Approved Dealers Not Respecting Warranty

[andyelbac]

What is it with Approved Dealers not accepting warranty work if they did not sell the MH to you?
We have a 22 plate Burstner that we purchased from Choose Leisure near Canterbury last August. It only had 256 miles on it so preume it was a demonstrator? Choose Leisure are not a Burstner Approved Dealer. They purchased it from Moran Motorhomes in Ludlow. At the time of purchase I recall Choose Leisure advising that any recall work would need to be undertaken by the importing dealer. I mistakenly thought this was any Burstner Approved dealer. Fast forward 4 months later and I had an issue with a broken blind. As I live in North Kent my closest Burstner dealer is Cranhams at Romford (a 2 hour, 80 mile round trip). When I approached them to undertake the work they would only agree if I paid the difference between their hourly rate and Burstner's factory hourly rate (which they didn't know)! on the basis that they didn't sell the unit to me. I took this up with Burstner. Their initial response was 'take it to Morans where the work will be done under warranty'. So now we were facing an 8 hour, 420 mile round trip! For a faulty blind! Putting aside the impact on our time, we would have to take two days off to make the journey as Morans are not open on weekends. Eventually, after some nagging at Burstner, they arranged with Cranhan to provide 2 hours free labour to fix the fault, however by this time, Choose Leisure had kindly agreed to repair even though it had fallen outside their own three month warranty period. Are we being unreasonable in expecting any Approved Dealer to undertake the work? I have always assumed that warranty work work gets changed back to the manufacturer so I don't understand what Cranham's issue was?

 

[eddie]

But I might have come a customer.

I would imagine the dealer based their decision on past experience, rather than just deciding one day not to offer the service. As a loss leader perhaps it didn’t convert MOT customers into motorhome buyers in sufficient numbers to justify offering the service

How come there are establishments that only carry out MOT inspections?

I have no idea, one man bands, low earning expectations, corner cutting, money laundering operations who knows

I do know that a motorhome dealer’s main aim is to sell motorhomes and if they offer a chassis servicing and MOT service to their customers all power to them as a decent dealer

If they decide not to offer their facilities to the general public, it’s their business choice and could simply be logistical

Perhaps they read about themselves on a forum where someone was dripping about the dealer ruining their weekend away as their motorhome wouldn’t be fixed until Monday as the workshop was fully booked, but they had time to ‘rake in extra cash’ doing MOT’s. for the general public

 

[VXman]

I phoned a local Motorhome dealer to book an MOT for our 'pre owned' Frankia. I was asked, "did you buy it from us?". When I said no, I was informed that they wouldn't MOT it. Never mind, their loss. I've subsequently found a closer garage who does everything I ask.

Why go to a dealer for MOT? Any MOT centre (that's big enough) would do it. I've just had my 1st service done by a back street independent garage that have done my car MOT and servicing for 30 years. He was quite excited to do my Motorhomes. He'll do my first MOT next year too.

I'm not convinced a motorhome dealer will be as good for general mechanical stuff as 'proper' garage. Quite surprised you found one that does MOT's to be honest. Our local dealer doesn't do the engine/van side. Just focusses on the habitation.

 

[VXman]

But I might have come a customer.

How come there are establishments that only carry out MOT inspections?

Good question. What do they charge? Maybe they charge more? Some people my like the reassurance of a tester not trying to make more money from repairs by failing it. They may pay more for that.

My MOT tester still charges £40 and takes over an hour. Not great business. I know him well enough to know he won't make stuff up though. He's to busy to need to create work.

 

[Soycd]

Apologies if this has already been covered.
We'll be getting (hopefully) our new Adria Twin in September. The dealership is 220 miles from us. Within the UK there are lots of Adria approved workshops. We have one locally and we also have an Adria dealer. I've used the approved workshop before for work on our current motorhome and they are brilliant. I won't use the Adria dealer if I get any problems with the new van for the reasons OP has stated and I find them a bit up themselves and extremely expensive. Chatting to the boss at the approved workshop he explained how they carry out warranty work. They contact Adria who will allocate an amount of time they can spend on that specific job. He reckons that sometimes they overestimate (a new cupboard catch etc) and sometimes underestimate. The approved workshops hourly labour charge is significantly lower than the dealership. Size of premises, number of staff etc. In this case its labour charges are about 50% cheaper than a big dealership so there is a bit of haggle room between the approved workshop and Adria. He said there have been occasions when they have also had to negotiate with the customer if budgets are likely to be exceeded. Whilst it's not perfect its a balance which I am happy with. The reason we picked a dealership 220 miles away? They were to only ones at Birmingham in October that had reasonable allocated slots available and offered a guaranteed price. I don't know if Buerstener have approved workshops or if they are all attached to dealerships.

