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 Buying our first caravan and for the bit of extra cash thought we might as well go mad and get a new one. In January, we were at a dealer who offered a good deal on the van we wanted, February build for March delivery. Great, put down deposit , dealer said he would let me know the CRIS number when it was allocated.. February came and went, into March and no news, so called the dealer. Told me they would call me back. They didn't, so called again. Still no call back. Wife sent e-mail, I called them later that day. Told me "oh yes, we received an e-mail from you , can we call you back ? "  This time they did and said Lunar had moved the build date back a few weeks, not a big problem and arranged a provisional pick up date for 24 th. March. Called them again today, to get the CRIS number. I heard them rummage around a bit and then gave me the number. 

The thing that has really got to us is that the dealer has made no effort to keep me up to date with the schedule or even just send an e-mail to let me know they haven't forgotten about us. Now, what worries me is, if they are like this now, before they have got our money, what are they going to be like when it's time for a service or if I  have a problem ?  Is this the normal attitude in the caravan dealership world, Getting very concerned !

there not all that bad our local dealer kept us informed all the way through and come delivery day i had to go away in the lorry and he delivered it to our house and went over evrything with the wife and that was lunar the best van ive had yet and because he went over and above what he had to means i will buy my next one from him

I think as business has become more cost and target driven it hasn't improved customer care, though it has improved price!

However, I think they have always been pretty idiosyncratic and it depends a lot on the dealership and indeed the individuals within it you happen to deal with. On our last two purchases we had honest sales reps, decent despatch people and perfectly reasonable after sales service.

Variable is the word to best describe the handover briefing, with a new van fine, with an old one clueless.

What has been uniformly poor is the prepping of the van. Cleaned it? Barely! Throughly checked it for bits in cupboards, faults on blinds, odd bits missing, really the whole QA thing, in a word shoddy. What the inflated delivery charge goes on is hard to fathom and I can't say we've ever met a dealership that had this cracked. I suspect they pay those staff too little.

But as somebody said in an earlier thread it's a bit like the news, good news doesn't sell and if you read Message Boards you would think it not worth buying a new van when in fact the vast majority of transactions go well.

Quote: Originally posted by jennifernn on 15/3/2010

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OOOH nooo, our dealer is lovely!    He even uses the same van as us.

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We found Yorkshire Coast Caravans excellent to deal with

Phil

Quote: Originally posted by Le Phantom on 15/3/2010

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Quote: Originally posted by jennifernn on 15/3/2010

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OOOH nooo, our dealer is lovely!    He even uses the same van as us.

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Now that is beyond friendly, cosy perhaps?

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We have found Highbridge Caravans very good to deal with. We have an allocated contact point and he keeps us updated with progress. (Our new van is due to be built at the end of March)

It pays to make your presence known, but we don't have to chase hard to be kept informed....and easy folk to deal with.

Mr UM

ROB you say you tracked the progress of a Swift caravan with the factory direct - did you do this on line or did you have to contact them via telephone?

Pete