Smoke Detector- please check

We have had our Kingham for just over a year.  Today I was checking it over before BiL borrows it for a night.  I pressed the smoke detector test button and it didn’t work, on further investigation it had a piece of plastic preventing the battery from making contact.

I should have checked it before but I didn’t and would have thought Marquis should have checked it before we collected it.

The important thing is, have you checked yours, if not please do it now.

Just checked mine, built sept 2016 plastic still inside!

ymfb1 wrote:
I should have checked it before but I didn’t and would have thought Marquis should have checked it before we collected it.

If that is Marquis at Chievely (Newbury) then I would not trust them to fit a battery
My van had the tables missing and the change oil warning light on. Both things quite obvious but they didn't notice.

I may be wrong, but I thought the customer had to take out the plastic to activate  the smoke alarm,

daisy mae wrote:I may be wrong, but I thought the customer had to take out the plastic to activate  the smoke alarm,

You may well be right, but I haven’t seen it written and we were not told to do it, so would wrongly presumed it was done by the dealer during the preparation.

My post was not so much of a dig at the dealer, even though it makes sense that they should have removed it or warned me to, but a suggestion to others that they check their alarms.

Alarms are lifesavers so it’s worth checking.

Think Daisy Mae is correct if this is a new van. Would be good if all dealers could mention to new owners as, as you say, they are life savers.
Must say though you're very kind and brave lending your van to your BIL. I won't even lend mine to my kids.

Shouldn't the PDI on a new van include making sure everything is working including the smoke alarm and that would mean taking out the slip of plastic.

Mike

Old "Belt and Braces" here I check mine every time before we go out for a few days. Takes 10 secs.
Spare battery always kept in the van
Bit over the top I know but it keeps me happy (well maybe not)
David

I was at Marquis, Chievley today with a friend who was collecting his ‘van after waiting 4 weeks for guarantee work. One job was to replace the awning gearbox. The van being an Autotrail had to have the awning unbolted from the body as it sits in a recess in the bodywork. When we got back to his house the microwave was on the settee and none of the plastic bolt covers had been refitted in the cabinets. It has taken some 9 months to sort out the problems with his motorhome and he was charged £450 to replace the alarm which wasn’t working properly from the day he was shown the ‘van back in November 2017. The staff at Chievley are a mixed bunch, some are new to the trade and the Owners of Marquis need to monitor the  staffs performance and give some rudimentory training but there are some they need to move on as there attitude to customers spending £40,000 plus is outrageous and leaves a lot to be desired.