Lunar Customer Service

Dan55
Dan55 Forum Participant Posts: 3
edited June 2019 in Caravans #1

Has anybody experienced the appalling level of customer service from Lunar. Lots of faults with my new van, the dealer has been good but 2 emails and 2 calls asking for a response to Lunar and nothing. No replies no calls. On my third Lunar never had issues before beginning to wish I kept the old one.

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Comments

  • Simon100
    Simon100 Club Member Posts: 666
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    edited June 2019 #2

    As I am sure you are aware your contract is with the dealer and not Lunar.

    Lunar would say that they are under no obligation to discuss caravan issues with you as they have not sold you the caravan the dealer has.

    It is the same for motor vehicles, and any other consumer item, as far as I am aware.

     

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited June 2019 #3

    The dealer is responsible to rectify any faults that may come to light in your purchase ,they are paid by the manufacturer to do a thorough  PDI before you recieve it ,but it is a known  some dealers do not carry this out"extra profit "and then can claim extra money from the manufacturer for warranty repairs that could have been picked up if the PDI was properly carried out,

  • JohnM20
    JohnM20 Forum Participant Posts: 1,416
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    edited June 2019 #4

    We made a fatal mistake of buying our current Lunar from a dealer at the caravan show in Birmingham. It was a good deal, so I thought. When we collected our new 'van from the dealer, 100 miles away, it was very obvious that the PDI had not been done at all. A one hour hand-over took over three hours whilst they sorted some of the very evident problems. On top of this their attitude was pretty appalling. Customer service seemed to be a dirty word to them. Consequently we vowed never to go there again, for anything.

    We found a couple more warranty issues after we got home  and a result I spoke to our local Lunar dealer. They agreed to take on any warranty work which we found necessary. Unfortunately this dealer went out of business so I spoke to Lunar, (yes, I did actually get to speak with someone!) to ask them where I could take the caravan in the event of further warranty problems. Their answer was to give me a list of their dealers but with the added information that the nearest one to us (30 miles) would not do work if the caravan had not been bought from them. The other dealers were, at the nearest 50 miles away, but Lunar didn't know whether they would  touch our caravan as we hadn't bought from them. Not at all helpful.

    30+ years ago my uncle, who got us into caravanning couldn't speak highly enough about the help and support that Lunar gave to owners. This has obviously long since gone.

  • IanHNW
    IanHNW Forum Participant Posts: 41
    First Comment
    edited June 2019 #5

    John... Please name & shame the dealer, it's the only way we encourage them to improve 

  • Dan55
    Dan55 Forum Participant Posts: 3
    edited June 2019 #6

    Thanks for your comments. I ran a new car dealership and if someone went to the manufacturer with a bad word w3 would be penalised. They would also take an active interest in any work that we undertook (first time fix as they called it). Obviously not the same for the caravan industry but they still could have acknowledged my emails and calls and told me how it will be progressed. Just had my dealer contact me to say he’s had a “curt” reply from Lunar telling them to get on with it!

     

  • Tigi
    Tigi Forum Participant Posts: 1,038
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    edited June 2019 #7

    Lunar won`t and don`t have to deal with customers as per JVB66 its the dealer who has to rectify problems and it is them who has to approach the manufacturer for assistance, from the posts I`ve followed over the years all the manufacturers follow this line (yes they`ll no doubt be an exception) My own golden rule is buy from a local dealer.

  • Unknown
    Unknown Forum Participant
    edited June 2019 #8
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  • dreamer1
    dreamer1 Forum Participant Posts: 141
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    edited June 2019 #9

    A few weeks age we went to our local dealer to look at a new caravan we have a Bailey Barcelona at the moment, one model caught our eye it was a lunar island bed model we were happy with the van so we put a deposit down. When I got home thankfully i went and read some reviews , my heart sunk as most of them were very negative . we have now ordered a Coachman which is the make we were originally interested in  .

     

  • dmiller555
    dmiller555 Forum Participant Posts: 717
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    edited June 2019 #10

    If one goes to collect a caravan, and it displays faults then surely the correct procedure is to reject it and demand a full refund! 

    I have had cause to contact Lunar twice by email to seek information and on both occasions received a prompt, helpful, and polite reply.

