They must have came marauding from the far North in the distant past and set up a caravan dealership in the northwest of England with the soul aim of blighting the lives of us Sassenachs.
I’ll try to keep this a brief story of our experience with a dealer since taking the plunge and ordering our very first caravan in the early summer of 2010, a brand new Swift Challenger 570 but forgive me if I ramble and whinge a bit.
Delivery was agreed for early September 2010, and on the agreed date we set of to collect our new pride and joy. The omens were not good as we got out of the car in the carpark and the heavens opened to soak us both on the way to the office. We were told there would be a slight delay in carrying out the handover as the engineer was busy. We were asked to wait for the engineer in our new caravan which the salesman pointed out to us through the window of his warm dry office, so off we went in a mad dash in the torrential rain. It was almost an hour later when someone arrived to carry out the handover. He very quickly went through all the systems in about 15 minutes and the time came to hitch up, sign the paperwork and pay the balance. The engineer agreed to use the motor mover to align the hitch. The caravan moved about 300mm and the mover stopped. He tried again and once more the van moved about 300mm and stopped. The Engineer said the problem was the new 110 a/h battery which had not been charged and everything would be fine once the battery was charged. This seemed plausible so off we went to the office.
Once in the office I asked for the ALKO wheel lock we ordered with the van some 4 months earlier, after a series of phone calls we were told the lock had been delivered to their other branch by mistake. I told the manager that the lock was a condition of the insurance, and we were going away in two days time, so he agreed to have it sent overnight to our house. We signed all the paperwork, paid the balance and off we went with our new pride and joy.
The next day came. Unfortunately the lock didn’t. After a few phone calls we were told the courier had made a mistake and delivered the lock to them and not us! So off we went on our first ever trip including a 140 mile diversion to collect the lock.
We arrived on site and after struggling to position the van (motor mover not working) we spent the next two or three hours working out how to set up the water, operate the heating system, get hot water etc. etc. as the 15 minute demonstration of all the systems were now just a blur. Anyway we got everything set up with the welcome help and advice from a friendly couple in an adjacent pitch.
We had a very enjoyable three days and the time came to pack up and go home. This would of course be easier because the battery had been charging up for 3 days so the motor mover would work I assured my wife! No such luck the mover worked great for the first 200mm and stopped. We got hitched up with the help of our friendly neighbour’s and set off home, and to phone the dealers.
The dealers wanted to see the offending mover so I took the van the 60 miles to their site. Once there they tried the mover, which again moved the van 200mm. The dealer said they would contact the mover manufactures and get back to me, so off I went home. Three weeks and several phone calls from me to the dealer, (they never once phoned me) later, I was driving back down the M55 with the van for the to replace the mover control panel, all was now well with the mover.
We had nine trips away in total in the first year, everyone enjoyable, with only very minor niggles with the van. August 2011 came around quickly and it was time to book the caravans first service. I contacted the dealer, went through a short list of faults, the main one being broken catches to the drop down TV cabinet, a well known and acknowledged design fault that Swift had a standard fix for, and booked the caravan in to their dedicated service centre at a date in early September. Between booking the van in and the date of the service the intruder alarm on the van stopped working. I contacted the dealer and they added this to the short list of warranty work. The appointed day arrived and I dropped the van off at their service centre and went through all the required work with their engineer. I was assured that all the warranty work had been approved by Swift and they had received all the required parts.
A few days later I got the call to say everything was sorted and the van so ready to be collected, they had found a small amount of damp on the door to the toilet cassette and had but in a warranty claim for a new door and were waiting for Swift to approve the claim, so off I went up the M6 to collect the van.
Disappointed could be one of the words used to describe my feelings to find out that they hadn’t followed the Swift standard fix for the TV cabinet, and had only fitted one of the supplied catches, and that the alarm hadn’t been touched because they didn’t have the parts!
Anyway we are now in February 2012, 6 months on from the service date, and 2 weeks ago after countless phone calls from me to the dealer (never from them to me) and 3 more 100 mile round trips to their service centre, I got the caravan back with the TV cabinet repaired to the Swift specification, and the old Nord alarm changed for a new Sergeant 310 alarm. At last I thought, everything sorted. That was until I brought the van home from the storage yard this weekend to prepare for the new season, only to find out the road light weren’t working.
The dilemma was do I take it back to the dealers for them to take a couple of months to investigate, expect me to make 3 round trips to their service centre, try to find someone to blame, and eventually repair the road lights and break something else, or do I have a go myself.
It is well reported on caravan forums how helpful and customer focused Sergeants are, so after a few minutes on their web site I printed off the wiring schematic and went off to the van to investigate. I found that the dealer had simply cut all the cables that went to the old alarm, including the cables to the road lights, and plugged in the new alarm. A quick phone call to Clive at Sergeants confirmed what I had to do and 10 minutes later everything was working fine once more.
Congratulations if you have read this far, believe me I could have gone on a lot further, suffice to say I will not be going near this dealer again with a barge pole, in fact I would rather staple my eyelids to Ann Widdecombes arse than let them anywhere near my caravan.
