Carthago Warranty, I have been left a bit miffed to say the least!

[Sunlovers]

That's a whole lot cheaper than mine was!
John

And it's pretty decent quality too, I was suitably pleased with what arrived!

 

[wiljoy]

We have the same problem with our c tourer
We have got used to being very careful when we use it thanks for that very iformative info

This has been a problem for over 8 years but carthago are blinkered and convinced there vans perfect.. I to had the water drain problem back in 2013. My local genius sorted it properly as he has with all my carthago faults, there have been many including water ingress.

 

[Lenny HB]

Lenny do they do Hymer as well now as Premier (Birdham) are no longer Hymer dealers?

Afraid not, Southdowns in Portsmouth now have a Hymer agency.

 

[Speve]

Afraid not, Southdowns in Portsmouth now have a Hymer agency.

Thanks yes I’m aware of Southdowns but it would have been really good if reliance could have got it
Chris was very knowledgeable about Hymer spares

 

[Sunlovers]

Had a confirmation that four of our warranty claim items had been approved for replacement by Carthago today, promptly followed by the announcement that all four items are out of stock and are now on backorder. Laughable really, but I suppose that is the way it is going to be. The outstanding items yet to be approved are subject to a dealer's inspection, because there is a "process" to be followed ..... thankfully none of this prevents us from using the motorhome, but I will be bored of explaining myself by the time the replacements are completed. The best one is explaining to folks why the over door awning light has a big gap in the middle (where the LEDs have packed up after an hour's run time). Should they look like that? is the usual question

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[TinaLes]

Had a confirmation that four of our warranty claim items had been approved for replacement by Carthago today, promptly followed by the announcement that all four items are out of stock and are now on backorder. Laughable really, but I suppose that is the way it is going to be. The outstanding items yet to be approved are subject to a dealer's inspection, because there is a "process" to be followed ..... thankfully none of this prevents us from using the motorhome, but I will be bored of explaining myself by the time the replacements are completed. The best one is explaining to folks why the over door awning light has a big gap in the middle (where the LEDs have packed up after an hour's run time). Should they look like that? is the usual question

Yes, I have experienced the same trepidation from our Dealership (Chelston MH's) with regard to warranty issues.
They always said that having taken photographs of the issue/issues that they would then have to submit a warranty claim to Carthago, then await approval from them.
At best, and provided the parts were in stock at Carthago, they would be shipped out to our dealer, upon receipt of said parts, they would call and arrange a suitable time for me to bring the van down to them for repairs.
They did leak out that Carthago are not the best at keeping parts in stock, and many have to be re-manufactured by their suppliers.

Still at least you can still use the van, annoying as the situation is.

Carthago are by no means the worst at supplying parts, some take an age to get, many saying the part is now obsolete on vans over 3/4 years old as the are out of production, not sure how long they are supposed to ensure parts are kept available, others may know from experience.
Good luck

 

[AndyB57]

Should have gone to Reliance near Chichester much closer to you and you would have got much better service.
I think your dealer is taking the piss for a low cost item like that they should need to go back to Carthago. I know with Hymer they can carry out repairs up to £300 without refering to Hymer.

+1 for Reliance. Excellent people

 

[Lenny HB]

I can understand after the first year having to get the OK from the manufacturer but during the first year warranty is the responsibility of the dealer under UK law so its down to the dealer to sort in the first year regardless of what the manufacturer says.

 

[Sunlovers]

It's all just so very tedious and drawn out. We're faced with a 300 mile round trip, which we knew and accepted, as part of the consequence of buying from Chelston M/H, to get anything resolved at the dealership. What just irks is the slow drawn-out process of getting a decision made. If we ran our business that way, we'd never get anything done. If you're tasked with making decisions on warranty requests, and you're looking at an obvious fault/failure on a van that's only just been registered, why take several weeks to rubber-stamp the decision when you could be clearing that task from your list in minutes. I just don't get it

Whilst I am more than capable of resolving most things mechanical/electrical needing attention, and I just know I will be fixing things long before I make a journey down to Wellington (assuming I don't need parts), having to keep behind getting something sorted really just dissipates the pleasure of having purchased a brand new moho.

