Buying a new caravan - buyer be aware
I wanted to share an experience which my wife and I have had after buying a new caravan. We attended the caravan show in February 2016 where we were shown a Lunar Cosmos, looked really nice and the layout was perfect.
We took delivery of the van in April 2016 at which time it had been thoroughly checked over and all inspection paperwork signed.
We took about 8 holidays in the van within 2016, some for 1 night and some for longer.
Within a few months we noticed that there was water sitting in the overhead cupboard at the front of the caravan, our last thoughts would have been that a new caravan would be leaking and as we had a travel iron in the same cupboard, we naturally assumed that the water had come from this.
At the end of the summer I covered the van over winter.
In 2017, due to family commitments we did not use the van to any degree and it remained covered for most of the year.
Unfortunately, my first mistake, I did not have the van serviced in 2017.
The start of 2018 and I took the van for a service, it passed the service including the damp test, which would be expected as it was covered over winter.
In October 2018 we took the van away to Northumberland and onto Edinburgh, unfortunately on arrival in Edinburgh we suffered rain storms, this resulted in water pouring in through the radio speaker onto the furniture and also into the shelf area at the front of the van where previously we had found water but still did not connect the two incidents.
We cut the holiday short and took the van back to the supplier in Preston on the way home to Oxfordshire, they arranged for a local company to affect a temporary repair, this consisted of applying as much mastic sealant as possible to the roof strip. We were given the impression that this would be as good as a permanent repair and were told we could carry on with our holiday.
I took the van home and immediately covered the van for the winter.
In 2019 we took the van away in April but had no rain, we took the van back to Edinburgh in June and again we had water pouring into the van through the speaker and along the shelfs and also along the window sill, we spent 3 days in the van with towels mopping up the water and making constant visits to the on-site tumble driers.
As soon as it stopped raining, I packed away the awning, cut the holiday short and again drove from Edinburgh to Preston to the suppliers.
The suppliers were not helpful at all, they only sell caravans they do not do problems, this is dealt with at another location a few miles away, we spoke to the guy who actually sold us the van, he stated, you missed a service in 2017 therefore there is nothing we can do, you can go and speak to workshops if you wish.
We then drove to the workshops and they could not have been more helpful, knowing that we had missed the 2017 service they still tried to help by contacting Lunar and agreed to keep the van undercover until the repair was sorted.
Whilst negotiating with Lunar as to whether they could help with the repairs, Lunar went into administration and this left us in a state of limbo.
We decided to pay for the repairs as we wanted the van back, we had already cancelled another holiday and felt that this was the only way forward.
So £1,800 later we now have our caravan home but I must admit to being very angry that a new caravan could be so badly put together that it leaked almost immediately and also that the guys who were so nice when they sold us the van became totally different people when we had a problem.
I must add that the service/repair centre staff were brilliant and I cannot thank them enough for their help.
So, 2 points to think on, ensure you have the van serviced each year within 30 days of the purchase date, this would have saved us a lot of money and grief.
Consider very carefully who you purchase a caravan from, biggest is not necessarily the best.
Our experience hopefully will help others as this is such a big commitment and should be a very exciting time, especially as you go into retirement.
John Knight
Oxfordshire
Comments
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Sorry to read your story. Annual servicing is clearly a reasonable condition of the guarantee, and its a shame you missed it in 2017.
Wouldn't be Campbells in Preston would it. If so their initial attitude doesn't surprise me but glad to hear the service department were helpful, thats not everybody's experience.
Useful reminder to everyone to make sure the service history is up to date, and hope you have many enjoyable holidays in your repaired caravan.
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I an sorry to say that today I have to report finding more water in exactly the same place as the original leak, I now need to take the van back to Preston from Oxfordshire for them to have a look. we will be cancelling yet another break, needless to say my wife and I are devastated.
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If you paid for the repairs by credit card, I would contact them asap.The repair is not fit for purpose, and I would have little faith in any second repair from Campbells being any better from past experience on a Lexon we purchased from them new.
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I've just part exchanged my 2018 lunar quasar for a new caravan of a different make.the last lunar i had 2013 model leaked twice repair was done under war r twice thank goodness I've got a good dealer.lunar going down then reforming did not do my confidence good as nobody would say if my 3year and6year water ingress would be any good and after the leaking of my previous model I could not take the risk.sadly I liked the van.I've always had the vans serviced.
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We bought our Knaus from a dealer 200 miles away from home. I was aware of the implications re warranty work when I bought it. There wasn't all that much choice because there aren't that many dealers in the country.
We have had to go back a couple of times for warranty issues and these have been sorted out to my entire satisfaction. Indeed, their service dept staff are brilliant - always ready to go that extra mile.