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[Rogerwyn]

Having tugged and motorhomed for for over 40y it’s all about experience you will never buy a Motorhome that doesn’t leak or have issues, I’ve had a couple of bogey baileys which being a tight arse bought at shows at a distance to save 1k and having to return for leak work, no dealer will give you warranty work on anything you have not bought with them, that is is the way their system works. At the end of the day either learn to repair a blind and the odd small leak or find a reputable small dealer that doesn’t charge earth

 

[rod_vw]

Having never dealt with a motor home dealer I look on with amazement at all of this discussion!

How on earth is any manufacturer allowed to sell their products through an authorised dealer network not compelled to offer a warranty through that network regardless of which dealer supplies the product? That understanding should be written into the authorised dealer's contract when they become an authorised by the manufacturer.
I understand that the base vehicle may be covered by a different warranty but all of that should be tied into the end purchase warranty with the supplying dealer network contracted into managing that warranty.
Volkswagen now produce their own PVC motor homes and their dealer network honour all warranty work. Back in the day when they sold campers built by Westfalia and sold by the VW dealer network the whole vehicle warranty was covered by that network.

Why are you buyers not insisting on similar cover regardless of the supplier? If you don't get it walk away!

 

[Minxy]

Why are you buyers not insisting on similar cover regardless of the supplier? If you don't get it walk away!

Trouble is you can walk away ... but there's often no-where to walk to!

Unfortunately the size of the MH market of all combined brands isn't anything like the size of even a single manufacturer car market so MH dealers can decide who they look after and who they don't, if they had the same volume then there may be some desire to do warranty work etc regardless of where a MH was bought due to competition, but there simply isn't.

 

[the1andonly]

Not having bought a new car I hadn't come across the concept of take your cccccc whatever any where you fancy for repairs so before buying i asked lots of questions and spent 2 years doing it. I also came across the view point we sell our variant of 140 and no i won't take out the microwave a fit a cupboard door that would be extra.( a dealer 8 miles away) having decided on a make/model that had 6 dealers country wide i had the choice of 2@200 miles or 2 @100 miles. The nearest was discounted because of reputation and when i Travelled to see one the van wasnt actualy there. The 2 at 200 had the previous model year in stock (2017). The 4th i tried ordering from but after a month waiting for confirmation they couldn't get one for this year or even next years 2019 model (it later came to pass that the model was discontued and didnt make it to 2019 model year.) So back to 200 mile away and last years model. On discussing price i said well i don't expect any problems getting warranty work done at this price. The offer i had in my pocket was for less but price isnt everything. All in all they dealt with issues quite well even paying for a replacement water pump that i fitted myself. They accepted the view that i thought it cheaper than fuel for 400 miles. Recalls and ecu updates were done with minimum fuss sometimes when it was there for other reasons. Getting work done or quotes elsewhere is not impossible when i tried to get quotes for hab check (warrenty requirement) i got the did you buy it from here but when you add the well i tried ordering from you and you couldnt supply answer thier attitude changes (pherhaps thats a sort of normal occurance).

Afraid this buying Motorhomes is very much a eyes wide open busieness.

 

[rod_vw]

Trouble is you can walk away ... but there's often no-where to walk to!

Unfortunately the size of the MH market of all combined brands isn't anything like the size of even a single manufacturer car market so MH dealers can decide who they look after and who they don't, if they had the same volume then there may be some desire to do warranty work etc regardless of where a MH was bought due to competition, but there simply isn't.

That's why in the past I've been a 'Selfbuilder' for a small PVC and now having a bigger one built to my specification, see here for the progress as it happens.

