Does Travelworld Stafford still exist?

[CaptSteve]

As per the title, is Travelworld still going or have they disappeared?

 

I am away at the moment so can’t call the number on the website, but I have been emailing for weeks with no response.

 

They made a mistake when they registered my Grand Canyon with the DVLA. Initially someone new answered my email and said the delay was due to new admin staff. Now five weeks later and no response since to any emails (to any of the sales or customer service addresses I had before) I am getting concerned.

 

Has anyone been there or had comms with them in the last month?

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[Keithl]

They have recently moved to new premises and had a large open week so that may have delayed things.

 

Their website is https://www.motorhomes.co.uk/ so do the contact details you have match those on the website?

 

Other than that I can't really help.

 

Keith.

[Billggski]

You can change your v5 yourself.

[Derek Uzzell]

This webpage

 

https://www.motorhomes.co.uk/motorhome-owners/customer-services-2/

 

lists the members of the (Ermin Hymer Centre) Travelworld Service Centre Team and carries a couple of contact phone numbers

 

01785 878787

 

01952 586888

 

There seems to be no doubt that the company is operating at Valley Drive, Stafford ST16 1NZ

 

There's also a Facebook entry with a current posting from Travelworld on it.

 

https://en-gb.facebook.com/MotorhomesGB/

 

As Billggski has said, a vehicle owner can ask the DVLA to change the vehicle’s registration certificate (V5C) - but how simple (or practicable) that procedure will be depends on the change involved.

 

https://www.gov.uk/change-vehicle-details-registration-certificate

 

Emails can be lost/ignored/deleted and, in this case, telephoning Travelworld to discuss the problem would be the best course of action.

[CaptSteve]

 

Many thanks all, I shall keep trying.

 

I did send my V5 off to the DVLA with the correction on it. After 5 or so weeks I received a letter from them saying that they won’t accept anything other than a letter from Hymer, on headed paper, stating the correction (I am now talking to Hymer to get this letter).

 

Luckily, it seems, I don’t have to rely on Travel World to sort it out.

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[Derek Uzzell]

Once a new motorhome has been handed over to a buyer, it may well be simpler for the new owner to deal directly with the DVLA to correct a significant error in the UK-registration procedure even though the error was clearly the fault of the vendor.

 

The DVLA has told you what they need and, if Hymer is prepared to issue free-of-charge the letter that the DVLA wants, so be it. But if Hymer is reluctant to do this, and/or seeks to charge a fee, insist that Travelworld liaise with Hymer about providing you with the required letter.

 

It would be interesting to know what the error is that needs correction (presumably it was wholly Travelworld’s fault and Hymer was blameless) but Travelworld refers to itself as a “Erwin Hymer Centre” and really ought to be involving itself with Hymer over your UK-registration issue.

[Keithl]

Derek Uzzell - 2019-03-21 7:17 AM

 

It would be interesting to know what the error is that needs correction (presumably it was wholly Travelworld’s fault and Hymer was blameless) but Travelworld refers to itself as a “Erwin Hymer Centre” and really ought to be involving itself with Hymer over your UK-registration issue.

 

Steve originally posted the question on the Sprinter Source Forum in February...

 

https://sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73088

 

Keith.

[CaptSteve]

 

Hi Derek,

 

Unfortunately, I have to take some responsibility for the situation I am now in because I made a few assumptions when buying. Plus I did it in a rush and didn’t know the right questions to ask before handing over my cash. For instance, the vehicle computer display shows things like distance remaining in kms, and instead of mpg it shows litres per 100km. During the handover I was told initially this would need to be changed, free of charge, at a dealer. When I visited a dealer they told me it couldn’t be done and that I am stuck with it as it is. During that same visit the dealer said that my vehicle had been registered with a 2 year warranty instead of the normal 3 years and suggested I find out why. These are a couple of the questions that I have emailed TW with but no one has answered. Hence me thinking they had gone pop.

 

My issue with the DVLA is that the V5c came back it had a Revenue Weight of 5,500 kg instead of 3,500 or 4,050 kg. Because again TW wouldn’t answer my emails I had to do my own research on what the weight should be and I am now talking to the DVLA myself, but it’s on going.

 

I will be back in the country next week, I intend to call TW and, if that doesn’t work, I will travel up there and speak to them face to face. It’s a shame that they feel that they don’t need to bother once they have your money.

 

Hi Keith - yes, still chasing the same stuff :-D

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[Derek Uzzell]

A downloadable Hymer brochure is available for the “Grand Canyon S” model and the overall-weight choices appear to be 3500kg, 3880kg or 4100kg depending on motor and/or chassis, with the ‘norm’ being 3500kg.

 

There should be no doubt what your motorhome’s maximum overall weight is, as this should be clearly shown on the vehicle’s Hymer data-plate that will indicate its overall, towing, and front and rear axle maximum weights.

