Feedback on Elddis CV20 Campervan
I'm posting this review now as I've just noted that on 13th March this year Elddis posted on the Elddis CV owners group site a request for feedback, so here's my experience. I bought a new CV20 Autoquest Campervan in July 2020 from Perthshire Caravans. At the first habitation service in July 2021, I a gave a list of ‘snagging’ items that needed sorting. A few were done OK, but most weren’t done correctly or not at all. I wrote and listed the issues, just stating the situation and asking why some aspects were not sorted properly when we’d paid for the service. As it’s a 200+ mile round trip for the service then I’d also asked of the possibility of using a more local approved workshop for any warranty work, but as expected got the answer no. I don’t have an issue with this as it was in the terms when we bought the van that warranty work is covered by the dealer, with this being part of Elddis’ terms and conditions. What I have an issue with is the fact there was no acknowledgement or apology for the work not being done correctly, just a pretty curt one line response stating I could bring in it to be looked at. I’ve not been back since. Interestingly, I received a call 2 years after this asking me if I wanted to pursue the warranty claim for the cover for the kitchen area sink. I politely declined. We knew when buying that the CV20 is not a top end van, but it’s still a considerable amount of money. There was no after sales follow up as I’d normally expect when purchasing a new vehicle. Unfortunately it seemed very much a case of we have your money, now you’re on your own. The other aspect was handover of the van when new. Because of the Covid restrictions at the time we couldn’t have a face to face ‘tour’ of the van. In retrospect, this was also poor service. Other companies sorted videos with commentary to cover how things worked and other details, Perthshire Caravans offered and provided nothing. As it was our first van purchase we didn’t really know what to expect, in retrospect we should have expected much more.
After the first habitation service from the dealer, and the subsequent (lack of) response from the dealer, I’d written to Elddis expressing my dissatisfaction and enclosing a copy of the letter I’d sent to the dealer. Their handbook talks of helping resolve disputes. This was not the case. The lady I spoke to was very polite and pleasant, but appeared to not understand the issue I was describing, namely poor service of one of their accredited dealers. And this is the key issue, it's an Elddis dealer. It feels like they have you over a barrel, you can’t get warranty work done elsewhere, so what happens if you have no confidence in the work that has been done and hence want to choose a different company to service the van? Why would I pay the dealer more money knowing they didn’t do the job I’d paid for? Surely this should be possible to arrange.
Over the last year there have been a few significant issues with the van. The water heater failed, just out of warranty. The (habitation) water pump has also needed replacing, out of warranty. There are corroded wires for (I think) the frost protection to the water tank, again out of warranty. It’s interesting that the purchase price of the new vans is now 15-20K more than we paid. I hope the quality has improved. The snagging items I referred to were all so easily solvable with slightly better quality fixtures and fitting, it would barely add cost to the van, just using screws big enough to hold things in place is one example. We weren’t looking for luxury, but we were expecting something that would stand up a little better to being used for it’s purpose. I’m afraid I won’t be buying another Elddis. With the lack of response from both dealer and Elddis to the issues raised then why would I risk either of them again.
March 13, 2024
Unprompted review