Service frustrations

[jamestaylor18]

So i took my caravan back to the dealer for its first service just incase it threw up any repairs that the warranty would cover. 10 days it will take they said... 12 days later... they have not even started due to “staff sickness”.
I’ve got very limited time to collect it before my seasonal pitch starts (a week on Friday), and planned to collect this Thursday, but it looks highly unlikely that’s going to happen! Absolutely furious! Strongly worded email sent tonight... hoping for a good news reply tomorrow!

 

[Craigyoung]

12 days ! What a joke ! And a rip off , we done the same thing last year for 1st service at the price of £255 but this year is going to our local service place that done our previous van for a fraction of the cost at £166 . Take it one day pick it up the nxt , booked in well in advance . As it happens i just got my 9o days notice email from Swift for the service on saturday 16th as it was may 16 when we got it .

 

[Niall_McIntosh]

12 days seems rather excessive. When we collected our 'van last January, it had not yet had its first service, this was booked for us before we left with the van. We had identified some warranty issues most of which were dealt with during the service. I brought the van over to the dealers the night before to enable them to have an early start (which saved me having to ge up too early, and we got a call the next day just after lunch saying that it was ready for collection. 2 parts needed ordering so the 'van needed to go back for those.

 

[ProfJohnL]

So i took my caravan back to the dealer for its first service just incase it threw up any repairs that the warranty would cover. 10 days it will take they said... 12 days later... they have not even started due to “staff sickness”.
I’ve got very limited time to collect it before my seasonal pitch starts (a week on Friday), and planned to collect this Thursday, but it looks highly unlikely that’s going to happen! Absolutely furious! Strongly worded email sent tonight... hoping for a good news reply tomorrow!

Whilst on the face of it 10 days for a service does seem ridiculous, but what did they actually tell you, was it that they could not start on it for 10 days due to other other pre arranged work? - in which case that's not unusual, but normally they would ask you to bring it in nearer the start date.

 

[Thingy]

Another option would be to head for your seasonal pitch and have a mobile engineer come and do the service. This seems to happen a lot.

 

[Raywood]

When we have our caravan serviced we book it in with a view to it being done on a specific date and get it back as agreed. The delay seems to be completely wrong, but I do wonder what was agreed with the dealer, as if they agreed to take it in then surely they would be giving you a date for the work to be completed.

 

[jamestaylor18]

They said their current turnaround is 10 days, which was fine. They have rang me this morning after my email last night and it’s done! Ready for collection!

 

[Thingy]

I have to say I have never heard of anyone having a 10 day turnaround for a service. 24 hours is about the norm, however, I usually drop mine of at sprrows and its ready early afternoon. Think I would be looking for somebody else to service my caravan, I assume this is a main dealer.

 

[bertieboy1]

Can't help thinking everyone - including the original post has the wrong end of the stick.Of course it doesn't take 10 days to service a caravan.What the dealer probably said was he couldn;t service the van for 10 days which turned out to be longer.He must have been busy !.

 

[thedoog1]

Our dealer asks for a 5 day window, actually ready in 2. Picked it up today so might as well have a trip to Devon to check it all works.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Can't help thinking everyone - including the original post has the wrong end of the stick.Of course it doesn't take 10 days to service a caravan.What the dealer probably said was he couldn;t service the van for 10 days which turned out to be longer.He must have been busy !.

See my earlier comment and of course JT's comment.

 

[SeaDog]

We use a local mobile engineer who is NCC approved. He opened our eyes to a few things when servicing the van. I am lucky that we can store the caravan at home.

 

[Craigyoung]

Just make sure when you pick it up you have a good look around it before you hook up and go as when we put ours in for a service obviously there was a lot of caravans in there and it was parked very close to one another and was dented on the back end , check and double check .

 

[jamestaylor18]

Thanks Craig, will do. I clean it often enough to know every tiny spec on it so will know if anything is new

Next year I’ll be using the mobile guy I normally use... done in 2hours and he’s the best.

 

[Lappy]

Quote: "Next year I’ll be using the mobile guy I normally use... done in 2hours and he’s the best"

That's a bit too quick for my liking, are you sure he checks everything correctly.
Does he check all the running gear too, including adjusting the brakes and replacing the one-shot nuts?
I always thought a proper thorough service was around 4hrs minimum.
Or is this a case of "You get what you pay for".
Regards,

 

[Raywood]

Our dealer reckoned five hours for a service. Given the list of things to check two hours is impossible I would think.

 

[Thingy]

I have never used a mobile engineer before. The only reason I am doing so this time is that the company I have used for years has now added this to there list of services. It is always the same chap that services my caravan and it is indeed the same chap that will be mobile so I do have complete faith.

I am actually quite looking forward to this as for the first time, I will be able to see the job being completed. Perhaps there is some advantage in this. And of course, you always have the chance to ask questions.

 

[Anseo]

I used a mobile caravan service agent last year (Ayrshire Area), won't be using him again, ever.

 

[Thingy]

I used a mobile caravan service agent last year (Ayrshire Area), won't be using him again, ever.

In every bag of Revells you can cop an unfortunate Malteaser.

Or as the great man once aid "Life is just a box o chocolates. You never knows what yous gonna git"

My guy is brilliant. Not often I can find a good word to say about the caravan industry but in this case I am pleased to do so.

 

[Damian]

Thanks Craig, will do. I clean it often enough to know every tiny spec on it so will know if anything is new

Next year I’ll be using the mobile guy I normally use... done in 2hours and he’s the best.

If he is done in 2 hours you have not had a full service.
It takes a minimum of 4 hours, and more often than not, more!!
So, he is not "the best", he is misleading you !!!!

Have you actually watched him working and what he does, or do you "trust" him???????

 

[Raywood]

The mobile engineer we used a couple of years ago missed some serious damp so we have not used him since but it would not mean you should not use them but not that one again.

 

[Buckman]

If you book a specific day for a vehicle to be serviced you would not be very happy if they then kept it "stored" for several days waiting to get around to it so why the delay with caravans when you have booked a specific day for the servicing?
What do they actually service on a caravan? The only things that are serviced is the running gear and nothing else. They do NOT service the gas, electric or water systems! All they do is a check that the systems work and do a gas pressure check in addition to the damp check.
In most cases it seems that they do not even do many checks and overlook many things that are very obvious.

 

[Thingy]

Actually Buckman makes a good point. What exactly should/does the service include.

 

[Craigyoung]

Actually Buckman makes a good point. What exactly should/does the service include.

Not that I have it to hand but when my Bailey Orion went in for a service a few years ago I got 2 pages worth of items that get checked and tested , but it came out ok apart from the odd blind needing retentioned , oh , and he got me for my number plate not been to the British Standard kitemark certification the same as what is on my new caravan now so he marked it down for that , he asked me to take it off and I said get knotted , its on to stay on !!

 

[otherclive]

Actually Buckman makes a good point. What exactly should/does the service include.

If you read the NCC service schedule it will give a full list of what requires to be carried out.