Warranty awareness (not impressed) (1 Viewer)

[sfrain145]

This is a bit of a rant to all the dealers out there who are super unhelpful
I will name them as it’s embarrassing to hear what they say.

We have a 22 model Adria camper and the main control panel (Schaudt LT150) £180 new has a fault the water levels has stopped working so I had a look and when my finger touched the rear of the panel circuit board it seemed to work so powers of deduction tell me there is a break in the circuit somewhere on the panel as my finger must have bridged the gap. So the panel has a fault.

I looked on the Adria website and found the nearest to me was Brownhills so rang and explained they said drive down and we can have a look but we can’t take a look for 12 weeks by that time my warranty has lapsed. His answer was sorry can’t help.

Next was highbridge where it came from originally as we are the second owner. The comment came after trying to get hold of someone for a week as they was on holiday was sorry can’t help you as the van isnt on our system in your name. Even though we are on their system as previous customers when we bought a caravan years ago.

After me getting annoyed unfortunately as some of the comments he made boiled my blood. As he was saying things like we can’t help as we have registered customers in front of you etc, we don’t get paid for warranty work. My view is don’t sell new vans with warranty then as the money these things cost new is madness

Anyway a company called Barnsdale said something that was helpful and that was send us your bill of sale we will change the vehicle into your name and send us some pictures and a video and we will register a claim with Adria, is that a common sense approach or am I missing something. I know you can’t do this for all faults as it may not be the device at fault it could be something different

My train of thought here is you buy a converted vehicle from a reputable manufacturer like Adria a decent vehicle then the dealers make a shed load of money and walk away when you need them so in my book they are miss selling a contract, just my views and others may find a different response. Worse case I buy a replacement out of my own non warranty pocket. Would like some views.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

If you bought the van from a dealer you should contact them first.If private then you are really in the hands of any dealer that will take on your warranty. If the latter ask the original owner if he can contact the dealer as a gesture of goodwill.

 

[Phill D]

Sadly it is a fact that the selling dealer is the only one responsible for your warranty repairs. If there is still manufacturer warranty on a previously owned vehicle then it needs to be transferred to you at the time of purchase.

Some dealers if they have a relationship with you and with the manufacturer will help.
It is an eye opener for those of us who in this day and age expect motorhome dealers to respect manufacturers warranties like car main dealers.

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[eddie]

Well another thought could be that if the dealers are booked up for weeks in advance, too far in advance to meet your warranty deadline, their only option would be to inconvenience, and reschedule one of their customers appointments!

If they did that them no doubt that would be wrong as someone would have tied the appointment in with seeing their Mum who lives nearby by and is a 117, but apart from that why should they when your not their customer?

Why didn’t you take it to the dealers you bought it from, the dealer, to whom you are a ‘customer’?

Warranty work is poorly paid! and often, invoices are disputed and not paid promptly.

The other option is to buy the part yourself, pay someone to fit the part, and send the invoices to the converter for reimbursement

When I’ve suggested this to people in the past they say ‘why should I? I risk being out of pocket’

Which is exactly what your asking third party dealers to be!

 

[Phill D]

Ps: surely if you report a fault prior to expiry of your warranty it’s covered.

 

[funflair]

On a practical point I would say somebody who knows what they are looking at electronics wise would be able to find the break and repair, most likely for less than the diesel to the dealer even if they were interested

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[TinaLes]

A dealer saying they dont get paid for warranty work is wrong! If a dealer logs a fault under warranty with any manufacturer supplying goods to them, and the manufacturer agrees to the recognised dealer carrying out the repair, the dealer then armed the warranty agreement reference claim number, orders the parts, carries out the work, and submits an invoice for their time to the manufacturer.
The Dealers labour rate is pre-agreed with the manufacturer, which may well be less than they would normally charge, however the dealer agrees to this when they sign up to become suppliers of that manufacturer.
It may have been more accurate for the dealer to say that they don't make any profit on warranty work due to the reduced agreed labour rate with the manufacturer, however they do get paid none the less.
How long it can take to get the manufacturer to supply parts is another fly in the ointment.
LES

 

[Minxy]

Ps: surely if you report a fault prior to expiry of your warranty it’s covered.

