Problems with Elddis 175 and Marquis

[firedecisions]

For anyone thinking of buying an Elddis and or from Marquis be warned.

 

Purchased a new Elddis Majestic 175 in December 2014, loads of problems in first couple of months all fixed under warranty

 

vehicle went in for a habitation check in December and 2 areas of damp found (in a vehicle with 10 year warranty against water ingress) one area around front roof light, due to crack in housing from when it was installed and the rear panel, they think due to a construction fault, timber batten left proud.

 

All agreed to be fixed under warranty at the marquis specialist repair center in Tweksbury because they estimate a weeks worth of work.

 

Phoned today 2 months later for an update to be told, the repair center is short staffed and inundated with work so they are not taking bookings, so sorry no idea when we will fix your motorhome!

 

So now followed up this with a formal complaint to Marquis and pointing out their legal duties under sales of goods act as amended, and told them to repair it in a reasonable time or to replace it.

 

We will see what happens!!

[Bop]

I'll certainly sign up to this thread based on what I've written recently in my own. It does seem that the 'dealer-bit' is the weakest part of the chain and in some cases it taints the whole MH ownership experience for some poor unfortunate people..

 

I did check out the Elddis vans during the hunt for our first van but it seemed that our local dealer was having a hard time in selling them during the season and was desperate to get rid at the end. They had stocks of 255, 275 and 285 models which they had to reduce by £6,000 to get them out of the door and even then it took many weeks longer than expected.

 

Without wishing to offend people but I think Elddis is another of the big names that needs to pick up its game.

 

All the best,

 

Andrew

[AlanS]

Most manufacturers have problems (and I think a little foolish if you think they do not) with their caravans and motorhomes but it is how the problems are dealt with by the supplier/dealer in conjunction with the manufacturer from a warranty aspect.

It appears that Marquis (the supplier) are unable to meet their obligations in this instance and if they have insufficient resources to effect the repairs then they should either sub-contract the work or get it back to Elddis for repairs within a reasonable time frame.

The OP is doing the right thing and hope that his complaints/demands to Marquis are also sent to those in a position of seniority in the Company, with a possible copy to Elddis.

 

Alan

[firedecisions]

Heard back from marquis today, having pointed out the sales of good act etc, and their legal obligation to carry out repairs within a reasonable time period or the customer can require a replacement, I gave them 7 days to arrange a repair or I would require a replacement vehicle and funny enough, that depot that was so full it wasn't even taking bookings can suddenly fit me in, 7 days from now.

 

 

regarding the other comments about faults, yes, but this vehicle has been back and forth for warranty issues, from broken bumper of delivery, wrong vehicle plate weights, defect seats, gas leaks, leaking water heater, defective review camera, defective battery, defective solar panel controller, defective vehicle alarm....

 

Sloppy build from Elddis and even sloppier pre delivery inspections from Marquis, Some of these I picked up on delivery but under the legislation as it was then, they had the option to repair rather than me being able to reject it straight away, that has now changed and if it is not correct on delivery you can reject it.

 

because of their lack of checking, this means the workshops can not cope so you end up with poor customer care. This is the second time I have had to threaten legal action against marquis before they would carry out the work that they agree needed doing under warranty but either couldn't get the parts (had to wait nearly 2 months for the new bumper to be made) or as in this case couldn't fit it in.

 

Just very poor customer service, considering the large amount of hard earned money a brand new motorhome is.

[Derek Uzzell]

As mentioned above, the UK’s Sale of Goods Act was replaced on 1 October 2015 by the Consumer Rights Act. The latter’s scope is summarised here

 

http://www.whatcar.com/news/consumer-rights-act-2015-new-consumer-law-will-help/

 

with a link to the Act’s legislation.

 

For anyone contemplating buying a new motorhome at this month’s NEC Show, the Consumer Rights Act’s powers would be worth remembering.

[Mike88]

Just to balance this thread up I can honestly say I have received exceptional service from Marquis. If a problem occurred when abroad I used to e mail the dealer setting out the problem; they would order the parts and fitted them on my way home from the ferry. This happened on at least 3 occasions. On one occasion they even arranged for their maintenance people to start at 7.00 am to deal with an issue with my blind meaning I was able to get a repair done en route to the ferry.

