Travelworld / Erwin Hymer Centre (1 Viewer)

[Wanders from Glos]

We have been made an offer for our home we cannot refuse, but have no where to go. The current thinking is that we will upgrade our motorhome to an A class and go full time until we find the 'right' house. We are looking at a few makes, such as Burstner and Carthago but also Hymer. The problem with Hymner for us is we live in Gloucestershire and the dealers with stock are either in Somerset (Highbridge Motorhomes) or Stafford. Our natural inclination is to steer clear of the large dealers because our experience to date is of fairly poor after sales service, and inevitably it will be less personal. Has anyone experience of experience of Travelworld, the website is impressive and they a good range of the sort of stock we are looking for. I find it hard to believe Morrello would use a poor dealer, but would be interested to hear first hand experience, good and bad.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Theonlysue]

The morello was a trade in.
All dealers quick to take your money

 

[Speve]

but would be interested to hear first hand experience, good and bad.

Have a read of the reviews for them in the reviews section of the forum

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[funflair]

You could go and see them and you might, just might come away with a N+B they are the sole UK dealer for them.

Martin

 

[Hellski]

I've not yet posted a review for my own experience of dealing with Travelworld however, I've been extremely satisfied with the service received both during the purchase process as well as the after sales.

Best advice I can give, especially when spending a large sum of money, is to go along and have a look for yourself and see what they have to offer; first impressions count

 

[Googlebot]

The sales experience was great, appointments kept, polite, good deal, efficient. It then went downhill on the after sales.

Parts department seem very good mind.

Not just my experience, a friend had the same issues. Told me the same fault was fixed 5 times when it clearly wasn’t then tried to fob me off. The workshops appeared to be very lacking in both competence and quality. He had them remove a microwave on his van and put in a cupboard. This was on a very expensive N&B, to say it looked like my kids had glued it together wouldn’t be an exaggeration.....

I would never use Travelworld to buy a new or used van again after my experience. When it has to go back 6 times to fix the same fault and then they try and tell you it’s supposed to do that (it wasn’t) you do lose patience and isn’t the way you treat people spending the largest sum of money they will ever part with.

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[Minxy]

I assume you wouldn't be changing until after the sale has completed and you are sure the sale has gone through.

What MH have you got at present?

 

[Blue Knight]

How about buying something like this as a very cheap and usable interim van between your house purchases.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Have a read of the reviews for them in the reviews section of the forum

Thanks I I will, its a good idea. I was hope for some recent experiences as well.

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[Wanders from Glos]

I assume you wouldn't be changing until after the sale has completed and you are sure the sale has gone through.

What MH have you got at present?

Naturally, although contracts are signed. the trade in is a Majestic 115, so it will be a big leap.

 

[Garali9]

I wouldn't go anywhere near travelworld again. One day I will put a review on here of my experiences which are not great when it comes to communication and customer service.

 

[bellabee]

first impressions count

Or 'all that glitters is not gold.'

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[BusyBuilder]

As you'll lose a huge chunk of money buying new, why not buy one a couple years old, then most if not all niggles will be sorted and it'll have any extras you'll probably have specced anyway.

 

[Minxy]

One thing to bear in mind is that full-timing insurance is expensive so make sure you add that to your costs.

Changing MH whilst you've got all the other stuff going on is just gonna add to the hassle IMV so it might be 'easier' to keep your existing MH and go into a short term rental (6 months) so that you have time to breath and sort out your stuff & you'll be able to use your existing MH to travel round to view properties if needs be. This should also hopefully mean you don't have to pay for storage for all your 'treasures' and furniture too and the overall rental cost is likely to be the same as storage, extra insurance etc.

 

[Kirsten]

We bought from them as our old van had a rooflight problem they had repaired and this repair had made the leak worse-** also old van had v small engine no air con - roof light was final straw. They were polite and nice ; good handover but had to take van back x2 for small niggles.
We wanted a new bathroom tambour door [other threads refer ] but they didn't want to do this . Quoted almost 2k for replacement to fit ourselves -we got one from Lowdhams for less than half that amount. No reply as to why this was such a huge difference in price.

Buying from them was a good experience to be fair.

** should have wondered what was going on then - hindsight .....

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[Wanders from Glos]

As you'll lose a huge chunk of money buying new, why not buy one a couple years old, then most if not all niggles will be sorted and it'll have any extras you'll probably have specced anyway.

Yes thanks I agree, if we can find one that fits the bill

 

[jongood]

One thing to bear in mind is that full-timing insurance is expensive so make sure you add that to your costs.

Changing MH whilst you've got all the other stuff going on is just gonna add to the hassle IMV so it might be 'easier' to keep your existing MH and go into a short term rental (6 months) so that you have time to breath and sort out your stuff & you'll be able to use your existing MH to travel round to view properties if needs be. This should also hopefully mean you don't have to pay for storage for all your 'treasures' and furniture too and the overall rental cost is likely to be the same as storage, extra insurance etc.

IMO this is a good idea because buying costly items under pressure rarely goes well. However I think you would be better looking at holiday cottages, most owners will give a decent discount for long stays in low season and you dont generally have to commit to a full 6 months. The pluses are that it will already be kitted out so you don't have to find somewhere that your sofas etc will fit and go buying curtains etc etc and it will already be connected to everything so you wont be there trying to sort out council tax and utilities providers.

We do quite a bit of this in the low season, 3 months tends to be the norm with a little flexibility at the end needed. btw this isnt a pitch as we are miles away in Shropshire. as soon as you have an idea of dates I would do a bit of googling of holiday cottages in Gloucester, Forest of Dean- wherever you want to be and ask a few providers to quote. You can use Trip Advisor, Airbnb etc to find them but these will generally quote large amounts so do a bit of sleuthing and find their own websites and make contact that way.