Yes, whilst they may not be able to completely confirm the exact fault they can record it as being made before the end of the warranty.

We had this with our 'banana' fridge door, I had mentioned I previously but was told it was normal, it got to the point when the alarm went off all the time so it clearly was faulty. After some detective work I discovered that there had been a bad batch of doors which were too curved hence the issue so despite being out of warranty I was able to refer back to my making reference to it within the warranty period so the claim was honoured.

This has to be done via the vehicle's last selling dealer though as there is no obligation on other dealers to do it.

 

[tezza-alli]

Contact David Wilson, Lincoln Teleservice LTD. 123-125 Burton Rd, Lincoln. LN1 3LN.
Tel shop 01522 526255, Workshop 01522 537338.
If he/they can repair it? It will be back with you in a few days and most probably cost less than the fuel you'll waste travelling to the hapless(There were many more words I could have used ) dealers.

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[The Wino]

It's just the way it is with motorhomes. With cars it seems you can visit any dealer and they will take on warranty work it's not the same with motorhomes. Whether that's a bad thing or not doesn't matter it's just the way it is. If I were a dealer unless the manufacturer was forcing me to take on warranty work for people who didn't buy from me would I do work for people who bought from me or someone who drifted in having bought somewhere else and wanted something done?

 

[Jim]

It's just the way it is with motorhomes. With cars it seems you can visit any dealer and they will take on warranty work it's not the same with motorhomes.

Can you imagine a motorhome dealer paying mechanics/fitters to do nothing while turning work down. None of them would. They are not discriminating; they only turn people away because they are busy with their own customers.

 

[sfrain145]

All great info guys and one point is I don't want to do any Queue jumping just wanted to register a fault before the warranty runs out, I have reached out to a company who can repair these as its a common thing to go wrong apparently but they charge more than they cost new for some reason or it maybe due to them being on back order, I don't mind buying a replacement the reason for the post was to raise awareness, I did or I thought I did register this with Highbridge where the van was originally purchased when we bought it last year as we wanted to order some extras and had to be added to their system that's my issue, I am looking at replacing the Shaudt lt150 with a more robust unit as this device is pretty basic only 4 switches and a level and can fit this myself, Shame really as you would think a warranty is a warranty

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[eddie]

There are more dealers with poor on line reputations, than fantastic on line reputations

They are all busy selling motorhomes

I bought my first motorhome, brand new when I was 28 years old. Since then I have been lucky enough to have bought thirteen brand new motorhomes from a number of dealers.

Over the last thirty years I have consistently heard the same argument, originally face to face, nowadays read online, that the dealers are short sighted not offering service and warranty to "local" owners of motorhomes that are not customers.

It doesn't seemed to have impacted too badly on any dealer that I can think of, in fact most are going from strength to strength.

Warranty is a emotive issue and getting between an owner who assumes that his warranty will cover anything, the manufacturer who has strict guidelines as to what they will cover and what they won't, and the supplying dealer hundreds of miles away, so not really bothered, for a discounted hourly rate is simply a right Royal pain in the bum.

We actually gave up a Webasto agency, having invested thousands of pounds in staff training, stock and equipment, due to warranty work on behalf of third party installations.

The one that always sticks in my mind, is the argument that became heated, bordering on fisticuffs.

Man arrives with UK motorhome, on route to ferry for family holiday (family and dog in motorhome) He had arrived and booked himself onto our campsite, refusing to pay, telling the campsite Wardens that "He was here for warranty work"

In essence he had a dual top Webasto heater and water heating unit in his few week old motorhome, he had noticed water dripping and the water pump surging so had contacted his supplying dealer.

The dealer who knew nothing about these "new" Webasto diesel heaters had said to contact "Van Bitz" as we were listed as the service agents for the Somerset.