 

Unlike many dealers if you buy from a depot in one part of the country you can have repairs done at any of their 11 dealerships nationwide.

[Bop]

AlanS - 2017-02-16 5:20 PM

 

Most manufacturers have problems (and I think a little foolish if you think they do not) with their caravans and motorhomes but.................

 

Alan

 

I agree entirely with the rest of your post but I'm not sure if most sensible people would want to fork out between £40,000 and £100,000 only to find problems thereafter. I get the whole 'niggles-thing' with any automotive item but not the major issues that seem to come as part of the package with some manufacturers.

 

My definition of foolishness would perhaps be someone who spends £70,000 on a MH and doesn't expect a near-on perfect vehicle in return.

 

That being said, if a MH is owned by the PCP or HP Company then I would be knocking on their door to help resolve any significant issues; after all it's them that own the vehicle and not the final consumer.

[AlanS]

Bop

What I was saying is that all manufacturers seem to deliver MH's with faults and there is no excuse for that - I know that there are many forum members who infer that continental manufactured MH's and caravans don't suffer problems but any look on the internet will find this to be inaccurate. It is however a very sad state of affairs that your MH or Caravan suffers faults at all and it doesn't matter whether it is a low cost unit or one of £100k - to the owner it is a big disappointment, lack of confidence and use of the unit, frustration and additional cost, etc., in trying to get the remedial work carried out.

Apart from the chassis and cab/engine in the case of a MH the remaining structure and components are not exactly rocket science yet we constantly hear of components failing and the structures leaking - it is unfortunately symptomatic of the caravan and motorhome industry yet the 'governing bodies' fail to raise their voices against the manufacturers, nor do the major Clubs / associations. These comments are heard year after year.

The dealers often leave a lot to be desired and they are very good at capturing a sale but as soon as the deposit is paid it is down to the service department to carry out the PDI which in fact you pay for, yet all too often the PDI is poorly carried out. The buyer comes to collect the unit on the appointed day and you have to hand over the remainder of the money after which you are taken to your purchase to run through the handover. This is carried out only to find that something is wrong or missing, yet the customer is reluctant to say that they will not accept their new unit - a mixture of disappointment and sometimes having trudged some way with their existing unit which is being PX'd not wanting to have to have to do it all over again. The promise of the dealer that they will rectify the problems if it is returned to them when they have the parts available is something that is reluctantly accepted.

Not all dealers are a problem however and items do fail (I know that they shouldn't) but it is how the dealer rectifies the problem. The ones that I have dealt with have been very good and once they arranged for a local mobile engineer to attend us when we had a habitation door locking problem (security issue) to sort it out rather than us drive a 200 mile return trip back to the dealer. Another time we had a ECU/Charger fail when we were in France and they forwarded a replacement one to me on site for me to install (we were going to be away for about 5 weeks).

If it were a car and paying the sort of money that we do for MH's we would want it to be near to perfect and if there was a fault under warranty you would get a car on loan while it is sorted out, plus you could take it to any of the manufacturer's dealers to have it repaired - why doesn't this happen in in the MH/Caravan industry !

It is good to hear that the OP has now managed to get Marquis to do something after 'reading the them riot act' and hope that all the remedial works are quickly carried out to his satisfaction.

 

Alan

 

[Bop]

firedecisions - 2017-02-15 1:07 PM

 

For anyone thinking of buying an Elddis and or from Marquis be warned.

 

If it helps, good sir, my wife and I visited our local Marquis today and I have to say that we had a right crappy experience with the sales team; it was probably the most belittling experience too date.

 

We already knew the value of our new PX (I even told them at the start of negotiations) so we weren't upset when the figure was reannounced. I then asked for a PX figure against the three vans which we were interested in and they just wouldn't give us an answer, stating "I think you need to decide which van you want first".

 

Really? Is this the new way of doing business. After 10-minutes of feeling very small we decided to leave, only for the senior sales guy to knock on our car door and see if they could do a deal there and then.

 

Stuff that, I would rather pay/lose the extra money than go to them. I also took the line, rightly or wrongly, that if it was difficult to buy a van from them initially then how would the after-sales system fare when something went wrong.

