eddie
LIFE MEMBER
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.
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.
) Would I cut off my nose despite my face if they had a MegaLiner XXXL BigBugga in stock that I had set my heart on?
The panels hadn't been sorted either although apparently we didn't have an intercooler problem and the ECU and EGR stuff had been done. As for the water leak ... they had only cleaned out the water collecting channel and drain holes/pipes claiming that was the issue ... which we knew it wasn't. I can actually lift the edge of the scuttle strip up as it is unstuck by at least 8 inches on the nearside ... and other areas are also not stuck down ... they didn't even check it!
I pointed this out to him and he said that it was different on a the extra long wheel base ... until I spotted one at the end of the row of their vans and told him it wasn't!!! They haven't got a flipping clue! 
So he said they'll now order a new panel for the rear ... why they can't just simply put on new clips I haven't a clue!!! They'd better be a colour match when they arrive or there will be hell to pay! 
