Pop up roof- warranty issue, help!!

[DorisDanbury]

Whilst cleaning our 2 year old van I noticed that the paint had cracked in one of the roof channels and a piece of paint had come off. The roof is covered by a 3 year warranty by the conversion company. I contacted them and provided photos and in their opinion the issue was “cosmetic”. They asked for the van to be brought in but as they are in Somerset and we are in Kent when we said that would be problematic they asked us to take it to a local body repair centre, something I think they are now regretting.

After much ringing around the van was taken to a VW approved body repair centre. Their opinion was that the roof had been poorly prepped when new which had allowed water to ingress under the paint causing it to crack. They suggested the whole roof would need to be resprayed and that the repair would be dependent on making sure that there was no cracking to the gel coat/fibre glass as if that was found a new roof would be needed. The work would take 3-4 days and they have quoted £2000 for the repair.

After radio silence from the conversion company they have now come back to us saying that their terms and conditions state that the van needs to go back to the original body shop for warranty issues and they would need the van for 48 hrs which suggests they are only going to repair the localised cracking.

I’ve got a number of issues with this not least I have no confidence that they will do a good job given they sprayed it originally and I am worried that another crack might appear later on down the line when the van roof is out of warranty. The van is our only vehicle so it would cause us problems being without it and also the inconvenience of an 8hrs round trip to “pop it in”.

Where do I stand with all this? As they have offered a method of repair do I have to accept it? Ironically had they not suggested taking it elsewhere I would be none the wiser!

 

[DorisDanbury]

Update:- they won’t pick the van up as it’s a warranty issue, they think that respraying the whole roof is “excessive” and they want to inspect it themselves.

 

[soldas]

You got any photos of the issue?

 

[DorisDanbury]

 

[Sasquatch]

Sounds like they're yanking your chain.

 

[JoshB_]

It’s a fair comment on their part, you’ve sent a pic of a small crack and sent a quote for £2k. I’d want to see it in person as well, not everyone is out to fleece people and small business’ are going under at an alarming rate.

I appreciate your concern though, in all honesty I don’t know where you stand… You’ll have to get the magnifying glass out and read the T’s & C’s properly. As unfortunate as it is, it’s unreasonable to expect you to not have to return a faulty product to the vendor. Is the pop top a certain brand? Do you have other dealers nearer you for the same brand? Has it been painted candy white? Or is it just a white gel coat? If it’s just the gel coat it’s going to be easier to sort.

 

[Sasquatch]

It’s a fair comment on their part, you’ve sent a pic of a small crack and sent a quote for £2k. .

Which is what they asked for.

Why make our chap go through all that rigmarole only to then decide that the terms and conditions mean it has to go back to the original bodyshop?

If the T&C's genuinely state that then why did they send the OP round the houses getting quotes?

It sounds like they're making it up as they go along, or they deliberately sent the OP the long way round in the hope he would lose interest.

@DorisDanbury its hard to be sure from the pic but a SMART repairer may well be able to do a decent fix on that for a few hundred quid. It would likely be as good as a bodyshop, who tend to brute-force everything by doing entire panels as small area repairs are a skill most of them don't have (and it's less profitable.) That might be a more palatable alternative for the vendor and save you serious logistical grief.

 

[JoshB_]

Which is what they asked for.

Why make our chap go through all that rigmarole only to then decide that the terms and conditions mean it has to go back to the original bodyshop?

If the T&C's genuinely state that then why did they send the OP round the houses getting quotes?

It sounds like they're making it up as they go along, or they deliberately sent the OP the long way round in the hope he would lose interest.

Yeah I know what you mean. They were probably hoping that they’d come back with a price of £200-£300 to get it dusted over and it’s a cheap option for them to “make the problem go away”.

@DorisDanbury , try asking if they’ll pay for a hotel for the inconvenience. Make a weekend of it!

 

[DorisDanbury]

Thanks for the replies. It’s a Reimo roof and the van is artic grey so I’m assuming it’s sprayed. The warranty does say that travelling costs are at the owners expense but given the circs I thought they’d be a bit more lenient.

This is the 2nd time we’ve had an issue with the roof. The 1st was literally 6 months after we bought it where the roof was squeaking so loudly we couldn’t hear the radio. They diagnosed something to do with a wooden brace that had not been stuck with the correct adhesive so had come loose! On that occasion they paid our travel costs.

Love to make a weekend of it but they aren’t open so we’re going to have to hire a car and take time out of our week to sort it.

 

[DorisDanbury]

Whilst I’m here and also to do with the roof, why has the rubber seal been crushed as per the below. It’s the same both sides but one side is worse than the other. They can sort this as well while they’ve got it so I’d like to know views on potential cause….