Campervan fault Marquis Motorhomes **They paid up under threat of legal action**

[Moongazing]

Hi, I'm looking for advice on what is the best way going forward for me to deal with Marquis.i bought a 2012 campervan for 32,000 from them in June. Since then I've been back a few times with problems.œ

 

I didn't expect the van to be perfect and I have done quite a few repairs myself. The van couldn't have had any real habitation check though and it was very dirty inside.

 

Since I started complaining they've replaced a broken awning ,but it took 2 visits for them to clean blockages in the waste system. I'm still waiting for them to replace tank sensors.

 

I finally managed to get away for a few days in the van last week and lo and behold no hot water or heating. I rang them only to be asked if I was new to caravanning etc. We've had 3 caravans and 2 previous campervans.

One of their"highly trained technicians"rang me back to talk me through using the heating and then he agreed that we had a problem. So now it's booked in with them for 24th August.

 

They sold me a dirty van without giving it any real habitation check.i had to buy tools to change the cabin filter (not done because of coronavirus risk ) and discinfect the air intake system as it smelt so bad. I've found that the fridge has a crack in the lining, I've repaired the shower fitting, toilet cassette seal, and spent hours cleaning encrusted dirt off the toilet and cassette. I've sent emails listing all this and other things I've done. Each time I've found something needing doing I've thought that this will be the last.

 

I have no confidence in them at all, they can't even glue a piece of trim down. We are actually sick of the van now, all the joy has gone and we would like to hurt the company in their pockets if possible.

Any suggestions please? 

[BankFodder]

Please will you monitor this thread for a fuller reply later. 

 

However have you had any independent assessments of the the standard of the motorhome and also of the cost of repairs?

 

Do you want to keep the motorhome or are you looking to return it?

[Moongazing]

We'd love to return it but from everything I've read it would a long drawn out business so keeping it would probably be simpler.

 

I think we are going to give them a chance to sort the heating/hot water.We've got very squeaky brakes now which my local garage is going to look at a week on Monday. I'm saving all receipts etc. I'd also like to charge them for fuel used and my time doing what they should have done.

 

The time they take to get anything done is what is bothering me. If I choose to go somewhere else for a repair for anything would I be able to charge Marquis or do I have to continue using their warranty

 

I hadn't thought of getting an independent assessment, not sure how you go about it but I'll look into it.

Thanks for the reply

 

Edited August 9, 2020 by Moongazing

[BankFodder]

I think independent assessments and quotations will be essential. Once again please monitor this thread for a for the reply later on or tomorrow

[honeybee13]

Hi.

 

If you do a search of our forums you will find other people who've had trouble with Marquis. Sadly people don't always update their threads with the final result.

 

Scroll up this page to the red strip at the top, and type Marquis into the white search box on the right.

 

HB

[BankFodder]

the problem with this company is that the motorhomes are valued well over the small claims limit of £10,000.

This means that if you want to consider challenging Marquis on the question of the entire vehicle, this will take you well over the limit and this could risk some serious costs if it goes to the county court and you lose.

 

On the basis of what you say, it is most unlikely that you would lose but on the other hand you are dealing with a company which seems to be very unhelpful in respect of respecting their customers consumer rights and it may be that they would resist your court action and cause you additional anxiety in terms of possible costs.

 

You are well within the 6-months limit provided by the Consumer Rights Act and so I would suggest that at the very least you write them a letter requiring that they carry out repairs or else refund you you the cost of a motorhome or else replace it at your option.

 

even if you decide not to do this, you will reserve your position and that may be helpful in the future.

 

I would suggest that you get the vehicle thoroughly surveyed and assessed by an independent expert and detail all of the the defects that you discover as well as independent quotations for putting them right. You could then provide that list to Marquis and require that they carry that work out.

 

Once you know the extent of the problem you will be in a better position to form a judgement as to how you want to play it it and whether you want to go for a replacement or refund or whether you want to have the repairs carried out.

 

in so far as who carries out the repairs I think probably you will have to give Marquis at least a single opportunity to carry them out. After that we can help you form a view as to your next step.