 

Motorhomes marketed for sale in a particular country get the warranty appropriate for that country.

 

In 2005 Ford Transits marketed in the UK had a 3-year Ford warranty, but the left-hand-drive Transit-based Hobby motorhome I bought from a Hobby dealership in Germany that year had the Ford 2-year warranty that applied to Gemany-marketed Transits.

 

My Hobby’s instrument-cluster had kilometre readouts and the headlamps diipped to the right. To obtain miles readouts and UK-standard left-dipping headlamps required replacement of the cluster and lights.

 

If your Grand Canyon is right-hand drive I’d expect it to have instruments and lights appropriate for the UK, and also that its instrument display should be able to display readouts in miles and mpg. It’s certainly the case that, although the factory-fitted instrument-cluster and headlamps differ for current LHD or RHD Fiat Ducatos, in both cases it’s still a simple matter for the vehicle’s owner to alter the ‘units’ (metric or Imperial) that are used by the vehicle’s computer to display fuel-consumption, average speed, etc.

 

 

[Brian Kirby]

It is the mechanical components and chassis type used that will dictate the permissible load limits, and these will have been set by Mercedes. Have you considered (already done? :-)) contacting MB in UK, giving them your vehicle's chassis number (VIN), and asking what data are available?

 

PV conversions involve some cutting of the bodyshell, for which the manufacturer's agreement is required to maintain the vehicle's Type Approved status, but it seems unlikely the suspension components will have been changed by Hymer. So, what Mercedes built, should be what you have.

 

Hymer will have sourced your van in Germany, so it may come up as a "visitor" unless the warranty liability has been formally transferred to the UK. MB presumably guarantee their vehicles in a similar way to Fiat or Ford, which is on the basis of the standard Euro 2 year warranty. Vans destined for the UK then get an extra year of warranty, providing they are sold by a franchised UK dealership (the cost of the 3 year UK warranty is "lost" into the UK price of the van).

 

Then, once armed with what Mercedes can provide, would probably be the best time to turn to Hymer, with the Mercedes information and the Hymer build number (on the VIN plate) and seek their confirmation of exactly what changes may have been made.

 

However, it is Travelworld, and not you, who should be sorting all of this out. In effect you have paid them to do this, so I would do as you say, and take the problem back to their door in person (preferably ring for an appointment before going, and outline the nature of your problem), get as high up the food chain as you can, present them with your evidence, and politely ask them to sort out the mess they have landed you with.

 

If they don't cooperate, advise that if you have to do this yourself, you will feel obliged to seek to recover your costs in doing so. You may have to get some legal advice over what remedy you have under the circumstances, so look to see if any of your home, contents, or vehicle, insurances include legal advice. However, I suspect it is a cock up and, when you get to someone with suitable authority, it will get sorted out to your satisfaction.

 

It sounds like a quite bit of a mess so, with the best will in the world, I guess it may take a while to unravel what has gone wrong and then get it straightened out.

[Derek Uzzell]

Steve

 

Looking at the Mercedes Sprinter catalogue, it’s evident that a maximum overall weight of 5500kg is available on some models, but it’s highly unlikely that this would be the case for the sub-6metre-long panel-van that forms the basis of the Hymer Grand Canyon.

 

I’m guessing that, when your motorhome was UK-registered, the 5500kg weight value was extracted wrongly from the vehicle’s Certicates of Conformity by whoever in Travelworld carried out the procedure. If the wrong figure is provided to the DVLA the chances are minimal that it will be noticed.

 

If your Hymer's maximum overall weight is actually 3500kg, but the DVLA has registered it based on a maximum overall weight of 5500kg, it’s going to be in the wrong UK tax-class.

[Billggski]

The problem with emails is that they can go into the waste bin, treated as spam or just be missed if hundreds of them are arriving each day. And of course one wrong figure can mean it never arrives at all.

Much better to phone and speak to someone.

[CaptSteve]

 

Derek,

 

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

 

The vehicle is right hand drive and the main speedo is in MPH. Also when I set the cruise control it also shows MPH. It’s only when I enter the sub-menus that it goes over to, what I assume is, the European menu. This can’t be changed by the owner or, as it turned out, by a Mercedes Commercial Dealer.

 

On the day that I collected the vehicle I was told by the salesman that they had a new Hymer plate to attach to the vehicle. He said that this was due to the suspension being uprated because of the 4x4 system. I never checked until the V5c turned up. The Mercedes dealer said that most 4x4 sprinters are upgraded but this is not the rule.

 

Hymer were very quick to answer my initial query, I have sent them what they requested, and hope to get some clarification before I arrive back in the U.K.

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[CaptSteve]

 

Brian,

 

That’s a good idea - I will indeed speak to Mercedes and see what their take on it is.