 

We are venturing off to Brownhills next so fingers crossed.

 

Cheers,

 

Andrew

 

EDIT: I've missed a bit. The reason why they wouldn't give a figure for the vans is that the sales guy wanted us to visit the other dealers first and then get back to them with some figures. Crickey, if I was that shallow then I would simply make something up.

 

EDIT-2: I did overhear one of the other sales team say to a nice couple that this branch of Marquis did not sell cheap vans so they should go somewhere else. How sad indeed.

 

 

[Bop]

AlanS - 2017-02-17 6:11 PM

 

Bop

What I was saying is that all manufacturers seem to deliver MH's with faults and there is no excuse for that - I know that there are many forum members who infer that continental manufactured MH's and caravans don't suffer problems but any look on the internet will find this to be inaccurate. It is however a very sad state of affairs that your MH or Caravan suffers faults at all and it doesn't matter whether it is a low cost unit or one of £100k - to the owner it is a big disappointment, lack of confidence and use of the unit, frustration and additional cost, etc., in trying to get the remedial work carried out.

Apart from the chassis and cab/engine in the case of a MH the remaining structure and components are not exactly rocket science yet we constantly hear of components failing and the structures leaking - it is unfortunately symptomatic of the caravan and motorhome industry yet the 'governing bodies' fail to raise their voices against the manufacturers, nor do the major Clubs / associations. These comments are heard year after year.

The dealers often leave a lot to be desired and they are very good at capturing a sale but as soon as the deposit is paid it is down to the service department to carry out the PDI which in fact you pay for, yet all too often the PDI is poorly carried out. The buyer comes to collect the unit on the appointed day and you have to hand over the remainder of the money after which you are taken to your purchase to run through the handover. This is carried out only to find that something is wrong or missing, yet the customer is reluctant to say that they will not accept their new unit - a mixture of disappointment and sometimes having trudged some way with their existing unit which is being PX'd not wanting to have to have to do it all over again. The promise of the dealer that they will rectify the problems if it is returned to them when they have the parts available is something that is reluctantly accepted.

Not all dealers are a problem however and items do fail (I know that they shouldn't) but it is how the dealer rectifies the problem. The ones that I have dealt with have been very good and once they arranged for a local mobile engineer to attend us when we had a habitation door locking problem (security issue) to sort it out rather than us drive a 200 mile return trip back to the dealer. Another time we had a ECU/Charger fail when we were in France and they forwarded a replacement one to me on site for me to install (we were going to be away for about 5 weeks).

If it were a car and paying the sort of money that we do for MH's we would want it to be near to perfect and if there was a fault under warranty you would get a car on loan while it is sorted out, plus you could take it to any of the manufacturer's dealers to have it repaired - why doesn't this happen in in the MH/Caravan industry !

It is good to hear that the OP has now managed to get Marquis to do something after 'reading the them riot act' and hope that all the remedial works are quickly carried out to his satisfaction.

 

Alan

 

Alan, a very good post if I may say so; I fully agree.

 

Andrew

[747]

Bop - 2017-02-18 5:57 PM

 

firedecisions - 2017-02-15 1:07 PM

 

For anyone thinking of buying an Elddis and or from Marquis be warned.

 

If it helps, good sir, my wife and I visited our local Marquis today and I have to say that we had a right crappy experience with the sales team; it was probably the most belittling experience too date.

 

We already knew the value of our new PX (I even told them at the start of negotiations) so we weren't upset when the figure was reannounced. I then asked for a PX figure against the three vans which we were interested in and they just wouldn't give us an answer, stating "I think you need to decide which van you want first".

 

Really? Is this the new way of doing business. After 10-minutes of feeling very small we decided to leave, only for the senior sales guy to knock on our car door and see if they could do a deal there and then.

 

Stuff that, I would rather pay/lose the extra money than go to them. I also took the line, rightly or wrongly, that if it was difficult to buy a van from them initially then how would the after-sales system fare when something went wrong.

 

We are venturing off to Brownhills next so fingers crossed.

 

Cheers,

 

Andrew

 

EDIT: I've missed a bit. The reason why they wouldn't give a figure for the vans is that the sales guy wanted us to visit the other dealers first and then get back to them with some figures. Crickey, if I was that shallow then I would simply make something up.

 

EDIT-2: I did overhear one of the other sales team say to a nice couple that this branch of Marquis did not sell cheap vans so they should go somewhere else. How sad indeed.

 

 

I was in the Birtley branch just after 1 pm today. They certainly have a lot of new stock on the premises. I expect they will be concentrating on selling new unregistered vans for the March 17 plate.

 

Another OAL member was looking at a particular used van and I offered moral support. It was also an opportunity to look at smaller vans as our Tag axle van will be going in a year or so. To be honest, I was not impressed with new and nearly new models on show. :'(

[Bop]

747 - 2017-02-18 6:18 PM

 

Bop - 2017-02-18 5:57 PM

 

firedecisions - 2017-02-15 1:07 PM

 

For anyone thinking of buying an Elddis and or from Marquis be warned.

 

If it helps, good sir, my wife and I visited our local Marquis today and I have to say that we had a right crappy experience with the sales team; it was probably the most belittling experience too date.

 

We already knew the value of our new PX (I even told them at the start of negotiations) so we weren't upset when the figure was reannounced. I then asked for a PX figure against the three vans which we were interested in and they just wouldn't give us an answer, stating "I think you need to decide which van you want first".

 

Really? Is this the new way of doing business. After 10-minutes of feeling very small we decided to leave, only for the senior sales guy to knock on our car door and see if they could do a deal there and then.

 

Stuff that, I would rather pay/lose the extra money than go to them. I also took the line, rightly or wrongly, that if it was difficult to buy a van from them initially then how would the after-sales system fare when something went wrong.

 

We are venturing off to Brownhills next so fingers crossed.

 

Cheers,

 

Andrew

 

EDIT: I've missed a bit. The reason why they wouldn't give a figure for the vans is that the sales guy wanted us to visit the other dealers first and then get back to them with some figures. Crickey, if I was that shallow then I would simply make something up.

 

EDIT-2: I did overhear one of the other sales team say to a nice couple that this branch of Marquis did not sell cheap vans so they should go somewhere else. How sad indeed.

 

 

I was in the Birtley branch just after 1 pm today. They certainly have a lot of new stock on the premises. I expect they will be concentrating on selling new unregistered vans for the March 17 plate.

 

Another OAL member was looking at a particular used van and I offered moral support. It was also an opportunity to look at smaller vans as our Tag axle van will be going in a year or so. To be honest, I was not impressed with new and nearly new models on show. :'(

 

Hi 747, we would have seen you as we left at 2 today. We were looking at the Swift units on the corner.

 

We won't be going back so good luck ;-)

[747]

We got our present motorhome from Tyne Valley Motorhomes and they are now Dealers for a number of brands, including Hymer. We will give them our business if they have anything suitable as we were happy enough with their manner last time.

[sandalwood]

RAPIDO every time! Bought mine from Wokingham Rapido 7 years ago. Fantastic after service to fit satellite, and fantastic fan. Will always check and replace gas, little bits and pieces given free. Always good advice re motorhoming. Also give a fantastic cleaning job of my Motorhome. If there were 500 stars, I would give. On buying the MH I said I must rush to the shop, no madam, you don't rush to the shop and buy everything you THINK you need, use the MH and then come back and buy just what you need! Lovely lovely people, RAPIDO every time! B-)

[StuartO]

Years ago, at a drizzly motorhome show where everyone was trudging around, finding places to shelter as much as to browse, I ended up chatting with a salesman about this and that.  We got on well even though I wasn't really a potential customer and after a while I asked him how he passed the time when things were slow, as they were that day.  "We run a book on how many motorhome couple are wearing matching anaoraks" he said.

 

A while later he really had dropped his guard and I asked him to describe his nightmare customer.  "You can spot 'em a mile away" he said, "bearded bloke carrying a copy of the Guardian who turns out to be a know-all teacher who wants to interogate you, is itching for an argument and all too ready to start talking about his Rights under this or that."

 

[keninpalamos]

Bop - 2017-02-18 5:57 PM

 

firedecisions - 2017-02-15 1:07 PM

 

For anyone thinking of buying an Elddis and or from Marquis be warned.

