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During a weekend away in JULY, one of the kids accidently dropped the dogs water bowl in the bathroom whilst filling it up and because it is one of those heavy ceramic type it just bounced but not before it put a crack the plastic shower tray!! Damn!

However, after a quote from our dealer of £900 to replace the shower tray we reluctantly contacted our insurance. Everything went ok with the assessor coming to look and authorized the repair all within a week. All that was left was for the dealer to order the tray and fit. A1 service from shield insurance.

After nearly 2 months of waiting for the tray to arrive I eventually blew a gasket and rang bailey at bristol and gave them a good ear bending, the usual rants of never buying bailey vans again ond so on. I nearly choked on some humble pie when the stores at bailey rang back (within 10 mins) and informed me the part was a stock item and had been despatched the day after the dealer had ordered over 6 weeks ago.The dealer had been too busy to do the job so he just blamed bailey by saying it hadn't arrived.

Armed with this information I stormed off to the dealer's premises and gave him probably the biggest row he has ever had.I don't mind waiting a reasonable amount of time but within reason and also without being lied to and fobbed off.

Be warned, the next time a part hasn't arrived for your van, it may be aload of bull from the dealer. It may be worthwhile making a quick call to the factory, especially if that part is keeping your van off the road.

Hi,

 I think this could be the start of a decent report/thread.....namly ..name and shame a dealer? it could be a good guide to which are the better dealers in the country and which are the worse...it may even spur the worst ones into improving there customer care and give us all a better time!

My favourite dealer is Chichester Caravans of the midlands branches their customer care is second to none, and are very, very, very helpfull.

Since the incident, I have been using Barsea Leisure at Ulverston, South Cumbria and they are brilliant. Well worth the extra mileage. They are 2 hours from us but whats 2 hours compared to 6 weeks.

We have just waited 9 weeks for a shower tray to be fitted to our van,,,,we were warned the part would take about 6 to 8 weeks, however that is not the problem, they also ordered us a window which arrived in stock they wrote and told me to arrange to bring the van in.......well they already had the van for 9 weeks !!

 i telephoned to let them know this.....oh sorry we forgot !!   1 week later another phone call why havent you arranged to bring in your van,,,,,,here we go  again !!!!....despite already working on the van fitting the new shower tray they forgot it was the same van needing the window!...........the good news is they have agreed to fit an outside socket as a gesture of goodwill so we are now all fine again.....10 weeks in the dealers,,, could have stretched to 52 and saved on storage  hahaha !!!

Quote: Originally posted by pattinson family on 21/10/2008

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Since the incident, I have been using Barsea Leisure at Ulverston, South Cumbria and they are brilliant. Well worth the extra mileage. They are 2 hours from us but whats 2 hours compared to 6 weeks.

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I have read this thread with interest, isn't it strange the way some dealers vary from person to person, I wonder why for some people they can't be helpful enough and others they are so slap dash.

 Our dealer has finally come to our way of thinking but if we have needed anything doing/repairing/replacing, they always refer us to one man and if he's not there no one seems to know anything, they just shrug their shoulders and say youll have to see ***** and if he's on holiday you just have to wait till he comes back.

 If I bought another new caravan I would get it from Lowdhams at Nottingham where we bought our used van from before this one , the service was brilliant, but I have seen others on here that are not pleased with them.

 It's a funny old world.

Broad Lane Alcester told my mum and dad that for their 3 year old coachman (still under water imgress warranty) it would be a 6-8 week lead time for work to be signed off for a leaking roof! Blaming Coachman warranty

They waited 4 weeks so far and they rang the dealer last week and told them to call in another 6-8 weeks as they we're jam packed til then

Worst part is, they repaired the same leak when the van was 2 years old, obviously not very well

We bought our 2007 Compass Omega new - the Rallye version had a small draining rack fitted to the underside of the sink cover, which I like and wanted, and our dealer agreed to throw one in with our Omega.  It meant he had to order it as a spare, which he did at the same time as ordering our 'van (November).  We took delivery of the 'van in February, with no draining rack as Compass had only supplied the rack and not the backet to fix it to the sink cover, or the little bracket that fits to the work-top to stop the lid closing under the weight of washing up.  He chased it up (we were in his office when he made the phone-call), and it was supposed to be delivered within a couple of weeks.  The dealer phoned us 3 weeks later to say it still hadn't been delivered, but if we wanted we could have one out of the display caravan.  So he took the sink cover and bracket out of the display caravan and gave them to us - great dealer.  Castlecroft at Radcliffe, near Bury.