Wallace Caravans - Kirkcaldy

Rob L.

Slipping, badly slipping...

My family have been dealing with Wallace for over 30 years and they have been one of the best dealers in the Region, competing with far larger companies with reliable excellence. Last year we bought a second hand van from them and had a great experience. Then over the winter we found we needed some work done, so we booked in for an annual service and to have the issues checked out. Nothing "show stopping" but awkward and involving warranties held by Wallace not us.

We waited for over a month to get our scheduled slot and were told we'd be able to drop the van and pick it up a week later, Saturday to Saturday the e-mail reads... A service is typically 5 hours work, so given work management that sounded reasonable and convenient for all. The date we were given was a Wednesday, which wasn't so helpful, but fine. So I dropped it on the Saturday before to save missing work. No changes were mentioned, we were asked when we needed it by, but given we'd been told a week it was no issue. This was the first warning sign we missed.

Luckily I called late week to check on how things were going and clarify some of the job details. I was rather curtly informed nothing had been done, my job card had not even gone to the workshop and they could not commit to get the job done by the agreed date. When I pushed things it transpired there were 15 vans ahead of me, and I was to wait in turn. It would be >2-3 weeks before they could look at it, and they wouldn't look at anything until the slot came up "in case they lost bits". I pointed out the van was needed for Easter and was told quite unctuously that "so did everyone else". As a customer this was painting a picture, not one I had ever associated with Wallace before, and one that shocked my father when I told him of the situation. So we were essentially placed into an indeterminate waiting list, where even the quick jobs were not going to be entertained before van eventually made it's way to the front of the list over several weeks. The week scheduled, for weeks, meant nothing. The expected pickup date, was fictitious, and was known to be unattainable when we dropped the van.

I took a break... then phoned back and got a different lady, M----a, couldn't have been more different. When I described the situation outlined to me she sounded honestly disgusted. She corrected several details from the previous exchange that were incorrect, but she could offer no better news. It was clear though she was struggling to understand what they could deliver, so I left it for her to call me back and let me know what they could deliver. The call never came.

This is not how the company used to be. Discussing it in my family everyone has been appalled by the changes and we can only assume it's related to the owner handing over control as he gets older. His wife used to be instrumental in the running of the company and is these days unable to work.

Regrettably, I find it hard to see how I could pass work to them in future as it seems that the front office are making promises glibly to customers without making them aware of the realistic delivery schedules. The workshop are quite obviously entirely overloaded, and the front office keep shovelling them into the queue without a care for customer experience, or honoured commitments. There is no way for the workshop to satisfy customers, because they are so drowned in work, by the time they can get to it, it's weeks late.

A great shame, it's very much the fall of a mighty Oak. If it weren't for the efforts of their Workshop Manager the rating would be much worse. I turned up in person, missing work to do so and having to drive a 60 mile round trip. I needed to find out what was going on, and it was clear that was not going to happen over the phone. He did his best, he tried and he did resolve two minor issues in the time it took us to hook up. You could see a glimmer of what the company once was still remains, but he's obviously drowning in overscheduled work. The customers are being left to suffer for it.

James C.

Just purchased a caravan from here, Have to say the service was excellent especially the handover, Would definitely recommend, No pushy sales, we were shown to the van we were interested in and left with the keys to make our own decision. Wouldn't go past here now.👍👍

Alison C.

Great customer service as always from Katherine and her team.

Ken M.

Sold my 2010 Eccles caravan using Wallace Caravans company service. The process was simple, stress free and completed by Katherine and her staff with the minimum of fuss. I have no hesitation in recommending Wallace Caravans to any would be customer

Anne E.

Used this company for many years but not now ... Renewed hook up - worked intermittently... Tried two different cables from different camp sites on our long road trip to no avail . Returned to Wallace and they serviced my van telling me there were NO FAULTS not with diesel heater ( also issues) and certainly not the hook up they had fitted must be my cable. I bought another .... They charged me £240 for 3 hours labour ( it's a small van, no gas, and according to them faultless) .... I felt ripped off but just didn't have the strength to protest to the price at the time .. I got bit annoyed to see the Issues with diesel heater remained but thankfully not the hookup... ...did they repair it because it even cracked when the cable was connected .... Later at another service station I asked them to test the old cable the service man said must be faulty ...and yep sure enough it is absolutely fine!!! . I've now emailed them twice offering that they reimburse/ answer this query but no reply .
Will never return to this company and I recommend you find another

David W.

Avoid this place at all costs, and here’s why:

The after-sales service is absolutely dreadful. They make endless excuses about suppliers not sending parts and promise phone calls that never come. We spent over £2,800 on a new Truma iNet X system and a roof-mounted air conditioning unit. After minimal use, the display panel stopped working, and the air conditioning unit failed, both requiring replacement parts.

In May, I left the caravan in their yard for a service, hoping they’d fix the display panel at the same time. However, it sat untouched for 10 weeks. By the end of July, with our annual holiday approaching, I kept calling to check on the display panel, only to be told repeatedly that it wasn’t in yet. When I finally got the caravan back, it took me about six hours to wash the caravan as it had been left under trees the entire time. As for the service, they don’t even conduct a proper damp test, only checking the floor—not the walls or ceiling. We ended up going to Cornwall without air conditioning or a working display panel.

After returning in mid-August, I called again, only to be told that the panel still hadn’t arrived. They suggested I leave the caravan with them again, promising it would only take a couple of days. I left it there for another five weeks, but by the end of September, nothing had changed. Frustrated, I contacted Truma directly to get some answers. They informed me that display panels are usually in stock and should arrive within a week, and the part for the air conditioning unit was readily available also. Truma confirmed the parts had been dispatched the previous week.

Then I realized what was really going on. I called Truma again and asked when they had received the order for the replacement parts. They told me it was placed on the 26th of September and dispatched the next day—just a week before I was supposed to pick up the caravan for our October trip. All this time, the dealer had been blaming the supplier, but the truth was they hadn’t even bothered ordering the parts until the last minute.

Their dishonesty and constant delays were beyond frustrating. I will never set foot in this place again.

Michelle C.

Really impressed with this dealers. Not pushy at all, we said what we were looking for and the lovely lady got the keys and opened up 4 caravans for us. She then let us look around each one numerous times and only popped back to see if we were ok and needed anything. We then spoke to a lovely man and he explained all the details of their service and what we needed to do if we liked any of the vans. We fell in love with one of the caravans we saw and will be putting a holding deposit down this week! Fantastic place, great people!

Ellen G.

Bought our caravan from them last week. There was no sales pressure & we were allowed to take our time viewing & inspecting the caravan. When we collected it the following week it was a thorough handover everything was explained in simple terms & again we were not rushed. Everyone was friendly & I would highly recommend them.