Timberland Motorhomes

I have waited a long time to write this as I wanted to give the dealer time to fix problems and did not want to damage our relationship with negative comments online but 28 months on I feel it’s time to spill the beans.

We purchased our Burstner Lyseo from Timberland during the pandemic. Lots of motorhome dealers were not open but Timberland had the make/model/layout we wanted. It was brand new but available on the forecourt. The distance from home wasn’t ideal but I thought it was worth it to get this particular motorhome and didn’t expect there to be major problems with a brand new vehicle anyway. (How naive of me!) We negotiated a good price and arranged to collect it a month later after an alarm and waste heater had been fitted.

On pick up day we were given a pre inspection sheet with everything possible ticked off as being checked and ok.

On leaving the garage my wife was following in the car and noticed one brake light not working. We went straight back and they fixed a dodgy connection in the rear light assembly.

After I collected the vehicle and had driven it home I discovered that it wasn’t registered with the DVLA. I contacted Timberland and they said they had posted off the registration documents and paid. Later I contacted DVLA and they said the wrong amount had been sent and the registration needed to be done again. It didn’t appear as registered until 6 weeks after I brought it home!

After using it for a week or two we discovered…

No mounting points for the bed ladder
Shower door would not close properly
Shower tap not working unless another tap was also operated (possible micro switch issue)
No tyre repair kit despite it being advertised as having one.
Sticky garage doors
Bench seat support collapsing
Several overhead lockers did not fasten shut properly.

A few months later we also noticed:
Fridge wasn’t working on gas - probably never had but we had been on hook up previously.
Burstner badge disintegrating.
Reversing camera stopped working.

Clearly a proper habitation/pre delivery check had never been done.

Over the following year it took 8 round trips (200 miles each time) to get these problems fixed. Many times one or two would be fixed but others not as ‘the wrong part was delivered’. The fridge was ‘sorted’ - but then when I got home it wasn’t. A new shower tap was fitted and then they realised it wasn’t the tap at all but a wiring issue that could have been solved months before.

4 attempts were made at fixing the fridge before I persuaded them that they should contact the manufacturer and demand a new one. Eventually they did and I drove 100 miles to have it fitted only to discover they hadn’t got the new fridge (even though on the phone the day before they clearly said they had it in) and so they just attempted another fix which didn’t work.

A new fridge was fitted eventually after over a year of not having a properly functioning fridge.

All issues (except the sticking garage door) were eventually sorted but not until nearly 2 years after purchase. The final fix being the arrival of a new badge which we fixed ourselves. We tried to get compensation - particularly for spoilt, difficult holidays due to no gas fridge that meant we had to use campsites and hook up all the time but the best they offered was a free hab check and service. I really wouldn’t trust them to do anything so I wasn’t going to accept that.

My general view is they are cowboys. Once the money for the purchase was paid they really didn’t try very hard to rectify faults - most of which were easy fixes but their professionalism and organisation just was completely lacking and resulted in delays and expense for us.

We gave the guy who sold us the van, who also seemed to be the main technician, many chances to sort things but spent 2 years waiting for phone calls to be returned, getting fobbed off with lies and flannel. The ‘boss’ was no help at all and just referred us back to the salesman/technician. We contacted Burstner in Germany to see if they could help and they did speak to Timberland on our behalf but that was the extent of their help.

So my advice is - steer clear!

We bought a 1 year old Burstner from them in Dec 15. Happy with a good deal but returned twice in first month for items that were obviously not looked at in psi. Had a engine and hab service 12 months ago. Very poor. I added 1 litre of oil when I had got home to reach centre of dipstick and the internal alarm sensors that they said were mended had not been touched as they would have seen the sensitivity adjustment was set at zero. I told them I had lost all confidence and would never return. I turned down their offer “to make it right” I also said I was amazed that the big sell in being a Fiat Professional Dealer And a NCC approved workshop was no longer the case as they had both removed. They made no comment