 

Maybe at the same time they can advise me on the best route to sort out my sub-menus.

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[CaptSteve]

 

I would normally agree with you, but they were very quick to answer, using the same email addresses, when I asked how to give them my deposit.

 

In fact, they were very good at answering right up to the point they realised that they had a problem. Then silence....

[monique.hubrechtsgm]

Every thing what happens here is familiar to me. Your dealer is in default if it can not be registered by a country plate and their national rules. If ordered that way. At this stage Hymer is the final converter. Proved by the hymer plate, and his COC. Mercedes is stage one and Hymer convert according their convertor PDF.Since you have a pop up Roof you have a roof cut - out. On that pop up you can put solar or a small light rescue boat. My VW max 50 kg on this. Saw no option of this in their price list. 4x4 does not require a higher MAM. automatically.Do you drive B or C licence if i may ask. You can decode your Vin mumber. And in that code is a ident for which market and much more. But you have only ONE channel officially and that is your DEALER if their are problems.

[CaptSteve]

 

Thank you, Monique.

 

Like you I believed that Travel world should have been the first place to get assistance in these matters. But unfortunately, they have just totally ignored me.

 

I am hoping that Hymer will be more helpful and I hear back from them soon.

 

Being a certain age, one advantage is that I have a C1 licence. (lol)

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[monique.hubrechtsgm]

It is your dealer who bought your hymer from hymer. Not You. You bought from Travel- world. And Hymer is very strict who they are on paper.You can not make any changes unless via your dealer. In this case hymer can just act as advisory.

[CaptSteve]

 

Unfortunately, our DVLA won’t accept anything from Travelworld, even if they were answering emails. The agency have sent me a letter saying it must come as a letter direct from Hymer on headed Hymer notepaper.

[Derek Uzzell]

An image of a section of Steve’s Hymer’s V5C registration document is shown below, as is an image of the vehicle’s Hymer VIN-plate.

 

As things stand the V5C carries a Revenue weight value of 5500 KG GROSS, a Max. permissible mass (exc. m/c) of 5500 and a Mass in service of 5500. However, the VIN-plate indicates a maximum permissible mass of 3500kg.

 

It’s probable that Trevelworld UK-registers motorhomes on-line and (as Steve says in his original posting) that whoever did this did it wrongly. To further complicate matters, when Steve took delivery of the motorhome the salesman told him that a new VIN-plate needed to be attached to the vehicle to indicate that it had uprated suspension (and presumably that plate would indicate that the maximum permissible mass rose from 3500kg to 4050kg).

 

I believe Steve’s motorhome is UK-registered in the PHGV tax class (£165 per annum) which would be correct for a maximum permissible mass of 4050kg, so the most important thing is to get a VIN-plate on to the vehicle that confirms that weight increase.

 

In principle it should be practicable for the DVLA to correct the V5C based on the information on the motorhome’s Mercedes-Benz and Hymer Certificates of Conformity (CoCs) - that I assume Steve has - except it sounds like the ‘upgrade’ from 3500kg to 4050kg might not show on the original Hymer CoC (hence the letter needed from Hymer). But the priority requirement is to resolve the vehicle’s VIN-plate issue.

[monique.hubrechtsgm]

Again any paperwork should pass your dealer.

[monique.hubrechtsgm]

That 3500 kg in the stage 2 plate (stufe 2) is typical Uk. Very confusing.

[Brian Kirby]

Derek Uzzell - 2019-03-27 8:58 AM

 

An image of a section of Steve’s Hymer’s V5C registration document is shown below, as is an image of the vehicle’s Hymer VIN-plate.

 

As things stand the V5C carries a Revenue weight value of 5500 KG GROSS, a Max. permissible mass (exc. m/c) of 5500 and a Mass in service of 5500. However, the VIN-plate indicates a maximum permissible mass of 3500kg.

 

It’s probable that Trevelworld UK-registers motorhomes on-line and (as Steve says in his original posting) that whoever did this did it wrongly. To further complicate matters, when Steve took delivery of the motorhome the salesman told him that a new VIN-plate needed to be attached to the vehicle to indicate that it had uprated suspension (and presumably that plate would indicate that the maximum permissible mass rose from 3500kg to 4050kg).

 

I believe Steve’s motorhome is UK-registered in the PHGV tax class (£165 per annum) which would be correct for a maximum permissible mass of 4050kg, so the most important thing is to get a VIN-plate on to the vehicle that confirms that weight increase.

 

In principle it should be practicable for the DVLA to correct the V5C based on the information on the motorhome’s Mercedes-Benz and Hymer Certificates of Conformity (CoCs) - that I assume Steve has - except it sounds like the ‘upgrade’ from 3500kg to 4050kg might not show on the original Hymer CoC (hence the letter needed from Hymer). But the priority requirement is to resolve the vehicle’s VIN-plate issue.

I suspect that DVLA are playing safe since, if I refer to the V5C for our van, field Y indicates revenue weight of 3,500kg, field G indicates a mass in service of 2,880, and field F.1 is blank. Logically, unless my own V5C is also wrong, what Steve's V5C is saying is that the vehicle, registered I assume as a "motor caravan", has no payload (revenue weight less mass in service), which is logically impossible. That, I suspect, is why they are insisting on the letter from Hymer, to confirm where the error has arisen and that the vehicle has a realistic payload and can reasonably be registered as a motor caravan.

 

I think DVLA are being less than helpful to Steve, since Travelworld's failure is hardly his fault, and it should have been apparent at the time the V5C was issued that what it says is nonsensical. The fault clearly originates from travelworld, but it might help if he speaks to DVLA and explains his problem, and gently presses for it to be escalated. He should then get to someone with sufficient authority to begin to help unravelling Travelworld's mess. I had to do this when there were complications with the registration of our van, and they were constructive and helpful once I got to the right bod.

[Derek Uzzell]

My Rapido motorhome’s V5C has “3500 KG GROSS” in Field Y (Revenue weight), with Fields F.1 and G being blank.

 

There are just three items of information that are critical when a new motorhome is to be first UK registered.

 

1: The vehicle ‘type’ - that should be “MOTOR CARAVAN”.

 

2: The motorhome’s maximum authorised mass (MAM).

 

3: The presence or otherwise of a CO2 value.

 

The MAM and CO2 values are extracted from the motorhome’s final Certificate of Conformity (CoC) produced by the motothome converter (Hymer in Steve’s case) and will decide which of the DVLA tax classes the motorhome should be assigned to.

 

Although there is ‘official’ guidance on-line to help individuals and motor traders with the registration procedure, I don’t think there’s any description on-line of how the automated input registration system available to motor traders functions and there’s certainly no on-line description of what happens at the DVLA end.

 

If (as I suspect) Travelworld registers new motorhomes via an on-line system, I doubt that the system’s software will attempt to ‘vet’ for anomalies the data that are being input by a motorhome dealership. Fields requiring a numeric datum (eg a weight-related Field) might be checked to confirm only numbers are entered, but that’s probably about all the validation that takes place. So if the inputter enters 5500 instead of 3500, or 3005 instead of 3500, or enters the same weight datum in several fields where it will be clear to you or I that this will result in a logical conflict, this won’t be picked up by the DVLA system. As the old IT saying went - Garbage In, Garbage Out.

 

Obviously I don’t kmow what information is on the Mercedes and Hymer CoCs relating to Steve’s Grand Canyon motorhome, but the Hymer VIN-plate shows a MAM of 3500kg and that’s the weight-value that would count if the motorhome were weight-checked for potential overloading. If there’s nothing on Steve’s motorhome’s CoCs to contradict the VIN-plate’s 3500kg figure, then the motothome is currently registered in the wrong UK tax class and an initial annual fee of £255 should have been paid not £165.

 

If (as seems likely) Steve’s motorhome ought to have a replacement or additional Hymer VIN-plate to upgrade the MAM to 4050kg and Travelworld had that revised plate (as seems to have been the case from Steve’s posting of 22 March 2019 3:53 PM) then it has to be asked why that plate is not on the motorhome. I don’t know what Steve’s approach to the DVLA has involved, but I can’t see the DVLA agreeing to alter the present V5C’s “5500” weight data unless they are provided with firm evidence that those figures are wrong and what the figures ought to be. The Hymer VIN-plate shows a MAM of 3500kg and I suspect that the Hymer CoC also shows 3500kg. If the latter is the case, I expect the DVLA could be persuaded to alter Steve’s V5C to show a Revenue weight of 3500kg, but if Steve has told the DVLA that the present 5500 KG GROSS should be 4050 KG GROSS, I would expect the DVLA to say “Prove it!”

 

If Steve wants his motorhome to have a MAM of 4050kg, then attempting to escalate this issue with the DVLA is unlikely to be productive unless evidence can be provided that 4050kg is permissible. And even if the DVLA were provided with the Hymer-notepaper letter they’ve asked for and the V5C were revised to show a 4050kg MAM, this would not alter the fact that the motorhome has no VIN-plate to authenticate the 4050kg figure. Get the VIN-plate problem sorted out, then deal with the DVLA regarding the V5C.

[CaptSteve]

 

Just thought that I would update anyone that is interested.

 

Today I finally received a new plate for my van, showing 4,050kg. It’s come from Hymer via an extremely helpful lady at Travelworld.

 

A copy of the accompanying letter has gone to the DVLA for them to change their records. So fingers crossed, it could all be sorted very soon.

 

Thank you to all the helpful people on the forum for their advice and encouragement.

 

Cheers

 

Steve