First class service in Germany!! (1 Viewer)

Feb 26, 2013
1,647
9,065
Pinar de Campoverde, Spain
Funster No
24,871
MH
Giottiline T60
Exp
Since March 2013
After weeks of touring France I got up yesterday all excited that we would be crossing the border in to Germany at last as I had never visited the country before. We left Kayserberg and stopped in Colmar to fill up on food and fuel and as we set off Glynn noticed that something didn't sound right. He pulled over and discovered that our exhaust pipe had snapped off!!! I couldn't believe it. We found a local Fiat garage 3 miles away and drove there as luckily it wasn't too loud. The guy shook his head and managed to convey that it would take at least 3 days to get the part and indicated that it was safe to drive if we wanted to carry on and find another garage. I gathered from that that he wasn't particularly bothered about our custom so we bit the bullet and headed to a Fiat garage near Freiberg in Germany, only 40 minutes away. The young lad there was very helpful and gave us directions to a nearby Scania/Fiat garage that dealt in larger vehicles.
We got there at 12.45 pm expecting to find everyone just starting a 2 hour lunch break like they do in France. We spoke to a guy who we later discovered was the boss. He explained that everyone was on lunch until 1pm and admitted that he was short staffed on Mondays so they were very busy but he would see what they could do. He estimated it would take an hour and they hopefully had the pipe in stock.
At 1pm we were asked to drive in to Bay 9 and 40 minutes later it was all done. We were charged 40 minutes labour, unlike in France when we were charged 1 hour for 30 minutes work for fixing a leak we'd had. The total bill was only €129 for parts and labour (approximately £100). We were delighted and told them so. Within an hour of arriving we were driving off again, what a result!!
The garage was called August Wisser, Industriestraße 23, 79194 Gundelfingen. Cannot recommend them highly enough. :clap2::notworthy2:

The icing on the cake was parking on the Aire at Emmendingen and discovering the town had a wine/ beer festival going on last night. Well the day certainly ended a lot better than we thought it would :wine::party2:
 

longdog

Banned
Apr 16, 2013
255
287
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25,566
IMHO, Germany is a lovely country with really nice people, well worth a visit, and yes, they do have a sense of humour!

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May 7, 2011
4,797
43,000
Cornwall Gorran Haven
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16,300
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T Line 785
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motorhoming since 1979
Hi Coolbeanz,
We had similar experience on our way to dover on a sunday , front exhaust pipe sheared off from silencer, 2 hours before sailing . Phoned RAC as it was sunday everything closed ,they couldn't repair but they took us to a local campsite , campsite warden suggested a local garage (who he phoned the owner ) agreed for us to visit first thing monday in the mean time he drove me in his car to the garage to show exactly where it was, we went straight there AM on monday garage said there's 3 possible pipes that might fit so he ordered all 3 they arrived at 11.30 fitted in an hour charged about the same as you and we were on the ferry 2 hrs later and off to France.
Can't thank them enough great service, A F Auto Centre in Folkstone.
Terry FIDGET
 

JJ

Mágica
May 1, 2008
19,230
47,728
Quinta Majay, Pinheiro Bordalo, Portugal
Funster No
2,459
MH
Burstner Privilege T
Exp
over 50 years
I love Germany.

I have several German friends.

The one thing they all think is really funny and rather sad is the older Brits'
obsession with "the war" when, like me, they weren't even born when it happened.


Thank you for posting a positive report on the garage... unlikely but it would be great if other Funsters gave them some business in the future.


JJ :cool:
 
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lorger

LIFE MEMBER
Jul 11, 2008
9,632
90,387
Dumfries
Funster No
3,262
MH
Knaus Sun 650MEG
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2007
I love Germany and think they are a nice bunch of folk, last September while coming home from Berlin we struggled to find a stelplatz in a town called Madgeburg and ended up at the local swimming pool, the caretaker came out and instead of giving us directions he jumped in his car and told us to follow him. Such a nice gesture as it took him about 15 mins to drive us there.

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Bertie Bassett

Free Member
Jul 25, 2014
2,743
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C Class
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since 1988
I lived in Germany for a good few years and always had my vans serviced at local small dealerships. Never got anything other than first class service and a sensible price. My experience on returning home has been patchy ranging from abysmal and expensive to brilliant and fairly priced. Good customer service is a given in Germany (in my experience).
 

Tootles

Funster
Deceased RIP
Sep 14, 2013
9,511
34,799
Lancaster
Funster No
28,093
MH
Coachbuilt
Exp
Was a newbie, now a Middie.
I love Germany.

I have several German friends.

The one thing they all think is really funny and rather sad is the older Brits'
obsession with "the war" when, like me, they weren't even born when it happened.


Thank you for posting a positive report on the garage... unlikely but it would be great if other Funsters gave them some business in the future.


JJ :cool:
I'm not really surprised by the obsession you describe, Mr JJ, after all, this country made a huge investment in ten ton bombs, which we gave freely to the Germans, on condition that they became our friends! (y)
 
Mar 26, 2009
8,132
11,168
Yr Wyddgrug
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Hymer B678DL
Exp
Since 2009
The van side of things appears to be OK. The habitation side still has quite a bit of work left for me to do. I've driven it back from France successfully. It's going for an MOT in half an hour (fingers crossed). I believe it would be covered by my insurance but being impatient to get the van back and continue my summer of touring I didn't get them involved.
I'll be reporting on my experiences with the recovery company when the episode is concluded.

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Apr 12, 2010
4,795
51,072
Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk
Funster No
11,027
MH
Weinsberg Cara
Exp
since 2007
Every German we have met whilst motorhoming have been good friendly company. We are still friends with some of them and meet up occasionally, they all speak English as well. Bloody good sausages too.
Phil
 
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