We are at our wits end having bought a brand new Swift Charisma 545 from Glossop Caravans in August 11 and after our first weekend away discovered 7 snags including a serious design fault.It took from then till January 12 for a solution to the design fault to be created and the van booked in for this and the other faults corrected.
On collection of the van we found one of the faults not corrected and were offered a mobile fitter to come to us, which they later refuted.In March, our next trip out we found more than a dozen new faultsincluding some with the floor and 3 of the original faults not corrected.
It took a further 4 months for parts to arrive and we finally got the van to their workshop in October, travelling to which the wiring harness dropped off the bottom of the A frame, wearing it all away.
Last week they rang to say Swift wouldn’t honour the warranty as we hadn’t yet had it serviced.
You should have asked on this forum first before you purchased a caravan from Glossop. As far as I'm aware there have been quite a few dis-satisfied customers and I know two personally that have bought brand new caravans from them. One had a good deal and the other didn't and the one that didn't had a problem with a defective water heater. Twice having the van back they said it was fixed which it hadn't so eventually the couple resulted in speaking to the director of the caravan manufacturer through the owners club at the club's AGM. Reassuringly their problem was then resolved within four days . I think that the Glossops manager had a bit of a ticking off about it to be quite honest but it appears that unless you know someone with a high status in the caravan industry then you have a lengthy battle on your hands with Glossops as they won't cave in easily. Try speaking to your local trading standards and see what their advice is.
Im no expert on this but I would have thought that as long as all of your list of problems were raised prior to the first service was due then Swift should honour as surely they cannot even begin to claim that the faults were any way caused by the result of you not servicing the van! Also you have sales of goods act but hopefully a legal eagle such as Phil will put you right on this. Perhaps if you explained to Swift directly if you can that the reason it hasn't been serviced is because of all the to and fro'ing with the issues you have found they may relent? As I mentioned on another thread your dealer is your representative to the manufacturer and if they aren't doing a good job of that (which I hear quite a lot about Glossop) then this is what happens! I really do hope you get it sorted in an ideal world you get your money back and aren't forced into 3 years worth of warranty relationship with this dealer!
Its amazing how often this company is complained about on this forum. Looking at their website they appear to do plenty of discounting which is presumably why their customers are prepared to travel from other parts of the country rather than buy from a local dealer. Glossop do appear to have service centres in other parts of the country though which presumably their customers can use for warranty work?
The first question would be why did you not get the caravan serviced in Aug this yr as an annual service carried out on time is obviously a condition of the warranty?
As above SwiftTalk first, then change your dealer use an approved workshop That,s what we did How can they say it has,nt been serviced when it was only 6 months when you took it back, what about their PDI? And have you had in serviced in or about august 2012 ?
Quote: Originally posted by agw1 on 01/11/2012
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri>Can anyone help?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN><FONT face=Calibri>We are at our wits end having bought a brand new <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Swift Charisma 545 from Glossop Caravans in August 11 and after our first weekend away discovered 7 snags including a serious design fault.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It took from then till January 12 for a solution to the design fault to be created and the van booked in for this and the other faults corrected.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p><P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri>On collection of the van we found one of the faults not corrected and were offered a mobile fitter to come to us, which they later refuted.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In March, our next trip out we found more than a dozen new faults<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>including some with the floor and 3 of the original faults not corrected.<o:p></o:p><P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri>It took a further 4 months for parts to arrive and we finally got the van to their workshop in October, travelling to which the wiring harness dropped off the bottom of the A frame, wearing it all away.<o:p></o:p><P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri>Last week they rang to say Swift wouldn’t honour the warranty as we hadn’t yet had it serviced.<o:p></o:p><P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri>Can anyone suggest a next move?<o:p></o:p>
It matters not whether Swift honour the warranty as the contract is between you and the dealer under Sale of Goods Act. Due to their negligence the caravan was unable to be serviced on time.
It is the dealer's responsibility to ensure that all faults are rectified and from your post it sounds as if they are being very unreasonable about repairing the caravan.
I would write a very strongly worded letter to them outlining all the issues and reminding them of their obligations under the Sale Goods Act. Maybe advise them that as they have failed in the contract, you are considering taking it to another dealer for repair and that you will be claiming any costs back from them. Only do this if you are prepared to follow it through to the small claims court. Send the letter registered for a signature. From this point, try and keep everything in writing and request that they respond in writing.
If they still fail to respond after 14 days, come back on this forum for further advice as you will need to progress it. At that point, you will need to get an estimate for repairs from another dealer and use the small claims court to get judgement which is why you need to keep everything in writing including proof of posting.
We have purchased 2 brand new vans from Glossop and never had a problem. In 2010 we bought an Elddis Crusader Hurricane from Glossop and had a problem with the indicators/lights etc on the van whilst on holiday,we got the van home from our holiday in Whitby via Green Flag and on return contacted Glossop about a repair.
We explained that we were unable to tow the caravan to them as we didn't have any brake lights or anything and they said they would contact Elddis to see if they would cover the cost and get back to us. Sure enough they got back in touch and sent someone out to us to pick the caravan up and be repaired,no problem at all. Last year we traded the Elddis in for dealer special (yes i know after only a year) Glossop had offered to move our motor mover to the new van and found a problem with the mover (one of the bolts that engage the mover was bending and not working well) and the changed the bolt free of charge. It seems they do have problems i have seen a few things on here....but as a satisfied customer i felt it only fair come on and share this....especially for sake of June in the above post.
