purchased a new caravan from a dealer who is 80miles away from where i reside i was wondering if i can get it seviced from a dealer who is not to far from where i stay who is a swift dealer as this will be it first service regards dave
caravan service
- Thread starter david_374473836
- Start date
Check and see if you've a mobile mechanic in your area who is accredited to do servicing and warranty work.
If there is I think you'll find them a lot cheaper. Ours is excellent and was a mechanic at a dealers before starting out on his own ....
http://www.mobilecaravanengineers.co.uk/mcea-find-an-engineer.htm
If there is I think you'll find them a lot cheaper. Ours is excellent and was a mechanic at a dealers before starting out on his own ....
http://www.mobilecaravanengineers.co.uk/mcea-find-an-engineer.htm
David,
I think you will find that there is no problem in getting the van serviced by any dealer, after all you are paying for it!.
The problem comes when any warranty work needs doing. Your local dealer may well refuse.
Jim
I think you will find that there is no problem in getting the van serviced by any dealer, after all you are paying for it!.
The problem comes when any warranty work needs doing. Your local dealer may well refuse.
Jim
David - as Lord B. has said you can use an independant service company as long as they are registered/recognised by the National Caravan Council and the caravan manufacturer. I am in a similar situation whereby the dealer is twice as far away as my independant service centre. I have had no trouble in having routine service and warrenty work done by him on my Bailey. Have a chat with other caravanners who live locally and they may give you some good advice and names of reputable service centres local to you.
hi,
this is a minefield believe me,buying a caravan from a dealer who is some distance away can create a lot of problems,i did it and should know.firstly__yes you can have it serviced by an approved dealer other than the one you bought it off__BUT___AND A BIG BUT__you caravan must be serviced within a certain date of the day you actually picked up the van,i was told within a couple of weeks either side is usually approved by manufacturer to keep warranty live.if you were to get it serviced outside this time scale and something happened where you need to claim,the manufacturer could and lets face it probably would void the claim as youve not serviced it within their timescale.now this is were the fun starts,once you phone up another dealer to service the van___first question they ask is 'DID YOU BUY THE VAN FROM US'UNFORTUNATELY YOU DIDN'T__then they will tell you yes they can do it,but if youve bought a van in the period where lots of people have bought vans at shows etc,youll get a glut of vans around the country that need servicing at around the same time(mine was march when a lot of people take delivery)so they look after there own and will slot you in when they can(unfortunately these dates are usually outside the manufacturers timescale for servicing your van)so beware____ask your dealer the dates either side of the date you got the van. that the van must be serviced in,because believe me there is one and all the manufactures should highlight this.
secondly warranty work____yes again you can get the work done by an approved dealer other than you own___but and another big BUT!!!___once again they look after people who have bought the vans from them AND YOU WILL BE PUT TO BACK OF THE QEUE__thats if they will do it at all.reason been that they get paid a lot less(hourly labour rate)for warranty work off manufacturer than they normally charge themselves ie___warranty work
this is a minefield believe me,buying a caravan from a dealer who is some distance away can create a lot of problems,i did it and should know.firstly__yes you can have it serviced by an approved dealer other than the one you bought it off__BUT___AND A BIG BUT__you caravan must be serviced within a certain date of the day you actually picked up the van,i was told within a couple of weeks either side is usually approved by manufacturer to keep warranty live.if you were to get it serviced outside this time scale and something happened where you need to claim,the manufacturer could and lets face it probably would void the claim as youve not serviced it within their timescale.now this is were the fun starts,once you phone up another dealer to service the van___first question they ask is 'DID YOU BUY THE VAN FROM US'UNFORTUNATELY YOU DIDN'T__then they will tell you yes they can do it,but if youve bought a van in the period where lots of people have bought vans at shows etc,youll get a glut of vans around the country that need servicing at around the same time(mine was march when a lot of people take delivery)so they look after there own and will slot you in when they can(unfortunately these dates are usually outside the manufacturers timescale for servicing your van)so beware____ask your dealer the dates either side of the date you got the van. that the van must be serviced in,because believe me there is one and all the manufactures should highlight this.
