Cranham

[Brian Kirby]

I have heard reasonably complimentary things of the above firm over the years.  Has anyone any direct experience of them, please?

Do send private mail if you prefer.

[Frankkia]

Hi Brian We bought a 'van from Cranham and found dealing with Ian Hilton (boss) a pleasure! When we picked up our 'van we only had a short time before going to Germany for 10 weeks and the workshop staff pulled out all the stops to make sure we got everything done and got off on time. Would I buy another 'van from them - too right - and we have in fact ordered our new one to be delivered next May from them. Highly recommended!

[Bobeye]

Brian,  This is who we have just bought our Kon Tiki through.  As firsttimers the salesman "Chris" was really useful.  We looked around theMH's on show and picked some we would like to see inside.  Then Chriswalked us around and discussed each MH in turn including suggestingthat this one or that one wasn't a particularly good buy because of Aor B.
He really helped us and he has been selling MH's for 19 yearsand he really seems to know what he is talking about.  We even askedhim if they would hold on to the MH until late Jan when we move and hewas fine with this provided we paid a deposit of course.
During the last year we had been to quite a few dealers and Cranham were really helpful and full of advice.
I would thouroughly recommend them to anyone.

[chas]

Could someone tell me who these patron saints of motorhome dealers are, and where they are please, for future reference. chas

[Bobeye]

Chas,

This is their web site

http://www.cranhammotorhomes.co.uk/

[michele]

Well here go's. Not that my opinion counts for anything on here . Cranham in Essex I can be as snobby or rude as the next one . The guy was standing smoking a fag . He wouldn't open any of the vans they were all locked. I said would you please open this Frankia (at the time) He was really put out I can only assume that it was what we were wearing Jeans T shirts . He obviously looked us up and down and thought they cant afford this. How wrong he was never judge a book by it's cover. They lost the sale and we would never go back. On talking to him he said the vans are locked because these people in essex love they dont want to buy it's just a pipe dream they can't afford it. As he walked away he said arse end of Romford. I am not from Romford nor probably are quite a lot of his customers . However I still took offence. Can people who come from Romford not be decent then ?. Not for us I actually found there website and complained. We eventually bought or first in stevenage at Amber motor homes. Lovely guy's until we went back with alist of problems then it all starts again . They have your sale so don't really care. Again never went back went of to Brownhills . Now theres a name ?

[Frankkia]

[QUOTE]chas - 2006-11-22 12:53 PM Could someone tell me who these patron saints of motorhome dealers are, and where they are please, for future reference. chas[/QUOTE] As I said above I would certainly recommend them to anyone. As for being patron saints well maybe. We have had quite a number of new 'vans over the years fom different dealers. Many of those dealers I would not go back to, for anything, for various reasons (bad deal, poor after sales, down right lies amongst others) but in our dealings with Ian at Cranham it has been refreshing to meet someone who is straight talking and doesn't give a load of bull leavings and gives a good service. We live over 200 miles away from Cranham who are at Old Gailey Park, Upminster,Essex RM14 1TJ but we are still prepared to travel. Are we related to them - No just satisfied customers.

[Basil]

Sorry but I agree with michele. When they were Gaileys Caravans (that was a long time ago, but the site is still known as the Gailies site) we bought one of our caravans from them and they were really great. When they became Cranham Caravans they went down hill fast. We bought our last motorhome from them and they seemed fine until they got our money, then like all the others everything was too much trouble, delivery delays (compounded by not keeping us informed). To be fair the parts and accessory department people try hard, even if you do have to wait for them to finish their private phone calls and conversations before they acknowledge you, but the sales staff are terrible and the workshop in our experience worse. My brother bought a new caravan last year from them, despite the problems we had had and again all was fine until the warranty and problem work was required, he has had his service and habitation service for extended warrenty done elsewhere, with the agreement of the manufacturer due to Cranhams bad aftersales which culminated in a stand up argument with them at the site. All their motorhomes/ caravans are locked but they will open them on request (if you can find someone who is not busy drinking tea or having a smoke) however they are reluctant to leave you looking inside on your own and you feel constantly pressured to leave, don't ask to look at more than one or two as they seem to think you are not really buying. With the sort of attitude we have experienced there I was not surprised that they had to close down (or sell out) their Suffolk site due to lack of business, as I understand it. Perhaps you will be luckier than us, I hope so. Bas

[Bobeye]

It is surprising how different people have differring responses from others. I must say; we asked for 6 MH's to be opened up which was duely done, we were shown each in turn and accompanied by the salesman. However, we then asked to go back over a few of them, to which the salesman said ok no problem here are the keys help yourself I'll catch up with you later. We then spent around 2 hours of wandering from van to van checking them out. When we finished we found the salesman who was quite happy to allow us some time in his office while we all discussed our thoughts on each van and the coffee was there for us to have as much as we wanted.

As I said, this is just our personal experience but we have no complaints to date. I will let you know if it changes when they have all of our money.

But if it does change they will know I am not happy!!!!!