     

     

  • Wildwood
    Wildwood Club Member Posts: 3,582 ✭✭✭✭
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    edited June 2019 #11

    The problem seems to be widespread in the industry and I have seen similar posts about the other firms. Basically these firms do not seem to bother with customer service. Having said that on buying our previous Lunar I did need to e mail them on one point and got an answer and when we had damp this was dealt with reasonably quickly although we had a proactive dealer so we were as happy as you can be when you have had damp.

    I am afraid that buying what looks a good deal at a show from a remote dealer is potentially dangerous. The sale is by a salesman who is generally after his commission and does not care about anything more than that. What happens later is someone elses problem and the workshop staff know you will not be back so why should they worry. It has been shown time and time again that buying from a local reputable dealer is a normally a far better proposition and far easier to sort if things go wrong.

    Looking at JohnM20's point I am not sure what more Lunar could do other than to list firms who undertake their warranty work. I am afraid their dealer network is thinner on the ground due to their size than Swift and Bailey but possibly in areas where they have lost their dealers they could set up a deal with  servicing businesses to help customers. Having someone local for servicing and warranty work might increase sales so it should be to their advantage.

    We have no Eldiss dealer in the area but they have an agreement for a local firm to do warranty work which would encourage me to take one of their models if need be. Possibly Lunar should look at this.

    There is a definite problem with dealer not taking in caravans sold by other dealers. This seems to be down to many failing during the recession and what is left simply do not have the capacity to handle work other than from their own customers. Thinking back there were at least five dealers in the Glasgow area at one time and now there is only one, which illustrates the scale of the problem here.

  • Unknown
    Unknown Forum Participant
    edited June 2019 #12
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  • lornalou1
    lornalou1 Forum Participant Posts: 2,169
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    edited June 2019 #13

    I do hope you got that in writing AD. wink

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited June 2019 #14

    It was correct at the time of going to press wink

  • Unknown
    Unknown Forum Participant
    edited June 2019 #15
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  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited June 2019 #16

    Our dealer has told me that they no longer will carry out warranty work on any other than those sold by them ,as the manufacturer's do not give enough time to carry out the work,as the timings fall far short of what most jobs entail ,in a workshop rather than their factory

    Ps they are Bailey and Coachman dealers and says that since Coachman has upped production levels the "PDI is now taking longer and warranty work has started to also increasesurprised

  • JohnM20
    JohnM20 Forum Participant Posts: 1,416
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    edited June 2019 #17

    I have used an excellent NCC mobile service engineer for many years but he won't touch warranty work because the manufacturers will not pay for all the work the job entails. Where a component fails there is frequently a request to send the part back to the manufacturer necessitating an initial visit. If the claim is upheld he then has to return again to fit the replacement part. It is only this last bit that he's paid for. No traveling time or multiple visits are paid for. 

  • Wildwood
    Wildwood Club Member Posts: 3,582 ✭✭✭✭
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    edited June 2019 #18

    Under the Consumer Protection Act you can claim for expenses in traveling to get faulty items dealt with. Most dealers will contest this and the cost may not be enough to justify pursuing it though.

  • ATDel
    ATDel Forum Participant Posts: 335
    edited June 2019 #19

    We have had awful problems with Lunar customer service. Our van was returned to the factory for a new roof, it came back with damaged front and rear panels and 3 cracks on the front panel, all Lunar said was put a warranty claim in. It wasn’t warranty work it was damage to my property by the manufacturer. 

    It has been sorted now no thanks to Lunar, my dealer sorted it for me and warranted the panels for 12 months against any further cracking.

    I put a post on the fb page Lunar technical issues re their lack of interest and care all of a sudden they are interested, far too late for me and only because I dare complain in public.

     

  • delta d
    delta d Forum Participant Posts: 3
    edited July 2019 #20

    Have had three years of hell with our 2016 delta ts

    Have had so many problems, water system that has never worked,been back to dealers more times than I can remember, back to lunar once still no water

    Interior  light replaced dont know how many times,window trims shrincking, water pump inlet panel cracked, gas point outside cracked

    Rear panel refitted ,main skylight replaced ( full of flys no bungs fitted) all window catch screws replaced,front window trim panel refitted,

    Now the floor has delaminated in kitchen area and floor cracked to front A frame mounting points

    Dealer no longer a lunar dealer but still sorting problems but very slow 

    Van currently been rejected via section 75 and ongoing 

    This is the first and last new caravan for us

  • TonyBurton
    TonyBurton Forum Participant Posts: 269
    edited July 2019 #21

    I had over 20 faults on my first Lunar. They were all dealt with promptly by my local dealer. I decided to write to the CEO at Lunar, because I was concerned they would go out of business if they didn't improve their quality control. He didn't have the decency to respond to my letter. Sooner or later the British caravan industry will go the same way the  car and motorcycle manufacturers went in the 1970s. 

