Track Trailers - Tvans & Customer Service (The good & not so good)

G'dat The Landy

I agree with you on two counts. First, you'd think the warranty on the item would start afresh when it's replaced and second, you'd think at that cost, supporting your product might be a little more flexible. Could be worse I suppose, you could be a VW owner wondering if you are going to lose power and wondering whether Das Auto has a solution.

Cheers
John

Warranty is a wonderful thing IF ,,,the manufacturer honours it and IF the end user does not abuse the application of the terms of the warranty , in your case Landy the warranty should have restarted on the swapped out component , thing is a lot of people abuse the written and implied 'warranty' to the extent that manufactures have to query and disallow claims ,,,, oops my 12mth warranty on my Bunnings bought Electric drill is nearly up , better return it of a new one ,,,,,,,,,lol.

Hate to tell you it's not just Track who offer poor after sale service especially if out of warranty.

We have an Ultimate camper and have had a few small common problems with our last two we have owned...... Ultimate could not care less and were bordering on arrogant.

that's a fairly common fault with some of the T vans , the problem started
when they had to change suppliers for one of the materials used
mechpete

I wish my warranty experience with my Avan from Alan Grahams was a good as yours, Landy.

I will never darken their doorstep again.

There is far too much fun to be had in the outback to dwell on it this issue, so I won’t…

But I do have one last final comment that I’ll direct to the Track Management Team…

This was not about the $250 that the skylight cost, so I have donated it to the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) in recognition of the work it does for the people who live and work in the outback.

For those travellers’ who venture outback, many of who are owners of a Track Tvan or Topaz Van.



Every time a traveller hitch’s up a product with the “Track Badge” it says to others that they are willing to support the high-end market of camper trailers and specialist vans that is the “Track Brand” – consumers supporting a company that for the most part produces a great product.

I am one of those people…

You can spend all the dollars in the world on advertising, but you can never buy the advocacy that a happy customer can provide you with; you will only be able to earn that…

But hey, tell you what, why not match my donation to the RFDS even if you don’t agree with my viewpoint?

After all, most of your customers are out and about in the Outback.


Cheers, Baz – “The Landy”

I similarly found their service appalling. I wanted to get a wheel alignment done and contacted them several times to find out where it could be done. Nothing .. nada .. nought!!!!!

Thankfully, some good folk on this forum sent me instructions on how to do it and now I don't need to worry.

My thoughts on Tvans. They have a terrific suspension setup, upon which they rest their laurels, because what sits on top of that suspension is no better than most mid-range camper trailers, and in many cases, worse. Trying to open the kitchen with the ridiculous push button catches is a case in point. I will continue to use mine until I've had enough, after which I won't buy another one. If they had decided to provide some service I'd probably not feel so cheeses off with them.

Note to Tvan ... you reap as you sow.

Jack

I did post this thread to the Track Trailer Face book page to enable the company a right of reply and further comment should they choose - it has been removed by them, without comment.

Fair enough I say, that is the company’s prerogative, perhaps negative feedback is something they have difficulty dealing with…

I provided constructive feedback, ultimately it is up to the company’s management to benefit from it should they choose, I guess!

And once again, kudos to the Alan Graham team, it wasn’t all a negative experience!

Cheers, The Landy

Landy

You bought a Trailer that came with a fixed term warranty, the manufacturer has honoured the warranty and replaced a part - one that was not made by him. Now it is out of warranty and the same part has failed again.
And you are now complaining and publicly trying to shame the manufacturer! What has he done wrong, beside some poor customer relations.
Why dont you shame the manufacturer of the vent, after all it is his product that has failed twice.
Many people believe that parts replaced under warranty should receive a whole new warranty period instead of the remainder of the main warranty just because it is a $50k trailer. How many have read the warranty terms relative to a $120k car. Very few manufacturers of anything will provide a new warranty on replaced parts.

Alan

Please note. This is a reply from the Track Trailer Marketing Team.

Firstly, addressing Barry’s (Landy’s) issue. As pointed out by Barry three years have passed since the Remis skylight was replaced. The warranty did reset, but has since expired by two years.