The customer hadn't actually contacted us, he had just rocked up, after hours, blagged a free night and now stood with his arms folded across his chest with an attitude to match. "I am really angry" attitude

Couldn't believe that he had all this hassle with a brand new motorhome, wouldn't get this trouble if I had bought and expensive car, I know my rights da de da dee daaaa! Now, we now have to "try" to pull the irons out of the fire and deal with this, in addition to our "proper" customers who had booked in to have work do, in a timely fashion and quite rightly expected our full attention and time.

To cut a long story short, the problem was plastic swarf, left in the fresh water tank when the motorhome was built. This had travelled around the water system and a long spiral of polypropylene (I think) that was virtually invisible when in water, was have in and half out a dump valve. The valve couldn't close properly so the pump kept "Brrrrr'ing" every few seconds trying to pressurise the system.

The solution is to remove the Webasto dual top system, strip down remove debris, replace the dump valve (probably damaged), reinstate cold and hot water connections, blown air ducting, electrics and diesel supply, flush entire water system and clean the fresh water tank, refill and test.

All of this takes time, far too much time to be able to deal with it on the spot. Worse, was the fact that it was not a Webasto product failure, so we could not charge Webasto. (Webasto actually are a great Company, who pay the going rate and actually want to know what has gone wrong so that they can try to fix issues) So the problem lay at the manufacturers door, and should be dealt with by the supplying dealer.

Of course this is fine in practice, but once the word Webasto is mentioned, everyone is pointing to us as service agents, and no one wants to know.

Explaining to Mr Angry that it actually isn't a Webasto warranty issue, and that he will have to go back to the dealer (who had told him to contact us) just pours petrol onto an already raging fire.

Had Mr Angry done as he was told and "contacted" us and explained the symptoms we would have been able to tell him over the phone the problem and the course of action, but he just charged straight in with all of the righteous indignation, wrapped in a cloak of "you'd better deal with this Boy!!

So after we patiently tried to explain several times that we couldn't invoice Webasto for the work, as they quite rightly wouldn't pay us, as it isn't covered under the Webasto warranty scheme, each time being told that he didn't care who was paying for it, he just wanted it sorted out "NOW" when we eventually pointed out that we would be stupid to undertake work that we wouldn't get paid for threats were made to staff members!

At this point Mr Angry, who was mistaking our "trying to help" attitude as a being "cowed" by his aggression, was enlightened and was told in no uncertain way where he could put his motorhome (Trade tip! Threaten staff is a great way of getting thrown out, and any services withdrawn in the future as employers have a legal responsibility to their staff)

So he ends up tearing down the drive thinking that Van Bitz are worse that the Devil himself, and obviously never, ever, going to use us, stay on the site (still owes the money) and will never say anything positive about us ever again!

None of it was out fault, the fault lay in a poor manufacture process. We don't sell vans, nor do warranty work for motorhome manufacturers, yet we took all the flak!

If I did sell vans I would only allow our customers to use our facilities so we had 100% control over everything that we did. If I lost a few sales so be it life is also about enjoying it, including the time spent at work, for me, and my staff.

Warranty issues have never been different

2,000,000 odd cars sold last year, 12,000 campers

And bear in mind the ‘manufacturers’ everyone talks about are only converters, themselves customers of the likes of Fiat, Dometic, Truma etc

 

[sfrain145]

It's just the way it is with motorhomes. With cars it seems you can visit any dealer and they will take on warranty work it's not the same with motorhomes. Whether that's a bad thing or not doesn't matter it's just the way it is. If I were a dealer unless the manufacturer was forcing me to take on warranty work for people who didn't buy from me would I do work for people who bought from me or someone who drifted in having bought somewhere else and wanted something done?

I agree but what happens if you are travelling like these are intended are you stuck dealing with the originating supplier ? seems strange or a market for a chain of independents

 

[The Wino]

Can you imagine a motorhome dealer paying mechanics/fitters to do nothing while turning work down. None of them would. They are not discriminating; they only turn people away because they are busy with their own customers.

