Customer Service at Brownhills (1 Viewer)

[Klingon2me]

Hi All

Just wanted to share my experience with you in dealing with Brownhills of Newark.

We bought a 12 month old Swift Bolero from them after searching for the right model for some time. We were over the moon with the layout and everything the van had to offer. We got a deal with Brownhills that we were pleased with.

A week later and after our first overnighter, we had a list of 8 problems that should have been picked up on the pre-delivery inspection, ranging from 2 water leaks on the fresh water tank to main tube lights only working on 230v and not on leisure battery plus others. :Sad:

I reported them to the salesman, he emailed the service department and I heard nothing for a week. I called and called and called and eventually was told they could do nothing to fit us in for two months - we were going on hol before that so told them it would need to be done earlier. :Sad:

I then had to ramp it up to the service manager who told me to bring the vehicle down to them and leave it for two weeks and they would sort the problems. I did. They didn't. 5 out of eight were cured.

Further emails after we returned from holiday elicited the information that the service manager had left. Customer service manager arranged for someone else to emaill me and we agreed a date to return for the three faults to be fixed and by then I had discivered a fourth.

On arrival I was told only one job card had been raised, not four. oh:after a few strong words I was promised all jobs would be rectified. I spent the day with them to be told that they had done 3 out of 4 and would have to contact Swift to resolve the fourth. :Angry:

I emailed the customer service manager after my return home and asked for compensation for their total failure to prevent the whole scenario by a thorough PDI but was told

"It has been recognised that areas of Brownhills are lacking in both experience and good customer service hence the reason for recent management changes.
There has clearly been a significant breakdown in communication with regards to your contact with Brownhills and can only apologise for this and hope that in the future when you do need to visit us for any reason, you will see an improvement in all areas.

As a company we do not recognise compensation and are not able to offer you anything in respect of fuel/loss of holidays from work etc. Our aim going forward is to eliminate any unnecessary repeat journeys to Brownhills wherever possible."


So what can I do? Not much I think but make everybody else aware of their attitude to their customers.


Hope this is helpful to anyone thinking of using them.

 

[teddybard]

Hi All

Just wanted to share my experience with you in dealing with Brownhills of Newark.

We bought a 12 month old Swift Bolero from them after searching for the right model for some time. We were over the moon with the layout and everything the van had to offer. We got a deal with Brownhills that we were pleased with.

A week later and after our first overnighter, we had a list of 8 problems that should have been picked up on the pre-delivery inspection, ranging from 2 water leaks on the fresh water tank to main tube lights only working on 230v and not on leisure battery plus others. :Sad:

I reported them to the salesman, he emailed the service department and I heard nothing for a week. I called and called and called and eventually was told they could do nothing to fit us in for two months - we were going on hol before that so told them it would need to be done earlier. :Sad:

I then had to ramp it up to the service manager who told me to bring the vehicle down to them and leave it for two weeks and they would sort the problems. I did. They didn't. 5 out of eight were cured.

Further emails after we returned from holiday elicited the information that the service manager had left. Customer service manager arranged for someone else to emaill me and we agreed a date to return for the three faults to be fixed and by then I had discivered a fourth.

On arrival I was told only one job card had been raised, not four. oh:after a few strong words I was promised all jobs would be rectified. I spent the day with them to be told that they had done 3 out of 4 and would have to contact Swift to resolve the fourth. :Angry:

I emailed the customer service manager after my return home and asked for compensation for their total failure to prevent the whole scenario by a thorough PDI but was told

"It has been recognised that areas of Brownhills are lacking in both experience and good customer service hence the reason for recent management changes.
There has clearly been a significant breakdown in communication with regards to your contact with Brownhills and can only apologise for this and hope that in the future when you do need to visit us for any reason, you will see an improvement in all areas.

As a company we do not recognise compensation and are not able to offer you anything in respect of fuel/loss of holidays from work etc. Our aim going forward is to eliminate any unnecessary repeat journeys to Brownhills wherever possible."


So what can I do? Not much I think but make everybody else aware of their attitude to their customers.


Hope this is helpful to anyone thinking of using them.

Brownhills are not certainly what they were
with each successive change of ownership or management
they seem to go further down the pan.

 

[TheBig1]

tell us something that we dont already know

a search of this and other forums would show you that your neither the first to have bad service from brownhills and likely not the last. theyve got your money and now your just another annoying complaining EXcustomer:thumb:

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[DuxDeluxe]

Oh yeh !

First post and it looks like it's written by the Brownhills advertising department.