On the plus side though, I am loving the new ZF autobox with the 2.3D 160ps engine

 

[Sapper520]

I’ve been waiting 9 months for a new media head unit, 7 months to have a fresh water valve replaced, 7 months for sink / hob replacement due to rust spots appearing, and 7 months for a new Remis roof blind.

None of the replacement parts are available from Sunlight. The dealer we purchased the van from told us at the
beginning of July, parts should be here in 3 weeks, and they agreed to send them to me to get a local dealer to fix.

Finally, and hopefully today we will get a new Media head unit deliverEd, but no idea when the other items will arrive. In fact, the media unit is not from Sunlight, they authorised the dealer to purchase one locally and send it to me. Just hope it’s a good one as I have no idea of make or model.

This being our first MH, loving the van, but the After sales experience from manufacturer and Dealer is pants.

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[Sunlovers]

I’ve been waiting 9 months for a new media head unit, 7 months to have a fresh water valve replaced, 7 months for sink / hob replacement due to rust spots appearing, and 7 months for a new Remis roof blind.

None of the replacement parts are available from Sunlight. The dealer we purchased the van from told us at the
beginning of July, parts should be here in 3 weeks, and they agreed to send them to me to get a local dealer to fix.

Finally, and hopefully today we will get a new Media head unit deliverEd, but no idea when the other items will arrive. In fact, the media unit is not from Sunlight, they authorised the dealer to purchase one locally and send it to me. Just hope it’s a good one as I have no idea of make or model.

This being our first MH, loving the van, but the After sales experience from manufacturer and Dealer is pants.

That's pretty poor by anyone's standards Sapper520 Hope the new head unit is better than expected for you.

 

[Lenny HB]

We're faced with a 300 mile round trip, which we knew and accepted, as part of the consequence of buying from Chelston M/H

Reliance would only be a 160 mile round trip and they appear to get answers from Carthago a lot quicker than dealers.

 

[Sunlovers]

Reliance would only be a 160 mile round trip and they appear to get answers from Carthago a lot quicker than dealers.

An interesting observation for sure Lenny HB ... I had already eye-spy'd Reliance and yep, compared to the M4/A303/A358/M5 journey, a quick scoofle down to Chichester is a lot shorter for us. We purchased our original Rapido from Premier at Birdham, which is where these guys sprang from. At the moment we are going to keep the faith and stay with Chelston as the ball is rolling, but so much will depend on how everything shapes up and shakes down over time.

 

[Drum Major]

we have just sold our carthargo and deciding if we should buy another Carthargo
after reading your problems wondering if we should go for another one
not giving me much confidence
Should also say we had no issues with the one we have sold 6years old
we will see

 

[Lenny HB]

we have just sold our carthargo and deciding if we should buy another Carthargo
after reading your problems wondering if we should go for another one
not giving me much confidence
Should also say we had no issues with the one we have sold 6years old
we will see

I think the same could be said for any manufacturer at least with a Carthago you shouldn't have too many problems. It will be my choice for our next van.

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[Dorset Diver]

Not sticking with Hymer Lenny HB? Is there a problem we should know about as I was thinking of going the other way?

 

[Sunlovers]

we have just sold our carthargo and deciding if we should buy another Carthargo
after reading your problems wondering if we should go for another one
not giving me much confidence
Should also say we had no issues with the one we have sold 6years old
we will see

Overall build quality appears to be good, it's just all the silly things that are causing us bother at the moment. Not regretting the Carthago purchase, but we will be happier once we have resolved the issues which aren't right for a new van. Chipped laminate edges where interested purchasers have been heavy-handed with opening/closing things etc, torn bed curtain where it's been trapped in the rise and fall mechanism due to someone shoving the bed up too hastily and trapping the fabric in the metal arms (just careless TBH), but this isn't Carthago's fault nor the dealers, but it's indicative of what we found when having time to sit and inspect everything carefully once it was on our drive. There were a couple of chipped laminate areas on the ceiling trim panel - these got touched in with a felt tip marker .... nope, not having that, so then they gave me a few trim stickers to cover over the chips .... it now looks like we have two oddly positioned screws in the ceiling panel (if you know where to look for them). How the ceiling panel got chipped, lord knows, but it was, and it wasn't right on a new vehicle.

 

[Lenny HB]

Not sticking with Hymer Lenny HB? Is there a problem we should know about as I was thinking of going the other way?

Had 3 fed up with them, quality is not as good as it was.