Glossop sell a heck of a lot of caravans-i remember when we picked ours up there was a 6 week wait to get a slot to pick it up!!! every day was fully booked!!! maybe the bigger picture might just be a fraction of people having problems?.....anyway good luck to the original post,hope you get sorted.
We bought a new Sterling from Glossop last year and was not at all mpressed with them sorting issues out. Just traded van in for a brand new Elddis Crusader Tempest bought through Derby Caravan Centre who I have to say so far have been 1st class.
We have bought from Glossop and have been very pleased with them and their after sales. Their servicing department were very good.Some people do have bad experiences and I do feel really sorry for them.
We bought a brand new Swift van from Lowdhams.That had fault after fault and we spent pounds in deisel going backwards and forwards to have them put right. We missed a few holiday weekends through this.The final straw was when they found 60% damp under a rear window and at the back during its first service. After having over twenty faults rectified and now damp we had had enough. Swift were the ones who built the caravan and they had a lot to answer for. After months of phone calls, visits and legal advice we were set on taking it all to court.
The caravan 'wasn't fit for purpose' end of. When the caravan was eighteen months old we managed to get it changed for another new one.It was another Swift which was brilliant, no faults whatever,Lowdhams also eventually managed to sort it
i also bought a caravan off glossop it was a second hand one and it was in tip top condition.It had three months warranty and twelve months insurance warranty and after four months i found out the fridge would not work on gas and the truma fire would not light up on gas so i phoned them up and got a slot to take it to the service department within a week,they had it two days when they phoned up it was ready.When i picked it up they done an honest job of it and as it was gas work they done, gave me a gas certificate.Glossop sells an awful lot of caravans every month we all hear about the sad tales and rightly so, but its a shame we dont hear of the hundreds of satified customers, every caravan dealer got the bad side but also the good side and where will i buy my next caravan from GLOSSOP
Thanks for re assurances nice to hear good things said,it makes me feel a lot less worried.We bought from Glossop because we wanted their Platinum version of the Pastiche it comes with a higher spec at a good price.Hopefully we will not need after sales anyway if going on our pastiche which we have had no problems at all with .
Quote: Originally posted by Surfer01 on 02/11/2012
Quote: Originally posted by agw1 on 01/11/2012<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri>Can anyone help?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN><FONT face=Calibri>We are at our wits end having bought a brand new <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Swift Charisma 545 from Glossop Caravans in August 11 and after our first weekend away discovered 7 snags including a serious design fault.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It took from then till January 12 for a solution to the design fault to be created and the van booked in for this and the other faults corrected.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p><P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri>On collection of the van we found one of the faults not corrected and were offered a mobile fitter to come to us, which they later refuted.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In March, our next trip out we found more than a dozen new faults<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>including some with the floor and 3 of the original faults not corrected.<o:p></o:p><P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri>It took a further 4 months for parts to arrive and we finally got the van to their workshop in October, travelling to which the wiring harness dropped off the bottom of the A frame, wearing it all away.<o:p></o:p><P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri>Last week they rang to say Swift wouldn’t honour the warranty as we hadn’t yet had it serviced.<o:p></o:p><P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face=Calibri>Can anyone suggest a next move?<o:p></o:p>
It matters not whether Swift honour the warranty as the contract is between you and the dealer under Sale of Goods Act. Due to their negligence the caravan was unable to be serviced on time.
It is the dealer's responsibility to ensure that all faults are rectified and from your post it sounds as if they are being very unreasonable about repairing the caravan.
I would write a very strongly worded letter to them outlining all the issues and reminding them of their obligations under the Sale Goods Act. Maybe advise them that as they have failed in the contract, you are considering taking it to another dealer for repair and that you will be claiming any costs back from them. Only do this if you are prepared to follow it through to the small claims court. Send the letter registered for a signature. From this point, try and keep everything in writing and request that they respond in writing.
If they still fail to respond after 14 days, come back on this forum for further advice as you will need to progress it. At that point, you will need to get an estimate for repairs from another dealer and use the small claims court to get judgement which is why you need to keep everything in writing including proof of posting.
I strongly advise the above to be followed. They are in breach of contract and the above is exactly the way to deal with it.
My only experience of glossop caravans was when they sorted out my awning annexes. We purchased them from glossop and they were supplied wrongly by sunncamp. Even though we had used them, we only found out when we unpacked them while away. Glossops swapped them and were very helpful, because sunncamp didn't want to know. Its not just caravan dealers I once spent £22,000 on a three year old black cab. When I collected it two weeks later none of the mechanical work needed for its taxi test had been done. Apparently the salesman wasn't "authorised" to agree such work. So I had to take taxi, get work done myself, cost £460 .then argue to get my money back. Which I did. I think people do have problems but also they must have a lot of satisfied customers.
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Topic: Glossop caravans aftersales
. I think that the Glossops manager had a bit of a ticking off about it to be quite honest but it appears that unless you know someone with a high status in the caravan industry then you have a lengthy battle on your hands with Glossops as they won't cave in easily. Try speaking to your local trading standards and see what their advice is.
