Damaged repaired new caravan

Graham Pilky
Graham Pilky Forum Participant Posts: 8
edited July 2019 in Your stories #1

 We took delivery of our new Caravan in May 2019,  when we put the order in for the caravan to be made we was told  earliest delivery date would be July but it came in May .Great news. We purchased it at a cost of £25195 from what  we thought was was a good  dealership. On our third weekend away in June my daughter noticed a repair had been done on the back corner of the caravan  which you only can see when the sunlight is  directly shining on it,  I took photos and sent them to the dealership, After emailing them every day for nine days I received No response from the manager ,  The service department secretary was assuring me she was passing the messages on to him ,he was still on willing to get back to me. I ended up going to the dealership and confronted him , first thing he said he put it in the hands of the service manager to contact me which he never did contact me ,he said the caravan had not been repaired by them and he will get in touch with the manufacturers to find out about the repair which  after seeing the picture he replied that is on unacceptable repair . I explain to him when we went to pay the money for the caravan the sales rep would not let us see the caravan, The sales rep told us it was locked away in a compound which he  unable to find the keys for ,I later found out the compound did not exist,  I also asked him why I took 17 days for the handover of the caravan to us ,He was unable to explain this ,  I do believe the damage was caused at the dealership and they tried to hide it from use .  Let’s wait and see what becomes of this 

Comments

  • mickymotor
    mickymotor Forum Participant Posts: 3
    edited July 2019 #2

    That sounds disgusting treatment you’ve had from the dealership. I think you should name and shame them so that other potential customers of theirs might like to look elsewhere. If the dealership has a drop in sales that could jeopardise their business, that’s their look out. There are too many businesses around that couldn’t care less about the customer.

  • Graham Pilky
    Graham Pilky Forum Participant Posts: 8
    edited September 2019 #3

    Still not had the work done,   We have had to coachwork body repair companies take a look at the rear panel of my new caravan both of them have come back saying there is evidence of repair and evidence of paint which new caravans are not painted they are gel coated panels, We went away in the caravan for a week in July and  when we reached our destination the door retainer had fallen off also apart came off inside the cooker which we found in the vent on the cooker we had a very bad gas leak,

    Then the rain came and I took 8  different recordings over 2 days of very bad dripping noise inside the rear panel which had been damaged and repaired before we purchased this new van, On our way home we called in to the dealership Catterick caravans spoke to one of the  technicians about all the faults  his reply was with the gas part we found  it was too dangerous and we needed to leave the van there, I let  them listen to the recordings of the dripping noise when it was rain,

    I explain to them them for insurance purposes the van needed to have a wheel lock and the hitch fitted while it was parked in their premises and left the locks just inside the door for them to fit.  The service department but not in the door window clearly stating the van must have the security locks fitted ,We had an alert on the alarm system on the Sunday so I drove down to the dealership which was open and busy with customers we found the van in the car park with no locking device fitted at all, I fitted the locks and drove home.

    I complained to Paul the manager by email ,The reply was sorry we never locked your van up ,

     There fixed the gas leak and the door retainer, I then received an email from the manager saying the dripping noise was due to the  Central heating airlock, I told him to stop talking  nonsense, We never even had the heating on it was 23° outside  also I popped in to see what progress with my caravan and the  technician had a hosepipe on the roof of the caravan and the rear corner cupboard dismantled, He told me he could hear it dripping but you could not tell where the water was getting in,

    All the manager is doing is fobbing me off with lies after lies I have now had an opportunity then to put this in the hands of my solicitors , why should we have to go  through this, unbelievable 

  • Graham Pilky
    Graham Pilky Forum Participant Posts: 8
    edited September 2019 #4

    The Latest email I have sent to Swift company after I asked them for the date my caravan was ordered by the dealership and the sales reference number 

    Thank you for your email,
    Please forward this email to your sales management team,

    I am extremely disappointed with Swift Company Unwilling to assist me with the problems we are encountering with our first ever caravan ,After researching and watching Swift videos on your hundredth anniversary new caravan we was influenced to purchase one , It is my opinion that for customer relations you should be influencing your outlet dealerships to get issues with your new caravans put right professionally and quickly to minimise upset and the reputation of swift Products,
    I would not need to ask you Pre-sale questions if my after sales problems would of been resolved ,
    Catterick caravans are doing nothing at all to try and rectify the problems and I just telling lies after lies and blaming Swift for the delays on the faults.
    I had no option to put this in the hands of my solicitors which is costing me more expense ,We are now seeking to rejecting the caravan,
    My wife and I are very pleased with the style of the caravan and is what we wanted, All we wanting is a exchange .
    I think your company should keep a good customer relation and help out with complaints prompting dealerships to act swiftly

  • Graham Pilky
    Graham Pilky Forum Participant Posts: 8
    edited November 2019 #5

    The Battle is over ,Dealership decided not to repair the caravan and give me a full refund on the purchase price on the 4,11,2019