caravan service

[GillandMike]

Hi

Have just had the van serviced by a man that comes round to your house. He seemed very competant, has been in business with his father in law for some years and caravans himself. He charges £125.00 plus parts plus vat. Seems to be ok, had the various qualifications certificates and it certainly saves taking the van some 30 miles or so to the nearest dealer for servicing. Anyone else used a service like this and has it been ok.

Gill

 

[AnthonyVJ]

Hi MikeandGill

Is your van still under guarantee? and is this affected by not going to a service centre, sounds great!

Helen

 

[Lol1]

Hiya Gill,

We have used a local firm in the past. They visit the van at home or in storage. The quality of workmanship seems equal to main dealers but at a better price and more convenience. This however was on a caravan where the warranty had run out. If these firms could get accreditation (some have already) to do warranty work, I would use them all the time.

 

[GillandMike]

The van is a 2001 Abbey Vogue and not under a warranty now. We bought it second hand from a vicar last summer. We told him if any thing went wrong we would speak to his boss about it

Gill

 

[Dusty_5112460]

sounds a good price, compared to what some established dealer's would ask for servicing an older van or one outwith warrenty.

 

[Steve L]

It's not a bad deal at all. You can see first hand what he is doing. He has a vested interest in getting the job done (time). Also he won't want to hang onto the van for a week to fit it in between other jobs.

You can also identify the culprit if anything is wrong with the workmanship.

As a once self employed person, I have the built in pride in what I do. Because it's never the 999 jobs you do well you'll be remembered for, but the one that goes wrong.

Of coarse if like me your a competent qualified engineer, you can do it at home for free.

Steve.

 

[MikeP]

That is a fair price, and a little below what we pay for a guy to service the caravan on our drive.

VAT registration shows that he and his father are busy chaps. A logical extension of being busy is that they do a good job. Do they advertise? If not, even better as it means that business comes through word of mouth. The current VAT registration threshold is

 

[tonyd1]

Hi,

We have had our 10 year old Elddis Shamal for a year now, and about 4 weeks ago we went off for our first weekend of the new season to Church Stretton from the Wirral. Setting everything up in the pouring rain I was puzzled as to why so much water was coming from underneath the van. I quickly discovered that the immersion had blown something and water was everywhere under the front seating. We kept the heater on all night to dry it out and managed to survive the 4 nights without water in the van.

Fortunately i had booked it in for a service at Utow Caravans Ledsham, Wirral.I dropped it off on the way home. What a great guy Peter is. He did a full service including repairing the immersion, it needed a new plastic valve, replacing the water filter and a full gas bottle. There were also a few other niggling little jobs to do. All appliances were checked (Corgi registered). I'd asked him to replace certain parts if they needed it. Such as the water filter housing, which is slightly cracked and the jockey wheel which I thought might need to be changed. He advised me that these things will do another day and have plenty of use left in them. Imagine saying that to a BMW dealer if you were unsure of certain parts! They'd replace them without hesitation.

Anyway, all the work was carried out to our satisfaction and fully itemised. Total cost

 

[Lol1]

Like all tradesmen/women if you find a good one, it's worth hanging on to them. Be good to them and they will return the favour.

)

 

[BrianStAlbans]

Like all tradesmen/women if you find a good one, it's worth hanging on to them. Be good to them and they will return the favour.

)

Lol , this is the second time you have been caught in Technical, remember three strikes and you're out ;O)

 

[Lol1]

Lol , this is the second time you have been caught in Technical, remember three strikes and you're out ;O)

You can talk (type), you're in here so much I was going to start calling you "Brian (technical support)"

Now get back to the funny pictures thing that you're so good at.

 

[BrianStAlbans]

Lol , this is the second time you have been caught in Technical, remember three strikes and you're out ;O)

No, lots of trouble with the nuns last time. Wouldn't want to upset anybody. ;o)

 

[whitetop]

It used to be that you had to get your car serviced by a dealer to comply with warranty conditions. Now, as long as you use approved parts and have the service carried out by a VAT registered business, your'e warranty will still be valid. I have done this apart from 1st service and recently the turbo went on my car and warranty was honoured.

Does anyone know if the rule applies to caravans....

David

 

[darrell_5099783]

hi i think i can beat you all on the service prices.. my friend who owns a caravan repair/service place in derby said he would service mine free of charge.. i didnt want to have it done free so i offered to take them out and buy them their dinner ( any place he wanted) we all went to a pub of his choosing and ate our meals.. i went up to pay the bills but he still insisted on paying for his share.. i wouldnt hear of it saying it was well worth it for the service..( nearly 200 quid where i bought van from last yr).. as we were standing at the bar drinking up while our better half's were getting kids together i decided to put my last couple of quid in a slot machine. i promptly won back most of the money i had paid for his half of the meal... in the end my caravan was fully serviced for

 

[Dave_5040181]

Hi,

We have had our 10 year old Elddis Shamal for a year now, and about 4 weeks ago we went off for our first weekend of the new season to Church Stretton from the Wirral. Setting everything up in the pouring rain I was puzzled as to why so much water was coming from underneath the van. I quickly discovered that the immersion had blown something and water was everywhere under the front seating. We kept the heater on all night to dry it out and managed to survive the 4 nights without water in the van.

Fortunately i had booked it in for a service at Utow Caravans Ledsham, Wirral.I dropped it off on the way home. What a great guy Peter is. He did a full service including repairing the immersion, it needed a new plastic valve, replacing the water filter and a full gas bottle. There were also a few other niggling little jobs to do. All appliances were checked (Corgi registered). I'd asked him to replace certain parts if they needed it. Such as the water filter housing, which is slightly cracked and the jockey wheel which I thought might need to be changed. He advised me that these things will do another day and have plenty of use left in them. Imagine saying that to a BMW dealer if you were unsure of certain parts! They'd replace them without hesitation.

Anyway, all the work was carried out to our satisfaction and fully itemised. Total cost

 

[AnthonyVJ]

The van is a 2001 Abbey Vogue and not under a warranty now. We bought it second hand from a vicar last summer. We told him if any thing went wrong we would speak to his boss about it

Gill

Must be useful to have a direct line in!! Helen