 

If it helps, good sir, my wife and I visited our local Marquis today and I have to say that we had a right crappy experience with the sales team; it was probably the most belittling experience too date.

 

We already knew the value of our new PX (I even told them at the start of negotiations) so we weren't upset when the figure was reannounced. I then asked for a PX figure against the three vans which we were interested in and they just wouldn't give us an answer, stating "I think you need to decide which van you want first".

 

Really? Is this the new way of doing business. After 10-minutes of feeling very small we decided to leave, only for the senior sales guy to knock on our car door and see if they could do a deal there and then.

 

Stuff that, I would rather pay/lose the extra money than go to them. I also took the line, rightly or wrongly, that if it was difficult to buy a van from them initially then how would the after-sales system fare when something went wrong.

 

We are venturing off to Brownhills next so fingers crossed.

 

Cheers,

 

Andrew

 

EDIT: I've missed a bit. The reason why they wouldn't give a figure for the vans is that the sales guy wanted us to visit the other dealers first and then get back to them with some figures. Crickey, if I was that shallow then I would simply make something up.

 

EDIT-2: I did overhear one of the other sales team say to a nice couple that this branch of Marquis did not sell cheap vans so they should go somewhere else. How sad indeed.

 

Bop, A very good post if I may say so & well done for standing up to the most arrogant, ill mannered, rude, deceitful, lazy, ignorant sales & service industry I have ever come across. I was told by a "salesman"at Marquis Newbury that I couldn't afford the van I was looking at and wanted to buy. They were his first words he spoke to me and the last until I took the same model I had bought privately back to Marquis just to park it while I walked round their van display. To say they were not amused would be an understatement. Not all dealers are blah blah blah apart from Travelworld.

[Bop]

keninpalamos - 2017-02-19 8:46 AM

 

Bop - 2017-02-18 5:57 PM

 

firedecisions - 2017-02-15 1:07 PM

 

For anyone thinking of buying an Elddis and or from Marquis be warned.

 

If it helps, good sir, my wife and I visited our local Marquis today and I have to say that we had a right crappy experience with the sales team; it was probably the most belittling experience too date.

 

We already knew the value of our new PX (I even told them at the start of negotiations) so we weren't upset when the figure was reannounced. I then asked for a PX figure against the three vans which we were interested in and they just wouldn't give us an answer, stating "I think you need to decide which van you want first".

 

Really? Is this the new way of doing business. After 10-minutes of feeling very small we decided to leave, only for the senior sales guy to knock on our car door and see if they could do a deal there and then.

 

Stuff that, I would rather pay/lose the extra money than go to them. I also took the line, rightly or wrongly, that if it was difficult to buy a van from them initially then how would the after-sales system fare when something went wrong.

 

We are venturing off to Brownhills next so fingers crossed.

 

Cheers,

 

Andrew

 

EDIT: I've missed a bit. The reason why they wouldn't give a figure for the vans is that the sales guy wanted us to visit the other dealers first and then get back to them with some figures. Crickey, if I was that shallow then I would simply make something up.

 

EDIT-2: I did overhear one of the other sales team say to a nice couple that this branch of Marquis did not sell cheap vans so they should go somewhere else. How sad indeed.

 

Bop, A very good post if I may say so & well done for standing up to the most arrogant, ill mannered, rude, deceitful, lazy, ignorant sales & service industry I have ever come across. I was told by a "salesman"at Marquis Newbury that I couldn't afford the van I was looking at and wanted to buy. They were his first words he spoke to me and the last until I took the same model I had bought privately back to Marquis just to park it while I walked round their van display. To say they were not amused would be an understatement. Not all dealers are blah blah blah apart from Travelworld.

 

Thanks K, ;-)

 

My wife and I have just returned from Brownhills and I have to say that weve had a fabulous experience. The sales staff couldn't do more to help and the choice of vans was simply outstanding. We met some great like-minded motorhomers who shared some of their experiences.

 

Furthermore, the PX price given by Brownhills was much higher than the dealers in the NE of the country; even our supplying Autotrail dealer looked poor by comparison.

 

It's strange how we've gone from the worst experience on Saturday with Marquis to the best with Brownhills today.

