Do motorhome owners need their own consumer association/council/org/whatever

[Jim]

The two big clubs have the clout and the cash and should be looking after us but are not interested in anything but their bottom lines.
The NCC does a great job looking after the makers and traders interests, the only time it focusses on consumers is when trying to get them through the door of the NEC at £8 a time.

Do we need someone fighting our corner. Do we have anything to fight for?

Things we could do

Campaign for stuff important to us, parking, camping, payload etc
Offer advice
Approve dealers
Approve Motorhomes
Approve service engineers
Award good service

It would need a constitution, with members/chairman/treasurer/ect it would likely need to be a limited company. etc. It would need to be funded somehow.

I know It would be a lot of work, would it be a waste of time?

 

[David and Sally]

Certainly an idea but I wonder if the majority of motorhomers would devote the time even if the funding was possible.

I will watch with interest as I think you have something here Jim.

Thanks

 

[Fletton]

The membership here would speak volumes....
If you Jim can provide evidence that we are "United"..

 

[Wombles]

In an ideal world the motorhoming equivalent of Which? so an independent consumers association could be great especially with legal protection & support for members for when things go wrong.

 

[Kingham]

The membership here would speak volumes....
If you Jim can provide evidence that we are "United"..

That ‘united’ is sometimes lacking, with scrapping over anything at times, but given a common cause, it could be given direction and used to energise such an excellent idea.

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[Phill D]

I think it is a great idea and would certainly cough up a sensible annual fee.

 

[Funnymunny]

It sounds a very sensible and these days necessary way to go. I agree the big two clubs are only interested in their own profit margins these days and are definitely afraid to tread on any toes other than their own members. A lot of work involved in getting it off the ground but with the internet and sites like this one then you are half way there.

 

[Jim]

The membership here would speak volumes....
If you Jim can provide evidence that we are "United"..

That is true, but I wouldn't want 'Fun' to get too serious which is why it would need to be independent

 

[Jim]

If it was done well, then companies would pay to be part of the scheme to be approved by us. Individuals might not have to pay anything.

 

[DC4JC]

Jim, I think this is a fantastic idea. With the upcoming changes we are facing I feel we do need representation. We are being treated and 'bundled' with 'ordinary domestic car usuage' which we are nothing of the sort.
Government and civil servants have no concept or idea of what our hobby entails and what the real impact is. If we all gave it up and started taking alternative holidays/ breaks etc, our carbon footprint would explode.

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[mitzimad]

If it was done well, then companies would pay to be part of the scheme to be approved by us. Individuals might not have to pay anything.

as soon as your paid by companies then you've lost your impartiality

 

[Odd-no-more]

as soon as your paid by companies then you've lost your impartiality

Not necessarily, look at Martin Lewis's site

 

[Jim]

as soon as your paid by companies then you've lost your impartiality

Thanks the kind of discussion we need.

If you are going to send someone to a dealer for a couple of days to inspect their sales setup, workshops, complaints, handover procedures etc etc and then report on it, that costs money. Plenty of it. Similar schemes require the inspected company' to foot that bill so they get the "seal of approval". But I can see where there might be perceived conflict. So how do you fund it?.

 

[Googlebot]

There is no such thing as an impartial consumer group. Someone has to pay the bills. Hence why the main clubs and the NCC are derided by caravaners and the caravan industry is allowed to churn out the rubbish it produces.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club for instance kept denying there was a wide scale issue with Bailey Unicorn 3 axles. There was an issue and hundreds of people have had bills of £1000’s to put right basic manufacturing errors.

I do see the benefit though of a group. Overnight parking is an issue in the UK. More often than not, you are barred from an overnight stay even when it would be perfectly fine to do so. Having a group with the membership to properly represent the issues would be great.

How you gain the impartiality though, well, that’s beyond me.

 

[Jim]

Hence why the main clubs and the NCC are derided by caravaners and the caravan industry

To be fair to the NCC they don't even pretend to be on the side of the consumer.

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[Marty Gilly and Pup]

Must be a conflict over campaigning for more aires and Parking’s. Surely the clubs just want to buy up “proper” sites and make money from them. Feels like we are a mixture of site/FLT folk with some keen on both. What would we campaign for on that front together?

 

[mitzimad]

any scheme can only be financed from those for whose benefit its run otherwise why would you pay in? so in this case it would have to be financed from MH owners ,good luck with that most will not even pay for a place to stay

 

[Basildog]

To be fair to the NCC they don't even pretend to be on the side of the consumer.

I think many owners will actually believe that the NCC is there to help them
I have always been very wary of any trade organisation that is predominantly a trade body relying on its income from trade members
Put the 2 clubs the NCC and the leisure industry press together and you have a big problem ???

 

[Phill D]

Put the 2 clubs the NCC and the leisure industry press together and you have a big problem ???

