New caravan falling to bits and the sellers aren't interested

Hi all,
To cut a long story short we purchased a brand new caravan about a year and a half ago and it has and is gradually falling to bits.
I have been a long and hard telephon and email battle with Robinsons (not the jam makers ) for a while now and I am posting the email conversations between us both below for you to look at and hopefuly advise me on as I honestly am not 100% sure where I stand yet.
We have also had phone conversations too.
The last one was yesterday when I was told I need to contact the Black Horse finance company, which I have done earlier and sent them copies of the emails below.
Any help would be much appreciated and any questions will be answered asap (I do work full time and don't get home until 4.30pm).
It is a very long post I am sorry as I wanted to include as much detail as possible, and is best read from the bottom of the post upwards.
Thank you very much.
Mark.

Hi C,

Thank you for the e-mail and phone call earlier regarding the next steps to be taken.
I will be in touch with Black Horse finance later and will also be seeking expert advice on the wheel matter.
I must say that I didn’t think it would come to this but I am not going to stop now until it is sorted one way or the other ( I thought a little customer care could have resolved this matter easier).
I will be forwarding these e-mails to various caravan magazines and newspapers and watchdog type television programmes.
I am sorry you seem to be taking the brunt of my outrage all the time as you have only been doing your job and the phone call earlier was very helpful and probably saved us all some embarrassment.
I don’t suppose you can give me any contact information that will get directly to the manager/owner of Robinsons?

Thanks
Mark


Apologies for the delay in replying. I have just returned to work this morning after few days annual leave and opened your most recent email.
Please be assured that I will be able to give you a more detailed reply by 4pm this afternoon.

Regards





Hi Ca,

11 days later I am still waiting for a reply, this is disgusting!!
I am assuming you have swept this matter under the carpet and just don’t care.
I will give you until the end of play on Monday 20th of this month 2010.
If I have not heard from you by then I will be arriving at your Brimmington site about 5pm on the Tuesday with the caravan.
I will be expecting someone of some authority to be there to discuss this matter with, and if it is not resolved to our satisfaction, the caravan will stay with you until I have proved a full repair, replacement or refund is required.
Look forward to seeing you Tuesday.

Mr





Hi

In reply to your comments I have the following comments to make.

I have been in touch with the insurance company and they are telling me that for a wheel to fall off a brand new caravan, for no reason whatsoever, and after only 540 miles (Yes I have worked out the mileage give or take a couple) must have been caused by a faulty or possibly over tightened wheel nut or nuts (any slight fault on even one nut) that has gradually worsened over the few miles it had done, this would then cause loosening of the remaining nuts (unnoticeable until it is too late) resulting, as I stated in an earlier e mail that the nuts where found in a pile a few yards back down the road as if the wheel had been pulled off by some powerful machinery.
It wasn’t until we heard the loose wheel (obviously rolling about and causing damage to the wheel arch spat and rear sill) that we knew something was wrong and immediately pulled over upon where the wheel dropped off, had it not been for the spare wheel carrier under the van I think the damage would have been worse.
So obviously they told me it should be covered by the manufacturer or suppliers warranty as they know how long we have owned the caravan and how old it is etc.
I told them I may have invalidated my warranty by not having it serviced within a year and 60 days of purchasing it, we discussed a lot of things, it would take me forever to recite the whole conversation but they bought up a few good points which I am now going to explain to you.
They first of all asked if it was made perfectly clear upon purchasing the caravan the conditions of the warranty.
I now know the conditions after reading them in the handbook but wasn’t made aware at the time or I would have assured it was serviced on time.
Secondly after the damaged occurred on April the 2nd I contacted Robinsons within a week (making this contact well within the year and 60 days) about what had happened and for a price for the repairs and was never told at any time by Paul I think his name was or anyone else for that matter, and obviously you have all the details and dates etc. That the caravan was due a service to keep the warranty valid, or I would again have had it serviced immediately.
Instead I got a ridiculous estimate of about £375 I think it was for the repairs including labour costs of £150 for a job which I think I could have performed myself in about half an hour.
Which is why I declined the repairs and started trying to source the parts for myself, which is why this has dragged on so long before contacting you again more recently about this and other things that are wrong with the caravan.
I mean the awning light has been temperamental since the day of purchase but you have your holidays booked for the year and think ‘I will let Robinsons know about this problem after our holidays as it is something we can live with, and our holidays are booked, and can’t be altered as we have set holidays where we work’.
The interior down light surrounds have also been dropping off gradually from day one but again you just think the same.
The bed I thought was not level, I have checked with a level and found it is level and it was the accumulation of bed sheet and duvet thickness at one end under the mattress that caused the feeling of it not being level.
The gas bottle cover situation has been resolved although I am yet to contact him until all this other stuff has been resolved satisfactorily.
Anyway getting to the main point considering all the above, and considering your blunt “warranty is invalid” reply I have come to the conclusion that you at least try to reconsider the terms of your warranty (In this case especially), taking into consideration what has happened to the van over so little time and extremely low mileage, and the fact that we were never made aware of the terms of the warranty upon purchase or during an estimate for repairs, and not so much as a letter or e mail or phone call as a reminder.
I am currently seeking legal advice on the matter and will be contacting Trading Standards and any other services that may be helpful.
All I am asking is that this matter is reconsidered by you and sorted out to our satisfaction, as apart from these faults I don’t think I would have a different caravan, the layout and weight was ideal for us.
My Hands are now getting tired of typing so if the correspondence is not satisfactory I think we ought to have a meeting about the matter.
I am beginning to learn my rights as a customer of an unsatisfactory product and even more unsatisfactory customer aftercare and as I said I am seeking legal advice on this matter and will go to newspapers if necessary and am even looking into claiming a full refund or replacement due to the Merchantable Quality of the caravan given its price and longevity.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Mark





Good Afternoon Mr.
Following your email, I have now had a chance to speak to the people with the necessary technical knowledge and would make the following comments.