There is another dealer a lot closer to home, who were willing to undertake warranty work - but quite frankly, their attitude over the phone and dilatory attitude in returning my calls has left me totally underwhelmed and needless to say, won't be doing anything for us and although using them for servicing looked attractive, they have lost out to the more distant dealer whom I can trust.
My attitude is that it's all very well and good having a dealer on your doorstep but if they're not going to do a decent job, any convenience in getting there counts for nothing.
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Not a lot of choice if buying a Knauss or, possibly a Hobby etc. Even Eldis in my area. When I chose my dealer in 2012 there were two dealers less than 20 miles away for a Lunar and one 40 miles away that I chose in preference.
If I wanted to buy a Knaus I would probably travel 100 miles each way. Out of interest where did you buy R&R?
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ET - We bought from Adventure Leisure Vehicles at Tebay, Cumbria. Bit of a hike from East Yorkshire (400 mile round trip), but we stay for a few days at a nice commercial site in Kirby Stephen (Pennine View) and make a break of it.
We are there in a couple of weeks time - I've brought the service forward by the maximum allowed of two months to avoid the prospect of having to go there in December and potentially bad weather.
As an aside, I learned the other day, that as part of the service, the underneath of the floor is re-coated with underseal (they still use a wooden composite floor) - first time I have come across this - never happened with our previous Bailey - and very reassuring. I've always thought it was an obvious thing to do.
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I bought a Lunar Clubman ES in 2017 from Campbells Caravans & Motorhomes, Preston, & collected it from their Blackburn site. There were issues with its inherent quality from the start, and I returned it to Campbells for repair. The quality issues continued, such as edging strips detaching, front windows out of alignment, etc, and culminating in the large skylight's surround becoming detached.
I found the manager of Campbells Aftersales team to be unhelpful to say the least. I was expected to take the caravan back to them at my expense and, in his email, he referred to Lunar "warranties" having expired and that the handbook stated returning the caravan for repair was to be at the customer's expense.
Thankfully, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 is law (which the after-sales manager referred to as guidance in one of his emails) and over-rides warranties and handbook contents.
The manager didn't respond to my last email demanding a refund, and then later sent me an email telling me that Lunar Caravans had gone into administration the day before. This made no difference to my case, as my contract was with Campbells, the retailer, and not Lunar Caravans, the manufacturer.
So, as I had intentionally paid a deposit for the caravan by credit card, I went to the bank instead and demanded a refund from them under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. They were very helpful and asked for evidence, which I was able to provide in full with regard to my dealings with Campbells Caravans & Motorhomes and the history since purchase of the caravan's inherent quality issues.
The bank accepted my evidence and I have just accepted a full refund of the price paid for the caravan plus a little extra towards the cost of anciliary items.
Needless to say, I was not impressed with Campbells aftersales manager, I will not be dealing with Campbells Caravans & Motorhomes in future, and I won't be buying another Lunar caravan.4 -
It’s good to hear you got the right result, W8493.👍🏻
I wonder if Campbells had to reimburse the bank?
It's a shocking indictment on the whole LV industry that we hear similar tales again and again.
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Needless to say, I was not impressed with Campbells aftersales manager
I was not impressed with their sales teams that I had dealings with regard a possible purchase. I simply felt bad vibes and went elsewhere. Sorry for your difficulties and glad it ended well on two counts.
1. refund
2. knowing who not to use as a dealership.
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After several purchases from "distant"dealers we bought our last two from a local dealer (6miles) and it seems more dealers are concentrating on their own customers for any warranty work if/when needed, our dealer will not take on warranty work unless the LV was sold by them,or serviced by them as they say most warranty work carried out is not allowed enough time by the manufacturer to be done properly so they are not being payed fully for the work
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Congratulations W8, that is superb. The only way the LV industry will ever up its game is by clever folk like you using the law against the bad ones👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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I have mentioned this in previous posts but as it is so important it bears (brief!) repetition. Our Bailey twice went back to the Bailey factory under warranty for severe water ingress. Eventually we sold it to a dealer as part exchange for a motorhome. About a year later I was contacted by the person who purchased it from the dealer. There had been further damp problems resulting in an estimated repair cost of over £5800 not covered by the dealer warranty. Although the van would have been covered by the Bailey extended damp warranty, neither the dealer nor the new owner had contacted Bailey to get the warranty transferred. It was still registered in my name and the factory therefore refused to do anything.
So important to strictly adhere to the service intervals and to transfer warranties where appropriate.