secondly warranty work____yes again you can get the work done by an approved dealer other than you own___but and another big BUT!!!___once again they look after people who have bought the vans from them AND YOU WILL BE PUT TO BACK OF THE QEUE__thats if they will do it at all.reason been that they get paid a lot less(hourly labour rate)for warranty work off manufacturer than they normally charge themselves ie___warranty work
Klarky - the supplying dealer with us gave me a list of approved independant service centres where we could take the van to for service as well as them selves. There was no mention of service dates as long as we kept up the service record book annually with an approved service centre stamp on it. We have had warrenty work done on the van without any charge for us. Purely coincidental that the service engineer we chose was a cousin of the sales director who sold us the van. There was no undue pressure at the sales to use this particular service centre - it was 100% our choice without knowing the family connection.
If you have a local mobile engineer there's no need to worry about getting your van to the servicing centre, they come to you and service your van at home or in storage. Mine is accredited to do servicing and warranty work on all British built vans, unsure about foreign ones. He is also registered for gas fitting.
Terminology
Warranty work can only be done by the seller because legally that is wher your warranty rests. (Sale of goods Act).
If you are lucky enough to be authorised by the manufacturer to take your caravan to another dealer other than the seller to have faults repaired FOC, that is the manufactures guarantee not your warranty, and and you might find that if you have a lot of faults the manufactured guarantee has a value cap. Read the small print on your manufactures guarantee
A local dealer undertaking work
Warranty work can only be done by the seller because legally that is wher your warranty rests. (Sale of goods Act).
If you are lucky enough to be authorised by the manufacturer to take your caravan to another dealer other than the seller to have faults repaired FOC, that is the manufactures guarantee not your warranty, and and you might find that if you have a lot of faults the manufactured guarantee has a value cap. Read the small print on your manufactures guarantee
A local dealer undertaking work
hi colin
all you have to do is ask the manufacturers who are on this forum and you'll see___lets see if they answer this one fairly____i wait
When we had Bailey's upto 2006/2007 the caravan had to be serviced within 6 weeks of the collection date.
Our Swift caravan, as stated in the manual, has had to be serviced upto 90 days before or 60 days after the date of collection. However the 3rd annual service must be carried out upto 90 days before the date of collection. No leeway on 3rd annual service after date of collection.
Any decent dealer should spell this out to the purchaser. On the other hand the dealer may fairly assune the purchaser reads the manual!!
I will only let my dealer Golden Castle Caravans service my caravan, because of their excellent reputation for serviceing, and because if i have a problem they will do their utmost to solve it ASAP. I live 170 miles from my dealer.
It is my opinion that if you want and expect good service from your dealer then loyalty has to be shown on both sides. When i buy a caravan from my dealer, the knowledge of good future serviceing and the caravan being thoroughly looked after by the dealer is a major part of the deal.This means i can caravan with complete peace of mind in the knowledge that if anything should go wrong i will be looked after.
There are some really decent dealers around,besides my own Golden Castle Caravans,as is often pointed out on this forum.Perhaps it is me, but i cannot understand why more caravanners do not go to one of these dealers and build a good relationship with them.Perhaps if they did we would hear less problems on the forum.
Hamer
Sorry Mikey.My post should have been as a reply to the main topic,not under read these comments.Senior moment!
Hamer
We moved 250 miles just after buying our Coachman in 2007. We tried our new local dealer who was uninterested and unhelpful (or so it seemed at the time) telling us to try an independent in Hull. Checked with Coachman that the independent was NCC accredited and okay with them. He was and we haven't looked back, fantastic service very reasonable prices and warrenty work sorted with much more satisfaction than any dealer we have ever used. Not only that but he does loads of work for the dealer previously mentioned but I bet when they take a van in for work they don't tell the customer thay are taking it elsewhere and probably making a profit out of it as well.
All the time this iother firm is going I will never use a dealer again for anything other than the purchase of the vans
All the time this iother firm is going I will never use a dealer again for anything other than the purchase of the vans
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