 

Once you provided Marquis with the list of defects and required them to carry the work out, you would also inform them that you would have the quality of the work independently assessed before agreeing that it had been properly carried out

 

 

[Moongazing]

Thanks for the advice I'll keep you informed as it progresses if that's ok

[TheoD]

Advice needed please. We bought a 2012 campervan from Marquis at Dinnington on June 24th.  
It's been back 4 times for various problems. Other things I've sorted myself. In total it's been with them 23 days. It's has a problem with the heating and hot water which they were told about on 4th August. It went back on 24th of August until 
4th September, they sorted something else but not the heating as they couldn't find anything wrong with it. 
The fault is still there and I want to know where I can go from here. I've had the boiler problem assessed by an independent engineer and it's probably( but not definitely) a fault on the PCB. He spoke to Truma 3 times and they said if it's not the PCB then the van or the boiler alone should be taken to them to be looked at. They can't fit me in until the end of October.
Marquis are willing to have the van back again but they've said it's not possible to do anything to any sort of timescale. As they've already had the van back once do I have to use them again for"repair". Can I legally use another repairer and claim the costs back from them. All the advice on line referring to the consumer act just talks about a total refund. 
Thanks for reading
Any advice is appreciated.

[BankFodder]

You are within six months of the purchase so under the consumer rights act, you have the right to insist on a repair or a refund if the repair fails. You should assert this right in writing. I suggest that you ascertain all of the defects and then write to them outlining the defects and tell them that you want the repair carried out or else a refund. Also, I would say that you are entitled to have the repairs carried out within a reasonable time and I think 14 days is a reasonable maximum time to wait. If they cannot do it within that timescale then you should be entitled to a refund.

That's the theory.

In practice, we have had quite a number of complaints about Marquis motorhomes and I'm afraid that we tend to find that they are not at all consumer facing and that they are very reluctant if at all to respect consumer rights.

One of the problems is that in order to enforce a refund, you may have to bring a claim in the County Court. Because these motorhomes are all well over £10,000 – meaning in excess of the small claims limit, there is a risk that in the event that you lose your case that you will be saddled with the costs of Marquis.

Although the stories we have had here suggest that people are absolutely in the right and will succeed if they bring a case, they tend to be put off by the prospect of having to pay costs in the unlikely event that they lose the case.

I suppose that Marcus has quite a few satisfied customers – but certainly it seems to me that when things go wrong, they get very stubborn. I'm not into motorhomes myself but I have to say that I will avoid Marquis completely. I don't know if the other motorhome companies are as bad.

What is the value of this motorhome? Have you had an assessment of the defects? Have you had an independent evaluation of cost of repairs for those defects.

If you are prepared to keep the motorhome then an alternative route could be to have the defects assessed and the cost of repairs evaluated and then give Marquis a deadline of two weeks to sort them out after which you should have sorted out yourself – presumably in a much quicker timescale – and then sue them for the cost of repairs. That would be far less than £10,000, I expect – and so would be on the small claims track and there will be no risk of costs if you lost the case – which would be extremely unlikely.

[BankFodder]

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/marquismotorhomes.co.uk

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=marquis+motorhomes&oq=marquis+motor&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0j46l2j69i60j69i61j69i60.9392j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x47df71b401c16b15:0x5b85426589405c2d,1,,,

[TheoD]

Thanks for the swift reply.

The van cost £32,000 so I don't really want to risk rejecting it just in case.

I've been listing defects for weeks and most are sorted now, either by myself or Marquis. Some were quite minor and I was able to do them myself.

I had an independent engineer out yesterday and I've sent his findings to Marquis.

I'm just not prepared now for it to trundle on indefinitely.its fixable but with Marquis in charge it's when, I've been told by their service manager that it's not reasonable of me to expect preferential treatment and to queue jump.

I'm going to go with your latter advice as I feel that this is what I was hoping to hear

 

If you are prepared to keep the motorhome then an alternative route could be to have the defects assessed and the cost of repairs evaluated and then give Marquis a deadline of two weeks to sort them out after which you should have sorted out yourself – presumably in a much quicker timescale – and then sue them for the cost of repairs. That would be far less than £10,000, I expect – and so would be on the small claims track and there will be no risk of costs if you lost the case – which would be extremely unlikely.

 

Many thanks

[BankFodder]

Okay. Let us know when you have the assessment and evaluation/quotation done and then we can take you through the next step.

[TheoD]

I will do that.

Can I ask something else? 

In your opinion have Marquis been allowed their one chance to repair? We took it to them, they had it 9 days but said they couldn't find anything wrong with the heater/ boiler, it was working when we collected it, but it has been working intermittently all along.

