This matter has been settled after a new head of sales talked to us, re established trust, came and inspected the vehicle and discovered the fault. What a difference when someone cares about their customers and listens. He seemed really concerned about what we had been through, wanted to work with us to put things right and I think, had he been in the job when all this started, the situation would never have escalated as it did. I thought Hillside were nothing but a bunch of belligerent bullies wanting to take the cash, not giving a toss about their customers or their service, but I feel quite differently now. I am so glad to report that this story has had a satisfactory conclusion. Thank you for all the information and support here.

Thank you. That’s helpful, as always.

BankFodder, just a general query, I would be grateful for your input. Is it considered bad form to have employed a solicitor and then take things on again oneself? I regret not having found my way here earlier, but, I just wondered if it’s regarded badly in the court system.

Thank you. I understand what you’re saying and have learned a great deal very quickly. I will talk further to my partner.

Hello BF, Yes I have read the Customer Services Guide, thank you, and have started recording conversations. Yes, I thought it went quite smoothly with the bank but I take your point and respect your pessimism! We haven't invited Hillside to carry out an inspection (though had wondered if we should today) and have engaged a solicitor. It feels like a bit of a see saw, trying to engage with the facts and not all the emotion we have about the whole sorry business. The holiday we had planned was with our niece who has just bought a caravan following her Mum's (our sister's) death from cancer, so it was such an important holiday, so the loss of it after all we went through was highly charged. BF,you seemed to feel that we could do this ourselves, but I didn't feel confident enough. I might see if any of the auto engineers/experts in alarms might inspect for us here at home. I will keep you posted and thank you, again.

John wrote: “...your insurance may well refuse to pay out” Indeed, John. It greatly worries us, too.

Just for further sharing of information, I have contacted my bank to initiate the Chargeback process. I found them very helpful but they have informed me that the faulty goods/van needs to be in the hands of the merchant and they then have 15 days to act and if they don’t, the process of obtaining the refund can be initiated. So they can’t act until the van is returned. I have been fortunate to have a friend who has a garage who feels any company should have the right to inspect a faulty vehicle. But, at the same time, Hillside tried to blame us for tampering and told us to take the van to Nissan in the first place. They never wanted to see it in the first 3 weeks. The element of mistrust here is so great, yet I don’t want to appear unreasonable. I have also been looking at auto engineers and expert witnesses and all sorts to strengthen our position, but I can’t help noticing another week has gone by with a brand new, unlocked campervan sitting outside. The thought of court proceedings doesn’t fill me with joy, but I am wondering if this maybe what has to happen. BankFodder your advice was to tell Hillside to make an appointment to come and inspect it here at our house, but then Chargeback cannot be initiated. Another week has passed, I have done more research but I am still unsure of my next best move. Any input welcome, thank you.

Thank you very much BF

Hillside wouldn’t accept credit cards. Perhaps if we had been more consumer savvy in July when we bought the campervan our alarm bells might have rung back then. It’s such a worry to have this campervan unlocked outside.

That’s really helpful,thank you.

Chuffnut, thank you. It wasn’t until we rejected the campervan that they contacted us and wanted to inspect it and, to be fair, they then wanted to look at it, but that was three and a half weeks after purchase and after we’d gone through all the debacle at Nissan when this awful row between the two companies had kicked off and we didn’t like being in the middle of it all. Yes, if they had accepted liability for the campervan in the first place or expressed the slightest bit of concern perhaps things might have been different. Certainly if I was MD of a company and someone had spent £31000 with me and 2 days in they had a problem, I would have been straight on the phone asking what was going on and seeing if I could help. On the day the alarm first sounded, we sent Hillside the video of what had happened and they didn’t acknowledge receipt until weeks later when we provided them with evidence that we sent it.

I looked d up this section 75 and debit cards and it doesn’t apply, but there is this Chargeback thing, but we are 4 days over the 120 days which is bit hard. But for future reference it says “Chargeback isn’t a legal protection like section 75. It’s an agreement Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and American Express have signed up to. The scheme enables you to claim a refund from your card provider if a purchase doesn’t arrive or is faulty. It works by the card company trying to claim your money back from the company you’ve paid, by reversing the transaction. There’s usually no minimum spend in order to be covered by chargeback, but time limits apply for making a claim – usually up to either 45 or 120 days from making the purchase, depending on the type of card. Chargeback claims can take some time to process because the card company has to get the money refunded before it can pass it onto you.“ But thank you everyone for this support

Thank you king12345. Unfortunately, we paid by debit card so I assume this section 75 doesn’t apply? Hillside wouldn’t accept credit card. We did video it going off and it has been taken to Nissan whose report I included in my previous post.

Thank you BF. In relation to corroborating the fault, I do have two pieces of written evidence from our local Nissan branch, one dated August 17th and the second, more formal, from the Service Manager October 8th reads, “Just to confirm that the vehicle was inspected as Customer concern was alarm going off. We inspected the vehicle to find it had been completely modified and converted into a campervan. We checked the alarm and suspect that due to the modification to the roof this may be causing the ultra sonics to set off the alarm. Further testing of the alarm and wiring would involve removal of units inside the vehicle. We are not happy to work around the modifications made and recommend return to selling or adaption dealer.” I do have that and a more informal email from another member of staff at our local Nissan branch. I think your input to invite Hillside to inspect here is a really good plan. We are very weary and just want it gone and sorted, but I think you have helped stiffen our resolve. There have been some really unpleasant accusations thrown at us from Hillside - not least that our contacting Nissan was “undertaken of your own accord.” That made us particularly furious as we just did what they told us to do and just wanted it sorted. In relation to the word ‘defect’ Hillside used it in one of their letters to us, so I think we may have used it without thought. Thank you again, BF! Sorry, just spotted your payment question. We paid via two Debit cards, lawntreader