Thats really my point. But car dealers do seem to carry out warranty work for people who bought elsewhere as do dealers who service the mechanical side of motorhomes. Maybe they get paid a rate that means they can do the work at a profit but I suspect a lot of it is that the car manufacturer requires garages to carry out warranty work to keep the franchise motorhome manufacturers don't seem bothered.

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[Jim]

Thats really my point. But car dealers do seem to carry out warranty work for people who bought elsewhere

So do motorhome dealers (When they aren't busy with their own customers). Many do fob you off with an excuse that they don't, but if their fitters were idle, chances are they would take warranty work on.

Just like plenty of dealers don't fit solar or alarms. However, when sales fall through the floor, like they have done in the past, and their fitters are idle, you'll see main dealers fitting everything from towbars to toasters

 

[tezza-alli]

All great info guys and one point is I don't want to do any Queue jumping just wanted to register a fault before the warranty runs out, I have reached out to a company who can repair these as its a common thing to go wrong apparently but they charge more than they cost new for some reason or it maybe due to them being on back order, I don't mind buying a replacement the reason for the post was to raise awareness, I did or I thought I did register this with Highbridge where the van was originally purchased when we bought it last year as we wanted to order some extras and had to be added to their system that's my issue, I am looking at replacing the Shaudt lt150 with a more robust unit as this device is pretty basic only 4 switches and a level and can fit this myself, Shame really as you would think a warranty is a warranty

Try the company I've suggested. They are very professional and know their stuff! Unlike some others, mention no names!
It will cost you under a £5 to send via RM 48hour tracked post. The repair cost will be far lower than the new price of the part and you will cut out all the hassle/cost/ time wasted and the sorry we ordered the wrong part or we forgot to order the part going to the dealer stuff.
Phone them first they'll tell you over the phone if they can do it. If as you say it works when you put you finger on it then it sounds a very easy repair.

 

[Gellyneck]

The major difference between motorhome / campervan and other vehicle warranties as there are, generally, two warranties for the former, the original base vehicle and the convertor.

You, generally, don't have issues with the former so if the base vehicle is a FIAT their Professional division will address warranty issues along the same lines as, say a car warranty.

However, the convertor warranty is where the significant problems / issues seem to arise. These warranties do not seem to have the same / similar legislation controls as the base vehicle and dealers can "flex" their service provision significantly.

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[sfrain145]

Contact David Wilson, Lincoln Teleservice LTD. 123-125 Burton Rd, Lincoln. LN1 3LN.
Tel shop 01522 526255, Workshop 01522 537338.
If he/they can repair it? It will be back with you in a few days and most probably cost less than the fuel you'll waste travelling to the hapless(There were many more words I could have used ) dealers.

I will give it a go much appreciated,

 

[tonka]

" I had a look and when my finger touched the rear of the panel circuit board it seemed to work"
First thought is that you have a dry solder joint and a run over with a hot soldering iron may cure this very easily and quickly.
worth a look.

Otherwise maybe try contacting Schaudt direct and exlain the situation, most likely any dealer you finally get to do the job would just be contacting them for a replacement panel.

good luck.

 

[tezza-alli]

I will give it a go much appreciated,

Let me know how you get on.

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[sfrain145]

" I had a look and when my finger touched the rear of the panel circuit board it seemed to work"
First thought is that you have a dry solder joint and a run over with a hot soldering iron may cure this very easily and quickly.
worth a look.

Otherwise maybe try contacting Schaudt direct and exlain the situation, most likely any dealer you finally get to do the job would just be contacting them for a replacement panel.

good luck.

yes I would but don't want to ruin the whole thing as its really small stuff

 

[RowleyBirkinQC]

Not all dealers are the same. We cunningly bought our van new from Becks just a few months before they ceased trading and disappeared off the face of the planet. Southdowns were then more than happy to assist us with a couple of annoying warranty issues.

