servicing question

[saint-spoon]

I am not due another service until next summer but I was thinking about using one of several local mobile servicing companies. The question I have is about my warranty and service registration. Is there any particular body or organisation that they servicing company y should be registered with in order for them to be able to register the service with the caravan manufacturer in order to meet the requirements of the warranty? The retailer did the first year’s service and registered it (I also have a little sticker to say that they are a recognised servicing provider).

 

[Damian]

To maintain your warranty the service must be done by either of the following:
1, The Dealer you bought the van from.
2. Any of the NCC Approved Workshops which you can locate here: http://www.approvedworkshops.co.uk/search/

It is wise to retain the receipt and the paperwork, ie service sheet and damp check sheet.

 

[HenryB1]

Anyone reading this who has a Bailey caravan must read the warranty terms that state during first 3 years service must be carried out by Bailey a Bailey retailer or Bailey approved workshop who are authorised to carry out warranty work. Not all NCC workshops are Bailey approved so you need to search Bailey web site to find one.

 

[saint-spoon]

cheers chaps, there are a few around my way.

 

[Raywood]

I am not sure if Adria do subscribe to the NCC approved workshop point. I would check the warranty terms and if in doubt ask them.

 

[Damian]

I am not sure if Adria do subscribe to the NCC approved workshop point. I would check the warranty terms and if in doubt ask them.

Adria do have a number of NCC Approved Workshop engineers who have been on their course who are allowed to do the servicing.
You can check on the Adria website.

 

[Mel]

Anyone reading this who has a Bailey caravan must read the warranty terms that state during first 3 years service must be carried out by Bailey a Bailey retailer or Bailey approved workshop who are authorised to carry out warranty work. Not all NCC workshops are Bailey approved so you need to search Bailey web site to find one.

Well Henry this has sent anxiety and confusion in my direction. Hadn't taken this on board at all. Got our new Bailey serviced by an NCC approved mobile engineer. So rushed to check the website. He is part of the Approved Workshop Scheme, the website of which states that its members are approved by all a list of manufacturers which included Bailey. So I am still confused.
Mel

 

[Damian]

Why are you confused?
It is very simple.
ALL the UK makers are involved with the NCC Approved Workshop scheme and their engineers, both fixed workshop and mobile workshops can service ALL makes of UK made vans and retain the warranty.

Adria is NOT made in the UK, neither are Hobby, Fendt etc but Adria , until fairly recently, insisted that all servicing was carried out by their own workshops, but in very recent times have introduced a training scheme for NCC Approved engineers to become accredited to carry out servicing on their behalf.

Hobby, Fendt etc have accepted NCC Approved workshop engineers for a very long time.

 

[Mel]

I am confused because I thought it was simple until I read Henry's post, the Bailey Warranty, the Approved Workshop Sceme website and a couple of other caravan forums that also debated this. I will happily bow to your experience and judgement but the AWS website is not as catagorical as you are, and the Bailey warranty states Bailey Approved, not NCC approved or AWS. Hence not as simple on reading as one might hope.
Mel

 

[Damian]

Quote from Henrys posting: " Not all NCC workshops are Bailey approved"

WRONG "!!!!
ALL NCC Approved Workshops ARE approved by Bailey to carry out servicing on their vans.
Warranty repairs on equipment within the van such as water heater, fire, pump etc are all covered by the individual makers warranty and can be carried out by all NCC Approved workshops who have the relevant makers qualification.
Body repairs can only be carried out by Bailey Approved workshops to their specification.

 

[Hutch]

Just had my Coachman repared by the maker, I hadnt realised the people I had used for the servicing were NOT NCC people but stamped the warranty , book! STATING, that all was carried out IAW, the warranty requiremements.. Coachman acceped the servicing log without a glitch. I m more than happy with Trevor and Matthew at Coachman.

So where do people stand. My service people because the are a company, or a lad down the road ,
Had this argugment abought car servicing, being a licenced aircaraft engineer, but cannot sign for my own cars oil change. Hacks me off. 。

 

[Damian]

It all depends on who you had do the service.

The first port of call is your supplying dealer.

Second option is a workshop who are authorised by the maker to carry out the servicing, who may or may not be a member of the NCC scheme.

Third is the NCC Approved Workshop scheme engineers who maybe fixed workshop or mobile.

If the service person is none of the above the maker can decline to accept the results and invalidate your warranty.

 

[ProfJohnL]

I do find it strange, that people will go out of their way to blindly follow some advice of dubious origin and with not authority, for example the 85% tow weight ratio. hmy:

Yet when they sign a contract for the manufacturers guarantee they squirm to try and get round the terms and conditions they have willingly signed up to. :S

Ho hum Life's strange!

 

[Martin_E]

Damian as normal is spot on, to ease confusion the AWS Scheme are classed as approved service agents/workshops, there is however confusion in must be NCC Approved workshop....in so much as there is no such thing, NCC Members yes, but a burger van can be a member of the NCC if they pay the membership!!

If in doubt and you want to use a none Bailey/Swift/Elddis etc etc dealer to service your van then send an email to the caravan/Motorhome manufacturer and ask if the said engineer/ firm /company can service your van.

 

[Martin24]

Mel, The main issue as far as we were concerned was if we wanted warranty work done it had to go to a Bailey approved workshop. As that meant going back to our dealer or trekking further than we wanted to, we decided to live with the yellowing door. I'll pay our workshop to sort it if we keep the van much longer.

 

[Dustydog]

May I interfere and say my Bailey owners manual doesn't quite echo some of the advice given on here . Maybe the wording is ambiguous but all in all if you have spent £20k plus it is madness not to follow the manufacturers wording to the letter.
I'm with the Prof 100%
Bailey say:" Repairs 4. The caravan must undergo a full annual service and inspection, including a moisture survey, carried out, subject to paragraph 5 below, by an Authorised Service Centre. The final annual service in the warranty period must be carried out before the end of that
warranty period, but all other annual services may be carried out within six (6) weeks either side of each anniversary of the original purchase date. The original VAT invoices must be retained as proof that these annual inspections have been carried out. 5. During the first three (3) years of the Warranty Cover, all annual inspections and repairs must be carried out either by Bailey itself or an approved Bailey Service Centre or Agent. Thereafter, due to the technical nature of an Alu-Tech constructed caravan, annual inspections and repairs may be carried out by any workshop or repair centre approved by the National Caravan Council that has attended Alu-Tech training courses at the Bailey factory. 6"

My reading of the above does not include ALL NCC approved centres or mobile engineers. I find this very confusing for the owner but we all know what happens if you don't follow the contract to the letter.

 

[Mel]

Thank you DD. I am glad that you don't think this is simple either.
We would not seek to "squirm" around any Warranty clause but the stipulation that servicing must be carried out by a Bailey approved service centre passed me by. Mea Culpa. What is less clear is whether a member of the approved workshop scheme qualifies as a "Bailey Approved" service centre.
I will take Damien's opinion on this as he has qualifications in this area, but I remain of the view that what may be simple for one person is not necessarily simple for another.
Mel

 

[Damian]

Membership of the NCC has NOTHING at all to do with being a NCC Approved Workshop and, taking a previous likeness, a burger van CANNOT be a NCC Approved Workshop.

To become a NCC Approved Workshop one has to meet many criteria and are inspected every year to ensure they are doing the work on vans to the highest level and that they have all the necessary spares and tools to do the job.

As a NCC Mobile Workshop for many years I know that ALL such workshops ARE allowed to do the servicing on ALL UK made vans and all EU made vans with the rider that with Adria the engineer must have attended their course.

 

[Damian]

I do find it strange, that people will go out of their way to blindly follow some advice of dubious origin and with not authority, for example the 85% tow weight ratio. hmy:

Yet when they sign a contract for the manufacturers guarantee they squirm to try and get round the terms and conditions they have willingly signed up to. :S

Ho hum Life's strange!

I am not sure what you mean by this posting.
What information "of dubious origin" do you refer?
Also how do you justify saying that people "try and squirm to get around the terms and conditions"?
There is nothing "squirmy" about using NCC Approved Workshop engineers to service vans in warranty, which is why ALL UK makers are supporters of the NCC Approved Workshop Scheme and readily accept that they are doing the servicing in accordance with the T&C's

 

[Martin_E]

I think you actually mean AWS approved workshop and not NCC Approved workshop, the AWS Scheme come out and inspect each year and not the NCC, all the AWS members were emailed and told to take NCC Approved workshop off their websites as we are not NCC Approved workshops we are AWS Approved Workshops.