1. It would seem that the incident with your wheels would be an insurance issue rather than a warranty one. If the wheel had come off due to a manufacturing fault, it would have manifested itself before April and we would have had similar incidents of this kind if it was common to that particular model of van. Therefore we suggest that you contact your insurance company for their advice regarding making a claim.

• Regarding the gas bottle box being painted, I have spoken to Tony from Nottingham Trim Repairs who was able to recall going out to your home to do the job but he was unable to because it was raining. He can remember giving you one of his business cards and suggested that you call him when the weather changed and so that you could agree a mutually suitable date for the work to be done. Having heard nothing for over a year, he assumed that you had either resolved it yourself or decided not to have it done. He can still be contacted on his mobile number: 0797 . As we have already promised you that this work would be done, please ring him and he has the authorisation from us to complete the job and invoice us accordingly.

• Your Service Handbook states: ‘Remember your annual service is important to maintain the validity of your warranty and must be carried out by an NCC or Lunar Approved Service Centre using genuine parts, recommended sealants and following Lunar procedures, failure to do so will invalidate your warranty. Your Lunar warranty is conditional on annual servicing being carried out within 60 days either side of the anniversary of the purchase date for interim years. Your service handbook must be stamped accordingly.’ As this has not been done, this means that you have invalidated the warranty and therefore no parts or labour can be claimed under the warranty. If you would like us to obtain an estimate for any replacement parts & labour, please let us know.

Hope this answers your queries but if we can be of any further assistance, please let us know.

Regards

Hi Carole,

Thanks for forwarding my email on to the Service Department.
The Caravan was serviced or checked by Robinsons upon purchase before we actually picked it up and hasn’t had another service yet.
A good friend of ours who deals in caravans recommended Derbyshire Caravan Services at Chesterfield, so the Caravan was booked in for its first service after our upcoming August bank holiday trip to Skegness, but I don’t really want it servicing while parts of it are missing, I may arrange a later service with them or yourselves afterwards.
The incident with the wheel happened on the Friday the 2nd of April as we were on our way to Skegness, the incident luckily occurred in Alfreton about 5 minutes into the journey.
As for the person who came to repair the gas box lid, I cannot remember his name or the company he worked for but I do know that when we were sold the van, Roger told us that the bloke who would come and do the repair didn’t work for Robinsons and he didn’t come in a Robinsons van.
Hope this information helps.
Hope to hear from you soon and Thank you.

Mark


Good Afternoon Mr.
I’ve received a copy of your email and will forward this to our Service Department for investigation. However in order to expediate the matter, please can you let me have the following information:

• When was your first service carried out? If this wasn’t done by ourselves, do you have proof of service as this would be required if a warranty claim proves necessary?
• When did the incident with the wheel happen? You mention it was on your fourth outing with the van but don’t specify a date?
• Was the person who came out to repair the gas box in a ‘Robinsons’ van or a ‘Nottingham Trim Repairs’ van?

Once I have this information, I will forward to the necessary party for them to reply more fully.
Thank you.


Hi,

We purchased a Lunar Zenith EB from new, from your Brimington department last year.
Since we have had the caravan we have now used it six times in total, but from the first time we used it we have noticed that the exterior (awning) light is very temperamental, bits of the interior lighting casing have slowly started falling apart (photos attached), when you are lay in bed you tend to roll from the edge of the bed (near the side of the van) to the middle of the van, and on closer inspection it isn’t level and doesn’t even look level (photo attached.
On our fourth outing in the van we had a wheel fall off the van for no apparent reason, I have always tested the wheel nuts with a torque wrench according to the user manual before every journey and have never had to tighten the nuts, but on this journey the wheel came off (luckily it was in a built up area and we were only going about 20mph) and the second i realised something was wrong i pulled over and the wheel fell off.
The wheel took with it the rear sill and wheel spat, as I walked back up the road to collect the debris I found all five wheel nuts almost in a pile as if the wheel had been pulled off by some powerful mechanical puller, and there was no threads left on any of them.
I have been quoted a price for the job since and couldn’t believe how much it was going to cost.
I have since tried to source the parts and do the job myself at a third of the cost, but I thought “hang on a minute, surely we are covered by some sort of warranty as the van is just over a year old?”
The service handbook says we are covered by a 3 year warranty.
Also when we first purchased the van the lid on the front where the gas bottle etc. Is stored had been damaged (I think they said it was during the moving of it whilst on the forecourt) it had been filled but it had been done in a haphazard way.
We were told that someone would come to us and repair it professionally at an arranged date and time.
Someone came out to do the repair but it was raining and another date and time was arranged, we have never seen him again!
So I thought it was about time I listed all the things wrong with the caravan and asked the question as to what can be done about it?
As the wheel nuts on the van have never had to be tightened by myself I know they could never have been loose so after consulting various engineers etc. I have been told they could have been over tightened from the start.
So there are the issues of the exterior light, the interior light fittings, the bed, the wheel falling off resulting in the damage to the wheel arch spat and rear sill and the lid which covers the front storage area that all require addressing.
I have attached photos relating to all of the above except the damage to the front lid that was never repaired.
After paying £11,500 for a new caravan I find all the above mentioned problems totally unacceptable and I would like you to get back to me as soon as possible with the next steps on what we/you have to do about it.
Apart from this the caravan has been great, we have had some great times in it and are very happy with it.
The caravan was purchased in the name of my partner which is Amanda and the Vin number is Any further information can be provided on request.

Thankyou for your time and hope to hear from you soon,

Mark