<span class="highlight">Caravan</span> warranty

I'd try the bluff, give me another years warranty or I'll buy a second hand one same make same specs for a lot less.?????

I believe it depends on what you buy and from whom. We have a Evernew van; four years down the track we had water seeping from the ensuite. After checking the obvious I concluded we had a broken pipe in the wall. Contacted Evernew and spoke to owner, Bruce Bailey after a brief discussion, I was to take it back to the factory.

The short story is there were no broken pipes, just a crack in the cap of toilet flush tank overflow. After spending 4 hrs cutting holes in the cupboard and inspecting pipes etc, I was expecting to pay a few hundred $ for their time. After all the problem was not warranty. Bruce was helping me hook up the van and I asked " what do I owe you Bruce?" The response was a slap on the shoulder "we're just pleased you are happy with your van". I have spoken to other Evernew owners who cite similar stories.

Cheers
Racey

Customer advocacy, no amount of money can ever buy it – you can only ever earn it…

Great story…

The new consumer legislation (Gillard Government) clearly states that a manufacturer cannot just walk away from a warranty obligation that a "reasonable person" would expect. That is, according to the amount of money spent and the expected longevity of the product, a manufacturer is liable for faults in the product. The product must be repaired or replaced. I recently won a battle with a manufacturer of a product costing about $300 which failed to work satisfactorily after a few months. They tried to claim an exclusion clause in their warranty meant that I had to pay the costs of repairs or adjustments. After I quoted the new legislation in detail, showing that a warranty cannot be removed by any waiver or exclusion clause a purchaser may have signed, the bill for repairs was withdrawn. Manufacturers are expected to provide products that are "fit for purpose" with a longevity expected by a "reasonable person".
A consumer friendly summary of this legislation is available on line from the Dept of Consumer affairs. I am sure it would apply to caravan manufacturers who try to pretend they have no obligation to make a van that is "fit for purpose" for more than a year!

Very similar story to above with my Kedron, 6 yers old now, developed a leak in the roof mind you AFTER I had hit the roof with a high pressure water cleaner.... Spoke to Kedron .......... full roof reseal ..........NO charge .........great people to deal with ....very happy customer

Having been in business for more years than I care to remember,m the best "salesman" sorry "salesperson" is the satisfied customer. The most effective way to handicap your business is to have multiple dissatisfied customers. They will tell anyone who will stand around long enough what a thorough bastard you are embellished to the nth degree.
It takes a while to build up a good reputation, very little time to destroy it.

Cheers
Pop

As others have said the 12 month warranty isn't the full extent of your cover as consumer protection laws go way beyond that.
We bought a new Goldstream 2 years ago and had problems right off with tyres wearing rapidly (retailer George Day in WA said wheel alignment but did nothing to check if that was so), curtain lining full of holes said by Goldstream to be moth eaten although holes were in straight lines), curtains eventually replaced after George Days service girls chased them up (thnx to Jodie & Tamara) and sent heaps of pics to them. Plus pelmets and head protector over the door fell off, drawers opened when closed and locked.
We received new curtains tightly screwed up into a bundle and taped and wrapped in plastic. Nothing like good customer service Shaun.
I went to WAs consumer affairs people and they negotiated a new tyre to replace the badly worn one and new shocks.
That failed to fix the problem and the tyre fitter checked all 3 wheels and found 2 were nearly 12 mm out of true, the third was only just acceptable. The original tyre fitter should have noticed this but I doubt Goldstream would cared anyway from their attitude.
The retailer immediately said we were out of warranty, van hadn't been serviced in accordance with their instructions, van had been mis-used, in fact anything to get out of doing anything.
At no time did Goldstream even bother answering emails about our problems.
So off we went to the small claims court as consumer affairs said this would be the best way to get to the manufacturer, a notice of the action was served on them (GDay)and Goldstream paid up immediately for the amount we claimed.
Steve Day the retailers GM advised he wouldn't have settled but his attitude along with his fathers (original owner of the company, now deceased) is always the customer is wrong if they can't fix it with a tube of silicone.
This the second rv from Goldstream, third from George Day and definitely the last from both of them.
Do not accept what they say if they won't admit any liability, there's help out there even if it takes a bit of time to get what you want.
AlanH.
PS. It appears from our latest trip (1000klm) that our problems may have all stemmed from the badly bent and unbalanced wheels as we suspected, as the tyre wear seems to have gone and nothing dropped off.:-)
Further, when the maker says that everything is to "industry standard" don't accept it, there's no standards, it's whatever they can get away with.