Pull the other one.

Some pretty poor advertising if it is, Brian not an apparently great example of customer service

Agree with your suspicions about first posts and moans, though. It doesn't look good. I wouldn't like a Klingon anywhere near me anyway..

 

[JJ]

I will watch with baited breath to see if Mr Klingontome decides to join our forum properly and take part in the Fun or whether he is just using us once to get back at Brownhills...

JJ :Cool:

 

[Peter & Elaine]

I will watch with baited breath to see if Mr Klingontome decides to join our forum properly and take part in the Fun or whether he is just using us once to get back at Brownhills...

JJ :Cool:

Could tempt him with a pie :thumb:

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[DuxDeluxe]

I'll troll anyone for a free FB pie.......... Can I put my order in now?


P.S. Dawn thinks I'm too cheap......

 

[hilldweller]

Some pretty poor advertising if it is, Brian not an apparently great example of customer service

Agree with your suspicions about first posts and moans, though. It doesn't look good. I wouldn't like a Klingon anywhere near me anyway..

Yeh, should have gone to specsavers. I've deleted it. It's been a hard day OK !

 

[DuxDeluxe]

Yeh, should have gone to specsavers. I've deleted it. It's been a hard day OK !

No worries Brian - I guessed it was something like that; easy to misread things (I do it with contracts so be afraid........) . Cheers - time to relax :thumb:

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Wildman]

well hello and welcome to the forum, do you really expect 240V lights to work off 12V?

 

[sedge]

Well - we had a Swift, it had a strip light under the cupboard over the sink, and that worked on 12v, it also worked when plugged into the mains (presumably still on 12v LOL) so if any of the fitted lights were NOT going to work on 12v, I would expect the dealer - and especially the manufacturer's handbook! - to make that abundantly clear.

Without seeing what was stamped on the tube, personally I'd give the O/P credit for enough sense to check that handbook before advising the dealer it was broken.

(Now - having said that - if it happened with our new van, we couldn't do that since Pilote haven't yet translated the books for their English-style vans into English ! )

 

[Hayleylulu]

Browhillss only sell good quality damp vans

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[bernardfeay]

I don't think Brownhills do anything other than a quick wipe round with a duster. You, the customer do the PDI.

But, I can offer you some advice for any future purchase. When we bought our Hymer Exsis I was assured that it had air con. I sent several text messages asking that they make sure the gas was fully charged.

Needless to say it did not have air con at all and Brownhills denied ever saying it had. They came a bit unstuck though when I showed them their text to me telling me where the on/off button was.

I took them to court for the cost of after market air con and got my judgement.

My advice, write down your requirements in an email, tell them of your upcoming holiday, ask them what happens with your snagging list and then ram it down their throats when they mess you about.

Litigate, it's easy stuff.

 

[hilldweller]

No worries Brian

Oh it does worry me. Just had another look to see if I'm cracking up. Well, cracking up more than usual. It's the first couple of lines. Beaming with satisfaction. Clearly I did not read the rest and jumped to the wrong conclusion.

Ah well, it had to happen one day.

I'm going outside now, I may be some time.

 

[Klingon2me]

Thanks for the welcome

I will watch with baited breath to see if Mr Klingontome decides to join our forum properly and take part in the Fun or whether he is just using us once to get back at Brownhills...

JJ :Cool:

Well JJ I thought I was contributing to the forum by sharing my experience. I did say "What can I do?" but as you and one or two others obviously take a more cynical view then I see no point in subscribing to a forum where I might have expected a more friendly welcome and response but in fact get no help whatsoever from you. I hope you are not a typical forum member.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[pappajohn]

Well JJ I thought I was contributing to the forum by sharing my experience. I did say "What can I do?" but as you and one or two others obviously take a more cynical view then I see no point in subscribing to a forum where I might have expected a more friendly welcome and response but in fact get no help whatsoever from you. I hope you are not a typical forum member.

you aren't the first, and certainly won't be the last, to join the forum and first post is slating a company, even with the good grounds you have, is considered poor forum etiquette.

Please don't be offended as you didn't know. :thumb:

We are a friendly bunch, most of the time.

 

[Fireman Sam]

Well JJ I thought I was contributing to the forum by sharing my experience. I did say "What can I do?" but as you and one or two others obviously take a more cynical view then I see no point in subscribing to a forum where I might have expected a more friendly welcome and response but in fact get no help whatsoever from you. I hope you are not a typical forum member.

Don’t take offence Klingon2me. This is a great site, you’ll love it.
Oh and by the way WELCOME.

