Brilliant After Sales Service and not so Brilliant !

[Big Momma]

When we collected our new van from Chelstons Motorhome (Wellington, Somerset) in May this year, the OH and I laughed about who would be the first one to put a scratch on it. About 4 weeks ago, one Friday evening after work was just getting ready for a trip to a weekend bolt hole when taking it out of the drive, as I had done on numerous other occasions without incident, I got the angle of dangle all wrong and managed to break off the rear corner skirting. Obviously not very happy but with a bit of 'Rhino Tape' here and there it was good to go.

 

Getting back i commenced planning the repair job and although I said I would never use Brownhills again the choice was them only being 10 minutes drive away from my house, or the 4 hour round trip to Chelstons. I opted for the 'easier' solution and gave them a call. I exlplained the extent of the damage and what would be needed, no problem they said but too busy so bring it in for us to take a look next week. I notified the Insurance company(Caravan Guard) and they were happy with choice of repairer and within 48 hours had sent me the relevant paperwork.

 

A week later, took the van in to Brownhills where after a casual visual inspection I was told "Can't fix it here' havn't got a bodyshop. You will need to take it to our Newark depot". Newark is a 4 hour drive away !!!

 

Absoltely fuming that they didn't tell me that on the phone a week ago I had to re-assess the situation. My problem is that I still work full time, as does the OH and whilst I could take a day off she couldn't so there was a logical transport problem. Anyway spoke to Rob Woodward at Chelstons (Service Dept) and he was brilliant. Take some digital photo's of the damage and Email them to me he said, this will save you a 4 hour round trip. As for the repair, no problems, once the parts are in he could do the repair on site and if he needed the vehicle for more than a day he would arrange for me to have a courtesy car. So photos taken and Emailed and within the hour he had Emailed back to say that he had received them and the photos were fine. The folowing morning I received a phone call from the Insurance Engineer who stated that he had received both the photo's and Estimate from Chelston's and he didn't need to go and conduct a physical inspection and would authorise the repair. By the end of the day, Rob had phoned me back to say that he had received authority to proceed and was ordering the parts required. Within another 4 days he Emailed me again to say that the parts were in and we agreed a day for me to take it in. Because they are open on a Saturday morning I am taking it down to them then, OH following in her car to take me back home.Although the van is booked in for repair on the Monday I have arranged to collect it the following Saturday.

 

As you can imagine, I was not happy at 'pranging' my van in the first place, let alone all the hassle that goes along with notifying the Insurance and arranging the repair. However, Chelstons (and Caravan Guard) have been absolutely brilliant. I know that Chelstons are going to get some money out of this but the service (and very prompt at that) has made this process a little less painful. The OH has a big grin on her face knowing that if she puts any kind of mark on it I will not be able to say anything at all :D :D