Hilo Roofs

[Insert Coin]

I felt a little guilty about 'liking' that horrendous post.

It's usually me that has these kinds of truly awful customer service issues, yes I'm looking at you British Telecom, Denon, The Fuel Card Company, Vauxhall.

I can't believe that the HiLo directors haven't been made aware, perhaps they are no longer involved in day to day or even month to month affairs?

Even the most blinkered of people can see that you've been hugely mugged over by VanDoc and HiLo.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do next, to be honest I'd be inclined to pop that roof up in the rain and see if it actually is water tight or if there's any further canvas wear.

 

[Gaz1971]

Never mind there poor pop top fitting the fact they can leave a family stood in a car park and go home words fail me.It clearly shows they have no technical ability or understanding of the vans there are working on so do not deserve to be working on them.A van that drove in been taken away on a low loader where is there professional pride never mind the moral side of it.Then they have the cheek to threaten to invoice you,I’d let them then don’t answer your phone or email and when they do eventually get hold of you do what they do and blame someone else absolutely disgusting.

 

[Wills]

Would the motor insurance “legal cover” offer the opportunity to take the dross to task?

 

[DaveyB]

Feel your pain and frustrations. Can be a nightmare trying to sort warranty claims on cars, Van's, TV's, etc. Seems to me Hilo have a very popular product but not the infrastructure to ensure they are fitted to an approved level. Maybe using an approved fitting network is the wrong business model and they would have been better investing in just their own team doing the installs where they would have full quality control? I would maybe go through your post again and remove anything that might lead to legal proceedings by Hilo. Need to be careful posting on a public forum. Hopefully all the issues are now sorted and you can start enjoying the vw van life.

Thanks @True Romance. The post was very very carefully written so that all it says are facts which are demonstrable via reports/ pictures etc, all of which have already been seen by HiLo. I have made no actual allegation that HiLo caused the issues, merely set out in a chronological sequence the events that unfolded and the emails sent back. I have original copies of all of these things. I am equally not making any slanderous comments regarding their treatment of us.
My intent is to share info which I think I have done, whilst offering nothing that is salacious. I’d be grateful of your specific feedback and guidance on any of the areas if you are reading it differently, because my approach is to stay on the correct side of the line so there is nothing they can challenge me on legally. They are simply matters of fact.

 

[DaveyB]

I still believe that the vast majority of the issues are with the fitters and not the actual product itself.

But based on the number of issues posted up on here I'd not currently recommend a HiLo roof to anybody, altough mine has still been 100% perfect and it has been used every single weekend and often midweek since the end of April this year.

*fingers kept tightly crossed*

I have no doubt there are far more satisfied, than unsatisfied customers. I’ve just unfortunately been one of those whose roof has been nothing but problems - albeit really hoping it is now fixed since HiLo have worked on it. It’s taken the shine off.

 

[Donk]

I had a non sport HiLo roof fitted to my last van. I couldn’t fault it. Very pleased indeed with it. Mine was fitted by Blueskyconversions and they did a great job. Unfortunately he couldn’t fit non-sport HiLo to my new T6 so I’ve got mine booked in with Xtremevans. They seem to fit a lot of them and do the warranty work and repair issue stuff when appointed by HiLo themselves. So they certainly seem to know what they’re doing! A long trek from Essex for a fitter but I visited them along with several others. I think the Sport version has various issues and I wouldn’t touch that version at all.

 

[Dieseldonkey]

Having been there, with issues with my roof fit out, albeit a different manufacturer, @DaveyB, you have my deepest sympathies. Hopefully you can find pleasure in the van, once things are put right and you get trouble free service from it and the roof, from here on in. Certainly sounds like you've had a rough time of it. My dealings with Van doc (Vandoc) was simply in the supply of some light bezels. But it took weeks and several phone calls to get the parts that were ordered and paid for.

 

[Rg_]

Starting to feel put of with the idea of a pop top with things like this, although i'm 6ft and want to be able to stand up! I was looking at the HiLo roofs due to the low profile of them which i liked and they seem to be the only company that offer that style.
If i do go ahead it will have to be with one of the most experienced company's for fitting.

What are some of the other poptop brands that people sing there praises? I would rather go with a tried and tested brand that is popular that people have used for years.

 

[Skyliner33]

There is also a company called Stealth that do a very low roof. Maybe @kn0bby can give you his thoughts.

 

[Gaz1971]

I had a non sport HiLo roof fitted to my last van. I couldn’t fault it. Very pleased indeed with it. Mine was fitted by Blueskyconversions and they did a great job. Unfortunately he couldn’t fit non-sport HiLo to my new T6 so I’ve got mine booked in with Xtremevans. They seem to fit a lot of them and do the warranty work and repair issue stuff when appointed by HiLo themselves. So they certainly seem to know what they’re doing! A long trek from Essex for a fitter but I visited them along with several others. I think the Sport version has various issues and I wouldn’t touch that version at all.