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[GaryMo]

Having tugged and motorhomed for for over 40y it’s all about experience you will never buy a Motorhome that doesn’t leak or have issues, I’ve had a couple of bogey baileys which being a tight arse bought at shows at a distance to save 1k and having to return for leak work, no dealer will give you warranty work on anything you have not bought with them, that is is the way their system works. At the end of the day either learn to repair a blind and the odd small leak or find a reputable small dealer that doesn’t charge earth

But as newbee you don't have that experience. W e brought our van from a show, not understanding how the market and dealers work, we also did not save £s. We have warrantee issues which are going cost a lot in time and travel, the dealer and manufacture just can't give a damn, the service level is appalling. I should stop typing as I am so angry with them at the moment..

 

[Hirsch]

Well that’s you opinion

I think that we need to accept in this modern ‘gig’ economy, that just because some one wants something it doesn’t mean that people will jump through hoops to get the business

Before I retired I go sick and tired of people getting pissy because we’d turned their work down, often for completely different reasons, self builders wanting us to ”Just tidy the electrics up” when it needed ripping out and starting from scratch.

30 year old vans, who’s owners were wanting to live ‘off grid’ with absolutely no chance of us getting anywhere near their expectations garnered from You Tube.

Obnoxiously rude people who have alienated every body before a quote is even prepared, plus so many more, where we’d politely decline only to read what a bunch of twats we were on FaceBook lol

As an aside, recently a full time couple ‘remodelled their live in unit, and removed everything inside!

When it snowed the additional weight of the snow “popped” the seams with no internal support. Their unit is knackered, the wife apparently said not to do it, but Mr Google the expert went ahead and blamed everyone else and couldn’t understand why no one wanted to “sort it out for them”

Particularly like the last example

 

[andysam]

The warranty that dealers & manufacturers hide behind is shameful. In theory the various manufacturer warranties ARE nationwide, but as others have pointed out, they are not enforceable via the manufacturer, indeed dealers may choose to leave the scheme if it were enforceable. The trouble is that all dealers and manufacturers crow about their network.

I am thinking back to my conversation with Elddis when I was buying a 15 month old MH in NI, Elddis gladly confirmed that they had a nationwide warranty network of approved workshops including 6 or 7 locally, but specifically they "omitted" to specify that the warranty was not compellable on the part of any workshop but the originally supplying dealer. It is exactly the same with the dealers sales people. I was looking at last October's NEC show and every single sales person sang the praises of their warranty network with a couple even saying "if all else fails you can always bring it back to us"...bearing in mind that many people will have be 100-200 miles away from that dealer.

The analogy earlier about a flat can of coke from Tesco's earlier is a good one. No, I cannot take it to Morrisons, but if I got it from a Tesco in the north, I CAN (see what I did there ) take it to a Tesco in the south. It's 2023, do manufacturers and retailers really need to hide behind half truths? If they were up front and informed buyers that is different, but in it's current format the warranty network and use of it is almost fraudulent.

If dealer A said, "the MH is £x but we are 300 mls from you and you are unlikely to get expensive (or any) warranty work done elsewhere" but dealer B says, "we are more expensive by £x than A, but we are only 20 mls away and will sort out your warranty" who would you go with?

 

[Minxy]

If dealer A said, "the MH is £x but we are 300 mls from you and you are unlikely to get expensive (or any) warranty work done elsewhere" but dealer B says, "we are more expensive by £x than A, but we are only 20 mls away and will sort out your warranty" who would you go with?

The former, we've done it a few times and saved thousands.

 

[Wizz]

Dealer A
I did actually do this.
I found the exact motorhome I wanted, brand new, but in stock and at an agreeable price. It was some considerable distance away, not far short of a 500 mile round trip.
I did have to give it careful consideration because of the obvious downsides re warranty etc.
After careful consideration I decided that I'd take the plunge, and take a chance, with fingers crossed that I wouldn't suffer any major difficulties.
I concluded that if any major issues arose I'd have to suffer the consequences and return to the dealer if I was not able to find an authorised dealer nearer to carry out the work.
And at the same time I made the decision that should any minor issues arise I'd just have to take it on the chin and pay out myself rather than make a long trip which would not be financially sensible . Not ideal I know, but a decision I was content with.
It was a case of weighing up the pro's and con's and taking a bit of a leap of faith.......

