Review: Van Doc Ltd / Vandoc Conversions Ltd

[Dean@VanDoc]

Thank you. So if the rest is correct can you see why he felt aggrieved enough to want to vent his frustration about the events listed?

I do understand but this could of all been avoided if he just rang or emailed

 

[Phil. Smith. M.i.o.R]

So you don't think how he was treated was appalling? I can tell by your knowledge of the law, your literacy and your grammar, that you are definitely a real "consultant" with lots of legal experience and should be taken really seriously. We would love to hear more of your valued opinion on the matter.

On these posts people must be very careful on what they write because these are not by any means forgotten or deleted if mr whomever has a dispute with a company the first thing you should attempt is a resolution over the dispute with the installing company in question and then if they can’t help you then you should contact the manufacturer to consult whatever in question has gone wrong and only then should you seek further.
Always try to sort your issues quietly first and only if a resolution is not rectified then take it further, but people be careful what you say on these posts.

 

[andys]

On these posts people must be very careful on what they write because these are not by any means forgotten or deleted if mr whomever has a dispute with a company the first thing you should attempt is a resolution over the dispute with the installing company in question and then if they can’t help you then you should contact the manufacturer to consult whatever in question has gone wrong and only then should you seek further.
Always try to sort your issues quietly first and only if a resolution is not rectified then take it further, but people be careful what you say on these posts.

There is absolutely nothing illegal about reporting events factually in public. Your personal opinion as a customer, and as a concerned member of the public, is perfectly valid on here, but please don't pretend you have any knowledge of the law regarding this or you just won't be taken seriously.

 

[t0mb0]

In all seriousness, you might want to take some legal advice (as in genuine legal advice, not from a "consultant") on passing off under section 216 Insolvency Act 1986. Not saying that's what you're doing, but does need to be borne in mind

Wow, that’s great info. I really wish I’d known about this when dealing with a builder who screwed us over and then phoenixed the company to avoid legal action. From reading around, if you don’t follow extremely precise legal rules when creating the phoenix company, you actually lose limited liability! This means we probably could have gone after the builder personally given he’d have lost the limited liability shield. Link below:

How can we reuse the Liquidated Company's Name? - The Insolvency Rules

 

[Phil. Smith. M.i.o.R]

There is absolutely nothing illegal about reporting events factually in public. Your personal opinion as a customer, and as a concerned member of the public, is perfectly valid on here, but please don't pretend you have any knowledge of the law regarding this or you just won't be taken seriously.

I think he should try and resolve this issue face to face with them and if no resolution is found go to the manufacturer do you not agree.

 

[Oldrat]

On these posts people must be very careful on what they write because these are not by any means forgotten or deleted if mr whomever has a dispute with a company the first thing you should attempt is a resolution over the dispute with the installing company in question and then if they can’t help you then you should contact the manufacturer to consult whatever in question has gone wrong and only then should you seek further.
Always try to sort your issues quietly first and only if a resolution is not rectified then take it further, but people be careful what you say on these posts.

Sorry fella, it maybe my loss but you have still yet to get yourself an entry in my credibility book,

Whereas the owner, Dean, comes across as being dedicated, credible and perhaps unlucky. From his responses alone is now already in there.

Let’s hope that his business thrives on the quality of service he says that he can provide.

 

[Village]

Not at all.

I wasn't referring to you!

 

[t0mb0]

Hi Pete

I didn’t think I’d have to explain the reasons why the company went into Liquidation, as I never thought I’d be publicly shamed for doing so. I’m not a rouge trader that takes people’s money and runs away, as you can see I’ve tried to keep the name I love as close as possible. I have serviced the VW community for many years and have made a successful business from it, which has come from hard work and dedication

To answer your question about why this happened, around 2017/18 we employed a member of staff to manage the running of the business ie booking work in, ordering parts, invoicing, general running of the day to day business, which would leave myself and my team to crack on with the work. Unfortunately due to the incompetence of the staff member we were overbooked, parts not ordered and customers having delays, it almost felt like we grew too big over night, but really it wasn’t being managed properly, which I am fully to blame as I’m the owner. By this time the damage had already been done and monies and discounts were taken off invoices as compensation and freebies, which all had a huge knock on effect, which is why the company had to be dissolved

Myself and my wife Laura are now fully in control of the company, this wasn’t an option at the time as we had young children.

I’m very proud of my company, which is why I’ve kept it as close to the old name as possible

The funny thing is I was really embarrassed by doing this as I do feel like I failed, but to make matters worse the guy who was dealing with the insolvency was a previous customer who was very shocked and saddened, but reassured me I was doing the right thing for the company and my family

Regards
Dean

Sounds like a nightmare, best of luck getting everything back on track.