Hello, thank you for the reply. Perhaps I wasn’t very clear that we have sent many letters recorded delivery rejecting the campervan as not fit for purpose, the first one well within 30 days. Hillside do not accept the campervan as unfit for purpose and have requested to inspect the van and want to repair it. They did not accept liability for the van on the day of the fault but referred us to Nissan, who then said the problem was with the conversion, which Hillside refused to accept. We are caught in the middle and this is the essence of our discomfort. In addition, because the correspondence (over 10 recorded delivery letters from them and us) has been so deeply unpleasant, because they gave us bad and wrong advice (take it to Nissan, it’s a Nissan problem) and because we lived with the stress of the alarm possibly sounding for three weeks we just want nothing to do with this company and want them to take their unused campervan back. They may well repair the fault but then we don’t want to have to deal with them at all in the future. They haven’t inspected the van themselves (I think we suspected they were trying to blame us for the problem) but Nissan say they can’t check the alarm sensors without Hillside stripping out, so we are thinking we should get it back to them. But we don’t want it repaired. After these awful months and the loss of our holiday , we just want a refund. Thank you! Our replies crossed. Will stay in touch. Thank you! Bankfodder, you asked how we paid for the campervan. Well, with our life savings. It’s all paid for, unmoved since the fateful trip to Nissan and still unlocked with 380 miles on the clock. May I just ask one thing. Do you think it advisable to return it to Hillside (God knows we have had enough of it) and get the inspection done?

I am new here but very glad to find my way here and would welcome any input. i purchased a brand new campervan conversion from Hillside Leisure (175 miles from our home) on July 26th for £31,000 and, within 48 hours, during a storm, the alarm began to sound incessantly. We could not get it to stop, even after trying everything listed in the manual. We phoned Hillside on Saturday July 28th around 2.00pm. The young man who answered the phone said he would seek the advice of their technician and call us back, which he did. The technician told us that they, Hillside, couldn’t help, but that we should take the van to Nissan (the van is a Nissan) as the fault would lie with one of their components. During the coming days, the alarm continued to sound randomly. Our neighbours were furious and we were beginning to feel quite stressed. We had a holiday booked (our first) but cancelled it because the sounding of the alarm being so unpredictable. We booked the van as we were instructed to into our local branch of Nissan who, because of the holiday time in August, were unable to fit us in for three weeks, but we accepted that’s what we had to do to get the campervan repaired. We decided to ensure there would be no further problems, (the alarm had sounded at 5.00 am and seemed to be cycling through some pattern or other) to simply leave the van unlocked - which is what we did. No one from Hillside rang us or offered any input or help or asked to see the van during those 3 weeks. Finally, on August 17th, we took the campervan into our local Nissan branch who seemed very helpful. However, later in the day we had a call from Nissan to say that they thought the internal sensors were causing the alarm to go off because the roof had been altered and so the issue lay with the conversion. I asked the Nissan man if they could simply disarm the alarm, but he asked who would pay for it. I said we had a van warranty with Nissan and a campervan warranty with Hillside, surely they must between them be able to do something. ‘Leave it with me’ he said. An hour or so later, Nissan man phoned me and said he was not happy. Hillside would not speak to him saying they were ‘too busy’ and that there had been some words exchanged about their, Nissan’s, lack of expertise. He apologised but said they couldn’t do anything and we would have to collect the van, still with the fault. At that time, I was furious and all the ideas I had of relatively trouble free motoring evaporated. Having had the campervan for just 3 weeks and driving home with the fault still on the van and this being the first experience of a problem was infuriating. I checked my rights and decided to invoke our short term right to reject the van as not fit for purpose after talking with CAB the next morning. We wanted our money back. Since then, there have been 15 exchanges of letters between us and Hillside, each more unpleasant and accusatory. To be fair, after we rejected the van and asked for our money back Hillside did offer to inspect it and repair it, but why didn’t they do that in the first place and the problem was exacerbated by their complete lack of concern for us and our holiday cancellation. Perhaps, had Hillside apologised or shown sympathy or understanding of how difficult those three weeks of the unpredictable alarm were, we might have said please repair it. But they didn’t accept liability at the time, never contacted us and we simply followed their instructions to take it to Nissan. Hillside’s emails and later letters were belligerent and blaming, so we are still seeking a full refund. The van is still completely unused and sitting in our driveway still unlocked. I contacted Nissan Customer Services who say they are unable to offer an independent inspection without the vehicle being stripped out by Hillside, so the advice Hillside gave to ‘take it to Nissan’ on that first afternoon was completely wrong,anyway. I have also tried finding arbitration but, so far, haven’t found anyone who can arbitrate because the van is under warranty and that includes the NCC whom Hillside are members of. We are now at the stage of thinking we should take it back to Hillside to strip out and Nissan inspect, but we are so mistrustful of Hillside and have lost all faith in them and Nissan haven’t come out much better. We certainly don’t want the van back afterwards but wonder quite what exactly our rights are, here. Under the Consumer Act 2015 and the fact we rejected this van as not fit for purpose 23 days after buying it (and it’s never been used) we would welcome the experience, thoughts, advice and expertise of this Forum. Thank you.