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With regard to my earlier post, regarding the full refund I recently received regarding the 2017 purchase of a new Lunar Clubman ES caravan, my advice to you, before you buy any product, is:
Get to know the Consumer Rights Act 2015. These are your rights under the law, and take precedence over any warranties that sales and after-sales people constantly seem to talk about ("Oh, we can't do that, it's out of warranty" etc). Be aware that this Act can't be applied retrospectively but, for future reference, it's good to know that the law protects you from retailers who will not step up to the mark regarding inherent faults with products, including caravan/motorhome faults, especially as plenty of people will have recently ordered new caravans/motorhomes recently at caravan shows.
Under the Consumer Rights Act, you should expect any product you buy to be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, and as described. It also includes the fact that, within the first 30 days of purchase, you are entitled to your money back (in most cases), if the product is faulty.
Pay a deposit with a credit card for any purchase that costs between £100 and £30,000, even if you pay only £10 deposit. We paid an initial deposit of £1,000 by credit card, intentionally, which means that we were also covered by the Consumer Credit Act 1974, section 75, and could claim the refund from a third party, eg, the credit card company (in our case, Lloyds Bank), if the retailer did not comply with our rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Banks and credit card companies have the right to claim back their loss from the retailer. (I understand that they can also remove the facility for receiving payments via credit card payment for retailer repeat offenders).
When you make a purchase, note the dates any payments were paid, how much you paid, how you paid and who you dealt with at the time. Each time you have telephone or face to face contact with anyone regarding a fault, make a note of the date, who you spoke to and what the outcome was. Take photographs of faults, and keep your bank statements and any receipts (especially those regarding ancillary items you've bought specifically for use with your caravan/motor home.
We were able to provide the bank with dates regarding contact with Campbells and the names of people we spoke to, together with copies of receipts and emails passed between the after sales team and me. This was important, as it demonstrated the contact that we had with Campbells within the first 6 months of purchasing the caravan. When Campbells after-sales manager stated in his email to me that there was no record of our returning the caravan for repair within the first 6 months of purchase, we were able to provide evidence that proved otherwise, which the bank accepted.
I sincerely hope you are able to enjoy your future caravan/motorhome purchases without any faults occurring, but it's always good to know that forewarned is forearmed!
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Our caravan is now 20 months old and has been back to the dealer many times with various problems,- squealing brakes (say 4 times), soft cushions ( say 3 times), potential leaking shower sealant. We have also had it serviced there hoping that it would help with any future warranty conflicts.
Luckily the supplying dealer is only 30 mins away from our storage ( less from home) but was the primary reason we bought it from there.
If we were still working with limited spare time and 50 miles away it would have been very very annoying.
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Just a thought, does the club have an approved dealer scheme?
If not could a scheme be created? Something that has criteria to meet for after sales service etc etc? I’m sure dealers would contribute to be able to call themselves approved dealers. This would certainly give members the confidence to buy from specific dealers.
I will say it sounds as though this company ‘Campbells’ area bunch of rogues, well certainly the after sales manager at least! Sad really as buying a van is a big investment..
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Hi Dave
have just read your posting. Caravan’s look lovely from the outside especially the new models and they also look very attractive on first impressions on the inside . Sadly when you really start looking closely they are thrown together , shoddy workmanship with a lot of use from staple guns . The manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves. They until now and since the pension release boom they have been doing fabulously well . You can tell that when you get on site and see all the new caravans and tow cars. Most are unaware of how little actual workmanship goes on. Sadly the way they put them together is as shoddy as ever. You cannot take anything off and expect it to go back easily. To replace a cooker/grill , that would cost you as much as a Bosch/AEG for your home and the quality is cheap and nasty. It the front of your fire/heater comes off or you have to remove it that too is just the same. I happened to remove my Bailey drawers to get to the Truma control unit
it was only held in position by the cables it wasn’t actually fitted to anything, and when I looked on the inside of the cabinet it was mainly held together with staples and I’ll fitting brackets, un believable . All your hard saved money and you only have to read some of the discussions ,If the manufacturer can get away with not doing warranty work they will. My theory is never by new , buy one that has had its services and there’s a very good reason for it’s sale and save yourself a lot of money. I spent 35 years in the motor trade and going back in time you probably would have not bought a Skoda with all its bad press but look at them now they Really’ Superbly ‘ manufactured cars. No I don’t drive oneCaravan manufacturers need to up their quality .
.
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The company Campbells have been trading in the North West area of England for many years; my father used to trade with them back in the 1960s and they were a good family business but our own dealings with them have been far from satisfactory. I'm surprised that they're still in business having been aware of all the bad reports of customer service and after sales service.
We vowed never to cross their threshold again after our last purchase of a new Lunar.
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Just a point of order....The mover control box would have been fitted at your dealers workshop by your dealers staff so you are out of order blaming Bailey for not fitting it securely!
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