 

[Phil. Smith. M.i.o.R]

Sorry fella, it maybe my loss but you have still yet to get yourself an entry in my credibility book,

Whereas the owner, Dean, comes across as being dedicated, credible and perhaps unlucky. From his responses alone is now already in there.

Let’s hope that his business thrives on the quality of service he says that he can provide.

I do hope he does thrive as they are really nice people and I mean it, I have high hopes for there future because there customer service now is awesome and caring, as everybody knows it takes a long time to get a good reputation but seconds to lose it.

 

[andys]

I think he should try and resolve this issue face to face with them and if no resolution is found go to the manufacturer do you not agree.

I have no opinion on his next move, my concern was with you trying to scare him into removing his factual (as agreed by the business owner) account of the treatment of him and his family. I'm pleased you have had good service there, but that does not mean that others who have not should be precluded from publicly airing their experiences. Had things gone badly for you, plenty of people on here would be vociferorous in their support of you too. Read his account of how things went again, and how patient he was with their efforts of resolution and imagine if that had been you.

 

[Phil. Smith. M.i.o.R]

On these posts people must be very careful on what they write because these are not by any means forgotten or deleted if mr whomever has a dispute with a company the first thing you should attempt is a resolution over the dispute with the installing company in question and then if they can’t help you then you should contact the manufacturer to consult whatever in question has gone wrong and only then should you seek further.
Always try to sort your issues quietly first and only if a resolution is not rectified then take it further, but people be careful what you say on these posts.

So my point has now been shown by dean himself which was don’t jump to conclusions because vandoc conversions Ltd are honouring all warrantee issues still from the previous Vandoc Ltd which is good news.

 

[Deaky]

My roof was fitted just before @DaveyB. I was a victim of the poor management that Dean mentioned. My van sat outside their unit for a whole month, it didn't move and wasn't touched. Ultimately I think my installation was rushed. After driving over to VanDoc to see what was going on Dean was very apologetic and offered me the use of one off their vans and to carpet the metal work of my van FOC.

I don't think the work was carried out by Dean rather his employee's who perhaps don't have the same feeling for the company as the business owner. My install has been blighted with leaks. Dean has had the van back twice to rectify them and to be fair to VanDoc there has been absolutely no quibble about having the van back but after two attempts - the latter one being a bit of a bodge I decided to take the van to HiLo for them to put the install right.

They found 7 leaks in the sealing around the canvass of the roof. According to HiLo, the paint on the metalwork of the roof cassette should be ground off to provide a key for the sealer, this had not been done (maybe to save time?). The result was the paint coming away from the metal and water leaking underneath. There were also areas around the roof that had no sealer at all.

I too have had issues with the touch lights coming on on their own and one being so high up in the roof that you can't actually use it. They've now been removed along with the fugly, and IMO unsuitable for the job, piano hinge.

 

[t0mb0]

My roof was fitted just before @DaveyB. I was a victim of the poor management that Dean mentioned. My van sat outside their unit for a whole month, it didn't move and wasn't touched. Ultimately I think my installation was rushed. After driving over to VanDoc to see what was going on Dean was very apologetic and offered me the use of one off their vans and to carpet the metal work of my van FOC.

I don't think the work was carried out by Dean rather his employee's who perhaps don't have the same feeling for the company as the business owner. My install has been blighted with leaks. Dean has had the van back twice to rectify them and to be fair to VanDoc there has been absolutely no quibble about having the van back but after two attempts - the latter one being a bit of a bodge I decided to take the van to HiLo for them to put the install right.

They found 7 leaks in the sealing around the canvass of the roof. According to HiLo, the paint on the metalwork of the roof cassette should be ground off to provide a key for the sealer, this had not been done (maybe to save time?). The result was the paint coming away from the metal and water leaking underneath. There were also areas around the roof that had no sealer at all.

I too have had issues with the touch lights coming on on their own and one being so high up in the roof that you can't actually use it. They've now been removed along with the fugly, and IMO unsuitable for the job, piano hinge.

Great factual summary. It’s critical having this kind of report out there as choosing between convertors based on their chat alone is a minefield.

 

[VanDocConversions]

My roof was fitted just before @DaveyB. I was a victim of the poor management that Dean mentioned. My van sat outside their unit for a whole month, it didn't move and wasn't touched. Ultimately I think my installation was rushed. After driving over to VanDoc to see what was going on Dean was very apologetic and offered me the use of one off their vans and to carpet the metal work of my van FOC.

I don't think the work was carried out by Dean rather his employee's who perhaps don't have the same feeling for the company as the business owner. My install has been blighted with leaks. Dean has had the van back twice to rectify them and to be fair to VanDoc there has been absolutely no quibble about having the van back but after two attempts - the latter one being a bit of a bodge I decided to take the van to HiLo for them to put the install right.

