What A Day

[Retread24800]

francisgraham - 2011-09-26 9:31 PM

Retread24800 - 2011-09-26 8:17 PM

francisgraham - 2011-09-26 8:48 PM

My experience is limited, but up to now it's been one of utter satisfaction, with the product and with the dealer who sold it to me.

I note that you are a little shy in telling the world about this paragon of virtue you travel in?

Not at all, it's a Hymer Van. I actually tried to put it in my membership details well after I joined but for some reason it wouldn't accept it.

Now that I've decided that I'm going to like this motor-homing lark I've ordered a new Hobby Van Exclusive which arrives any day.

Anyway, why are you so incandescent (your word) and worked up about dealers and their service? You don't appear to have visited one for eighteen years.

Not quite true I spent  a lifetime at my local Chausson dealer getting the 'Flash in a pan' put right, got sooooooooooooo p'd off I sold it after 9 months taking a ginormous hit but eventually came back to M/H ing with my antique Hymer ( after 19 years it is pretty well sorted now), yes the water pump was a bit tired but so far nothing has spoilt my holidays. Not Like the Chausson which spent more time in the dealers than on the road.

I thought I made it clear that the reason I become 'Incandescent' is when I see someone praising a dealer or manufacturer for repairing a product that shouldn't have needed a repair in the first place.

Just to show that I'm completely unbiased. Hymer A or if you prefer B classes are taking a pounding over the cost of their designer headlight pods which have a habit of self destructing!!!........£1400 Makes you want to weep!

[rolandrat]

Many thanks Roger20 and FrancisGraham your remarks are like a breath of fresh air. Tyne Valley who I bought my motorhome off have given me £50 towards my costs of running from Oxford to the Autotrail factory at Grimsby, their MD was at the Lincoln show. We had booked into the C&CC site at Oxford at 3-40pm and was leaving to go up to Grimsby at 4-50pm, we was only on the site for a short while and they refused to refund our overnight fee which I think was a poor response to our situation, I wouldn't mind but we have been members for many years, no doubt if I raised a complaint it would fall on deaf ears. Just as a matter of interest Steve Simpson the service manager at Baldwins has left and has now set up on his own, he always went the extra mile for his customers,he can carry out all motorhome servicing, his contact number is 07807 063876. His premises are in the Halifax area.

[roger20]

Roland - good post about Baldwins and Steve Simpson in particular. Thanks for the contact number. As you say he always did try hard and that was a great help when we did have problems.

 

I hope I did not come across as an apologist for Autotrail because I agree with retread that motorhomes 'should' be much better than they are. I am sure Autotrail and others would love to be able to design and manufacture a product with a very low level for warranty claims because its just a sound business model.

 

Its not as though they don't have the experience or expertise and whenever I try to rationalise this issue I fall back on the maxim that "idealism is increased in direct proportion to the distance from the problem"!

[Guest pelmetman]

roger20 - 2011-09-27 11:50 AM  "idealism is increased in direct proportion to the distance from the problem"!

Idealism I dare say its also increased in proportion to the money spent:D..........If you spent 5k on a camper and it goes wrong, you'd probably just shrug your shoulders............spend 50k and it's a different matter:D