Buying from Dealer a distance away from Home. Should I worry?

Steve+Maggie

Steve+Maggie

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We have just ordered a new Motorhome at the NEC having had ours stolen.
Got a really good deal but somebody just mentioned that if I have a problem I will have to take it back to the original Dealer rather than somebody local as other dealers are reluctant to carry out warranty work? Obvioulsy hoping that it wont be the case but............... I have had new cars and company cars supplied from all over the place and never had a problem with servicing and warranty work, but realise a motorhome is different!
 
Only if you want to!

You’ll either be unlucky and have to travel to the distant dealer or you’ll get a decent vehicle and you won’t.

No point in speculating at this point in time.

Just look forward to the delivery date.

BTW, which van did you buy.

Ian
 
Unfortunately that WILL be the case with warranty work
Your local dealer will send you packing probably, but will happily let you service it there

What have you bought?
 
Hi Guys
I think you are right-worrying about something that may never happen!! Just a bit neurotic that I've made the right choice in the aftermath of having the last one stolen!

Its a Rollerteam Zefiro 696 on a Fiat Chassis. On a positive note if it needs to go back we can spend more time in the English Riviera!!!

Picking it up then off to Vanbitz in Taunton for a Growler Non Started and Gaslo fitting.
 
Make sure it's a good handover get all your questions ready beforehand and stay near the dealer for a few days to check every single thing.
Ask dealer if owt go wrong can you get some of it done local n he pays, he may do for minor things.

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Be prepared to walk away if the handover is not to your satisfaction, remember any promises made to you could be broken .
 
We must be lucky.

We have an independent repair workshop near us that is Authorised by most of the main manufacturers.

We have used them for servicing and warranty repairs for the last 20+ years. We have bought our m/hs from dealers within about 120 miles but have only once had to return to the original dealership. That was for a software upgrade that the independent admitted they didn’t feel competent to carry out.

It may be worthwhile googling for your own area.
 
Great advice will do! On it now - I never used to worry about what ifs - must be getting old!!!
 
Have you spoken to your dealer and asked about servicing? Are they expecting you to take it to them everytime it needs work or do they have arrangements with other dealers?
 
I would first contact the manufacturer and ask them what arrangements they have with their dealer network for warranty work. Some of them guarantee it can be done by any of their dealers and that is written into their dealer agency agreement.

This seems to e more common with Continental manufacturers, because they are used to buyers travelling all over the Continent and do not expect owners to drive from Portugal to Dusseldorf to fix a problem.

Geoff
 
Just read the warranty info and it says clearly
  • Subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions below, Roller Team will at its own cost, through its dealer network:
And then it goes on to list everything - so it indicates that you are be able to take it anywhere not just where you have bought it from.
Planning to stop away for a night in Taunton at Van bitz so will make sure that everything is working before heading home once the Alarm etc is fitted.
Probably worrying about nothing but thanks for your input!!!!
 
Steve Thompson said:
Just read the warranty info and it says clearly
  • Subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions below, Roller Team will at its own cost, through its dealer network:
And then it goes on to list everything - so it indicates that you are be able to take it anywhere not just where you have bought it from.
Planning to stop away for a night in Taunton at Van bitz so will make sure that everything is working before heading home once the Alarm etc is fitted.
Probably worrying about nothing but thanks for your input!!!!
Click to expand...
Through its dealer network does not mean that you can pick any dealer
It means that a dealer will sort out problems, not the manufacturer
 
smart phones are a fantastic tool, video the handover so you can review it over and over again

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See your point-interpretation of terms - it depends how you look at it.
I can now see it is the manufacturer putting it back in the dealers court, but I read it as any dealer.I will get it clarified so that I am Comfortable with the agreement.
Will video the handover as I am bound to forget!
Have a friend with exactly the same model I will have him on speed dial
 
Steve Thompson said:
Just read the warranty info and it says clearly
  • Subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions below, Roller Team will at its own cost, through its dealer network:
And then it goes on to list everything - so it indicates that you are be able to take it anywhere not just where you have bought it from.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately that still means that the dealers can choose whether they take on any work, either warranty or hab servicing, on a vehicle that they haven't sold ... and it's quite rare for them to agree to do so and manufacturers cannot make a dealer do the work. For the base vehicle, however, there isn't usually an issue so long as the workshop/garage has the suitable equipment to carry out servicing etc on it (eg a heavy duty lift). It's nothing like the normal car/van manufacturers where most of their franchised or manufacturer owned places will look after your vehicle regardless of where it came from.

We bought a Rimor once from a dealer which would have required a 500 mile round trip if we'd needed to return there, but we found a local 'independent' chap who had the necessary manufacturer approval to be able to do warranty work and hab checks. With our current camper again we bought it from another long distance dealer, again meaning another 500+ mile round trip but we agreed that if we needed warranty work etc doing it could be done locally to us by an independent MH workshop if needs be, this doesn't include hab servicing though which still has to be done at a Globecar workshop.

What you have to bear in mind, though is that a lot of the stuff in a MH that could go wrong would be covered by the individual equipment manufacturer, eg Truma, Thetford etc, so they could deal with claims anyway rather than going to the MH manufacturer who just put the 'jigsaw puzzle' of bits together.

