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Hi before a dealer try's to tell you when you NEED to get your van serviced here are the facts some dealers dont know off this is after being told i NEED to have van serviced before the anniversary date on the 3 rd service, the following is direct from Bailey:

 The Alu-tech 3rd year service was to tighten the rail bolts. Due to exhaustive testing here at the factory this will now no longer be required so the service change will be at a standard service rate . You have six weeks either side of the service anniversary date to have the van serviced before it affects the warranty.

 The same applies to all of our vans you have six weeks either side of the anniversary service date for each service.

Regards

Jo Barrington

 Bailey Caravans

My mate's been on to Bailey and his dealer Lowdham's about this 3rd year service and he's been told he needn't get the main rails checked and the service cost should be as for a normal service. He's just emailed Bailey to query why the cost of his second service was £100 more than the first one when they did no extra work on the caravan.

                 Jim

I suspect that you may be missing a trick here due to a misunderstanding of how contracts operate.

Bailey has a 6 year bodyshell warranty and a two year manufacturers warranty. The manufacturers warranty then extends for a further 12 months but is limited to those matters specified in the warranty.

For the warranty to remain valid you have to comply with certain conditions including having the van serviced six weeks either side of the anniversary date of purchase. Sticking to the letter of the Bailey warranty (and I am sure they will as well), that timetable is for the purposes of keeping your warranty valid only. It is not there for the purposes of a claim, which still needs to arise within the warranty period and you need to recognise that distinction.

As you come up to the third year, if you leave your service until after that third year, but within the six week period, and a manufacturers warranty issue is discovered during that service, it is all too easy then for the manufacturer to claim that the defect is outside of the warranty period. The fact that you have had the van serviced within that six week period can count for nothing as you will need to show that the defect ocurred before the warranty period expired. That period is three years and not three years and six weeks. You can only be absolutely certain that a defect arose within the three year warranty if it is spotted in that time.

Hence, it makes sense to have your third years service before the anniversary date and maybe that is what your Dealer was alluding to.

I suspect that if you come up with a defect after the three years, but three years and five weeks, you may find that you pay for the defect to be put right yourself.

Protect yourself and get that third year service BEFORE your three years is up.

Then, when you get to the end of the bodyshell warranty get the service BEFORE your six years runs out. It's your money...protect it.

Phil