 

[tonka]

yes I would but don't want to ruin the whole thing as its really small stuff



View attachment 877593

Surface mount components, You need a good fine tip iron for that and some good eyesight.

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[DerryW]

Sadly it is a fact that the selling dealer is the only one responsible for your warranty repairs. If there is still manufacturer warranty on a previously owned vehicle then it needs to be transferred to you at the time of purchase.

Some dealers if they have a relationship with you and with the manufacturer will help.
It is an eye opener for those of us who in this day and age expect motorhome dealers to respect manufacturers warranties like car main dealers.

This is a bit of a rant to all the dealers out there who are super unhelpful
I will name them as it’s embarrassing to hear what they say.

We have a 22 model Adria camper and the main control panel (Schaudt LT150) £180 new has a fault the water levels has stopped working so I had a look and when my finger touched the rear of the panel circuit board it seemed to work so powers of deduction tell me there is a break in the circuit somewhere on the panel as my finger must have bridged the gap. So the panel has a fault.

I looked on the Adria website and found the nearest to me was Brownhills so rang and explained they said drive down and we can have a look but we can’t take a look for 12 weeks by that time my warranty has lapsed. His answer was sorry can’t help.

Next was highbridge where it came from originally as we are the second owner. The comment came after trying to get hold of someone for a week as they was on holiday was sorry can’t help you as the van isnt on our system in your name. Even though we are on their system as previous customers when we bought a caravan years ago.

After me getting annoyed unfortunately as some of the comments he made boiled my blood. As he was saying things like we can’t help as we have registered customers in front of you etc, we don’t get paid for warranty work. My view is don’t sell new vans with warranty then as the money these things cost new is madness

Anyway a company called Barnsdale said something that was helpful and that was send us your bill of sale we will change the vehicle into your name and send us some pictures and a video and we will register a claim with Adria, is that a common sense approach or am I missing something. I know you can’t do this for all faults as it may not be the device at fault it could be something different

My train of thought here is you buy a converted vehicle from a reputable manufacturer like Adria a decent vehicle then the dealers make a shed load of money and walk away when you need them so in my book they are miss selling a contract, just my views and others may find a different response. Worse case I buy a replacement out of my own non warranty pocket. Would like some views.



View attachment 877522

Scandalous, you pay close on, or over £100k for a vehicle and get treated like a lepper when you want some support.
Still we’re the ones to blame to put up with it. It used to amaze me when I first joined the forum a few years back to read so many members doing their own repairs/ fixes on a vehicle they had paid close to £100k for. I soon learnt the reason for this.

Can you imagine having to fix a fault on your new Rangerover/Audi/Merc etc just because the dealer couldn’t be bothered.

Like I say scandalous.

 

[sfrain145]

100% you would think you buy a vehicle knowing its got a warranty but obviously not

 

[eddie]

100% you would think you buy a vehicle knowing its got a warranty but obviously not

What did the dealer that sold you the motorhome say the warranty was?

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[sfrain145]

Let me know how you get on.

rang them David isn't in till Friday but sounds positive thanks

 

[Lenny HB]

It is a problem with a lot of Manufacturers & Dealers, a lot of German vans e.g. Hymer , Carthago etc., have a pan European warranty and you can go to any dealer in Europe. I've bought 3 Hymer's in Belgium I've had warranty work carried out in the UK & Germany, also our Belgium dealer has pointed out things we haven't noticed they are only too pleased to do warranty work.
Our last caravan was bought in Germany had warranty work carried out by the UK franchise, I remember talking to them they said it was part of the contract when they took on the franchise.

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

Warranty work is poorly paid! and often, invoices are disputed and not paid promptly.

You are not wrong, years ago a mate of mine set up selling new and used plant he had been in the game a long time so knew the score.
He took on a franchise for a new excavator coming into the country sold loads and had excellent back up service but when it came to being paid for warranty they argued everything!!
In the end it bankrupt him as he has so much warranty money owed