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[Gromett]

through an authorised dealer network

It is not a network though. It is independent dealers who have chosen to sell a manufacturers product.
If the manufacturer said "You have to honour the warranty on all of our vans no matter who sold them and we are only going to pay you £40 an hour for doing it". That independent businessman would tell them where to go and not sell their vehicles.
The manufacturer would have no outlets for their product.

The only way this will work is if the manufacturer significantly increases the rates they pay, then they may be able to persuade dealers to take on warranty work. HOWEVER. It would significantly increase the price of the motorhome. So, their sales would fall. Unless all manufacturers are forced to do it at the same time and at the same rate through legislation this is not going to happen. If it did happen expect to see motorhome prices rise by a goodly chunk.

So here is the situation;
Either buy locally and get local warranty service.
Buy from 100's of miles away and be prepared for either inconvenience of travelling OR the expensive of paying for it yourself locally.

It really is your choice, and you have to take full responsibility for your choice. Do not blame the dealer you bought it from who would be happy to service under the warranty. Do not blame the local dealer who would lose money on the repair through no fault of their own.

 

[andysam]

It is not a network though. It is independent dealers who have chosen to sell a manufacturers product.
If the manufacturer said "You have to honour the warranty on all of our vans no matter who sold them and we are only going to pay you £40 an hour for doing it". That independent businessman would tell them where to go and not sell their vehicles.
The manufacturer would have no outlets for their product.

The only way this will work is if the manufacturer significantly increases the rates they pay, then they may be able to persuade dealers to take on warranty work. HOWEVER. It would significantly increase the price of the motorhome. So, their sales would fall. Unless all manufacturers are forced to do it at the same time and at the same rate through legislation this is not going to happen. If it did happen expect to see motorhome prices rise by a goodly chunk.

So here is the situation;
Either buy locally and get local warranty service.
Buy from 100's of miles away and be prepared for either inconvenience of travelling OR the expensive of paying for it yourself locally.

It really is your choice, and you have to take full responsibility for your choice. Do not blame the dealer you bought it from who would be happy to service under the warranty. Do not blame the local dealer who would lose money on the repair through no fault of their own.

...but lots of them DO claim that they are part of a dealer network. If they declared that they aren't it wouldn't be an issue. I can't speak for all, but I can name around 10 big names who have told me this personally, including a manufacturer.

 

[Gromett]

...but lots of them DO claim that they are part of a dealer network. If they declared that they aren't it wouldn't be an issue. I can't speak for all, but I can name around 10 big names who have told me this personally, including a manufacturer.

Some may be part of a network but it is a private network not a manufacturer owned network. They may also be misusing the term network which indicates either joint ownership or at least a partnership with join responsibilities.

 

[Minxy]

...but lots of them DO claim that they are part of a dealer network. If they declared that they aren't it wouldn't be an issue. I can't speak for all, but I can name around 10 big names who have told me this personally, including a manufacturer.

Only for sales though, the workshop servicing etc part isn't always offered at dealerships.

 

[eddie]

...but lots of them DO claim that they are part of a dealer network. If they declared that they aren't it wouldn't be an issue. I can't speak for all, but I can name around 10 big names who have told me this personally, including a manufacturer.

Simple, get them to put it in writing

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[andysam]

Simple, get them to put it in writing

...that's bang on Eddie, it's always the sales staff making the sweeping statements...

 

[eddie]

Some people are stupid though, about 20 years ago Van Bitz had a 18 month spell selling Benimar motorhomes as an agent for a bunch of shysters called RDH Nottingham.

At the Bath and West show a man from Taunton spent a morning trying to batter me down on price, an additional £1000 from the deal I'd offered

It wasn't going to happen for two reasons. One I was mentally stronger than him and two, more importantly RDH had set a minimum price on all the models, and the deal was at that minimum price

So no deal was done, but later in the day the guy and his wife walk up to me with smug looks on their faces and asked "Guess what we've just bought?"