 

[pappajohn]

well hello and welcome to the forum, do you really expect 240V lights to work off 12V?

all mine were 11 watt twin tube fluorescent tubes running off 12v Roger.
Each fitting had a basic inverter circuit bringing the voltage to 120v (American remember)

But I agree...they can't work off 230v and not 12v unless they are wired as 230v only

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[capinpugwash]

I wonder if the desire for compensation is clouding the right to recompense.

I thought that in certain circumstances your reasonable expenses in having faulty goods returned/rectified could be claimed from the other party. The thinking here was the requirement to put the parties back into the position they were in before the transaction took place.

If you feel you have met unreasonable expenses then it may be worth seeking legal opinion, as opposed to just opinions.

 

[Klingon2me]

I wonder if the desire for compensation is clouding the right to recompense.

I thought that in certain circumstances your reasonable expenses in having faulty goods returned/rectified could be claimed from the other party. The thinking here was the requirement to put the parties back into the position they were in before the transaction took place.

If you feel you have met unreasonable expenses then it may be worth seeking legal opinion, as opposed to just opinions.

Maybe the way I wrote the comment originally didn't come over in the way I intended. The main quibble is the poor customer service, especially when such substantial amounts of money have been spent.

A straight forward apology and all the faults being rectified in one go would have been acceptable but when they adnit that Customer Service is poor but still do not make any effort to put this right I feel it is just lip service.

Some other comments have been made on the lighting problems encountered. To make that clear, the tube lights in the lounge and bedroom area should work when powered by either 12v leisure or 230v mains depending upon what is available. They did on mains but not on leisure. This has now been rectified by Brownhills.

Don't get me wrong, if they deserve praise I will be the first to offer it and in fact the sales department have not put a foot wrong.

 

[Bailey58]

Maybe the way I wrote the comment originally didn't come over in the way I intended. The main quibble is the poor customer service, especially when such substantial amounts of money have been spent.

A straight forward apology and all the faults being rectified in one go would have been acceptable but when they adnit that Customer Service is poor but still do not make any effort to put this right I feel it is just lip service.

Some other comments have been made on the lighting problems encountered. To make that clear, the tube lights in the lounge and bedroom area should work when powered by either 12v leisure or 230v mains depending upon what is available. They did on mains but not on leisure. This has now been rectified by Brownhills.

Don't get me wrong, if they deserve praise I will be the first to offer it and in fact the sales department have not put a foot wrong.

Welcome to FUN but I have to smile at your closing comment, sales departments usually are on their best behaviour, it's the rest of the company that we measure their performance on. :thumb:

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[journeyman]

Yep, sales dept have done a cracking job. Its in the bank now.

"Klingon2me" I think your post is important because it highlights what's happening now, especially for members looking to purchase who are new to the pitfalls of motorhome ownership. Your post shows that Brownhills know they have a major problem but don't appear to have resolved it at this particular point in time.

Guys, many of you are up to speed on this, experts in your own right. But many of us aren't. Rather a little bit of etiquette breached than one of our new members fork out and get hugely disappointed.

Welcome Klingon2me...Now cough up the £10 and fully enjoy

 

[daisy mae]

Hi and Welcome from me, I only became a paid up member today, and I don`t really know how the forum works, so hoping I don`t get knocked down if I make a mistake,oh: You will find lots of information as well as a variety of topics. enjoy.:thumb:

 

[Klingon2me]

Update

Been back to Brownhills again with the remaining problems.

On arrival was told they only had 1 job card out instead of 4 but after a few words the others were found.

3 problems resolved but they were unable to fix the 4th and have said they will have to speak to Swift to get some answers so it would appear yet another trip to Newark will be necessary.

Thanks to all who made comments on this thread.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[teddybard]

I'll troll anyone for a free FB pie.......... Can I put my order in now?


P.S. Dawn [HI]cheap[/HI]......

too Deep

 

[Twos company]

if you have had the appaliing customer service at brownhills that i had then you wouldnt go near the place again barge pole comes to mind !!!! i certainly wont be going back.
duffie

 

[wiljoy]

Good old Brownhills again. I would not normally reply to a Brownhills post as they appear all the time for dodgy tactics. I cannot help laugh at there statement of gaining experience and shortcomings. How many years do you need to offer customer service? They have been going so long now I think they are better off closing the doors than trying to gain knowledge of people. Most trades can perfect there business in a couple of years but Brownhills appear to need half a century.
Lets stop any posts about them, just don't give them your custom.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}