13-Perth

13th June 2008.
Arrived back in our home town of Perth to get the necessary servicing and warranty items fixed before continuing north. After being away from all the traffic and hustle and bustle for a while, it was a rude awakening hitting all the Perth traffic again.
It was really good to catch up with Sean, Tarm and Steven (our son, his wife and grandson) again 

Their house is on a one acre block and we parked the caravan down the end of the driveway and we could have still been bush with the fire going every night. You wouldn't have thought we were back in suburbia. You guessed right. We stayed in the caravan coz that's what we wanted.

Catching up with the family:

We were only planning on being in Perth for a few days and knew we wouldn't be able to visit everyone so we organised a "brunch" to get all the close family together at one time on Sunday (15th) and it was so good seeing everyone again. You don't realise how much you miss your family and friends until you don't see them for a while.

Unfortunately, due to all the time wasted waiting around for technicians to diagnose the problems and then hanging around for parts, we couldn't catch up with everyone.

Servicing and Repairs:

Took the caravan in to get it serviced and to get the heating and water problems fixed. Within a few hours we received a call on the mobile to say the van was ready so off we went. "We've done the service but couldn't find any problems with the heating system or water" they explained when we arrived.

"You gotta be joking, we haven't had any heating for over 3 weeks and you can't find anything wrong, sorry but can't accept that"

Anyway, they said they'd connect the power and water up and show us everything was working okay. Guess what, the heater didn't work and there was hardly any water pressure. They were speechless. "Sorry guys, gotta call the manufacturers in the morning as it's too late now". Next day, the heater agents sent out a different technition to do some tests and he said they knew what the problem was coz of the "E5" error code and would order the parts straight away, but it's going to take 4 to 5 days by road.
"We're already behind schedule and we'll pay the extra for an overnight airbag so we can get going"
"Sorry mate, company policy, it's comming by road"

To cut a long story short, the parts eventually arrived but still didn't fix the problem so more parts were ordered and eventually after a week and a bit of hanging around waiting for them, the heater was eventually fixed. No appologies or compensation for the inconvenience of lost production time etc etc.
What's happened to good old customer satisfaction and providing a good efficient backup service?
By now we were champing at the bit to head north to warmer weather and get away from the traffic and the rain.

Also got the Patrol dual battery problem sorted, it had been wired incorrectly so hopefully we won't have any more starting problems. 

Modifications:

While we were hanging around for the caravan problems to be sorted, I took advantage of the time and did loads of modifications to the caravan and the patrol to make life on the road easier.
At long last, the parts have arrived, heaters working again so we're off to The Pinnacles in the morning :)
 
Back to the top