Repairs
New to caravanning. Bought a 5 year old caravan from a nationwide dealers back in July. First outing in August we saw it was leaking from the front roof light. Told the dealership who said they’d contact us with a date to take it in. The oven glass then shattered, nothing was in the oven at the time so nothing was touching the oven door. This apparently wasn’t covered under warranty and I was told I must have done something to it as it doesn’t ‘just happen’. The carbon monoxide detector then started beeping. The batteries were found to be over a year out of date. Maybe we were naive and should have checked these ourselves, but the company we purchased the van from supposedly do a 50 point check before handover. Apparently they just ‘push the button to see if it works’. It’s taken from reporting the roof light fault in August until the beginning of December for the service department to tell us to take in the van for repairs. We had a call this morning to say the staff have all been furloughed and we now have no idea when we will get the van back. We have been assured that the van is safe and we do appreciate that with the lockdown we can’t go anywhere. As I said at the beginning, we are new to caravanning and wondered if this is normal. Thanks in advance.
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To be honest yes, all too common, but dont worry you will get it sorted and enjoy it..
the leak is serious, ensure they fix it properly and that you have documentation for the work. Not uncommon but worrying for your first van.
Oven glasses and tops do just shatter. they are tempered and can just implode with no warning, get them to fix it or at least do the fitting for free.
the carbon monoxide sensors are not fit for purpose in a caravan, they really dont like the cold and just dont last. even so they should repair or replace but just as a pointer carry batteries for both detectors, they do not last as long as one in your home. some say remove hem for he winter when van not in use but far safer to leave them in situ and test each trip.
if you are not happy with the van then speak to the club legal team who will advise on what is reasonable with respect to rejecting the van or getting the issues sorted.
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Welcome to the world of caravans and dealers, N67. It sounds pretty normal to me
You've been given good advice by Phishing and I wish you well.
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Thank you for the info. It’s very much appreciated. We’ll just wait for a while and see what happens. Hopefully by the time we’re allowed to travel again it will be fixed and we’ll have many adventures in the repaired caravan. Thanks again.
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D-C Fix is a range of adhesive coated plastic sheeting, made in Germany, sold in rolls by B & Q, BM and Amazon among others. The range is very large, but no one seems to stock the complete range. A few years ago I repaired a damaged work top in an old Bailey van. The repaired top could not be separated from the other panels. It is not too difficult to use.
Ray
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