[AndrewJo]

Alas I’m afraid our visit to Cranhams was similar to Micheles However we got to look inside one of the motor homes by a very nice chappie until we mentioned that we already owned one that we had recently purchases privately The salesman’s attitude totally changed he went on & on about the pitfalls of buying second hand He stated that Cranhams didn’t make a lot out of sales of new vans anyway it was on the sales of add-ons etc I then stated that this was good as I wanted lots of extras added to my van He then went on an said that as we hadn’t purchased from them not to we should not expect them to fit the bits as their "customers" came first In addition not to expect them to carry out habitation checks or warranty work etc etc Needles to say we take our van elsewhere and when we come to trade it in Crahams will be the last place we go Ps The van we brought second hand has been great better than we could have imagined

[michele]

I wish to add the Cranham we visited is off the A127 on the way to Southend. We have had no dealings with the other branch. By the looks of it there has been similar goings on at both branches. We felt under pressure to get out of the vans as well this does not make for comftable viewing . Still in fairness there is good and bad everywhere. What is sauce for one is gravy for another . Still would never be tempted to go back

[empress]

We have no personal experience of dealing with Cranhams but close friends of ours were not happy with the after sales service they received. In other words very little after sales help at all! This was the Ipswich site, now no more I believe. After a long saga Auto Sleepers came to their rescue. Empress

[Brian Kirby]

Thank you all for your replies.  Seems they behave well enough when you're actually buying, but badly when they thing you're just browsing, and may be a bit slack with the after sales service.

I suppose, sadly, that just leaves them about average for the breed.  Maybe their reaction to browsers is bred from their location. 

They have a very well located site that must attract thousands of window shoppers over the course of a year.  I know petty theft from display 'vans is a constant irritation for many dealers.  No doubt Cranham has its share.

I went to buy a car once from a chap called Jerry Marshall, known to racing fans as "Sideways Marshall" due to his overexuberant driving style.  Quite a character. 

While I was there a chap turned up in full morning dress.  Apparently he was on his way to a wedding and had popped in to give the TVRs a once over.  Marshall, who was in the showroom, looked up as soon as the new visitor entered and, without a pause, greeted him by saying "My dear chap, there's no need to dress".

Tails and toppers for Cranham then, is it?  That should get their attention!

[Guest peter]

From reading this forum, all dealers are crap. How on earth do they stay in business and make a living. But I know what you all mean having had the misfortune to fall foul of one in Wellingborough buying my first M/H. But you only get caught out once don't you?. :D

[Keith T]

I can see where Peter is coming from, and indeed we had one experience where we felt the after sales from that dealer (no longer in busines) was poor. Perhaps easier said than done to avoid though, unless there can be genuine questions and feedback on Forum's like this, and of course the good old chatter when doing the washing up at site facilities....?

[flicka]

Hopefully some of the various dealer's management will browse this forum and take note of where their shortcomings are. it would help them identify problems and take steps to improve their services ? As you say there are some sales areas being closed and I'm sure that is not what the Dealership owners want. They should ultimately be planning for a larger market share to increase profits for their Shareholders. The best way to achieve that, is to build a satisfied customer base. Or am I too optimistic. Flicka

[Brian Kirby]

[QUOTE]peter - 2006-11-23 9:30 PM From reading this forum, all dealers are crap. How on earth do they stay in business and make a living. But I know what you all mean having had the misfortune to fall foul of one in Wellingborough buying my first M/H. But you only get caught out once don't you?. :D[/QUOTE]

It is odd, isn't it?  Perhaps there are so many of us motorhomers, the dealers know that even if they upset one of us, there'll be another along in five minutes! 

There seem to be three types of experience:

1 The dealer is offputting on first acquaintance, dismissive, rude or uninterested in your enquiry.

2 The dealer is OK up to the point when the 'van turns out to have a problem.

3 The dealer is wonderful, and so is the 'van.

1 Just looks like commercial suicide to me, but maybe the great British public just wears them down.  Motorhomes are widely promoted as our dreams coming true.  No doubt lots of dreamers wander the dealerships and lots of salesmen are on commission, so tend to get a bit impatient with the dreamers in pursuit of genuine buyers.  Not an excuse for bad manners, but perhaps we should try to make sure we can't be mistaken for Saturday afternoon dreamers when we visit!

2 Always a risk.  Doesn't matter what you buy, up to and including houses, there's always the vendor who is happy to take your money, but suddenly goes cool when things go wrong.  Having read some of the complaints about dealers on this forum and in MMM, my only thought is that some poor souls don't help themselves much by giving rambling and unclear explanations of the problem.  No dealer will be delighted to deal with your problem, it's going to cost him money!  That being this cynic's view, it seems to me that the complaint should be brief, factual and specific.  Not always easy, but after writing it out, put it aside 'till the next day, then re-read it.  It's surprising what you spot!  Alternatively, just give it to someone else to read, but without telling them what it is about.  Then, if they misunderstand something, don't blame them for being stupid but listen and then re-draft until it becomes clear.

3 Is what we all hope for.

Rude and uncouth dealers apart, it seems the best route to contentment is to select the 'vans with the best reliability record.  Then all you have to do is buy, forget the dealer, and be happy!  Now, how do we find out which 'vans those are?

[Basil]

Well Brian, I think you have just about nailed it!! IMHO. Bas