Can anyone recommend a good dealer / service centre in the Warrington / Wigan area.
I’ll try to keep this a brief story of our experience with a dealer since taking the plunge and ordering our very first caravan in the early summer of 2010, a brand new Swift Challenger 570 but forgive me if I ramble and whinge a bit.
Delivery was agreed for early September 2010, and on the agreed date we set of to collect our new pride and joy. The omens were not good as we got out of the car in the carpark and the heavens opened to soak us both on the way to the office. We were told there would be a slight delay in carrying out the handover as the engineer was busy. We were asked to wait for the engineer in our new caravan which the salesman pointed out to us through the window of his warm dry office, so off we went in a mad dash in the torrential rain. It was almost an hour later when someone arrived to carry out the handover. He very quickly went through all the systems in about 15 minutes and the time came to hitch up, sign the paperwork and pay the balance. The engineer agreed to use the motor mover to align the hitch. The caravan moved about 300mm and the mover stopped. He tried again and once more the van moved about 300mm and stopped. The Engineer said the problem was the new 110 a/h battery which had not been charged and everything would be fine once the battery was charged. This seemed plausible so off we went to the office.
Once in the office I asked for the ALKO wheel lock we ordered with the van some 4 months earlier, after a series of phone calls we were told the lock had been delivered to their other branch by mistake. I told the manager that the lock was a condition of the insurance, and we were going away in two days time, so he agreed to have it sent overnight to our house. We signed all the paperwork, paid the balance and off we went with our new pride and joy.
The next day came. Unfortunately the lock didn’t. After a few phone calls we were told the courier had made a mistake and delivered the lock to them and not us! So off we went on our first ever trip including a 140 mile diversion to collect the lock.
We arrived on site and after struggling to position the van (motor mover not working) we spent the next two or three hours working out how to set up the water, operate the heating system, get hot water etc. etc. as the 15 minute demonstration of all the systems were now just a blur. Anyway we got everything set up with the welcome help and advice from a friendly couple in an adjacent pitch.
We had a very enjoyable three days and the time came to pack up and go home. This would of course be easier because the battery had been charging up for 3 days so the motor mover would work I assured my wife! No such luck the mover worked great for the first 200mm and stopped. We got hitched up with the help of our friendly neighbour’s and set off home, and to phone the dealers.
The dealers wanted to see the offending mover so I took the van the 60 miles to their site. Once there they tried the mover, which again moved the van 200mm. The dealer said they would contact the mover manufactures and get back to me, so off I went home. Three weeks and several phone calls from me to the dealer, (they never once phoned me) later, I was driving back down the M55 with the van for the to replace the mover control panel, all was now well with the mover.
We had nine trips away in total in the first year, everyone enjoyable, with only very minor niggles with the van. August 2011 came around quickly and it was time to book the caravans first service. I contacted the dealer, went through a short list of faults, the main one being broken catches to the drop down TV cabinet, a well known and acknowledged design fault that Swift had a standard fix for, and booked the caravan in to their dedicated service centre at a date in early September. Between booking the van in and the date of the service the intruder alarm on the van stopped working. I contacted the dealer and they added this to the short list of warranty work. The appointed day arrived and I dropped the van off at their service centre and went through all the required work with their engineer. I was assured that all the warranty work had been approved by Swift and they had received all the required parts.
A few days later I got the call to say everything was sorted and the van so ready to be collected, they had found a small amount of damp on the door to the toilet cassette and had but in a warranty claim for a new door and were waiting for Swift to approve the claim, so off I went up the M6 to collect the van.
Disappointed could be one of the words used to describe my feelings to find out that they hadn’t followed the Swift standard fix for the TV cabinet, and had only fitted one of the supplied catches, and that the alarm hadn’t been touched because they didn’t have the parts!
Anyway we are now in February 2012, 6 months on from the service date, and 2 weeks ago after countless phone calls from me to the dealer (never from them to me) and 3 more 100 mile round trips to their service centre, I got the caravan back with the TV cabinet repaired to the Swift specification, and the old Nord alarm changed for a new Sergeant 310 alarm. At last I thought, everything sorted. That was until I brought the van home from the storage yard this weekend to prepare for the new season, only to find out the road light weren’t working.
The dilemma was do I take it back to the dealers for them to take a couple of months to investigate, expect me to make 3 round trips to their service centre, try to find someone to blame, and eventually repair the road lights and break something else, or do I have a go myself.
It is well reported on caravan forums how helpful and customer focused Sergeants are, so after a few minutes on their web site I printed off the wiring schematic and went off to the van to investigate. I found that the dealer had simply cut all the cables that went to the old alarm, including the cables to the road lights, and plugged in the new alarm. A quick phone call to Clive at Sergeants confirmed what I had to do and 10 minutes later everything was working fine once more.
Congratulations if you have read this far, believe me I could have gone on a lot further, suffice to say I will not be going near this dealer again with a barge pole, in fact I would rather staple my eyelids to Ann Widdecombes arse than let them anywhere near my caravan.
Can anyone recommend a good dealer / service centre in the Warrington / Wigan area.
Facebook
Twitter