Leaky "very expensive" fifth wheel caravan
Hi Guys,
My first post on here so il try to keep to the rules but please give me the heads up if I stray!!
OK so I'm looking for advise as to what to do (if anything) about a leaking caravan less then 3 years old.. I purchased a Fithwheel co Dreamseeker caravan in March 2019 direct from the manufacturer, it was 2 years old then so just less then 3 years old now.I paid £56k..
As the caravan was used I only had a 3 month warrantee. It was fully serviced by them just before collecting.
Not long after and within the 3 month warrantee timeframe I noticed that there was water getting into the slide out, I contacted the manufacturer to discus this with them by phone and they explained that the problem would most likely be that when siting and levelling up the unit I need to insure there is a slight drop in level towards the slide out, this they explained was to insure a good seal and encourage rain water to flow away from the seal.. This made sense to me as I was not aware of this. over the corse of the summer every time we used the caravan I experimented with this and found that the issue was not fixed by the leaning.. I then came to the conclusion that it was in fact leaking from the roof in the slide out, I have had a caravan engineer take a visual look and it seams that there are 2 very narrow beads of silicon that have failed and that is the most likely point of entry however without further investigation it is hard to confirm.
So now of course I am way out of my warrantee so I contacted the fith wheel company to ask if they gave a water ingress warrantee with there units, they advised me that they do and its for a 5 year period, however as the previous owner I am told missed his first service it is no longer valid so they will not cover it or even investigate it without a charge!!
Now I'm aware that as far as the black and white small print goes it seams I'm not in a legal position to insist they make the repair but from a moral point of view I see it like this:
I have probably the most expensive caravan that money can buy built by a company that states "we are the Bently of caravans" in there advertisements, yet its less then 3 years old and water is gushing in through the roof and because they misled me while I was within my warrantee period that the issue was down to me and because it missed a service 2 years ago there not interested in helping out in any way!!
I suppose what I'm after here is any advice but also peoples opinion, am I being a nightmare customer and should except that I have no grounds to argue and just take the hit or am I well within my rights to be upset and let down??
Thanks in advance guys
Richard
Comments
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Sorry Richard I cannot give advice on such a subject EXCEPT to say try having a word or three thousand with the C & MC Legal Department. They are much more likely to know how to go about sorting your problem. That apart Welcome to the Club
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Hi, Richard.
ABM has given you the best advice there is to contact the club’s legal dept.
I'm afraid morals count for nothing in the caravan industry so don’t anticipate any goodwill coming your way - sorry.
Good luck.
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I would add the same. However, I despair of your dealer. We purchased a 12 year old MH from a private dealer, and despite the age of the MH we were given a generous 12 month warranty on both vehicle and habitation. Everything went well throughout that 12 month and we had no reason to get back to them. The one minor niggle we did have three years after purchase was with a Spanish fitted alarm system, but our local garage sorted that easily and cheaply for us.
They don’t have morals most of them. We found an exceptionally good private dealer, and happily recommend, but I think bad customer care is more the norm. Contact the Club’s legal dept.
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