Picked up my new 2011 van two days ago from one of North Yorkshire`s leading dealers.When I asked about the absence of a number plate, the salesman asked if I had kept the plate from my old van.I had part exchanged my old van with them two weeks ago so off he went to find the van and remove the number plate and put it on the new van.
What if they had sold the old van?
So now I have a new caravan with an old number plate bearing the name and logo of one of their competitors!
Next I asked about a propane pigtail-which I know isn`t supplied with a new van-but has previously always been provided FOC.I had to go and buy one.
The salesman also watched me struggle to fit the Leisure battery to the van ,which I had brought with me in my car
Is this business with the number plate normal practice?
Or am I being fussy?
whats the problem a number plate is matched to the tow car and nothing to do with a caravan.
if he fitted the Batt and a fault happened he may have been liable. I think he is right. if the van was sold it would not have your numberplate on it and if it did thats their problem not yours.
Never had this problem with any caravan bought old or new.
always been ready for me to tow away.
when i have bought new the manufacturer has sent me a questioner that asks about your dealers preformance, your oppertunity to comment.
Bet you did not get a spare wheel,please mention this and maybe thing will change.
mi spill spekers nit wonking.
Sounds a bit cheap skate not to include the plate, I've always been asked what I wanted swapping from the old to the new ie battery or anything else for that matter.
Our last caravan was supplied by Orpington caravans, when we went to collect it they swapped everything from the old van to the new one and also fitted the Alko towball for us, then hitched it onto the car. We bought our current van from Discover last year and we had to do the lot ourselves, even had to keep my old number plate but that wasn't so bad as it was supplied by a car accessory shop.
Certainly when one has just spent £1000s one expects to be treated like royalty but of course one never is. I doubt the salesman knew how to fit a leisure battery, the pipe wern't free 'cos their profits are cut to the bone so I imagine they give nowt away. Spares dept would have invoiced sales dept for pipe btw.
If old 'van had been sold they might have kept the plate for you. New plate situation is as explained.
I too had this, got van home looked in gas locker no pigtail swift did not supply them in 2010 the excuse being we didn,t know if you are using propane or butane
So i rang local caravan engineer who came and fitted a nice s/s one £40 for 2011 swift are now fitting as standard a pigtail but i don,t know if its s/s
when i bought my van a few months ago, dealer asked me, wot pig tail do you need Propane or butane, I told them to put a propane one on. they fitted this before i picked up the van, But i changed my mind on which pig tail, so they fitted a butane tail on, so i have both in the locker, And they fitted the number plate on, But i supplied it.They cant issue number plates. Plus they fitted my battery on the van.
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Its not a hangover, its wine flu!
My issue is that the salesman said that he could not supply a plate-which I now know is correct. He should have asked me to bring a plate with me. When the salesman returned with my old plate he said "you`re lucky we still have the old plate" So I could have turned up to collect my van and could not tow it because it had no number plate.
Perhaps I have been spoiled in the past with my previous new vans when all were supplied by small dealerships with dealer number plate, gas pigtail ,gas bottles and battery transferred too.
I think I expected too much.
We have just bought our first caravan from a local dealer called Newport caravans. Our service was pretty outstanding compared to the OP. Our caravan was only a 2003 Elddis, purchase price £4995 (not a 2011 mega bucks van), it was on the sales yard for £5395, we negotiated included in the purchase price an awning with bed annexe and a starter pack including a wheel clamp, hitchlock, aquaroll, wastemaster, leisure battery, gas bottle, metal step, new water pump, hitchcover, twin pack of thetford chemicals and a few other bits n bobs. When we turned up our van was out ready for us with a man called Bob there to spend an hour with us showing us all how everything works, he had done our numberplate, connected everything including the battery and bottle and just as we were about to leave I mentioned to Scott our salesman that there was no spare wheel in the van. Off he went, two minutes later he came back, all sorted he said, brand new spare wheel all fitted in the van for you he said. Bob hitched the van to my car and we were waved off. Had a problem with my status aerial, rang Scott the sales guy who sold us the van, after a bit of negotiation, they are coming out to the house to collect our van, take it in, replace the aerial with the new digital model and bring it back to us and the best bit is with no charge. There are obviously still dealers out there who are willing to go the extra mile, we have been extremely fortunate on our first purchase to find one I think. Thing is, now I would have no hesitation is recommending them to others or in taking my van there year on year for servicing and then going back to them in the future when we are upgrading. It makes good business sense to have excellent customer service as a good reputation is priceless.
Well done Donna. That is the kind of service I have had in the past and that is what I expected from the "Dealer of the Year 2010" -unfortunately I didn`t get it.
Just picked up my new caravan (new to me) on wednesday. My car is new too so I needed a numberplate. Lowdham Leisureworld made one up for me FOC on production of the registration document for the car and my driving licence.
I dont understand why you are complaining. When you negotiate with the salesman to get the best price for your van you should also make sure that any things you want swapping over or extras should be negotiated at that time, thats what the gap is at the bottom of the form. It is your legal responsibility to ensure the caravan is fit for the road. Once you have done the deal the salesman he takes his commission and his job is done.
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with a limited inventory
Chalkie I think you are missing the point. When I did the deal for the caravan there was no mention of number plate or anything that needed to be swapped over.I am not an expert on these matters ,the salesman should perhaps have pointed this out to me. The paperwork was done when I picked the van up ,too late to write anything on the form.
I am "complaining "about the fact that I almost couldn`t take my van away because I wasn`t told that I had to provide my own number plate because in the past my vans came with a new plate supplied by the dealer(last van bought Sept 08) and I was always asked what kind of pigtail I wanted.
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Topic: New van, old plate and no pigtail??
