Al-Ko are useless - discuss
Three reasons:
1 I've been caravanning for 40 years according to my membership card. I have never had a wheel bearing replaced on a caravan before, but when I took my Bailey in for its 3 year service, both wheel bearings were said to be shot. An Al_ko warranty claim.
2 The dealer tells us today (Thursday) that Al-ko have only just got back to them, 6 days after the claim was reported to them.
3 Al-ko now want photographs of the bearings before actioning the warranty claim. This means taking the van back into the dealer's workshop, and nothing will happen until next week. I will have been without the van for over a fortnight.
The whole thing is made more frustrating by the fact that the reasonably local Bailey dealer (Carlisle) has closed and the remaining three nearest are 55 miles away in various dirctions o
Comments
-
some years ago we had a problem with the offside wheel bearing being"shot"on one of our c/vans when it was investigated it was put down to the bearings being over tightened on the last service the fitter was not useing a torque wrench!!!! ,the nearside was also changed by the dealer at their cost !!,they first tried to say the van had been overload,It is probably why Alko need photographs
0 -
Totally agree with you they are useless both bearings had to be change on second service of my 2014 sterling Eccles Quartz
put a claim sent pictures they didn't respond most people said it was down to the first service they didn't take care putting the hub back on gave up in the end
0 -
Whilst in no way a fan of the sealed for life opposed ball race bearing now used, I am pretty sure the issue was a previous service.
That said the industry should have bearings etc capable of being serviced by the low levels of competence out there in the trade.
0 -
Jvb66 that's exactly what my service garage said probly overloaded or potholes
0 -
Certainly not overloaded - I've got the weighbridge certificate to prove it!
0 -
I got charge £275 for them both as they are not covered under warranty
0 -
I have shock absorbers on mine if it is due to our roads then they are not fit for purpose it must be the design I rember my mk2 Granada the bearings use to fail after 18 months
0 -
The state of our pot holed roads is more to blame than Alko. Caravans don't have much in the way of suspention so rough roads give the bearings a hard time.
I don't buy that, just view some of the videos the manufacturers produce to say how wonderful their vans are and how they can withstand poor roads............. until you want to claim for something like a crack in the side or wheel bearings oh sorry we cannot
cover that you must have hit a pot hole or gone over a sleeping policeman!!!!When I get that comment I'll be getting out the you tube videos
Kev
0 -
Yes I agree they are useless.
To have to wait beyond the same day to get confirmation of a warranty claim, with the ability to pass information back and forth electronically, almost instantly these days, leaves no room for this poor service.
But there again, this is the company that brought out the pathetic, not fit for purpose spare wheel carrier, the wheel lock that requires the carvan to be jacked up and the hitch lock brake pads that cost over £20 for two bits of plastic.
0 -
You do not have to wait for ALKO or accept any idea that it is not covered by the warranty. You have rights against the dealer under The Sale of Goods Act or Consumer Protection Act assuming the dealer is still there, Quote the act and threaten a small claims action.
Frankly portholes is not a defence. All manufacturers know the roads have potholes and hitting the odd one is inevitable. If it cannot withstand ordinary potholes it is not fit for purpose and they are liable.
If the dealer rhas gone bust though you are in the hands of ALKO and all I can say is good luck.
0 -
Yes you can threaten legal action. But you would need to put this in writing and give them a couple of weeks to respond and then send a 'letter before action' and another couple of weeks passes and then start the court process........
Should all this be necessary when their product has broke?
0 -
In our case, we found that Alko were just the opposite of useless. They (and Swift) were fantastic when we had a problem with our Alko suspension rubbers within the axle assembly. It was replaced (once) by our dealer, and when the replacement axle was found to have exactly the same fault as the original, it was loaded on a low loader by Alko, and taken down to their workshops on a Monday, the axle replaced, and it was back with our dealer on Wednesday so that we could go on our pre-booked ferry to France on the Friday of the same week! They subsequently identified a whole batch of faulty assemblies and they were recalled.
Some people have very different experiences - but I think we couldn't have got better service if we'd paid thousands for it - it didn't cost us a penny!
0 -
Quite a few years ago, when the Cold War was very much part of our lives, it was revealed that bearings used in our own Centurian tanks were made in Russian controlled Eastern Europe. Most bearings are still made outside of Britain and they are made in thousands.
To have multiple bearing failures on a single van, from a production run of many hundreds of chassis from Alko is, you have to admit, unlikely - unless human error has crept into their being fitted/ adjusted during a service. I'd concentrate on that possibility
first.0 -
I have never been impressed with ALKO either.Everything they sel is vastly overpriced.Wheel bearings are two a penny and there should be no quibble about a claim for them.AlKO are just another industry like Calor who have a stranglehold on the caravan industry.
v9
0 -
In our case, we found that Alko were just the opposite of useless. They (and Swift) were fantastic when we had a problem with our Alko suspension rubbers within the axle assembly. It was replaced (once) by our dealer, and when the replacement axle was
found to have exactly the same fault as the original, it was loaded on a low loader by Alko, and taken down to their workshops on a Monday, the axle replaced, and it was back with our dealer on Wednesday so that we could go on our pre-booked ferry to France
on the Friday of the same week! They subsequently identified a whole batch of faulty assemblies and they were recalled.Some people have very different experiences - but I think we couldn't have got better service if we'd paid thousands for it - it didn't cost us a penny!
Stuff like this must be costing the manufacturers a small fortune just because they cant be bothered with QA/QC. Until they get proper quality control this will continue to happen
0 -
Three reasons:
1 I've been caravanning for 40 years according to my membership card. I have never had a wheel bearing replaced on a caravan before, but when I took my Bailey in for its 3 year service, both wheel bearings were said to be shot. An Al_ko warranty claim.
2 The dealer tells us today (Thursday) that Al-ko have only just got back to them, 6 days after the claim was reported to them.
3 Al-ko now want photographs of the bearings before actioning the warranty claim. This means taking the van back into the dealer's workshop, and nothing will happen until next week. I will have been without the van for over a fortnight.
The whole thing is made more frustrating by the fact that the reasonably local Bailey dealer (Carlisle) has closed and the remaining three nearest are 55 miles away in various dirctions o
I have a new 2016 caravan with an overheating wheel bearing from new, so hot you cannot hold your fingers on it.
After 5 weeks of repeated phone calls we have not yet even received confirmation that the bearing is to be changed under warranty, in fact any communication has only been one way, from me! I feel like giving up on my dealer and going elsewhere, not just
for this there have been other isuues in the two months of owning a brand new £25000 caravan. Oh, the dealer is Catterick Caravans Ebor Leisure site.Dave
0