So to some extent ... yes ... you ARE worrying unduly! :D
 
Thanks!
Just going to enjoy it and stop thinking what if!!!!!
Cheers
 
Why don’t you find a dealer closer to you and ask if they would be prepared to do any work if required, as long as you are prepared to be a bit flexible about it and let them know that you realise their own sales warranties would take priority, we have been doing that with our imported van for three years coming up for four.(y)
 
Great advice thanks!!! Love Salisbury have family there my cousins son plays for Salisbury RFCI am on it with a more local,dealer
Cheers

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Steve Thompson said:
Great advice thanks!!! Love Salisbury have family there my cousins son plays for Salisbury RFCI am on it with a more local,dealer
Cheers
Click to expand...
Use the NCC Approved Workshop scheme, I do. First MoHo bought 450 miles away, all warranty/service work done by independent workshops within 1 hour drive. We now have a new approved workshop 15 mins from my house, will be going there this morning to drop off MoHo for first HAB service. Local dealer although not in my brand will not touch any work on vehicles not sold by them but I knew that before setting out on this adventure (y). The dealer I bought our latest MoHo from is just over an hour away so if anything major crops up, it’s easy to get too. There is also a network of mobile engineers. You have loads of NCC approved workshops in your area, worth chatting to them to see what’s what. Good luck (y)

https://www.approvedworkshops.co.uk/find-approved-workshop
 
Cheshirecat57 said:
Unfortunately that WILL be the case with warranty work
Click to expand...
Not always, worth checking locally first.

Cheshirecat57 said:
Your local dealer will send you packing probably, but will happily let you service it there
Click to expand...

I have found that not to be true with a local dealer i.e. no warranty or service work done if you didn’t purchase the vehicle from them.

I used the NCC Approved Workshop Scheme website to find local dealers/workshops that will do service and warranty work.
 
@Minxy Girl

Our local Independent workshop also carries out the annual habitation and damp check required for warranty. They then send a copy of their service/report sheet, by e-mail, to the manufacturer who records it for future warranty issues.
 
Good luck with the new van

As many have said, it is the norm unfortunately that a dealer nearer to you will fob you off re warranty repairs thus requiring you to go back to where you purchased it from.
You will find your nearer dealer will not be saying "I will not repair under warranty", as that would normally breach his contract with the main supply company as the MH would come with a pan European warranty. As in my experience when I returned to a nearer dealer they agreed to carry out the work under warranty but offered a date available some long time in the future.
So I returned to where I purchased the van from for the repair.

As I had cottoned on to the problem of future bookings at the nearer dealer to me, I then booked the van in for warranty work on some non existent fault and was given a date.( 10 weeks away) I then just used the van and by chance just prior to the booked date I had some issue with the van which needed repair under warranty so just took the van in local for a quick repair. Had nothing gone wrong I would have cancelled appointment.


Also book your annual Hab and Ingress check at your nearer dealer straight away for next year. They will happily book you in as there is money coming in.
 
Thanks again for all of your input!
There is an NCC Approved Workshop less than 5 miles from me.
I will check with the Dealer who I am buying from that if i get any niggles ( hopefully not) I can go to them .
Really amazed at all of the responses, what a great Community!!

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There is confusion that continues to occur about the NCC and the Approved Workshop Scheme and it is important to know the difference!

The NCC is NOT the body who you need the service/repair place to be members of, it's the Approved Workshop Scheme, which the NCC, C&MC and CCC support, so please do NOT be misled by places saying they are NCC approved ... it needs to be AWS.

aws.JPG


Next thing you need to do is to make sure that your MH manufacturer supports the AWS scheme, this means they will accept any work done by AWS members to maintain your warranty - not using an approved/supported place could invalidate your warranty UNLESS you have it IN WRITING from your supplying dealer and/or the manufacturer that they are happy for you to use an AWS member. If you look on the AWS website you can see their 'supporters' which are mainly UK based manufacturers - always double check to make sure that the scheme still supports your manufacturer's MHs though in case things have changed as Dethleffs used to be on it so we were able to have our previous Globecar's hab service (part of Dethleffs group) done by an AWS place but they no longer support the scheme.

https://www.approvedworkshops.co.uk/supporters

Some manufacturer's require the servicing details to be entered into their electronic system by the workshop who've carried out the work - check if this is the case and that they have access to the system and if not, how the info can be put into it.
 
Last edited:
Hi and good luck with your new motorhome, we bought ours new in 2013 from a dealer over 350 miles away, the van was checked when we did the handover but we also stayed on a site less than 5 mins from the dealership for a couple of nights to check all was working ok in the motorhome.

Our local Autotrail dealership Spinney's wouldn't do any of the warranty work but Premier motorhomes were brilliant and arranged to have any warranty work done with Travel World, thankfully we had very few problems.

Would definitely buy from Premier Motorhomes again despite the distance from us.
 
Steve Thompson said:
Its a Rollerteam Zefiro 696 on a Fiat Chassis.
Click to expand...
You're in luck, Roller Team support the AWS scheme! (y)

The Fiat bit can be done at any Fiat commercial garage.
 
maison said:
@Minxy Girl

Our local Independent workshop also carries out the annual habitation and damp check required for warranty. They then send a copy of their service/report sheet, by e-mail, to the manufacturer who records it for future warranty issues.
Click to expand...
You have a Swift and they support the AWS scheme which I assume your independent workshop is a member of, so you're one of the 'lucky' ones! :D
 
Yes the Workshop I referred to is a member of the Approved Workshop Scheme and Roller Team support the scheme - so I think all the boxes are ticked!

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