Leone C.

You say that you have had several vans both new and 2nd hand. You also mention you have had warranty of 12 months. I have purchased two second hand vans and have been told there is no warranty on second hand vans. Guess living in Cairns has its draw backs in more ways than one.

rider au

We have had 2 new caravans over the years. Both had badly misaligned wheels - 11 mm toe-out on the first and 10 mm on the second, so things are getting better. Both had solid axles, so you would expect zero toe-in or toe-out. The first van was a Viscount, the second Jayco.

Now I have started on the Jayco... Their service was appalling. I have had 2 power supplies fail - ultimately bought a different system and installed it myself - 10 yrs down the track it is still going. The overhead cupboards fell apart in 4 separate places. I had to screw them back on the road. The roof sealing was suspect. But the worst was the axles.

After 18 months, I had about 18000 km up and noted the inside edge of the tread was worn to the steel belt. Jayco warranty is 2 yrs or 20000 km, so I rang Jayco. "No sir - the warranty for the wheels is by AL-CO and it is only 12 months". I bought a new tyre and fitted the brand new spare and limped home. I checked the alignment and found 10 mm toe-out. Because I had to be in Sydney for a while with the van, I removed the axle and turned it around to equalise the tyre wear (I also had to re-set the brakes because they were then back to front). Whilst doing the removal, I noted that the axle was offset from the chassis. About 20 mm to the left. The chassis rail had been dented by the U bolt, seriously weakening the chassis. I took photos and composed a letter to Jayco, informing them politley that they had stuffed up in their manufacture. What were they going to do about it?

They studiously ignored my letter. I sent 3 faxes to them, asking for a reply. I made numerous phonecalls, and the service manager was not available, but would ring back. Finally, I had to go to Melbourne on another matter, so I removed the axle again and loaded it into my trailer. I went to the Jayco factory and the guard at the gate told me to park over near the showroom door. I did this - the trailer was parked such that anyone who wanted to get in or out of the showroom had to walk through my trailer! I then asked to see the service manager. He was in his office, and when I told him my problem, his reply was that he wished he had been informed about it before I went this far! A mushroom cloud then formed over my head. I told him of the letter, the faxes, the phone messages. He looked through his in-tray (piled up about 30 cm high) and then he found all but one of the phone messages and all of the other correspondence. He then bum shuffled the issue onto AL-KO, but I insisted that the fault was with Jayco because they had fitted the axle way off centre. Eventually he agreed. He said that Jayco would repair the chassis by welding a steel plate on the side of the chassis (the bottom of the chassis rail was bent - not the sides). He sent the axle to AL-KO to be straightened.

To their credit, AL-KO were wonderful. They 'straightened' the axle, but it still had about 7 mm toe-in. They said that some toe-in was necessary on a solid axle to gice it stability. I cannot see that myself, but I accepted it. They freighted it back to my home, and also reimbursed me for the new tyre I bought. Short story made long, I wore out the next set of tyres in about 40000 km, and was well on the way to wearing out the next set when I contacted AL-KO from Tom Price, asking them what the toe-in should be. When I got home, there was a letter from them asking me to send the axle to them at their expense and they would make me a new axle, which they did. By this time, the van had about 130000 km on it and it was 11 years old. AL-Ko's service was AI.

The tyres now are wearing evenly (despite still having about 4 mm toe-in). An aftertought - one of the hubs collapsed about 100 km from home. I felt a sudden increase in drag, and thought I had a flat tyre. I checked and all looked OK, so I drove home with no more problems - the extra drag had gone. Next morning I decided to repack the wheel bearings before I put the van away, and jacked up the wheel, only to find excessive end float on the bearings. I checked the castle nut and all was good there, so checking the bearing, I found the hub had partially collapsed. I phoned the service manager of AL-KO, asking him for details as to where I could get a new hub. He asked me to send him the old one (and the other as well) so they could examine it. He sent me 2 new hubs (free of charge). This was probably after 135000km. They examined the hub and found a small defect. Now that is what I call GOOD customer service (especially compared to Jayco).