Marquis Motorhomes: David's Official Letter of Compaint

This is David's official letter of complaint, given to Marquis's Adam Webb on 4th August 2017, referred to in our piece: Marquis Motorhomes: Ten Tales of Woe. 

26^th Sep 2016 Approx. 3pm.    Left Marquis with our new £43,000 Marquis Majestic 185 motorhome to stay at Wooler for two nights.

26^th Sep 2016 Approx. 11pm. Discovered I was unable to lock the habitation door from the inside, meaning I had to lock it with the key and enter via the cab door. Not a great start considering it had just had a “comprehensive” pre-delivery service at your factory.

I called your service department and they fitted a new handle when I called in on the way back from Wooler.

Unfortunately, this was to be the only time I received any great help from your service department as you will see when you read the rest of this letter.

3^rd May 2017          Called Marquis to explain that my water pump was not working, the camera screen clips had broken (whilst I was travelling at 60mph on the M1) and the main breaker tripped almost every time I connected external power and sometimes took many attempts to reset (as of Sunday 18^th June I now have a video to prove this). I explained that I needed my motorhome back by 27^th May as I was going away for a month. I booked in for 17^th, the first available slot, and was immediately told if it couldn't be fixed on that day it may not be fixed by the time I went away on 29^th. I argued that it was ridiculous to expect my wife and I to go to Spain in June with no running water to flush the toilet and was eventually told to “bring it in and we'll see if we can get to it before 17^th”. I took it in lunchtime 4^th May and after inspecting the van exterior for damage Jeannie from the service department told us she would call us the middle of the next week to update us….. we're still waiting for the call. Over the next few weeks we were promised call backs at various times from Jeannie, Ian and the manager (Mr Webb?) and none of them did so without me having to call them again…… if this is what Marquis call customer service I suggest they look up the meaning.

18^th May. Called Jeannie who said a warranty claim had gone in on 5^th May but not settled yet. Asked about other two problems and was told she thought they'd been fixed.

24^th May. Called Jeannie who told me the pump problem was still not resolved. I then spoke to Senior Service Manager Ian (Douglas ?) and asked why not. He said Whale might want Marquis to carry out more tests on the pump (might want, not do want, very vague). I then said that if Whale had to send the pump back to Marquis for tests and it still didn't work there was no chance of me getting the pump fixed before I went to Spain on 29^th. His reply, and something he repeated over the next few days like a mantra was “It's a warranty issue, we have to follow procedures, there's nothing we can do”, and the best of all “I'll have to look it up on the system”. I asked him for the number for Whale which he gave me, except one of the digits in the number he gave me was wrong. I got the number from the Internet and called Whale who told me they had not had a warranty claim from Marquis about my pump.

25^th May. Spoke to Ian, at approx. 10am; explained what Whale had said and he informed me the claim had gone to Explorer Group, the first time in two days of talking, but mainly arguing, that Explorer Group had been mentioned. He said he would call somebody to see if it could be fixed before 29th, maybe somebody at Explorer Group, maybe at Whale, he never said. He said he would call me back. At approx. 1.30pm my wife rang Jeannie and asked why he hadn't called back and was told she would get him to call me. At approx. 2.30pm Ian called me and said “it's sorted”. I asked what they'd done and he said “nothing”. Whale had told them how to test it and it was now OK…… after 20 days since the claim had been put in! Surely the workshop technicians should know how to test a water pump, it's not exactly rocket science, or maybe it hadn't been tested at all, who knows?

I forgot to mention, in this letter, that when the pump failed the filter bowl was full of small pieces of black plastic (or hard rubber). I told Marquis this the day I first called (3^rd May) and even gave them to Marquis, whether they informed anybody else I have no idea. They were still in a bag in the motorhome when I picked it up on 27^th May.

I asked Ian if the camera screen had been fixed and he told me that “the claim has been declined”. I rang Explorer Group to ask why, as after two days of listening to him repeating his mantra I had no faith at all in anything Ian Douglas said. Explorer Group told me the claim had “not been declined as such” but they had told Marquis to contact the manufacturers of the screen

27^th May. I went to pick up my motorhome and asked Ian Douglas if they'd found out where the pieces of black plastic had come from and he said, in front of my wife and several Marquis employees who were in the office listening, “I have no idea, they could have been there from the start as far as I know”. What a ridiculous thing for a so-called Senior Service Manager to say! Why were the workshop technicians not told to investigate where the bits had come from, that's what you're supposed to do in a situation like this.

I asked him who had declined the camera screen claim and he said the manufacturer. I asked if he meant Explorer Group and he said yes. I then told him what Explorer Group had told me and he said “I'll have to look it up on the system”, which means he didn't have an answer so he just told me a blatant lie? Also, he did not “look it up on the system”.

He then gave us our keys, took us to where we could see our motorhome, turned on his heels and left without a word.

He is by far the most unhelpful, uninformed and unprofessional person I've ever dealt with from any company, a complete disgrace.

The main breaker still trips and still takes many attempts to reset.

One last thing, when Jeannie did the inspection on 4^th May she said “even if they can't get the pump fixed, at least you'll get your motorhome washed”…. we didn't!

5^th June. My awning collapsed and hit the side of the motorhome at 3.20am. One of the end poles had snapped at the point of connection to the awning frame, the centre pole was bent “L” shaped and one of the cantilever arms had twisted when the awning fell. I managed to force it back into its storage position but it was unusable, meaning I had no awning for the remaining 20 days of my holiday.