They found 7 leaks in the sealing around the canvass of the roof. According to HiLo, the paint on the metalwork of the roof cassette should be ground off to provide a key for the sealer, this had not been done (maybe to save time?). The result was the paint coming away from the metal and water leaking underneath. There were also areas around the roof that had no sealer at all.

I too have had issues with the touch lights coming on on their own and one being so high up in the roof that you can't actually use it. They've now been removed along with the fugly, and IMO unsuitable for the job, piano hinge.

Hi Richard

Thank you for your honest post

And thank you for highlighting the points, this comes as a great shock to me, as in my training 4 years ago, we were never told to grind off the paint to provide a key for the sealant and there was certainly no recommendations for this to be done (for my training anyway and there have been no updates in regards fitting)

Also noticing on a previous thread, we see you have also raised some other points, these also cause us great concern, as we have never been informed of grinding off the cassette to make it fit (why would we need to?) it states that the wrong pop rivets were used to fit your roof, but we only use the pop rivets provided and have been from day one.

I'm glad that your issues have been sorted and will in due course be getting in touch with the manufacturer regarding these raised points

Kind Regards
Dean

 

[Deaky]

Also noticing on a previous thread, we see you have also raised some other points, these also cause us great concern, as we have never been informed of grinding off the cassette to make it fit (why would we need to?) it states that the wrong pop rivets were used to fit your roof, but we only use the pop rivets provided and have been from day one.

When I dropped the van to HiLo they noticed that I had a piece of Velcro stuck to the corners of the cassette at the front of the van. The lid/roof was rubbing on the cassette at both corners, it had worn through the plastic strip that's Sika'd around the outside edge of the cassette. HiLo told me that these corners should be ground off - we've ascertained from other posts since my van was done that they are not the most reliable people to deal with so I'm not sure how true this statement is.

What I can confirm is that what ever they have done, the roof no longer rubs in these corners. The guy who did the work told me that the whole front of the cassette was sitting high on the top of the van because pop rivets with too long heads had been used. Again, from what I've learned since this may be BS, but what ever they have done, the roof no longer rubs, it doesn't creak or squeak when driving and it no longer leaks so I'm happy.

Overall I think it's a great roof, let down by poor design. It would be easy to fit something so that the canvas didn't sit on the bottom of the water channel, the piano hinge is totally inadequate and so is the way they grind the H rail so the hatch is removable - although I think they may have addressed this now.

 

[ZipcodeUK]

@VanDocConversions
It’s certainly commendable that you have come on here and been open, honest and quite factual with your responses.

You shouldn’t be embarrassed talking openly about the business failures. These things happen but ultimately we are judged by how we respond to those failures and the reputation that is built there after.

Your “happy” customer is quick to slate the open, factual discussions that are taking place here highlighting installs where customers paying vast amounts of funds have been totally let down. But at least with these open discussions you have an opportunity to respond, an opportunity to regain trust, to get a true understanding of the problem which therefore allows you react and make the right changes. If this was all going on in “private chats”, you’d never have the opportunity to win us over again.

This community is not out to ruin your business, but we have a responsibility to share factual experiences with anyone to ensure educated choices are made when hard earned money is spent on the vehicles we all cherish!

Good luck, and I’m sure we all look forward to seeing the return of your businesses success.

 

[Deleted Member]

Sorry fella, it maybe my loss but you have still yet to get yourself an entry in my credibility book,

Whereas the owner, Dean, comes across as being dedicated, credible and perhaps unlucky. From his responses alone is now already in there.

Let’s hope that his business thrives on the quality of service he says that he can provide.

^ this all day long, @Dean@VanDoc comes across ok in this thread, I think most of us with our own business's have been shafted by rogue members of staff to one extent or the other.

Where as @Phil. Smith. M.i.o.R comes across as somebody suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect.

 

[Phil. Smith. M.i.o.R]

^ this all day long, @Dean@VanDoc comes across ok in this thread, I think most of us with our own business's have been shafted by rogue members of staff to one extent or the other.

Where as @Phil. Smith. M.i.o.R comes across as somebody suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect.

This Freddy Kruger owns two business in the Roofing and cladding industry, I have also had the same when it comes to employees taking the piss thinking they can get away with murder, I’m a fixer they say so you give them them a chance pay them big money and then you find out they are full of Shit and their work is not acceptable, you end up putting their work rite which costs you money.
But I believe helping those people which require a little help is the best thing you can do in any industry, however, this is quite hard to achieve, like they say you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink it. Yes we all know about the Dunn -Kruger effect