 

[EuroTrotters]

I’ve tried to buy from them 3 times. I would avoid them where possible

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[Wanders from Glos]

Thanks all for your help and comments, much appreciated

 

[tonka]

I’ve tried to buy from them 3 times. I would avoid them where possible

We were all ready to go on a new hymer at £77k. Asked them to put on a solar panel and the deal would be done. They would not move and said a panel was £900 !!
Think they did me a favour

 

[Campervan_man]

Why don't you just rent a house for 6 months instead of buying an interim motorhome ?

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[Terry242]

Check out my review in the Review section which I did last Sunday. It covers the buying process and more importantly, the aftersales.
An accurate picture is painted by my last problem. On the way back from Spain in March the wipers packed in for the 4th time. I contacted the owner of Travelworld(who I had been dealing with for previous issues) and she agreed to order the parts.
FIVE months later I was still waiting. In frustration, I left the review on Fun. 14hrs later, she emailed me to tell me that the parts were in stock.
As an aside, I was at a campsite 2 weeks ago when I got into conversation with someone who was admiring my van so I started relating several stories.
She replied that she had worked at Travelworld around the time of the move from Telford to Stafford. During the move, they forgot about a warehouse that they kept their parts in.
Maybe why we're all waiting for parts.

Terry

 

[PJGWiltshire]

Good luck with the efforts to buy a motorhome.

We have been full-time for five years and sold the house last July. Presently stuck in the UK for the Winter because of Covid.

Please do not rush out and buy a different MH just because you will be completing the house sale and you need somewhere to live.

You may have been following a few threads around the alleged turnover of motorhome sales out there since lock down. As a result there is not a lot of stock out there.
I thought this was just gossip and hopeful thinking from dealers.
Last week on route back from Scotland i had reason to stop at the Carthago dealer in Bawtry (Premium). Well when I drove in I thought the dealership was closing down. I noticed that there was only TWO used motorhomes priced up for sale. In the past there has always been a large number available.

In conversation they mentioned that they just sold lots straight after lock down. So if it is true about good stock having gone I think you may find little out there at the moment.

Buying new will leave you waiting I'm sure.

Re dealers, everyone on the forum will have good and bad stories re aftersales. This is when complaints will be experienced.
Look at it this way. If you have just paid £80K for a van and a month or so later something is playing up. Expect to be told the next service slot is some 4 to 5 weeks away. You will not be a happy new customer. Then look at the normal workload of the service department. They have an entire customer base who have booked in for Hab service/ Water ingress service general repair matters and ongoing warranty work.
Then look at the dealer and work out how many service bays they have along with staff to work on the vehicles.

You will soon notice that you will have to wait a few weeks for a service slot.

If over the last couple of months there has been a substantial uptake in MH sales there is a lot of these vehicles will now have developed faults that unhappy customers want fixing, so you will be at he back of the line.

Also if you are going full time very soon, the Winter in the UK can be challenging to live out. If you intend to travel to Spain during the Covid issue thats a risk to be considered. Spain may lock the campsites down again as they did back in March.

Please balance up all your options going forward. A brand new van...and a wait. A long search for a good quality used van or rent a small place until you get the ideal van. Or adventures new in the van you have.

Good Luck

 

[PeteH]

In case you have thoughts of Rentals, (We rented via Sykes Cottages BTW, the insurers where footing the bill). When we where flooded out (August 2018) we found the biggest issue was them taking our Dog. Rentals vary but £600pw for holiday cottages was not unknown!, even out of season. Most will be booked over Xmas New Year from one year to the next, too.

When I was self building 1997-99. We lived on site in an American R-V. so space was not a great issue. but long term in a confined space, be sure it will need shed loads of marital give and take!!. We where in some ways lucky, in that we took the R-V and a Car to Spain for the worst of the winter, But of course currently that option may not be there, due to the latest Chinese Viral offering!.

I had dealings with Travel World, and found them no worse than many dealers, but that was back in the 90`s, when they dealt only with R-V`s. Before they relocated to their current site. In the end I Self Imported from North Carolina anyway.

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[jongood]

In case you have thoughts of Rentals, (We rented via Sykes Cottages BTW, the insurers where footing the bill). When we where flooded out

The insurers would almost certainly have farmed this out to an agency who make their money from basically skimming.

 

[SpeedyDux]

One thing to bear in mind is that full-timing insurance is expensive so make sure you add that to your costs.

Changing MH whilst you've got all the other stuff going on is just gonna add to the hassle IMV so it might be 'easier' to keep your existing MH and go into a short term rental (6 months) so that you have time to breath and sort out your stuff & you'll be able to use your existing MH to travel round to view properties if needs be. This should also hopefully mean you don't have to pay for storage for all your 'treasures' and furniture too and the overall rental cost is likely to be the same as storage, extra insurance etc.

Wot Minxy said +1.

We rented a flat for 6 months between houses. The OP could also sell their Majestic 115 while the used MH market is booming. Next year might be a buyer's market for used MHs, when many newbies either decide it isn't really their lifestyle, or lose their jobs so can no longer make finance payments. We are in the Rishi Sunak fiscal wonderland for now, but that can't last indefinitely.

 

[Dorset Diver]

My experience of TW was very poor indeed. In the end I simply walked away. I would do as others have said rent a property for a while.

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[cornish boy]

Still waiting for the promised information and quote from Travelworld, its only been three months...
Business must be good if they can ignore a six figure deal.

 

[ManTheVan]

You say that there are Hymers available at Highbridge. Our experience with Highbridge was flawless and you won’t go wrong dealing with them. They seem to be good people.

 

[Terry242]

Had my 1st van off them, good experience. I would definitely go there before Travelworld.

Terry

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