curdle Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Hymer, despite a strong presence in Europe, seems poorly served in then UK. I needed warranty attention to the latch/ lock on my habitation door, that basically collapsed and the door would fly open whilst driving. A 700km round trip to the selling dealer in Stafford had the lock "fixed" to the extent that the door opened and closed. Unfortunately it was only discovered next day (by which time we were in France) that the latch whilst closing cannot lock with the common key. Fortunately we have an additional Abus security lock, but the habitation lock also no longer works with the central locking. A Hymer dealer in Spain looked at the lock and declared the entire latch would need replacing but he would need a couple of weeks to order the part. Arriving back in Portsmouth via ferry from Spain, we were delighted to find a more recently appointed "Hymer" dealer. They inspected the latch but informed us they would need special permission from Hymer, since we did not purchase the vehicle from them. Weeks later we have no answer and we cannot decide if the dealer or Hymer is at fault (or both). It is nonsensical to do yet another 700km trip to fix this, so we are wondering about recent experiences of other Hymer owners when faced with a warranty claim, given the sparse dealer landscape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Our 2013 Hymer Exsis-I was dealt with very efficiently by Premier Motorhomes of Birdham, nr Chichester. Not on your doorstep, but a lot better that a 700 mile round trip! They were always helpful, constructive, and very pleasant people to deal with. They dealt with all the annual damp inspections, correctly maintaining the Hymer service log. Our van was a personal, LHD, import, so they weren't the selling dealer, but they dealt efficiently with the odd Hymer warranty issue via Hymer, and subsequently dealt with the odd snag in like fashion - except that I had to pay them. :-D I think you are suffering at the hands of the dealers rather than Hymer. Our last dealings with Premier Motorhomes were in 2017, when we changed to the present vans - another personal import. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curdle Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 except that I had to pay them. :-D Brian does that include payment for warranty claims as well as servicing etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 curdle - 2020-02-19 1:34 PM except that I had to pay them. :-D Brian does that include payment for warranty claims as well as servicing etc? No, absolutely not. The Hymer warranty can, and should, be invoked by any authorised Hymer dealership to remedy a manufacturing defect at Hymer's expense. It will be the dealer who doesn't want to do that work, probably because the dealers complain that they don't get reimbursed at the normal commercial rate by manufacturers for warranty work, and haven't benefitted from the initial sale profit. (The manufacturers tend to counter this by saying that the dealer benefits financially be being able to sell their products as authorised dealerships.) I did not try to conceal the origins of our Hymer when booking it with them (and in any case could not have maintained any such subterfuge once I drove it onto their forecourt!). Premier were philosophical, and just said they happy to work on it, including warranty work - because I might buy my next van from them. I'd give them a ring, tell them your circumstances, and see how they react. You'll need to take it somewhere for its annual checks, so why not them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikejkay Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Interesting. I had virtually the same problem with my habitation door lock on my exsis-t 414. The lock failed about three months out of warranty and about 4 weeks into a three month trip to Scandinavia. The door simply would not latch shut at all. Unfortunately, I do not have a secondary lock and I had to make do with a ratchet strap through the handle and arounf the table leg. Eventually, I got to civilisation and found a motorhome dealer. While showing a mechanic what was wrong I miraculously got the lock to latch. We then found that the door wouldn't unlock except from the inside :-( so in and out through the cab door. When back in the UK I took the van to a local dealer who took a substantial chunk of cash to look at the lock and then decided that it couldn't be fixed. Having heard that Hymer were quite good with dealing with just out of warranty claims I wrote to them and they got back and said that they would provide a replacement lock via an authorised dealer. I went through Highbridge and actually had the work done at their place outside Newton Abbot. The replacing of the lock took all of 10-15 mins and the culprit turned out to be a broken small spring! The bad news is that Hymer backpedalled somewhat and only paid 50% of the bill. Still, better than a poke in the eye with etc etc. I bought the Hymer after having had a Pilote, a Swift, a Chausson and a Hobby largely on Hymers' reputation for quality, I have to say that I have been somewhat disappointed. So far I have had a broken access ladder, a leaking water tank, a habitation light failure and a reversing camera failure all of which were dealt with under warranty by Travel World. Other, irritating, things include the plastic trim around the cab roof light shrinking and pulling away from the frame, the plastic trim around the winfow in the habitation door stretching and coming loose. More seriously, the habitation windows quickly showed signs of condensation, something which I should have had done under warranty as this started after about a year. I may be looking at the past through rose coloured specs but I think that the Pilote construction was the best quality. Unfortunately, the Talbot base vehicle was prone to rust and the electrical charging was poor. It seems that over the years the base vehicles have improved but that the habitation side has lagged behind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hans Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 It is for sure a .German Hartal door and locks. About the locks you can find them any ware Buy a spare one. It is not more difficult than changing a soft closing toilet two cover torsion spring as i did today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumpy Grandad Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Hi. We had a Hymer B544, and the habitation door lock also broke, so we used a ratchet strap. The lock broke when we were on holiday in Europe. As we were going to go into Germany we called at the Hymer factory, explained what we needed. We were told that the new door lock would have to be ordered, so expected that the part would have to be sent to our home address. I asked how long it would take, and was informed it would be there at 10-0-clock the next morning. This was at 4.30pm the previous day. Went back at 10 and the part was there. Fantastic Hymer and German efficiency !! Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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