Has anyone bought from Kenmore Caravans in Mirfield?
We were there the other week, the van we actually went to see was a bit of a shocker with a floor so spongy that it made us feel like we were moonwalking Saw another van that we liked, but were a bit put off by the attitude of one of the sales staff and have spent the weekend debating whether to go back ....
Are they good to deal with?
And, just for the benefit of a newbie, is there a reason there's there's no designated dealership recommendation list on here? Surely it would be as easy to comment on dealerships as it is to praise/criticise campsites, and would save some people a fair amount of money ...?
Kenmore are sponsors for the Coachman Owners Club and to be quite honest I haven't heard a bad word against them at all in the six years I have been with club. News does travel in the club and I can name a few companies to avoid especially the ones that deal with Coachman as many ralliers have had some bad deals in the past and you can't beat first hand experience. Although I live about 100 miles from Kenmore caravans it wouldn't deter me from going there if need be to purchase a caravan from them. I did actually phone them about 2 years ago and to be honest I found them to be quite pleasant and helpful.
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A dealership that sells a caravan with a spongy floor & has rude sales staff? Sounds like a winner to me...
If you want a cheap caravan I suggest you buy privately. Dealers that sell caravans below £3k generally offer zero aftersales service. If they did they wouldn't make any profit. Nobody is going to sell a caravan for £2k & then do £2k's worth of warranty work when it turns out to be damp.
A caravan a dealer will want £3k for can generally be found privately for less than £2k.
My wife and I went to Kenmore for a look round with a view to to exchangeing our old van for a newer model haveing bought our present van from them a few years ago,we saw a van we both liked which was £9,000 when ask for a part ex on our current van the salesman said all vans over 7 years old were worthless even though we were buying one which was 6years old his attitude was very bad and because of the way he spoke to us and the salesmans manner we walked away he was a small chap and getting on a bit totally different from the younger sailsman.We then sold our old van on ebay for £2500 and bought our new van for £7.000 so he did us a faver.
Tango, that's the same sort of relatively positive picture that I'm seeing about them elsewhere on the web, which is why I was surprised to be so uninspired when we visited ...
Tentz - nice bit of summarising And yes, that's exactly why we left - but it did seem like a good van and it passed the damp meter check when most of the vans in our price range seem to have some degree of damp. I take your point about the price benefits of buying privately (not least because we'd probably get most of the equipment we need included in the price) but we simply don't feel that we know enough to buy privately ....
I traded my old van in for one half its age this year at Kenmore
The salesman told me that my van was worth nothing and would be given to a charity which would load it up with items such as dried milk then tow it abroad with the milk and leave it after delivering it.
Imagine my surprise when I went a fortnight later for some tackle for my new van and saw my old van on the forecourt with a tiny amount of fresh paint on it being offered for sale at 3 times what they'd allowed me for it...
Interesting how this has come up. I was going to go have a look there and then last night a friend who has many years experience with caravans was telling me about 'tourer world' at Brighouse. She was very impressed with a deal another of her friends got and she said that if you tell them what you are looking for they will search for what you want.
Idmainian - sorry, i think we cross posted last night as I missed your message. It sounds very much as though you had the same salesman as us and you took the same action as us - wonder if they are aware that he is giving them rather a negative image ...? I'm pretty sure that more helpful and less confrontational salesman would have had us going back to complete the sale the following day.
Nova - that's bad Did you challenge them about it?
Snowyowl - I have Tourer World on my "dealerships-to-visit" list - will no doubt be posting a thread about them sometime too
Judging by the comments here it sounds a bit like 'one bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch' so it appears that Kenmore have one particular salesman that is somewhat rude to their customers with the rest of the team probably unaware of this. If this is the case then it will take a number of complaints in writing to justify that the company is losing money by this salesman's tactics as just one individual complaint will be classified as just another isolated moaner. Come on folks, now here's your perfect opportunity to bombard Kenmore with a series of written complaints if you consider that you have been unfairly treated.
Quote: Originally posted by baggins33 on 12/5/2011
We recently bought our van from Kenmore from A small chap called Angus who was most helpful
In fact everyone at Kenmore we dealt with from sales to pick up bent over backwards to accommodate our needs.
The help and advise we got was fantastic and I would highly recommend them to anyone..
true there not the cheapest but tell me a dealership that is but they are helpful and not at all pushy..
anyway first post so hi to everyone great forum
especially for a newbie like me..
Full of a wealth of information keep up the good work
Post last edited on 12/05/2011 19:36:01
Heavens Baggins, he must have made a wonderful impression on you for you to have registered today with the sole intention of posting such an impassioned defence That's the sort of thing that should restore my faith in dealerships and it makes me very glad I've not got a cynical bone in my body ....
Tango - maybe the answer would just be to send them a link to this thread - assuming, of course, that they haven't already seen it ... And I do tend to assume that most dealerships will monitor sites such as this one as a matter of business common sense.
Bought my last van from Kenmore, again, no pressure salespeople.
They delivered the van to my house so I could try it down the drive (sent four lads to manhandle it down), if it didn't they were willing to cancel the sale.
I had a small split in the shower tray and rather than drag it in to be inspected, Robert who runs the service department came to my house after work to have a look.
Not the cheapest, but I don't buy purely on price, it rarely pays in the long run.
I think the problems start at Kenmore when you shun the newer, expensive stock and take an interest in the sub £2500 'clearance' stock right at the back of the yard. If they can't be bothered trying to sell them they shouldn't have them in stock... Simples...
I should add that I have been an occasional Kenmore customer for many years. In the 1980's I bought a 1970's Portman Executive off them when they were at Birkenshaw (anybody remember that?). The site they are on in Mirfield was formerly an outpost of Goodall's Caravans...
Before things start getting out of hand I would just like to make thing clear I have no gripe with Kenmore Caravans I visit there site quite regular buying many things from the shop and in the past as I have said I bought our last van from them a Bessicar 420 and a new awrning the deal we got and the help they gave me was more than usefull the salesman that we delt with was great he was the youngest of the two salesmen more than helpfull.The staff in the shop are very good and have helped me many times in the past with many problems also the people in the service dept have in the past helped me with small problems so I have no problem with the company just the one old salesman who may just have been having a bad day who can say It will not stop me useing them in the future and possibly buying a new van off them I will simply choose which salesman to deal with.
This is our scenario, interesting to hear people's thoughts. We bought a new Elddis caravan in February 2019, unfortunately in July we had a coming together with another long vehicle on a sharp bend which caused damage to our offside. Having contacted the insurance we phoned our nearest Elddis dealer, Kenmore caravans to ask for a quote for repairs only to be asked if we bought the van off them. We hadn't, so their response was that they had 5000 customers of their own so would not help us out in our time of need. We have purchased accessories and parts from there before, needless to say we won't be now. Personally I thought their attitude to be one of pomp, and unhelpfulness, and I'm glad the car world doesn't work like this or that Ford Mondeo you bought when you lived in Devon wouldn't be getting serviced in Yorkshire.