wanting to take on vans they have not
sold. This could potentially mean customers who do buy vans at the dealer having to wait longer. I have no knowledge if this is the case, just suggest it as a possible reason for their reluctance.0 -
a dealer is just a franchise just like a car dealership
forget j lewis
im looking for people who want change not putting up barriers why it has to stay the same
just read the number of posts from people who have bought new vans and had major probs im looking for a quality control from the factory then a qc pdi done by the dealer before joe bloggs gets his van
we need a positve attitude not a defeatest with its always been like that theres nothing we can do
ffs
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As far as I know even a car dealer can turn away work if they want. There may be a contract with car manufacturer stating that they must ac all comers, but that is different. What does apply to cars is the EU block exemption which allows for you to have
a car serviced outside of the dealer network subject to certain conditions, but that is work you pay for yourself not waranty work.If you have bought a van at the other end of the country to save a few quid. Whether a local dealer chooses to carry out warranty work for you, is a commercial decision for him. Really where you can get them fixed , should be taken into account before
you handover your money, sorry harsh but in my opinion trueI do agree with you that the qc and more importantly the quality assurance carried out by the UK manufacturers is appalling. In fact I was told by some who had worked at one of major caravan manufacturer that they were paid a bonus on the basis of the number
of caravans turned out. The quality of these caravans and how many had to come back to be sorted out didn't matter. Maybe it has changed but I doubt it.My personal opinion is that the UK caravan assemblers, because in truth that's what they do put together parts made elsenwhere. Is that they are in a vicious circle of making poor quality products, which they have to spend a fortune post production sorting
out the faults that shouldn't be there in the first place. The amount this costs them means they don't really have the opportunity or money to improve quality so it goes on. In reality they realise that as all the manufacturers make products that to a
greater or lesser extent are all the same poor quality, so basically for every one that buys a brand X caravan, because they will never touch brand Y again. There will be another person buying Brand Y because brand X is so rubbish.My solution don't really have one, but I have voted with my feet and bought a Hymer. They are not perfect, but a damm site better than any UK brand in my opinion so that is where I choose to spend my money.
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There are some dealers who are very happy to do warranty work and some who are not. For me I would rather go to a willing participant than an unwilling one.
Having said that my vans are serviced from new by a mobile engineer who also carries out any warranty work I can't do myself. There is more than one way to skin a cat as they say.
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We are currently having warranty work (damp) done by our local dealer. We did not buy the caravan from them but that was not a problem. As for the money aspect they first notified the manufacturer (Lunar in this case) of the problem and the replacement
parts needed and the cost of doing the job. Once Lunar had assessed the work needed ( photos of the damp were emailed to them) and they had agreed everything the work could commence. We are still waiting for one part, a wall panel, to arrive but other than
that the dealer will not be out of pocket as they will receive fair payment from Lunar. My only complaint is the protraacted nature of it all due to waiting for the parts to arrive.0 -
I recently had to order 2 parts for our old 2007 Hymer. These parts were a gas locker lid (this is a known design fault, so I am not claiming Hymers are perfect) and a draw, my fault we didn't shut it properly and it fell out. I recieved these parts with
in 10 days delivered from Germany, which is exactly what I expected. If a German company can do this why can't British ones?0 -
Armourer, As a matterof interest which dealer are you having problems with. Is it one local to.you and I ?
K
Wouldn't surprise me if he was .... hence I deal with my friendly dealer in North Lanarkshire.
My own dealers take on this is .... they don't have room to expand their premises and run at capacity much of the time ... so how would I as their customer feel if they couldn't do my service, repairs etc because they were doing warranty work etc for people
who bought elsewhere? My answer is ..... not happy.Larger dealers may think differently off course.
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Armourer, As a matterof interest which dealer are you having problems with. Is it one local to.you and I ?
K
im not having any probs with our new van
our local dealer has been great with me
but im ****** off listening to people winnging about there new vans with major faults and there seems to be nobody to turn to , maybe they just like to moan about things and want a sympathy vote and not take any action. im not talking about a loose screw or a small scratch im talking about bad water ingress and dampness after van supposedly had a pdi done by the dealer
all i can say is im glad the caravan manufacturers are not making boats or we would be SUNK
by the way im from blackburn where are you ?
Moderator edit: Expletive removed from comment
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The CC see their members simply as 'automatic income' and there to pay for their easy life. Members are the easy money......they don't consider that they have to do anything to support or help them.
Advertising from suppliers and manufacturers is the cream on top, but they have to give something back for their custom. They have to 'court' these people.......by sharing out a load of false awards at caravan shows. By featuring their producs in a totally
sycophantic way in their magazine. No way are they ever going to criticise them or do anything that might give them a hard time.That's how it is.
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Armourer, As a matterof interest which dealer are you having problems with. Is it one local to.you and I ?
K
Wouldn't surprise me if he was .... hence I deal with my friendly dealer in North Lanarkshire.
My own dealers take on this is .... they don't have room to expand their premises and run at capacity much of the time ... so how would I as their customer feel if they couldn't do my service, repairs etc because they were doing warranty work etc for people
who bought elsewhere? My answer is ..... not happy.Larger dealers may think differently off course.
Iain - Are you serious about the North Lanarkshire dealer in that you are happy with them or were you being sarcastic?
Genuine question as I'm due to pick up my new van from them soon so would rather be forewarned before I part with any cash.
thanks in advance
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Armourer, As a matterof interest which dealer are you having problems with. Is it one local to.you and I ?
K
Wouldn't surprise me if he was .... hence I deal with my friendly dealer in North Lanarkshire.
My own dealers take on this is .... they don't have room to expand their premises and run at capacity much of the time ... so how would I as their customer feel if they couldn't do my service, repairs etc because they were doing warranty work etc for people
who bought elsewhere? My answer is ..... not happy.Larger dealers may think differently off course.
Iain - Are you serious about the North Lanarkshire dealer in that you are happy with them or were you being sarcastic?
Genuine question as I'm due to pick up my new van from them soon so would rather be forewarned before I part with any cash.
thanks in advance
Totally serious. They are ace. You won't be disappointed.
Personally I would not buy from anyone else.
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A dealer who sells you a caravan has made a profit on that deal (hopefuly!).A caravan manufacturer pays a "trade" hourly rate for warranty work,There is a lot of time spent processing warranty claims by a dealer.The profit from the sale goes toward offsetting
the time involved!The dealer is moe likely to look after his customer with whome he has built up a relationship (hopefully).and if his workshops are busy then he will obviously give preference to his customer!In the real world nothing is perfect despite what
some people might think!!!!My own opinion of course!!!!!!0 -
In general any dealer can do warranty work for you but not all want to do it for other dealers customers. The manufacturers do not require dealers to take on work on caravans bought elsewhere and many do not have the capacity. Once you know that then you
have to decide if the problems this could involve are worth any saving you might make.There is no way the manufacturers can make dealers take on extra work without forcing those unable to do it to expand their workshops. That is not going to happen without a lot of time and investment so do not hold your breath.
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