Has it been serviced or Not one ponders!

[ProfJohnL]

Marsh Harrier,

I can understand your disappointment with what has happened, and the distress it has caused. By all means vent your spleen on the forum, you must also know that even if you do get members of the forum on your side, it's not going to change the history or the events and the fact your dissatisfaction is with the dealer that carried out the work, and you need to discuss it with them.

But I come back to the point that your expectations about what a you thought a Full Service means, and what it actually entails is where the problem begins.

The industry has an established scheme of work that defines what is normally included in a Full Service. Did you read what was included before you agreed to it? If you want more doing did you and the dealer agree the extra work?

Possibly the first error was not being clear about the works in the contract.

You then have two other issues:-
You believe the dealer should have been able to identify a pump that is going to fail. The reality is every pump will fail at some point, but there are a number of different failure modes and some are simply impractical to identify before failure occurs. The problem is even more difficult when you are dealing with secondhand and aging products. who knows what its previous owners did with it, or how much it has actually been used.

The next issue is the dealers response to your reports of difficulties. In this matter we only have your account, and I am not suggesting your reports are wrong, but we mustn't judge because the dealer may have justifiable reasons for the actions they took, again it might be a difference between expectations and what is realistic or even possible,after all we are in quite extraordinary times dealing with teh C19 pandemic.

I am supportive of customers exerting their rights, and trying to get industry shortcomings examined and revised to become fairer, but the law behind it (The CRA 2015) looks takes a " reasonable" view, and it does not try to give an advantage to either party. So whilst you may feel your case is just, an independant reasonable person may view the issues differently.

 

[xtrailman]

After 25 years as a maintenance electrician I find the likely hood of two separate faults occurring after servicing unlikely , along with my personal experience with dealer service I'm of the opinion that the service wasn't completed to AWS spec.

Having said that the OP was at fault for not insisting that everything was set up on collection so they can be seen to be working.

Even then its possible that towing it home can produce a fault, with my Bailey everything was set up at the dealer and shown to be working on collection, only for the dam thing to spring a leak on the quick release couplings during my preparation before our first holiday.

 

[xtrailman]

I carry a second pump, with me, and swop them every trip. Prior to going out last February, one of the pumps failed, so nipped out and bought one of the Whale pumps that fit the Truma inlet, for my Coachman .

I always carried a spare myself because those external pumps were unreliable, in 9 years with internal pumps I've yet to have one fail.

 

[RogerL]

I always carried a spare myself because those external pumps were unreliable, in 9 years with internal pumps I've yet to have one fail.

The pumps have outlasted the caravan on each of the three we've had (17 years, 12 years and 7 years so far) although the Whale pump on our previous Bailey repeatedly leaked at the fitting into the caravan as the plastic hose stretched and had to be remade after cutting 10mm off the tube - this was an almost annual job.

Our Lunar has a Truma submersible, the one with the stiff tube, so I've bought a Whale unit as a spare - but I'll keep using the Truma until it fails.

 

[Raywood]

Generally we have been through pumps on most of our caravans including one failing in France. They are prone to failure and when one went when we were on holiday the nearest dealer said they were his best selling part. I would still say that the first time used after a service is too much of a coincidence though.