Interesting day - get several quotes!
Really odd day today!
Firstly I should explain that we store our caravan about 50 miles from home.
after a service earlier in the year we were informed we had some serious damp, that was not going to be cheap to fix😔 we were given a rough estimate and decided as we had booked a rather expensive package holiday to celebrate our daughter finishing her a-levels we’d have to wait for funds at a later date to get the work done.
along comes Covid and sadly our celebratory holiday is cancelled.. on the plus side (every cloud) a full refund freeing up funds to fix our beloved Gerty.
a call back to the original business who found the damp and they’ve popped back and confirmed the cost will be £3,000 to resolve. It’s a 2008 van so if we’re lucky worth £5,500 in outstanding condition. So some hard choices to make.
We decided to call around and get some quotes for the work. So today we planned to take it to show to another repair centre and whilst with it getting a few others bits fixed. Namely new tyres, jockey wheel, fixing a window and replacing a few bulbs.
So after taking the wheels off and getting new replacement tyres we headed back to the storage yard to refit the wheels. On entering the gate we see a mobile vallet cleaning someone’s van. We stopped as we were in shock. The chap was actually standing on the roof of the van jet wash in hand. I’m by no means a caravan expert but I thought that would be a major no no?
30 minutes later wheels refitted, nice new tyres, all torqued up correctly we head off to get a quote for the dreaded damp work. Leaving the mobile cleaner still blasting away on the caravan roof..
So we arrive at the repair centre. A very helpful chap reads the original report and damp meter in hand sets about finding the damp. He prods away showing us lots of readings, confused he prods some more. 45 minutes later he explains his findings... a mere £850 ex vat to resolve! If we really want to go to town, then at the absolute most replacing every thing possible in the areas concerned it’s £2,000 but you just don’t need to do that. Offers to get his colleague to double check his findings. Would you mind we ask. Calls his colleague over says we’d like a second opinion. The colleague reads the report and investigates. Shows us his readings, reads the report, carries on prodding away.. no guys I’m sorry I just can’t find this. Explains our options and agrees with the owner. So that was a saving of just over £2,000!
I should say we were shown the readings today on a machine that had recently been calibrated, compared to the original readings they were poles apart. This is within 10 days... damp rainy days at that!
We’ve gone from thinking our beloved van Gerty was at deaths door, to realising that actually she’s perfectly usable!
we returned to the storage yard to see the cleaner busy on the roof of a second van blasting away with his trusty jet wash! Would you like yours done? No we’re fine thanks..
Morals from today, firstly get several quotes, don’t trust people purely by reputation and well, clean your own van!!
Both engineers were CC approved workshops..
Comments
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I think there is a lot of ripping off being done generally in life. I have heard several people tell me that they can't be bothered to hunt around for the best price and it is this that companies rely on. If they think that the prospective customer isn't going to ask for other prices they will quote a far higher price than is justified, hoping that they will get away with it.
Personally I always get three quotes where possible. Is one too high or another too low for the work involved? The third should suggest the answer to the question.
I recently had a very big hedge cut, (the first time I've not done it myself in 33 years). The difference in prices for exactly the same job was very significant.
When it comes to any job that isn't visibly evident, eg caravan damp, I, again, would get more than one opinion, ideally three. If I can't actually see what needs to be done I wouldn't rely on one person's 'opinion'.
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For the first time ,our C/van was serviced by a fully qualified mobile engineer ,it costs him over £1000 per year to keep his NCC qualifications ,and to do Manufacturer warranty repairs,which entails attending the factories,
It took him over 3 hours to do the service ,I sat in our car reading and on Tinternet via air angel cc wifi
C\van had max 8% reading for "damp"(had not been used since Feb)
He was reiterated that as is known "rip offs" by not doing PDIs on new LVs is quite common,with dealers as he has done some "warranty work" that should have been done on PDI at the dealers,who get good money to carry it out , he also showed me some nuts that on Monday after doing a service on a 3yr old C/van that proved the brakes had not been checked on the last two services as they were original one use nut
I have seen roof of LVs being washed by standing on the roof which is quite acceptable on some makes (Bailey and "some" continental )
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