What if the repair fails later are Marquis off the hook then. 

I'm just getting very confused but you've pointed me in the right direction now thanks again

[BankFodder]

It has just been pointed out to me that there is another pretty well identical thread which was posted up in August under another user ID.
It's not helpful when you create multiple user IDs and occupy our time on this free of charge forum asking identical questions.

Please will you choose which ID you'd like to keep because I'm going to merge them

[TheoD]

Sorry for causing problems. I've taken over dealing with this from my wife who's been ill. So this is my ID .

Thanks again

[BankFodder]

In that case I'll leave the other account open I'm going to merge the threads.

It would be helpful if you keep to one thread

[TheoD]

Will do.

mywife's account can be closed if it helps.

[BankFodder]

When you purchase the motorhome – or any other item, you are entitled to have a good which is of satisfactory quality and remains that way for a reasonable period of time.

This means that any defects which existed at the time of the purchase or any defects which develop during your ownership of the good may amount to a breach of contract by the seller if it can be said that the good was not in a satisfactory condition and did not remain that way for a reasonable period of time.
Satisfactory is measured against a reasonable consumer's reasonable expectation of a similar good at a similar price. Reasonable period of time is measured in the same way

[TheoD]

Update

The engineer who's been looking at the van was unable to borrow a circuit board to do a temporary swap to test. His and Truma's recommendation was that I take the van to them as the fault it was displaying was something they'd not come across before.

I rang Truma Friday morning and it was going to be the end of October before I could get an appointment. Then the engineer said that they'd had a cancellation that morning and if I got down to them immediately (a 40 mins journey for me) they'd look at it.

They rang me late Friday afternoon and to cut to the point they may have fixed it, it's still on test there today, they'll let me know the outcome later.

If it's not the circuit board which they've changed then it's another problem with the solar system on the van which is nothing to do with them.

I've kept Marquis involved by email and phone. But because I've acted without giving them another chance to deal with the fault will I still have any claim or not ? 

Thanks 

[BankFodder]

Yes you will have a claim. Please monitor this thread for a reply later

[BankFodder]

I have just looked through this claim again and refreshed my memory.

you should get the quotation and assessment from the Independent party and then give marquis notice of it and and 10 days to carry out the repairs or you will have it done elsewhere.

 

You would be best off not putting the repairs in hand until you have done this

[TheoD]

Marquis were already given a chance to repair and returned it to me saying nothing was wrong with it but they hadn't done any investigations.

So do I no longer have a claim? The assessment by the manufacturers is being done and they may or may not be repairing it at the same time.

Thanks

[BankFodder]

Yes you will have a claim – but it will make it much easier if Marquis are on notice. You should write to them very urgently and tell them what has been found and that because of the fact that they have denied that any work needed to be done, you have now put it in hand elsewhere and you will be looking to them to reimburse you.

It's essential that they are kept abreast of developments every step of the way – in so far as possible – in advance

[TheoD]

I think that I've perhaps not properly explained what's happened so far.
I hope this helps.

We informed Marquis of the fault with the boiler on August 4th
It was taken to them on August 24th and we collected the van on September 4th. Marquis couldn't find anything wrong with it and hadn't done any further investigations.
We rang them again on September 14th to tell them it still wasn't working.
They hadn't got back to me on the 16th so I informed them by email that I wasn't prepared for the situation to continue indefinitely and that I had booked and engineer to look at it and that when I had a report and or fix I would forward it to them with the invoice so that they could reimburse me.
They replied by saying any warranty work has to be carried out"in house" but as a gesture of goodwill they were willing to reimburse up to £150 provided the unit was fixed and I supplied a VAT invoice.
The engineer we had couldn't repair it, he spoke to the manufacturers and they both advised that the unit went back to them for investigation and repair.I paid him and sent them a copy of the invoice.
Marquis were willing to look at it again but couldn't say when that would be.i said that I wasn't willing to accept this.
I spoke to the after sales manager on Friday and emailed him to keep him up to date.
I hope this explains better exactly where we are at with this.
Truma have told me now that they repaired the boiler but I won't know until tomorrow what the report says or how much the bill is, but it will be a big one I'm sure!

Many thanks

[BankFodder]

What is the name of the after sales manager? I think we might have heard of this guy before