 

[Damian]

Yes you are right in respect that Approved Workshops are just that , but the full title does include the NCC as given on the Approved Workshop web page:

"The Approved Workshop Scheme is a joint enterprise between the NCC (National Caravan Council), The Caravan Club and The Camping and Caravanning Club. It is the benchmark for motorhome and touring caravan servicing."

To just call it AWS Approved Workshops is to repeat what is already in the abbreviation AWS (Approved Workshop Scheme)

Also, the branch that operates the AWS is in the same building as the NCC and is under their umbrella as far as the business goes.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Damian my comment was not a slur on members of the NCC approved Workshop scheme, but an observation on those persons who complain about the limiting nature of Manufacturers T&Cs, which they willingly sign up to. So why do they complain when the manufacturers point out that they will void their warranty contract by using a non approved service facility.

But these are often the same people who willingly and knowingly break the law, and yet go to extraordinary lengths to follow unproved guidance often to the exclusion of being careful about other more important criteria.

 

[Parksy]

Hello Damian my comment was not a slur on members of the NCC approved Workshop scheme, but an observation on those persons who complain about the limiting nature of Manufacturers T&Cs, which they willingly sign up to. So why do they complain when the manufacturers point out that they will void their warranty contract by using a non approved service facility.

But these are often the same people who willingly and knowingly break the law, and yet go to extraordinary lengths to follow unproved guidance often to the exclusion of being careful about other more important criteria.

Unusually for you Prof, there's a few sweeping generalisations in your comment that I quoted and highlighted. :huh:
In my experience most touring caravan owners that I've spoken to either online or in person appear to do their best to comply with legal requirements and manufacturers servicing T&Cs.
The majority of comments and queries from caravan owners on this and other caravan related forums reflect the compliant and responsible attitude of the majority.
Of course there are always exceptions, but statistics prove that drivers who tow caravans are generally safe responsible motorists.
I'm surprised that such a precise and knowledgeable contributor of reliable information to this forum as your good self would resort to such unsubstantiated and ambiguous comments, it's most unlike you .

 

[Martin_E]

Yes you are right in respect that Approved Workshops are just that , but the full title does include the NCC as given on the Approved Workshop web page:

"The Approved Workshop Scheme is a joint enterprise between the NCC (National Caravan Council), The Caravan Club and The Camping and Caravanning Club. It is the benchmark for motorhome and touring caravan servicing."

To just call it AWS Approved Workshops is to repeat what is already in the abbreviation AWS (Approved Workshop Scheme)

Also, the branch that operates the AWS is in the same building as the NCC and is under their umbrella as far as the business goes.

There are several ‘NCC Approved’ schemes namely NCC Approved Dealership schemes for both tourers and motorhomes, NCC Approved Products, NCC Approved Holiday Home Dealers and NCC Approved Holiday Parks, but as far as I am aware there is no NCC workshops, shared office or not AWS is a different brand to NCC, Caravan manufacturers don't help by printing servicing must be carried out by NCC workshops as what they really mean is AWS workshops, to you and me it's the same meat but different gravy, very confusing for the general public when they are told van can be serviced by an NCC Appoved Workshop (when there is no such thing)

I share an office with a domestic goddess who does the paperwork.. but the AWS Workshop is run independently.......other than she tells me what I can and can't do....hmm same as AWS and NCC :silly:

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Parksy

Nowhere did my comment suggest it was directed at those who are compliant with manufactures T&Cs. It was pointed at those who unjustifiably complain at the stringency of the caravan manufactures warranty T&Cs. hmy:

They have the opportunity to check the T&Cs before they sign, As with any consumer contract they have a cooling off period, so why do they complain when they are told their warranty may be voided or the work won't be covered if they don't comply with service schedules and who is permitted to do the work? :huh:

I admit the second part of my comment is a generalisation, but in my experience, I have found, those who feel the limitations of T&Cs to be unjust, are also those who have no qualms about speeding, yet they can be so fastidious about other less important matters such as tow ratio' s. I suppose it's an anti authority thing. :dry: