Damp new caravans and the industry
Comments
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As a member you can use the clubs legal helpline who deal with lots of these problems. A small claims summons can be issued for very little for claims up to £10,000 and would certainly get you some compensation as they are generally too expensive to defend
and the bad publicity could put the dealer out of business.0 -
I agree with the last comment that 60% damp in a new caravan indicates a product that is not fit for purpose but where do you go? The supplier refuses to do anything about our complaint, the manufacturer ignores the customer, and the caravan club just looks the other way. The best advice given to date was by a member of staff at the Caravan Club. They suggested we got the van repaired and sold it quickly and bought a static instead. Tells you everything about this cowboy industry in this country.
Write your comments here...as far as I know statics are also prone to damp just not so easy to get repaired or sell!! Plus side as they are static they are not put through the constant movement a tourer does being towed, twisted and bumped etc. so not so many would get damp.
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you would surely have a case with trading standards? Not fit for purpose. If a new van is sold with a water ingress guarantee for 10years for example, if its sodden in two years its not as described at sale. I'dbe contacting CSB and trading standards .
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Slightly off topic, I know - but I was talking to the sales person at our dealership, yesterday, whilst we were having a warranty job done. She was telling me that if you need a spare part under warranty, it could take weeks for it to come from the manufacturer, If, however, you were prepared to pay for it, it could be there the next day! This was based on her experience of owners who had become so frustrated that they had done just that.
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Update, caravan has been in for warranty work for last nine days, apparently damaged wet locker had been fitted to caravan and this has caused the damp. Called today to arrange collection tomorrow as this was the arranged date for completion of work. However
work not completed yet, weekend away has to be cancelled. They will contact us today to arrange new date. No call received by close of day.by the way, trading standards not interested!
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Our van is about to have its first service so I hope I'm not speaking too soon but in thirty years of caravanning we have only had one damp van and that was not a new one, and the older ones had much more wood in them too, we were always advised that you
will never get a 'bone dry' reading because of humidity etc.,Alison
Write your comments here...All vans have slight damp in them. Take a damp metre with you to the NEC show and try it in the vans on display. You will be supprised what will appear on the reading metre.
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Slightly off topic, I know - but I was talking to the sales person at our dealership, yesterday, whilst we were having a warranty job done. She was telling me that if you need a spare part under warranty, it could take weeks for it to come from the manufacturer, If, however, you were prepared to pay for it, it could be there the next day! This was based on her experience of owners who had become so frustrated that they had done just that.te your comments here.
Hmm...I had a similar problem. The cause of the delay was the dealer, who shall we say, was consistently late in making payments to suppliers.
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Slightly off topic, I know - but I was talking to the sales person at our dealership, yesterday, whilst we were having a warranty job done. She was telling me that if you need a spare part under warranty, it could take weeks for it to come from the manufacturer,
If, however, you were prepared to pay for it, it could be there the next day! This was based on her experience of owners who had become so frustrated that they had done just that.te your comments here.Hmm...I had a similar problem. The cause of the delay was the dealer, who shall we say, was consistently late in making payments to suppliers.
Yep - when we has warranty repair on Elddis the dealer made it clear it would be weeks but the part could be there tomorrow if we paid for the repair!
At close to £2000 this was unlikely to happen - although we did give it serious consideration to get the van back for a forthcoming holiday. We ended up back in our old tent!
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My sorry tale was when we took our van in for part ex, after paying a deposit on a new van, we were told that it was riddles with damp and only good for a 'fishing' van. A week later I was surprised to see the same van being sold for £4000!!! My wife's illness
stopped me from taking action but I did ring the Managing Director, just to check if I was being ripped off by the salesman! I was told that it was common practice in the industry, 'that's how we make our living!' He was a bit upset when I told him just what
I thought of him and his ethics. But that was it.Buyer beware!!!
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If more affected owners went through Trading Standards perhaps manufacturers would improve the build quality and improve the unacceptable time it takes for faults to be rectified. A damp caravan is not fit for purpose and nor is one that starts to fall apart
internally. The is a new Sales and Service act which entitles the customer to a full refund rather than wait for repairs.0 -
I guess what we need is an equivalent JD Powell rating for caravans which gives feedback on owners satisfation with product and service levels
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We had severe damp in our Bailey Unicorn and it had to go back to the factory. Fortunately I scheduled it for after our holiday but it was gone for several weeks. A few months later at the next service they discovered more damp so back to the factory again. That was the final straw for OH and we ended up buying a Motorhome.
Our dealer (Oxford Caravans) was excellent and you have to remember that it is bad for them as well. The thing is that the excellent workshop manager new exactly what had gone wrong in the manufacturing process to cause the problems. Essentially it was poor quality control which for a modern Company is a disgrace. Bailey, like Swift and others, have come up with radically new manufacturing and assembly techniques. The construction ideas are not rocket science but you would think there would be a better focus on quality management given the significant changes.
One lesson learned (which I already knew from my industry experience but seemed to forget), NEVER buy a prototype product. There will always be problems - absolutely guaranteed.
Although I cannot say that our Motorhome will be perfect, it is very apparent that the design which has been around for a few years has been improved through customer feedback (and, presumably, proper tracking and reporting of faults). It's called continuous improvement and it is a very basic manufacturing principle. Everything seems to be in the right place and it works as it should. Watch this space!
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I guess what we need is an equivalent JD Powell rating for caravans which gives feedback on owners satisfation with product and service levels
PC do an annual survey. The results are readonably consistant for customer satisfaction with Adria and Sprite top with over 90% and Eldiss bottom under 80%. The others are all interchangeable in the 80,s.
Damp complaints have come down from 21% over the ladt three years to 12% so it does seem things are improving. Only Swift and Coachman had less than 10% with damp.
If you wanted a fault free caravan then Adria were by far the best though at 40%.
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