Hi again. does anyone know Dave, the guy that does the removals from England to Corfu. The reason we are asking is that we set off from England in May. Dover to Calais, got to Belgium and the gear box went in the van. It was a nightmare. We was taken to a garage in Drongen, then got a hire car back to England where Ken had to get another gear box go back to Drongen, fit the gear box and bring the van home again. Minoan Lines were very good and re scheduled us for July. Now I am worried something else might go wrong next time and just thought if Dave was on his travels we might get in touch just in case. We met Dave one time travelling back to England via Venice and he seemed a realy nice guy.
Message posted by janmanessi on 18 June 2010 at 12:40am - IP Logged
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Wouldn't it have been cheaper to get the spares on the continent?
I needed a new engine once in Italy- done overnight, and another time new clutch, also in Italy and done in a fraction of the time- or cost- of UK! I wouldn't worry too much, as long as the van is serviced before you leave, there are so many good cheap small family garages en route who will be able to help if necessary- which I hope it won't be.
My best was when my Fiesta had something wrong, undiagnosed in UK, which manifested itself almost as soon as I got to France, which made it lose power. The Ford garage quoted a huge price, so I limped on and found a small garage who simply threw out the oil filter, told me to change the oil half way, and I got back to Corfu with no further trouble!
And my French and Italian are both a lot worse than my Greek, which is shaky enough!
Message posted by nuffstrong on 18 June 2010 at 2:14am - IP Logged
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Dave Jackson's number is 01274599525 email is mcjackson(at)tiscali.co.uk
I know breaking down is a worry we've just got back and so much depends upon the vehicle.
Best of luck.
Steve
Message posted by Puddies on 18 June 2010 at 2:26am - IP Logged
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Thanks for the replies. The reason we didnt get the van fixed in Belgium was because our breakdown insurance people towed us to a small garage that didnt do repairs but there was an Opel garage just down the road who wanted nearly £4000 to put a new gear box in, the other problem was it was bank holiday weekend and they said they wouldnt even look at it until the following week. So we thought it would be cheaper to take a second hand gear box and fit it ourselves. (hubby a mechanic anyway)nBy the time all that was done we had wasted a week of our hols so figured we would book again for July and have a month in Corfu. Fingers crossed
Message posted by janmanessi on 18 June 2010 at 9:11pm - IP Logged
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Thanks Jan I really hope so. If we didnt have so much stuff to take for the house would be tempted to just take the car instead but hey ho we can only try.
Message posted by kenny boy on 18 June 2010 at 9:39pm - IP Logged
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Would just like to say to everyone read your European breakdown insurance policy very carefully. If we had been coming back to England when the van broke down they would have taken us all the way back to Calais, but because we were going they said that we had to get the van fixed in belgium. They gave us a hire car (which realy wasnt any good to us because the van was fully loaded) so we couldnt have got everything in it anyway. Then they told Ken he could drive the car to Italy, drop me, my son and my mum off at Venice to catch the ferry, but we couldnt take the car to corfu. We had to have the car back in Belgium in a weeks time, so Ken wouldnt have got his holiday at all. I have checked this with the AA and the RAC and they say that that is the way that it is, once you leave England everything is passed to Europe assistance. We ignored all that anyway and brought the car back to England, got another gear box, went back in it, fitted the gearbox and then took the hire car back. Europe assistance is nothing like breakdown cover in England.
Message posted by kenny boy on 19 June 2010 at 6:51pm - IP Logged
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