Travelworld are still a Hymer motorhome authorised dealer but we're only a Touring range caravan authorised for about a year or so. They are no longer listed as such and I suspect that's why Broad Lane were brought on board to provide coverage in the Midlands.

We bought our Eriba from Lowdhams at a good price and no waiting. Then things went downhill. The fridge did not work on gas, the mover was noisy and the lights would come on at odd times. They could not fix the fridge without getting in a service engineer from the manufacturer so we had to take the eriba back to them involving travelling there and back twice. They would not fix the lights without the old ones being returned to them first. The mover they fitted was very noisy and when they picked up the caavan for repair they returned it covered in mud.

Their customer service is Not Good! May be buy from them if the price is right but get your servce done elsewhere.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Raconteur. We're seeing the van again at Nottingham tomorrow and will see how that goes. Good to hear of your positive dealings with Broad Lane at Alcester - will definitely contact them if we don't go with the Lowdhams van and possibly pre-order with them for next year. We still have our Familia so not desperate to buy right now.

Oh dear Biljul! That doesn't sound good and I can imagine how frustrating it was trying to get things fixed. I hope everything got sorted out in the end and you've been enjoying using your van. Do you mind me asking if you bought it new or second hand?

Most things were sorted in the end thanks & we've had some fantastic trips with the van in the UK & Europe. We bought it new from Lowdhams.

I guess with Eribas and all caravans and motorhomes so difficult to get hold of, if they have what you want at a price you are happy to pay, it might be your best bet or there is a good chance you are on a waiting list for 2022 and beyond.
Fulfilling servicing/water ingress obligations to maintain the warranty is a pain, but theoretically any Hymer dealer should be able to do it so they can update the records on Hymer’s system. In reality you’ll likely need to talk with one of official Eriba dealers.

I'm glad things eventually got sorted Biljul.

Nthurrzzz, thanks for your reply. I guess that is the trade off for getting the van we really want but not wanting the headache if things go wrong.

As an update... we were assured the van would be in Nottingham yesterday (it had previously been transported to Huddersfield where we viewed it last week) and we went to take a final look. We arrived and the van wasn't there, the salesperson is on holiday this week (he didn't tell us this when we paid the deposit) and no one knew anything about it. Suffice to say we cancelled the order and got our deposit back.

We didn't expect a red carpet but the service was terrible and we decided not to get a van from them. They made the whole buying process very frustrating and spoilt the enjoyment of getting a new van.

Fifteen years ago I bought a Troll end of season from their Huddersfield branch for an excellent price. After sales were good but the servicing required emptying out the whole caravan and leaving it with them for a week which entailed two extensive round trips but on balance it was just about worthwhile. Two years ago I tried to buy another Troll from either Huddersfield or Nottingham and in dealing with their Eriba specialist I came to the view they were either monumentally incompetent or not interested, pricing was poor; knowledge poorer. I gave up and went elsewhere.

I went into Lowdhams Nottingham in 2005 interested in purchasing a new motorhome. Unfortunately they showed no interest at all. So neither did I. It's good to see they haven't changed. I'd leave them alone. You'll only be disappointed.

Thanks Bathchap and PooleDweller for sharing your experiences. Interesting that there's a lot of negativity surrounding Lowdhams which seems to go back years. I'm sure lots of people have had good service as they are still in business and always seem busy.

Hi Thisbe,
you were correct to cancel your Lowdhams order, we have very recently purchased from them & the whole process has been stressful because of, lack of communication & product knowledge, still missing items some 8 months since initial order, misleading delivery times quoted, misleading CRIS info on their website links (NACC), incomplete & dangerous PDI check or product use advice, lack of customer service interest, including in the awnings department. This place needs a good 'shake up'.
The girls on reception have a very pleasant manner!

I don't like Lowdhams but you can't blame them for missed delivery dates. All caravan dealers have faced substantial delays in most of their orders from both UK and Continental makers. The originally allocated delivery dates tended to be to fiction, mainly due to reduced manning on production lines to distance assembly workers.

I think it's the dealer's responsibility to communicate with manufacturers at the time of order & advise purchasers of realistic delivery dates, not quote a March delivery then deliver in July, as was the case here. Buyers plan their holidays & book sites with this delivery date in mind. If the dates are fiction as you say then the dealer should disclose this fact at the time of the order & not mislead innocent buyers. If you search this site you will find many others that have experiences like mine with this Midlands based dealer. Had I researched this Eribafolk site properly before ordering mine, I probably would have gone elsewhere.

Sorry but all caravan dealers rely on a delivery schedule published by the manufacturer, usually in the next month or so for 2022MY, based on the orders placed by the dealer. The dealer will allocate customers to those orders as they sign them up and they give them an expected delivery date based on that info.

Usually things run fairly smoothly and vans turn up at a dealership within a week or two of the original estimate. However things can go wrong, build schedules can be rejigged due to appliance and part supply issues or staff shortages, strikes etc. Last year and this year have been prime examples of it all going bad and no matter who you'd purchased a van from you'd not have got your van when originally estimated months before.

Where a dealer can be criticised is if they are informed of a delay and don't tell a customer, but if they're not advised by the manufacturer they're as much in the dark as anyone else. In addition, many staff were locked down or furloughed during the time in question, so limiting the resources able to keep communications open.

As I say I have no time for Lowdhams generally but in the circumstances I would cut them some slack on that issue.

SDA your defence of Lowdhams is admirable but my experience of them was in the halcyon days before we had even heard of Wuhan!!