Worth the journey I’ve used them twice now once for a remap and the second time I bought some wheels off them.Excellent service both times decent people doing a decent job.

 

[ZipcodeUK]

Oh hell no!

Dude I sympathise with you. I know you like me have very high standards and I know this can be an issue sometimes with installers quality of work but this just seems like an absolutely nightmare.

Based on the above info and the nightmare you’ve gone through, there is no chance I’m considering hi-lo any more. In fact I think I’m more likely to get a roof box tent instead even though it won’t offer the “convenience” of a proper pop top install.
I just couldn’t go thorough what you’ve gone through. I’d hate to fall “out-of-love” with my bus which is inevitably what would happen if I had experienced what you have!

 

[Fish]

I had a non sport HiLo roof fitted to my last van. I couldn’t fault it. Very pleased indeed with it. Mine was fitted by Blueskyconversions and they did a great job. Unfortunately he couldn’t fit non-sport HiLo to my new T6 so I’ve got mine booked in with Xtremevans. They seem to fit a lot of them and do the warranty work and repair issue stuff when appointed by HiLo themselves. So they certainly seem to know what they’re doing! A long trek from Essex for a fitter but I visited them along with several others. I think the Sport version has various issues and I wouldn’t touch that version at all.

I would suggest you review @andythom188 posts and look at Visiontechauotmotives(far better outfit imo) in essex.. save the travel costs, pop in to review progress etc..

 

[St4n99]

Starting to feel put of with the idea of a pop top with things like this, although i'm 6ft and want to be able to stand up! I was looking at the HiLo roofs due to the low profile of them which i liked and they seem to be the only company that offer that style.
If i do go ahead it will have to be with one of the most experienced company's for fitting.

What are some of the other poptop brands that people sing there praises? I would rather go with a tried and tested brand that is popular that people have used for years.

I have an austops and I would say it has a low profile and I haven't had an issue with mine , again it's definitely down to the installation , , am sure mines was in for under 3 weeks but they did have a few vans in so it could have been less than that , have a look at there site , they also have the open canvas roof now

 

[St4n99]

Wow ,just had a chance to read through this, really do feel for you,the amount of hard earned money you have put into your van and this is happening , I have a feeling when you have went away there has definitely been a stage were somone has taken the sc32 fuse and stuck it in sc18 for quickness to check the camera again and then someone has turned up with another fuse to replace sc32 and put in wrong position then went to switch ignition on and made it worse and then it's been time to look under bonnet fuses for a solution , what a found that was strange is when you arrived back and ye had no ignition lights etc , you wrote that they plugged and obd reader in and it worked and showed fault codes but when yer auto electrician tried ,it wasn't able to make a connection which was probably down to the fuse being pulled , did you actually see them doing a fault scan or did they just tell you it has this amount of codes ,am not an electrician but going by your auto electricians experience they shouldn't have been able to make a connection ,don't want them to use that against you if you take it further , would be good to know if you pull that fuse if your obd port shutsdown or stops a connection , a can't say this enough that am on your side but just thought ad point it out , they could have showed you old codes that they had taken before fuse was pulled , hopefully you can now injoy your camper buddy

 

[kiter]

Reading this I'd never get a pop top fitted, feel for you mate that is truly shocking treatment.

 

[Skyliner33]

It’s awful to read this.
It’s really put me off HiLo not because I don’t trust all converters but because if their attitude and treatment of you.

 

[Peatey]

Just thinking out loud are @hilo and @Dean@VanDoc still trade members on here ?

 

[andys]

Just thinking out loud are @hilo and @Dean@VanDoc still trade members on here ?

When you click on them, @hilo is not a member and @Dean@VanDoc (no space!) is a standard non-trade member that hasn't logged in for 3 months

 

[Peatey]

When you click on them, @hilo is not a member and @Dean@VanDoc (no space!) is a standard non-trade member that hasn't logged in for 3 months

That's what i was wondering following a bit of a dig around the site

 

[Donk]

I would suggest you review @andythom188 posts and look at Visiontechauotmotives(far better outfit imo) in essex.. save the travel costs, pop in to review progress etc..

Definitely worthwhile visiting the installers to get a feel and a bit of research. We visited Visiontech last time but they wanted to do more of the work - like carpeting etc etc an wouldn't just install the roof for us which bumped the price up. This time we thought we would try them again but after several messages for them to contact us we gave up and went with Xtremevans instead.