Any consumer organisation would have all of the above to battle with... with all of their financial clout.

that while not impossible is no small or cheap task.

 

[Vipar]

Perhaps if they could do insurance for us the profits would subsidise the money needed to run it.

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[AXO66]

I have wondered about infiltrating the C&MH club.
we all join and become v active polite members..?

 

[Dunnster]

Very interesting question Jim.

Given the cost of purchase, complexity of buying decision to ensure suit needs + staying on the right side of law when maintaining / using the vehicle You can certainly argue the need for such a body.

My challenge was around purchasing, but there are so many areas this could expand to. Will be v interesting to see how others view priorities and what a body could / should do and how could be funded.

As a relative newbie, sadly I can offer limited input, but from another hobby might be worth checking out TRF when you get a moment. You could draw a comparison to the work they do regionally with local councils keeping green lanes open for motorbikes, to finding parking solutions with local councils for motorhome owners.....

 

[PeteH]

I like the Idea. But sadly the cynic in me (must be my age) would say It`s the sort of organisation that would get bogged down in it`s own "Navel Gazing" in short order. Those organizations that should be looking out for the needs of the mobile and camping public have already moved to a more corporate business model. And in doing so Have "lost" their Membership along the way.

Quote:_ DC4JC :- "Government and civil servants have no concept or idea of what our hobby entails."

That my friends, probably hit the nail square on the head. Legislators have NO idea. Civil Servants Never Care!. The bottom line of Government = "Is it taxable?".

 

[DBK]

If it was done well, then companies would pay to be part of the scheme to be approved by us. Individuals might not have to pay anything.

But who is going to do the approving? The magazines and clubs tend to have a very small number of different folk doing their tests or inspections. Some might disagree with their views but they should at least be consistent in their judgement, as far as that is possible.

If you are just going to crowd source reviews the risk is no consistency and reviews are bound to slip through which are just plain wrong and based either on misunderstanding or unrealistic expectations. Collectively, the reviews could just become a collection of personal opinions, but because they would be the opinions of different people inconsistent.

It could be done perhaps if there was some sort of script or questionnaire which the reviewer would have to stick to, with the aim of eliminating subjective views, but it might result in uninteresting reading.

I guess impartiality would be the most thing difficult to achieve if those doing the reviews are numerous and have different motivations, tastes and preconceptions.

You've got a review section on the Forum but I'm not sure how comprehensive it is or how much use members make of it.

It could be built around the Forum but impartiality will be very difficult to achieve so I agree with you it has to be at a distance from the Forum. The challenge won't be starting but maintaining momentum if contributors (I assume) aren't going to be paid. That's going to be difficult.

 

[Minxy]

Nah, we don't want a 'group' what we want is a PERSON ... I vote that we set up our own political party and get Jim elected as PM!

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[Ernesto]

My sense is these sort of groups are a bit out of date these days?

This site does a fantastic job of sharing information and knowledge - the modern replacement for consumer groups is social media - a bad comment on here would have just as much impact as a letter fro the chairperson of a consumer group.

Another random thoughts - despite the tens of thousands of useful and interesting chats, the Reviews section on here is relatively quiet? Thats an area that if used and promoted could achieve many of the same aims I would have thought

For a consumer group to have real clout, its got to be able to mobilise its members in a common cause - but I don't get the sense that members of this forum are that keen to act as one, on what is such a variable and diverse activity.

 

[Sandancers]

I have wondered about infiltrating the C&MH club.
we all join and become v active polite members..?

By a strange co-incidence I was watching Breakfast time today and the BBC person was talking to two "activists" and I thought to myself, "Well, as I am retired and have a little time spare, I could fancy being an "activist" wonder what the entry requirements are ?"

Wild guess here, but perhaps you DON'T need formal qualifications to be an activist, you just state you are one and hey presto YOU ARE ONE !!

So let's all become Motorhome Activists !!! We'll take it in turns to be on the telly, but must remember that activists are there to mainly be offended about something, so if we could decide among ourselves what we are each offended by that would be great as we don't want an overlap here folks !

So yeah let's do it !!

 

[TheBig1]

a grass roots pressure group, for the members, by the members is a good idea

 

[TheBig1]

utilise the power of modern social media and the power is unlimited

 

[Otter Spotter]

Jim, great idea, but to get membership up to the numbers that authorities, the manufacturers and the clubs woukd take notice of, that may be difficult because, by nature we are a lot of independent minded people so it might end up as a ‘wrangling a box of cats‘ situation.
Personaly I would be happy to join a group that used its clout to lobby for issues like Dealers and manufacturers providing poor service etc, changing the authorities perception that all motorhomers are going to turn parking sites into tips and getting them to consider the provision of Aires. Etc.

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