This time last year I bought my first Transporter with the idea of converting it into a camper. I read lots of reviews and went out to visit a few places including Slidepods and I was impressed with what I saw there and Jonny's attitude, so I went ahead a booked my van in for the whole hog - SCA roof, windows, soundproofing, insulation, carpet-lining, electrics package, diesel heater and RIB seat, totalling £13, 596. All good up to this point!
They had the van for about 3 weeks and during this time I didn't get any photos or updates on the van as I had been told I would. To this date I have still received no photos despite requesting them! Jonny was on holiday when I picked the van up, so Brett, the workshop manager, who had done most of the work handed it over. At first sight I was delighted at the transformation and set off home. It was on the journey home that I started noticing things...where was the USB charging point that Jonny, Brett and I had discussed the day I handed it over to them and had been on the job sheet from the beginning and I had paid for? There was also a large scratch down my leather steering wheel; At a join in the headlining in the rear of the van, one side was 1cm wider then the other and they overlapped - not a pretty join at all; The passenger window clunked when you opened or shut it. Tracey was great when I contacted her though and said they'd put a USB port in and sort out the headlining when I brought it down again.
The real issues started when I took it to an auto-electrician to connect the fridge. This is his report:
'As requested, a summary of the slightly less than impressive aspects of the conversion that I've noticed while working on your van. Pictures attached.
1- Leisure battery too large for chosen location. Part of the battery and two sections of the passenger seat base have been hacked to make the battery fit. Even then, the positive terminal of the battery is too close to the underside of the seat. The space is little more than the thickness of the rubber cap over the battery terminal. This is particularly concerning because the leisure battery has not been secured to the van floor in any way other than being a damn tight fit! NOT RECTIFIED.
2- Cable from battery-guard to fuse boards poorly fabricated with a screw terminal block and a badly crimped eyelet. Replaced with 2 properly terminated cables. RECTIFIED.
3- Extremely poor terminal crimping at various positions under passenger seat. One connection at the CTEK didn't even have a terminal, the bare wire was twisted around the bolt. RECTIFIED. Sorted the worst ones but a couple on the negative terminal aren't pretty either.
4- Cabling to Webasto heater - very poor routing. Pulled hard up against sharp edge of floor body panel where it passes through grommet hole. Cable was also touching exhaust of Webasto under the vehicle which gets very hot during use. RECTIFIED. Re-routed cable to relieve tension through floor and avoid heater exhaust.
5- Grommet in van floor under drivers seat not refitted and was found discarded under driver's seat (assuming after Webasto heater installation because cables run through that hole). RECTIFIED but had to cut slit in grommet to install - cables could have been fed through small holes in grommet if it had been done at installation time. Grommet could do with sealing in so it doesn't pop out again.
6- Mains consumer unit not sufficiently secured. NOT RECTIFIED.
7- Excess cabling for Webasto left bundled under drivers seat - no effort to secure neatly. NOT RECTIFIED.
8- Bolt missing from Webasto heater mounting bracket. NOT RECTIFIED.
9- Brown cable to fridge wiring connected to mains consumer unit rather than leisure battery system or chassis ground. RECTIFIED (with an eyelet to drivers seat base bolt). Brett told us that the consumer unit earth should be tied to ground of leisure battery but it's not. PLEASE CHECK.
10- RCDs in consumer unit wired up opposite (or the stickers have been applied wrong way round). RCD marked up as 'sockets' was feeding the NUMAX battery charger and vice versa. RECTIFIED.
11- Nearside A-pillar interior trim not replaced correctly. RECTIFIED.
12- Front passenger door trim clip not fitted correctly. NOT RECTIFIED.
13 - One bolt on section of undertray covering Webasto heater was loose. Also some retaining clips missing - no big deal and may have been missing before conversion but the existing bolts should have been tightened.
Items 1 to 4 cause me the greatest concern. Item 1 needs sorting and frankly I'd be pretty annoyed. I'm sure they were trying to get you the highest Amp-Hour rating they could fit but hacking the new battery (and your seat base) is not cool, unless they explained what they were going to do first and you agreed to it. The leisure battery manufacturer would be well within their rights to reject any claim to the warranty in the future. Item 2 and the bare wire mentioned in Item 3 is amateur stuff, plain and simple. OK as a quick fix to get you home but not what I'd expect from a professional conversion company. A real shame because they've used good quality kit only to let you down with poor workmanship.'
I contacted Jonny when I realised there were problems, but he was on holiday and he said I should contact Tracey at the office. Tracey replied really quickly and was very apologetic, showed the report to Brett, but then had to wait for Jonny to get back from holiday. I was in Scotland at this stage (meant to be on holiday!), so got as much as I could fixed, because with this much wrong, I did not feel at all confident in Slidepods ability and just felt like I'd been completely taken advantage of since I know nothing about electrics which is why I paid them to do it.
Great customer service!
I left it with them and I was promised that Jonny would phone when he got back from his holiday on the Monday - he didn't! In fact it took over a week before he did get in touch. When he did he said that he had spoken to Brett and that Brett had denied letting it leave the workshop like that. The tone in which he said this was accusatory therefore being the presumption that I had done the damage myself! Again, electrics scare me, so I stay away from touching them, let alone start playing with them! I had nothing to gain from doing this, Brett (Slidepods workshop manager) had everything to loose. There was absolutely no apology. This left me fuming and contemplating legal proceedings.
Things did not really improve, Tracey emailed me and I found myself able to deal with Slidepods through her. She listened, was reasonable and was a shining light and she was the only reason I did not take Slidepods to court. I realise that Tracey has now left the company of her own choice.
If Jonny had just admitted that things had not been as they should then this could have gone completely the other way, but the fact that he was not willing to admit that things had not been as they should, I did not trust him to work on my van again. Months later he had still not sat down with Brett and looked at the photos that I had emailed them and have also attached to this post, and asked Brett whether that was his work.
At this point I bought the RIB seat off them and got another company to fit it, they have replaced the seat base after I got advice from VW, I returned the battery with the sides taken off to Slidepods and got a refund (they'd fitted a 195mm tall battery under a swivel seat), and they have fixed the headlining (thanks Mike).
For all this stress, aggro' and having to waste a week sorting out their workmanship, I have been offered anything I would like from the catalogues at cost price - so no cost to them!!! For taking a day off work, driving down (210 miles) and spending the day there whilst they fixed the headlining and pulled the door apart to try and fix the clunking (not fixed), Jonny gave me £50, but at this stage I was just ready to get out of there. Even some of the work that does look good I worry about now, as realising that they are happy to let a van go out in the state mine was, what else is wrong behind the panels. This does mean that I don't enjoy my van like I should.
Unless you know what you are looking at and happy to go through and inspect each little bit of work before you leave Slidepods, I would not touch this company. Having gone with them because of all the good feedback, from talking to Jonny I know that there have been problems with others, so I wanted to make people aware of the experience I have had with them. I am happy to provide more photos or information if anyone has any questions or wants details clarifying.
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