7^th June. Spoke to Jeannie re awning damage and sent email with pics. Asked about my warranty claim for camera screen clips, said she'd ask Ian about it.

9^th June.  Spoke to Jeannie again who said she'd replied to my email…. I'm still waiting for it. Asked again about camera claim, said she'd asked Ian but got no reply, he wasn't in today but she'd ask him on Monday and let me know.

14^th June. I called Jeannie, again, as she hadn't called me on Monday and she once again told me she'd ask Ian about it.

15^th June. Jeannie emailed me to say the clips were in stock but the claim was still under review.

21^st June. Jeannie emailed to tell me the awning claim had been rejected by Elddis as it “was damage and not a manufacturing defect”.

Utter rubbish, the damage was caused when the awning fell because the clip at the top of the leg broke off.

Quite how Elddis came to this conclusion without actually seeing the awning I do not know!

Throughout all of these issues with Marquis service department I have had to call them as they have promised many times to call me back but failed to do so.

I fully intend to pursue the awning claim by whatever means possible but in the meantime I would like to bring my motorhome to your factory and arrange a meeting with yourself so you can see first-hand the problems I have had, and am still having.

I also intend to visit the Elddis factory to show them the problems; maybe you'd like to come with me.

My wife has shed many tears thinking that we've wasted £43,000 of our hard-earned money and, quite frankly, we both wish we'd never heard of Marquis as it appears that once you had our money our importance as customers diminished to zero and that your “Comprehensive 3 year warranty” is virtually worthless.

I sent the above letter, via email, to Adam Webb on Saturday 24^th June 2017.

Mr Webb phoned me on Tuesday 27th June 2017 and told me how sorry he was that I'd had so many problems with the motorhome and said he would talk to the people I'd complained about regarding the returning of calls etc.

He suggested I bring my motorhome in so we could all look at it together as the most important thing was to get the problems resolved.

He told me he'd be available on 10^th/11^th/12^th July and he'd get Jeannie to call me to book an appointment. Jeannie rang me and we made an appointment for 10.30am on Tuesday 11^th July.

Tuesday 11^th July

I arrived at 10.25 and told Ian Douglas I was there to see Mr Webb, who was actually in the reception area at the time. He told Mr Webb I was there to see him and Mr Webb's reply was “I can't, I'm just off out”.

So a mere two weeks after telling me how sorry he was about my problems and wanting to sort them out he couldn't even be bothered to keep the appointment he told me to make. Once again, totally unprofessional.

It appears his apparent concern on the phone was just to try and keep me happy when he had absolutely no interest in resolving my problems.

I explained why I was there and had an appointment to see him and he said “who did you talk to”, to which I replied “you rang me to arrange it two weeks ago”.

He reluctantly agreed to look at the damaged awning but said I'd need to hurry as he had another appointment.

When I showed him the awning and the broken joint he agreed that the joint should not have snapped, got Ian Douglas to take a few photos and went off to his “important” appointment, which mine obviously was not.

I gave Ian Douglas a list of problems that required fixing, including the awning, and he asked how long they could have the van for. I told him I was going away on 8^th August so would need it back no later than 7^th.

The problems were: Camera screen to replace (they had the screen in stock), magnetic strip on the windscreen blind was detached, trim around one of the roof lights was loose, the breaker was still difficult to reset after tripping (I showed him a video of me trying to reset it, probably took around 20 attempts), a manifold in the front of the engine bay was very rusty and, of course, the awning.

Six faults in all.

Ian Douglas rang me later that day to tell me they'd fixed the minor problems, put a warranty claim in for the breaker (RCD) and it was booked in to Peugeot for Thursday 13^th July 2017.

Thursday 20^th July

Ian Douglas rang me to say Peugeot had told him the rusty manifold was nothing to worry about, which I find hard to believe on a motor less than eight months old with 4,000 miles on the clock. I intend to contact Peugeot myself for clarification.

He told me the RCD was on order but no news on the awning claim.

Wednesday 2^nd August

I rang Mr Douglas, having heard nothing for almost two weeks and he said we should have the RCD by early next week, despite the fact I'd previously told him I was going away on 8^th August.

He also told me there was no change on the awning claim and that Dometic still rejected the damage was caused by a defect in their equipment.

I told him early next week was no good, as I'd previously told him I needed it back no later than 7^th August, so I'd pick my motorhome up on Friday 4^th August.

Between May and August my motorhome has been with Marquis for just under seven weeks and one of the problems I highlighted in early May is still not resolved, three months later!

Worst after sales or warranty service I've ever had.

As of today, 3^rd August 2017, I still don't know if the work has actually been done to a reasonable standard. I fear it won't have been.

Friday 4^th August

My fears were founded.

Went to pick up the motorhome….. lo and behold the magnetic strip on the windscreen blinds was not holding the two halves together.

Told Ian Douglas and his reply was “well it's been looked at”. Maybe it had been looked at, maybe through the window, maybe from the office through binoculars, but either way it was not working, 24 days after I took the van in and reported the fault.

Several workshop technicians then fixed it in about ten minutes but why it wasn't working after 24 days at Marquis I really don't know, a lack of interest again perhaps.

Shoddy!