Turns out that Rod one of the RDH shysters had undercut us, breaking his own minimum price

The couple basically were gloating that they'd got their own way, and that I should have done the deal, that I'd lost out

I pointed out that they had a Grand to spend driving backwards and forwards from Taunton to Nottingham and was told, "Oh we'll be bringing it to you for warranty work, your just up the road"

I said it doesn't work like that, and the less smug couple said don't be short sighted, we may buy from you next time, to which I pointed out they had that opportunity this time and decided to deal with another company, so if they buy at the cheapest price and get excellent customer service and warranty back up from a local dealer what incentive would they have to change anything

Incidentally in those days we as the dealer didn't get paid to do a PDI and got warranty parts replaced but no labour payment

 

[BikerGraham]

Dealer A
I did actually do this.
I found the exact motorhome I wanted, brand new, but in stock and at an agreeable price. It was some considerable distance away, not far short of a 500 mile round trip.
I did have to give it careful consideration because of the obvious downsides re warranty etc.
After careful consideration I decided that I'd take the plunge, and take a chance, with fingers crossed that I wouldn't suffer any major difficulties.
I concluded that if any major issues arose I'd have to suffer the consequences and return to the dealer if I was not able to find an authorised dealer nearer to carry out the work.
And at the same time I made the decision that should any minor issues arise I'd just have to take it on the chin and pay out myself rather than make a long trip which would not be financially sensible . Not ideal I know, but a decision I was content with.
It was a case of weighing up the pro's and con's and taking a bit of a leap of faith.......

I did a similar thing. Round trip to dealer was 800 miles though
Got a warranty that can use any NCC approved workshop.
But try getting it booked into somewhere local for warranty work - no chance, we’ll not for warranty work.
Fortunately the stuff that needs doing is minor so can either sort it or live with it.
Anything major though then it’s 800 miles round trip plus

But got what I wanted and trust the dealer. So worth it.

 

[Lenny HB]

We have bought 3 Hymers in Belgium but have had some warranty work carried out by a local dealer 20 miles away. Hymer operate a pan European warranty alsbeen into German dealers.

Carthago we are buying dealer is 200 miles away but there is a service centre 25 miles away that are authorised to do Carthago warranty work.

 

[andysam]

We have bought 3 Hymers in Belgium but have had some warranty work carried out by a local dealer 20 miles away. Hymer operate a pan European warranty alsbeen into German dealers.

Carthago we are buying dealer is 200 miles away but there is a service centre 25 miles away that are authorised to do Carthago warranty work.

That is what a warranty should be, backed by the manufacturer. Ironically my Elddis (which is technically part of the Hymer group) doesn't have this. I suspected this might be the case when I purchased mine privately and it was only after speaking to Elddis who assured me that the warranty applied UK wide that I tried to use it locally. I called every Elddis workshop within 100 miles, none were interested. It was only a thermocouple which cost me £8 to change and about 20 mins, but it sets the bar for future interactions .

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[TheMachMan]

I‘m trying to get a copy of Malibu’s water ingress warranty from our main dealer without any joy. I was never issued with one in 2019. I have an issue which I think could be covered under this warranty, but they disagree but claim they don’t have a copy of the warranty either! So how do they know?

 

[Lenny HB]

I‘m trying to get a copy of Malibu’s water ingress warranty from our main dealer without any joy. I was never issued with one in 2019. I have an issue which I think could be covered under this warranty, but they disagree but claim they don’t have a copy of the warranty either! So how do they know?

Have a word with Simon-Alan Kerr

 

[denisejoe]

Brains,
Thats good to hear. Can you say what the 'local'ish' garage is please. It would be good to know just incase.
Cheers.
D

A good garage for MOT and vehicle general repairs is Thomsett at Stockbury of A249 can accommodate our Motorhome at 7 mts and 4.5 tons

 

[denisejoe]

Gone are the days when a Motorhome dealer gave there own warrant guarantee I think the last was Becks who gave there own and paid by card over the phone to the garage that repaired our Burstner a while ago.

 

[Minxy]

Carthago we are buying dealer is 200 miles away but there is a service centre 25 miles away that are authorised to do Carthago warranty work.

Have you checked to see if they'll look after your MH though Lenny ...

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[Coastal Cruiser.]

but there is a service centre 25 miles away that are authorised to do Carthago warranty work.

Is that Reliance Lenny?

Have a lock up on the same place as them and went over the other day, loads of vans there.
Good people to speak to but very busy so you need to book well ahead, unfortunately they cannot get my van on their lift when I asked about looking at my oil leak