  • Oneputt
    Oneputt Club Member Posts: 9,145 ✭✭✭
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    edited July 2019 #22

    With all the problems we had with our Lunar we just decided to bite the bullet and get rid of it we lost about £2.5k on the deal but I’m, fingers crossed, far happier without it

  • TomL
    TomL Forum Participant Posts: 763
    edited July 2019 #23

    We've had similar problems  in trying to deal with Lunar. No reply from CEO, not even an acknowledgement from an "underling" - appalling service!

  • Wildwood
    Wildwood Club Member Posts: 3,582 ✭✭✭✭
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    edited July 2019 #24

     You would think that the continued hammering of the various makers on these forums might get them to respond but they all seem oblivious to these and must be loosing sales as a result. I am not sure Lunar are any better or worse than the rest, in the Practical Caravan surveys their customer satisfaction rating is not good, but there are far worse. the whole industry seems to be totally unaware of customer service.

  • Dan55
    Dan55 Forum Participant Posts: 3
    edited July 2019 #25

    From the comments here and my recent experience with Lunar probably reflects the issues they’ve been having and it seems the arrogance of the CEO has led to their current situation. That said my dealer has been very good and accept they need to sort things out regardless. Fingers crossed they find a buyer. 

  • rayjsj
    rayjsj Forum Participant Posts: 930
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    edited July 2019 #26

    As we now know, Lunar are in administration, so that explains a lot, however it doesnt explain other Manufacturers treating their ultimate customers with disdain. Dealers may be the sellers but the Public are the end users..who provide the hard cash. Lose their trust and you are 'gone'  

    ie 'Leaky Lunar'.

  • JohnM20
    JohnM20 Forum Participant Posts: 1,416
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    edited July 2019 #27

    Unfortunately lack of customer service seems to extend to many different areas if it is connected with caravans.

    Without going into great detail we have a problem with the toilet in our caravan. We contacted our usual service engineer about the problem who, because he was overseas at present, suggested that we contact the area 'Service Partner' for Dometic. This is another caravan servicing company about 25 miles away from us. The reply from them was, to say the least, not one of encouragement basically saying they put servicing of caravans first as repairs were not profitable. Also they would put their existing customers before anyone just wanting a repair. In summary it appeared that they didn't want the job. They would do it in a few weeks if they were passing through our area. They even complained that other service engineers were directing their customers to this particular company when it was a specialised repair that was required. Why then are they the Service Partner for our geographic area? Surely dealing with repairs is what it is all about or is it just a bit of false prestige to put this on their website.

    I appreciate it is a busy time for servicing companies but it was the tone of their reply that upset me the most. Am I being unreasonable?

  • GarethLJ
    GarethLJ Forum Participant Posts: 6
    edited July 2019 #28

    Today I have collected my Lunar Cosmos 544 from  a company in Preston(sub contracted by Campbells) and was told I was lucky as I had just got my van fixed before Lunar went into administration last week! My van has been a disaster from the day I picked it up in March 2016 with so many faults and water ingress. I hope there is a quick buyer who will honour any warranty item that many owners will have on the years ahead!

  • Wherenext
    Wherenext Club Member Posts: 10,607 ✭✭✭
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    edited July 2019 #29

    I hope there is a quick buyer who will honour any warranty item that many owners will have on the years ahead!

    Why would a potential buyer want to pick up warranty claims? Nothing to do with them and I speak as a Lunar caravan owner who would like to see it happen. Someone may indeed buy the business from the administrators but they won't pick up the warranty work.

  • Unknown
    Unknown Forum Participant
    edited July 2019 #30
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  • JohnM20
    JohnM20 Forum Participant Posts: 1,416
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    edited July 2019 #31

    This could be a very short sighted view by any buyer (if there is one). Why would they not want to try to restore customer confidence in the product? Yes it could be expensive in the short term but longer term would pay dividends. Anyone with a warranty claim is certainly not going to buy another Lunar, and it appears that there are probably lots of them. Their choice will have been very tainted by what has gone before regardless of how good future warranty claims may, or may not, be handled. The new buyer must remember that mud sticks!