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EH52ARH said:After reading the previous posts, has anybody been asked by manufacturers about what is desired, I have sent feed back to Coachman about where and how many, 240 sockets could be placed. And shelfs in cupboards, 15 inch high storage holes without shelfs, radios in stupid places, they should be fitting usb ports now, window blinds, that dont really work. The list goes on. Ok Rant over, sticking to my present Coachman 560. Especially as I have just fitted a new carpet all the way through for £50.
Merry Christmas. To all.
Dustydog said:Just read the section on the Vanmaster. £68k :woohoo:
Will it outperform and last longer than a Swift or Bailey.
Following on from Parksy and The Prof points I still fail to understand why the motoring press are NOT slow in coming forward to criticise a car manufacturer for poor performance yet when it comes to caravans there is some masonic mafiosa journalism that flatly refuses to take up the banner on behalf of the buying public
Parksy said:EH52ARH said:After reading the previous posts, has anybody been asked by manufacturers about what is desired, I have sent feed back to Coachman about where and how many, 240 sockets could be placed. And shelfs in cupboards, 15 inch high storage holes without shelfs, radios in stupid places, they should be fitting usb ports now, window blinds, that dont really work. The list goes on. Ok Rant over, sticking to my present Coachman 560. Especially as I have just fitted a new carpet all the way through for £50.
Merry Christmas. To all.
In 2006/2007 the Personal Assistant to the CEO at Swift started to engage with touring caravan owners on various caravan related internet forums including this one.
A lot of information was exchanged, factory tours around Swifts were arranged (I went on a factory tour and also bagged a free wristwatch complete with Abbey logo that I wear to this day) and the next generation of Swift caravans were developed after using forum members as a giant real time focus group. The exchanges of information led to the introduction of the Swift caravan forum.
Bailey also began to engage with forum members and to monitor forums but this appears to no longer be the case.
Some would argue that there has been little or no improvement in caravan build quality despite the conversations between forum users who bought tourers and the manufacturers enlightened enough to risk their reputations with this interaction but caravan design in my opinion is streets ahead of what was on offer say, ten years ago.
There is much room still for improvement in build quality and QA, but at least instant mass communication gives owners of faulty caravans the opportunity to air their grievances, to confront manufacturers in some cases and to seek advice from their peers on how to obtain redress.
In turn, manufacturers have access to instant free of charge market research, Bailey introduced Alu Tec, Swift introduced one piece caravan side walls and much improved awning rails and grab handles and when things go pear shaped the manufacturers know about it instantly without waiting for a recurring problem to filter through their dealer network. Bailey for example re-designed the front of the Unicorn (was it?) because of stone chip damage, and Swift soon knew all about their leaky front panels.
There is less room for excuse and evasion tactics now, and if only we could harness the voting and buying power of caravanners via the internet with an entirely consumer focused website, not only would we force MPs to lobby parliament to make manufacturers rather than caravan dealers liable for repairs or replacement under SOGA, we could force down prices of caravans and all related goods and services.
We can but dream ........
ProfJohnL said:An excellent post from Parksy
Just to add a note about manufacturer responsibility, Whilst the CRA ( and SoGA before it) only has currency between seller and customer, there are at least two ways of directly targeting manufactures, but both need considerable coordination.
The first is a Class Action, where a group of customers with a common issue can jointly seek to challenge the manufacturer. this would only be against a specific manufacturer.
The second which can be slightly easier and could be against an industry rather than a single manufacturer, would be to use an organisation that has been granted the right to raise a Super Complaint.
The Consumers Association (Which? magazine) is one such, and if enough of its members can convince it, it can launch one.
But the basis of the CRA will not change, which establishes the obligation of a seller to its customer. You don't want to give retailers the right to shift the blame for selling unsatisfactory goods. They must accept the responsibility for choosing to deal in faulty goods in the first place.
Ultimately if a seller is getting too much greif from customers about sub standard goods, they will change their supplier/manufacturer.'