All Track Trailer’s come with an industry leading manufactures warranty, three years on all body and build components and five on all chassis and suspension. In addition to this we pass on individual manufactures warrantees. Now.. Some of our suppliers are fantastic and offer extended warrantees to match us and our products applications, such as Koni who have three years!
But unfortunately most manufacturer’s only choose to warrant their products to the minimum required 12months.

Please let us remind you that we are not a multinational or conglomerate with an unlimited budget and while you’re more than happy to point at our “cost” as justification as to why we should extend our suppliers warrantee (up to 3 times longer than they offer) please note that our cost is directly related to keeping our manufacturing here in Australia.

Yes we are a premium product and yes we are committed to continually improving our product to make it more user friendly and to design out possible weaknesses. Jack, please note that we changed the locker doors to which you are referring in 2010, along with the complete re-design of the Tvan body(MK3). We would also like to find out what happened in relation to you not receiving the advice you required. Please contact Lloyd 03 8727 6100, so we can prevent this kind of problem from occurring again.
“Mechpete” please note that we haven’t changed this hatch manufacturer since 2003 and that delimitation isn’t a common issue.

Parting words: *steps on a soapbox*
We are a real company with long term commitments to improving service and product offering. We’ve been around since 1985 and we aim to be around for the decades to come.

There are fantastic cases were we have gone above and beyond for customers and there are cases were we have let them down. We are human, we are local and we are working very hard to reduce instances where our customers feel that our service is subpar.

If you have a problem with our service or product talk to us. 03 8727 6100.

As for the RFDS they are a fantastic charity and we applaud you for your donation, but we won’t be matching you. We recently raised a similar amount for “Jeans for Genes day” as a part of our ongoing community work, which includes staff members sponsoring a Ugandan child through the Child Fund, raising funds for Movember and holding a work BBQ for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. We will organise our next charity day to support the RFDS.

Thanks for your time

Regards
Lloyd Waldron
Track Trailer Marketing Manager.

Just a comment re consumer law and rights: rights don't expire with the warranty.

The product has to be of merchantable or effective quality given the uses of the product.

We bought a new (in 2011) Murranji Mk 3 with all the fruit. After having had a number of previous CT's it was the trailer that we aspired to own for a long time.
Difficulties with ball weight issues led us to be in direct contact with Track Trailers.
Unfortunately they were of no help and their support of either us or the selling dealer was non existant!
The selling dealer ended up taking the trailer back for a full refund, then they disassociated themselves with Track Trailers.

Read the long story at My Swag dot org.

Tuco

Hi Landy

The balanced response from you is nothing less than what I would have expected though we haven't been in touch for 4 odd years. Well done!

Regards
Steve

Its great to see a manufacturer come onto a forum to bat for their product. Well done Lloyd (I don't know you and have never met or spoken to you).

I want to see your product continue to come out of your factory in Melbourne and not come out on a ship from China.

I have nothing to do with Track Trailer - just bought a well used 2003 Tvan 2 years ago.

Lloyd Waldron, the Sales and Marketing Manager of Track Trailer, and I have had a lengthy telephone discussion on the company’s products, and importantly what the Track team are doing to improve its customer service.

The company understands why I took the stance I did in regards to its customer service in this instance, and as indicated previously I understand it cannot warranty its product inputs forever.

Whilst it would have been more beneficial to have had this discussion much earlier, and in private, I think the key take-away from my perspective is the company acknowledges short-comings it can have at times in its customer service area, but is constantly working to improve this.

They are to be congratulated for looking to improve; the care factor is there.

I am pleased the company has taken the time to respond in a professional way and this gives me every confidence to continue extolling the great virtues of the company’s product offering. It is a great product and that is why we have a T-Van.

I have sent a note to the Exploroz moderating team suggesting this thread be closed to further comment as I’m not sure further comment will add anything...of course it is up to them to do so, if agreeable, however, I have no further comment beyond this.

Cheers, Baz – The Landy