Lowdhams bad service

I bought my Eriba new from them in Nottingham in 2017. I went with the service pack they offered as it included the expensive HYmer/Eriba water ingress test at a very good price. 

I was travelling from Essex to collect the new vehicle and phoned to confirm the specified motor mover had been fitted. I was assured it had and drove up. They had not fitted the correct model and I had to return a few days later. When I did the handover was not really very good and the van was filthy. I subsequently found stone chips to the front of the van and told them I expected a touch up paint that I would not be paying for. I was not impressed and things did not really get any better.

Since then I have  found the aftersales/service side of things to be very hit and miss. Following our move to Merseyside the final straw came in 2019. I had a cracked front light fairing that was to be replaced at service time. The item had been photographed by me for identification and sent off. The warranty work was agreed and the part ordered in. After a near 3 hour drive through snow and wind in late Feb I delivered the van at 10am for the works to be done so I could return home that afternoon. They had the wrong part and asked me to leave the van and return a week later to collect it. I refused, told them they would return it to my home address at there cost and walked out.

The van was returned a couple of weeks later and I then cancelled my contract and have had the van serviced elsewhere.

If anybody is planning on dealing with them I can however recommend the awning department. They were very on the ball and helpful when dealing with a Kampa awning that was not fit for purpose. They arranged home collection of the awning back to Kampa for alterations. When this did not solve the problem I was given a full refund. A year later an version 2 came available which they supplied at about a 35% discount to the normal selling price.

Colin

Im sorry to say its not just lowdhams once most dealers have your money thats the end of good service ONLY INTERESTED IN SALES. read reviews from a dealer in catterick and its not ropers ?

Over the last 25 years we've had four vans from Lowdhams and always found the sales side to be excellent, however the aftersales and service lets the place down. When we had the current van brand new eight years ago, after a few months the fridge stopped working on electricity and would only work on gas.  They had it three weeks and couldn't pin point the problem.  Called Dometic to complain and they knew exactly what the problem was.  They sent an engineer out and he fixed it. Why they hadn't called them in the first place is unknown!

Likewise you can only drop your caravan off for a service and pick it up afterwards when there's an R in the month and they need it a week to carry out a service. I now have my done by a mobile engineer.

We bought a brand new swift from them in 2020 (ordered prior to lockdown, collected June 2020).  It took until June 2022 to get our initial snagging list resolved properly, despite having had the van serviced by them in 2021.  This was all with their Huddersfield site which closed last year.  I now use a swift approved workshop for servicing.  I did wonder if their Nottingham site may have been better but I suspect not.

We had a caravan from their Huddesfield site and had similar issues very poor service, after one

annual service we went to collect it and was given the key to inspect the van to find a perfect foot print in the middle of the fixed bed mattress, it was never the same for us we looked after the van in every way to find this was very disappointing.

I bought a caravan from them 20 odd years ago and the Service Dept was terrible then. I bought a MH from them a few years ago thinking that they might have improved. Sadly they hadn't and we had a terrible time with a Swift. A £1 plastic cover that covered a 12v outside port fell off and needed replacing. I could not believe that they wanted to take pictures of it and send them to Swift to get permission to replace it. I was expected to drive a 40 mile round trip. Have time off work and then arrange for the MH to be taken back for a day for it to be fitted. I eventually got fed up with the service and repaired all the faults myself and sent them a bill 😁

Did they pay the bill

We bought a new dealer special from the Huddersfield branch in early 2020. We went away for a weekend, then a few weeks later had a week in the Lake District. At the end of the week when we were packing away my clothes were wet in the wardrobe and water was running down the walls. We were unable to reject the van as we had it for 35 days. We took the van back to lowdhams for them to look at but told them not to repair it as we wanted an independent inspection. The inspector said it looked like it may have had a rest impact and been repaired but lowdhams denied this so we had to accept a repair but then lock down happened. When we were told we could book it in for repair in 2021, they let slip that the roof had been repaired, even though we had told them not to, prior to the independent inspection. That counted as a failed repair so we were then able to return the van through the finance company. I would never deal with them again

H1, congratulations on your success👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻. I personally double down with major purchases by paying a good deposit with my credit card for section 75 cover. This  due diligence thinking & actions pay dividends. The only way to win is don’t use them. If it costs them going to the wall it can only be a good thing for customers.

We have been waiting over 2 years for Lowdhams to complete warranty work on our Bailey Unicorn Vigo 5. During this time we have been mislead, lied to, ignored & treated with contempt - once your money is in their bank account any customer care ends.

The list of broken promises is endless - the service department admin section is incompetent - they rarely answer the phone or reply to emails - the promise of the call back is never to be believed. The staff change continually as we assume they are sacked for being useless.

BUYER BEWARE - ONCE THEY HAVE YOUR MONEY YOU ARE NOTHING TO THEM

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED _ TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE