Wilmothsmotorhomes Reviews 10

We bought an autotrial in 2021 and have had problems with it since. We had it booked in to have the drop bed repaired for the 3rd time and received an email This week to say they were closing and so would not do any repairs. It is still under warranty. We have been trying to find someone to do the repairs but keep being told it's down to willmoths. How can that be done if they are no longer up and running.

On the first visit I found them very helpful and pleasant to deal with and ended up putting a deposit down on a 2010 auto cruise startrail with 11500 miles it was priced at £34’995 and got it for £34’000 this was our first motorhome and was very excited to pick it up and start using it and it would be just in time for our trip away at Christmas. Dominic said it needed a service, habitation check and a full valet so it would be a couple of weeks before it was ready.
On collection I caught the train down to pick it up and didn’t really look over the van properly just drove it home, on inspection my partner and I realised it hadn’t even been cleaned, hair clips laying around dirty carpet and the toilet still had wee stains around the top and down the back of the loo which was disgusting.
It didn’t have a gas bottle with it so I sorted that out the following week and that’s when the problems started, I realised the heating wasn’t working on gas, the toilet cassette wasn’t clipping in due to being broken so going round corners the cassette would slide away from the toilet, which would explain why I had to clean inside the cassette area as it was all wee stained, after realising this I got on the phone to Dominic to sort out the issues and a week later the van went back to be fixed. We was without the van all over Christmas so had to make other arrangements as we had planned to stay in the motorhome, but it wasn’t a problem.
Picked the van up 38 days later still wasn’t cleaned properly but was assured that it had been fixed with a new circuit board and the cassette toilet was glued together and told to be careful with it.
Dominic had also put £100 of fuel in for me but it cost me more having 2 days off work.
The drive home was wet and raining and it wasn’t long before water started dripping on the dashboard coming from what looked like the windscreen area and when I returned home I checked the windows to find 3 leaking water, I adjusted the window catches to see if I could solve the problem, time would tell.
The following week I went to Wales on a rd trip to find that the water wouldn’t heat on its own so left me with cold washes in the morning the windows were still leaking had an engine mount knocking on start up and sometimes the clutch pedal would stay on the floor so thought I’d come home early in case I never made it home.
Immediately rang the branch and told them that the van was not fit for purpose. To say I wasn’t happy was an understatement to cut a Long story Short. We contacted the managing director and eventually got a refund for the van, but it took nearly 2 months. The customer service we received was an absolute joke and the van went back with 13,500 miles on it and I was glad to see the back of it. Having being laughed at by them at the start when I said I wanted a refund as it wasn’t fit for purpose we eventually got one.
The whole ordeal from buying it to giving it back was a complete nightmare and I would never ever recommend this place to buy anything not even toilet paper.
-

Another excellent service and warranty experience from our motorhome dealer in Southampton. This is now our fourth year with Wilmoths and we’re pleased to find that the After Sales team has been joined by Marilyn who is super efficient, friendly and helpful freeing Andy to do his job at last. Courtesy car provided and local campsite booked for the duration of the work being carried out.

We bought a Pilote/ Danbury Fiat Ducati van conversion from Wilmoths. From get go we experienced failures with the Wi-Fi system and returned the vehicle to Wilmoths to rectify these around 5 times. They did not solve the issues and ignored our emails for help and still are. Never in my life have I experienced such arrogance and apathy in dealing with after sales service. I think their motto must be “Take the Money and Run”.

I purchased a brand new Pilote Motorhome from Wilmoth Southampton in December 2020. The sales team were professional and efficient but the nightmare began when I took delivery of the Motorhome. Firstly a dealer fitted TV antenna was incorrectly wired, it didnt work! What about PDI checks? to be fair, they sent an engineer to fix that..Then I found that even though the motorhome was sold with full carpets, the Kitchen carpet set was missing, also sold with DAB. When I tried the DAB on the way home… no DAB Radio fitted! 12 months on after weekly phone calls for almost a year to the Southampton service team, I still don't have the missing carpet or DAB radio! Completely miss sold and the after sales answer is ….its warranty sir! I would NOT recommend buying from them and wish I had checked on Trust Pilot before parting with my money. There were several other issues such as side markers not working etc etc. I live along way from Southhampton and so expected the Motorhome to be fit for purpose when I picked it up. My fault for not checking every switch and dial ….but then Ive never had to do that with Audi or BMW!

Excellent diagnostics and service work on our Auto-Trail by Wilmoths Southampton. Top people and top customer care.

Shocking and dangerous service. I had an additional leisure battery fitted just pre lockdown.. didn’t appear to charge on the limited occasions I was able to use the van, numerous calls to Wilmoths and advice given to ‘reset’ the battery. I live in the north and so took the van to another dealer for the habitat check and service and asked them to check the battery. They were horrified to find that the battery was wired totally incorrectly and had caused the the charger to burn out. They took pictures and wrote a report for me. This was an expensive repair but more importantly put my family at huge risk. I have made several calls to Wilmoths and set my concerns out in e mails. I have had no response. My next step will be legal action.
The general after sales service has been shocking and it amazes me that some of the manufacturers trade with them given their awful reputation. Other similar incidents have been reported on social media sites and I really hope that Wilmoths take this seriously before someone is seriously injured.

Caution! Please be very wary about buying a vehicle from Wilmoths, Southampton in good faith that it will be fit for purpose. Ours wasn't and reading other reviews it would appear we are not the only ones who have experienced nightmare after sales service. Our van has been back with them since 3rd June not once have they rung us off their own volition to give us an update. When we do speak to after sales manager fobbed off with excuses and no date as to when it will be fixed. Daylight robbery taking our money for a vehicle not fit for purpose and then not returning it to us!!!

I must warn you all of my disastrous experience with Wilmoths Motorhomes in Sothampton. We bought a second hand Motorhome from them. It's been two month's of hell. It had less than 12k miles on the clock and was just three years old.
I picked it up on the day of the worst weather conditions of the year, but fortunately we'd booked into a local Campsite for the night. The first morning I sat on one of the dining seats to find it absolutely drenched with water. On inspecting the Cushions, there was staining indicative of an ongoing existing problem. The leak was coming in at the TV aerial. Why wasn't this picked up on the Habitation check?
Anyway, I phoned Wilmoths and arranged to bring it back the following day. I'd driven no more than half a mile and I noticed a warning message appear on the Dashboard, saying 'Service Required'. It went off and half a mile later, came back on again. I was only travelling at low speed, but I was sure I could feel a loss of power to the engine.
When I got to Wilmoths I mentioned it to them, but they put being a cold engine and not having chance to warm up. I had to take their word for it. They fixed the hole in the roof and we made our way towards home. Half a mile away from Wilmoths the 'Service Required' message appeared again, and the Power didn't feel quite right. It wasn't until we hit the faster roads, that I had real problems. The power drop was drastic, suddenly dropping my speed from 65 to 45mph in a second.
We struggled on home at about 40mph, as to go any faster was Dangerous. We arrived home and two things occurred to me. Firstly, I didn't request a Service and it wasn't due a Service, so why would they Service it? The Service record shows it was requested by the person who'd only just driven it, obviously because the 'Service Required' message was showing and it wasn't running right. Two services, 100 miles apart, when it's only due every 36,000 miles? I was surprised to receive a two years Warranty. On reflection, they've done so because there was obviously a major problem with the vehicle, so they passed the problem on to me. Naughty and very Dangerous.
I won't go into the fiasco of getting it mended, other than to say we weren't able to use the vehicle for a month and the diagnoses was that 3 out of 4 fuel injectors weren't working. I won't say any more about that, other than to say, that's not something that happens overnight.
To get the vehicle fixed, I had to phone the Warranty Company, who are also Wilmoths. I would never have known this if the Customer Service rep hadn't volunteered the information. She said, “I see you used the Warranty this morning to get the roof fixed”. I was in shock. Wilmoths had used my Warranty, without asking or informing me, to fix a problem that they should have rectified before handing over the vehicle to me. Isn't that Fraud?
There were a number of other faults on the vehicle that they state they'd inspected, but obviously hadn't, so I'm pretty sure the Habitation check was never carried out. On making a complaint, Wilmoths denied all knowledge of everything. They won't supply paperwork I'm requesting (For my own vehicle), as I'm sure it backs up my case. I have been contacted by someone high up in the Company, but he won't issue me with a Deadlock letter so I can get the Ombudsman involved. Why doesn't he want to get this resolved?
I've now got to wait another 2 weeks before I can progress this and possibly go through the Small claims court to resolve this. Fortunately I'm retired and have plenty of time. If you don't have the time and knowledge, or just don't want the aggravation of going through such a palaver, or just that you don't want to put your family's safety at risk, be very wary of using Wilmoths.