 

Very best,

 

Andrew

[breakaleg]

We bought our last van from Marquis Tewksbury the workshop used to be within the dealership then and after sales was atrocious and by the sound of it 12 years latter it hasn't improved much.

I said after we got everything put right and there were some school boy errors that I wouldn't go back to them and we picked the latest van (an Elddis Sunseeker 115) up from West country Motor homes (quite away from our Birmingham home) however, the Elddis is the van that we have had the least problems with (better than our last Auto Sleeper).

we have had problems but most took around 15 minutes to fix except for the auto retract on the habitation step, to their credit, West country made a bespoke box around the mechanism of the step but it has failed again but they are looking at it again in May when we take it in for a habitation service.

The daft thing is, the year we bought the van from Marquis Tewksbury they won MMM's dealer of the year award!

We wasn't the only people having trouble with them so how that happened, I don't know.

Pete

[paulmold]

Bop - 2017-02-19 7:22 PM

 

keninpalamos - 2017-02-19 8:46 AM

 

Bop - 2017-02-18 5:57 PM

 

firedecisions - 2017-02-15 1:07 PM

 

For anyone thinking of buying an Elddis and or from Marquis be warned.

 

If it helps, good sir, my wife and I visited our local Marquis today and I have to say that we had a right crappy experience with the sales team; it was probably the most belittling experience too date.

 

We already knew the value of our new PX (I even told them at the start of negotiations) so we weren't upset when the figure was reannounced. I then asked for a PX figure against the three vans which we were interested in and they just wouldn't give us an answer, stating "I think you need to decide which van you want first".

 

Really? Is this the new way of doing business. After 10-minutes of feeling very small we decided to leave, only for the senior sales guy to knock on our car door and see if they could do a deal there and then.

 

Stuff that, I would rather pay/lose the extra money than go to them. I also took the line, rightly or wrongly, that if it was difficult to buy a van from them initially then how would the after-sales system fare when something went wrong.

 

We are venturing off to Brownhills next so fingers crossed.

 

Cheers,

 

Andrew

 

EDIT: I've missed a bit. The reason why they wouldn't give a figure for the vans is that the sales guy wanted us to visit the other dealers first and then get back to them with some figures. Crickey, if I was that shallow then I would simply make something up.

 

EDIT-2: I did overhear one of the other sales team say to a nice couple that this branch of Marquis did not sell cheap vans so they should go somewhere else. How sad indeed.

 

Bop, A very good post if I may say so & well done for standing up to the most arrogant, ill mannered, rude, deceitful, lazy, ignorant sales & service industry I have ever come across. I was told by a "salesman"at Marquis Newbury that I couldn't afford the van I was looking at and wanted to buy. They were his first words he spoke to me and the last until I took the same model I had bought privately back to Marquis just to park it while I walked round their van display. To say they were not amused would be an understatement. Not all dealers are blah blah blah apart from Travelworld.

 

Thanks K, ;-)

 

My wife and I have just returned from Brownhills and I have to say that weve had a fabulous experience. The sales staff couldn't do more to help and the choice of vans was simply outstanding. We met some great like-minded motorhomers who shared some of their experiences.

 

Furthermore, the PX price given by Brownhills was much higher than the dealers in the NE of the country; even our supplying Autotrail dealer looked poor by comparison.

 

It's strange how we've gone from the worst experience on Saturday with Marquis to the best with Brownhills today.

 

Very best,

 

Andrew

 

I don't think there has ever been a problem with Brownhills sales , it was their after-sales service ,or lack of it, that caused all the bad publicity a few years ago resulting in going from 7 sites to just one in a very short time. Maybe they've learned their lesson and things have improved but I'm never going to take that chance.

[Keithl]

paulmold - 2017-02-20 11:40 AM

 

I don't think there has ever been a problem with Brownhills sales , it was their after-sales service ,or lack of it, that caused all the bad publicity a few years ago resulting in going from 7 sites to just one in a very short time. Maybe they've learned their lesson and things have improved but I'm never going to take that chance.

 

And a long, long time ago one customer got so irate with them he created a spoof website...

 

http://www.freedomroad.plus.com/

 

Keith.