The other side of the coin

[John.N]

Oops, finger slipped.

 

The seems to be a great deal of slagging off of Brownhills at the moment and as far as I can see they desereve it although I have never had any dealings with them thank heavens!)

 

To put the reputations of dealers in perspective I would like to put on record the excellent experiences which I, as a newcomer to the scene, have had with Highbridge Caravans in Somerset from whom I bought my Autosleeper Legend eighteen months ago and Marquis Motorhomes of Ivybridge who are my local dealer.

 

The Legend was a very well presented, a good price, and the salesman could not have been more pleasant. Initial teething problems required several return visits before they were sorted out but all without charge to me and a courtesy car thrown in with no strings attached. All very efficient. Subsequent visits to Marquis for minor problems have been dealt with efficiently and in a very friendly manner often without charge even though no guarantee was involved.

 

I should say that I have no connection with either company other than a normal business relationship and I would stronlgy recommend either of them to readers.

[michele]

Well when companies get it right they deserved to be named and praised .

When they get it wrong i also think they should be named that way we can all see . The company can see and get a chance to put it right also.

 

What in my opinion is wrong with them is they are too big for their own boots and the little customer dont seem to matter to them ..

That will be their downfall .

[dshague]

for me its south yorkshire motorhomes

good service and top px

[pkc]

 

I could not agree more with Michele about naming the good guys as well as the black hats.

All companies make mistakes, they are run after all by human beings just like us,

the measure of a good firm is how they deal with the resulting mess.

Some years ago I bought a pretty ancient Hymer from Todds of Preston ,

which suffered the well known Fiat 5th gear problems

The service I received was far beyond what I could have reasonably expected,

and I would recommend them to anyone.

On the other hand having had a windscreen replaced by RAC Windscreens, which leaked like a sieve

I've spent the last ten months visiting, phoning, and being treated in the most appalling way,

I would not let them touch my motor home again with someone else's barge pole.

Perhaps a league table of good and bad firms might be a good idea.

 

>:-(

[Rainbow-Chasers]

I think the good guys should be mentioned! I accept that every company makes mistakes, and if dealt with efficiently, it wouldn't even get a mention or else a positive mention.

 

I buy a few MH and i have what could probably be described as a vaguely arrogant stance i suppose. When i look around a dealer, find a suitable vehicle and despite if there are salesmen around leaning on desks, no one wants to know, i walk away! I don't care how good the MH was, this is because i beleive that if they do not want to put any effort into selling, they wont put any into aftersales at all! Which means you would be stuck out on a limb with no dealer support! It sounds slighty arrogant, and i do only take that stance when they are clearly not busy, but it has served me well so far.

 

As for GREAT SERVICE.....I find that Marquis Motorhomes are A1! I cannot fault the sales, handover, the vehicles or the fantastic after sales back up which is 100% no quibble. Sometimes you do pay a little more at place with good aftersales, but it is well worth it! (In fact the last one we had was an absolute bargain, they dropped the price after some bullying from me, and still threw in the extras!)

[catinou]

At one time I would have agreed with Rainbow- Chaser. Indeeed, we did walk away from a local dealership when we were ignored by a salesman when we first started looking for our MH - we stood in front of his desk whilst he talked football to a friend on the telephone! >:-(

 

We ended up at the NEC show and to our surprise we came away having ordered a brand new vehicle - the salesman was lovely and the price was really good. *-) After some delay we finally received our vehicle and although that one salesman was great at all times, things went downhill from the time we arrived to collect it - long story, but vehicle finally rejected and returned to factory - but in spite of our disillusionment with the dealer (not the manufacturers - they were great!) we were "obliged" to order the replacement through them. - We wanted to stick with the same manufacturer, who had offered us a really good deal on our 2nd order.

 

After a further 12 months wait - don't ask! - we took delivery of our 2nd MH and again experienced a distinct lack of service at and after collection. After contacting the manufacturer, they agreed to transfer our warranty / service work to a local dealer, Freeborne Motorhomes, and we cannot fault them. We have service second to none and they have gone out of their way to help us at every turn. :-)

 

The irony is - it is the same dealership we had taken against in the first place - certainly a lesson learned the hard way, as we would not hesitate to use them now when we are ready to buy a replacement.

[Ranger]

Got my last two motorhomes from Knight Motorcaravans. John Knight has two places, one in Tewksbury & one in Kidderminster. Very pleasant staff no fancy warranties, he just fixes or pays to be fixed any fault found in the first three months. On my last 'van he paid out a couple of thousand to get the automatic gearbox repaired, no fuss he just got the job done. This one after he delivered it one of the front tyres was a bit perished looking so he gave me a cheque for a new one. After a couple of months the 240V charger ceased to function so his engineer fitted a new one. If I live long enough to need another 'van will get it from John....No hasle and nothing to worry about. I did go to Brownhills years ago to look at a 'van and was put off by the sales talk "bull" and never went there again. But they did have a nice restaurant open to the public...........

[Tony Jones]

What a good idea this thread is (now we know what it's about - Sorry John!)

 

We've been very pleased with both the dealers we've bought vans from in recent times.

"Hannibal" came from Pullingers of Halstead, for the princely sum of £3500 in 1999! In spite of the van being a bargain basement PX (even the advert mentioned the bodywork needing attention!) Barry Pullinger couldn't have been more helpful, and the two mechanical problems we had in the early days were put right ppromptly and willingly (and probably quite expensively, which would have wiped out any real profit for them).

 

We'd have gone back to them this time around, but having very specific requirements (for a new van which was to last us for many years), we found the only one that met all of our spec was from a small-ish converter (Horizons Unlimited) with only one dealer (Roy Wood Transits).

Regular readers will know there was a few days' delay on delivery, but that was more than compensated by it really BEING "delivery" - Harry Langham of RWT drove it over to us as soon as it was ready.

 

Again, there were a couple of minor teething troubles, but those were dealt with promptly and efficiently. The only major issue was the failure of the water heater in August, which Horizons came out and replaced on site where we were staying at the time!

 

So I'd highly recommend either of these outfits for their attitude and customer service.

 

Tony