lack of structure, clear ownership, and follow up procedures
If you buy a vehicle from Lakeland Vans in Kendal and your van remians fault free, you will have a positive experience. Before the sale, Simon and his team were professional, responsive, friendly and easy to deal with.
In fact, that is what makes the review so disappoing to write.
The morning after collecting my van, mulitple warning lights came on (ABS , SRS , EPS , cruise control error and engine management light). The vehicle begain cutting out , with steering issuesand a rear differencial leak that I had been assured was repaired but was still present.
After making contact with Lakeland Vans, from that point onwards I found myself being passed between Simon, Hugo , Alan and Wendy, chasing promised callbacks and updates that rarely materialised.
The van was returend to Lakeland Vans from 5th to 29th May 2026. Depite being told it was with the best auto electrician in Kendal , not a single fault was repaired. After almost a month of delays, missed updates and explanations about parts, I eventually reached the end of my tether.
I was offered the option of fitting the part myself for the EPS fault becuase it would be at least another week before they could fix the fault. The steering issue and diff leak were never mentioned and still remain unresolved.
Having lost confidence entirly. I agreed to collect the van and accepted the supllied part and now trying to arrange the repairs independently , with no garuantees the part will solve the issue.
There is a clear lack of ownership and follow up procedures when problems arise. At no point did I feel that anyone was activly managing the issue.
Simon has stated that he will reinburst the repair cost if i forward the invoice to him. However I was also previosly assured that the vehicle would be repaired and unfortunatly that commitment was not fulfilled.
At this stage I simply want to put my experience with Lakeland Vans behind me and move on. I will forward the invoice on, however I cant say at the point of writing this review if it will be paid or not. What should have been an enjoyable exciting time has tunred into a very stresfull experience.
I paid several thousand pound more to buy from a dealer rather than privatly because I believed it would provide reassurance, warranty support and piece of mind. In hinsight, that decision feels misplaced.
I fully appriciate faults can occure with any used vehicle and my complaint is not the the issue arose after purchase. Mechanical problems are an accepted risk when buying a used vehicle.
My complaint is entirly about how those issues where handles. A reputable business is not judged on if problems occure but by its after care, communication, professionalism,and willingness tp resolve matters when they do. Unfortunatly, this is were Lakeland Vans failed significantly.
The sales process was excellent, which make the contrast all the more disapointing. Once problems were reported the level of communication, urgency, accountabilty and customer support fell well below what I would reasonably expect from a reputable dealership.
Had the same effort been applied to resolving the issue as what was applied securing the sale this complaint would not be nessessary. Instead I was left chasing updates and dealing with uncertainty and losing confidence.
The faults themselves were not the problem. The way I was treated afterwards was.
Untimatly , people can draw thier own conclusions from my experience, but I would encourage anyone considering a purchase to look beyond the sales process and concider how issues may be handled if something goes wrong.
After reflecting on my experience I found myself questioning how I could be so unfortunate to encounter such issues with what initially appeared to be a reputable dealer.
Upon further investigation , I realised that the positive feedback I had read was actually testimonials on thier own website with very little out there of independant reviews. I hope this review will help others make an objective decision prior to any purchase and not ending up stuck with a vehicle trying to organise my own repairs.