Part 8 - The Handover

By now, we have gotten a pretty good idea with respect to Morelo’s working methods. Unfortunately, it took us 54 days to obtain a simple document. We also faced many other challenges along the way.

Now it was time for handover, a seemingly more complicated process. Indeed, we were hoping for the best, but expecting the worse!

Inspection Checklists Ready

As they say, being bitten once badly, we had many reasons to be twice shy. Our plan was to drive to the factory, inspect the motorhome thoroughly, get problems/defects fixed, then sign off and take delivery. We therefore prepared a detailed inspection checklist covering almost anything imaginable, from physical inspection to testing of all systems, equipment and appliances.

We informed Morelo about our visit

Before our visit, we informed Morelo about the date and time that we will be coming over to take delivery of our motorhome.

We sent them 2 email messages, but as always, no reply/confirmation received.

Email message sent to Morelo regarding our pick up plans.

Our initial plan was to visit the factory together with my brother in law, but due to a last minute business emergency we had to make a change of plans. He therefore asked a trusted good friend -who has technical experience and a very good eye for detail- to drive to Morelo and inspect/take delivery of our motorhome. We also informed Morelo about the change of plans. But again, not a reply or confirmation from the factory.

We just assumed that our messages were safely received and that the vehicle would be ready for delivery.

The Delivery Presentation

From this point on, I will be paraphrasing observations and facts of the delivery process as described by our good friend.

As promised, I arrived at the factory on the day and time specified. It was around noon time and everyone was at lunch.

On the LCD screen at the entrance, I noticed a welcome message wishing happy travels with our (your) new motorhome.

There was nobody at the reception due to lunch break, I went in to one of the cubicles and introduced myself and stated that I was here for the delivery of our motorhome. The person went upstairs and fetched a gentleman responsible for exports. He welcomed me and asked me to wait a couple minutes as he would need to find the person responsible for deliveries. I wandered around in the showroom for a couple minutes, then the delivery agent showed up.

We shook hands and he established that his translator was not available at the moment. He was at first reluctant to proceed with the delivery without his translator, but I comforted him saying that I understood a bit of German and that I believed we would somehow be able to communicate. He agreed to proceed and we went straight to the vehicle.

The Delivery Hall

The motorhome was ready in their newly built “delivery hall” with a red carpet laid at its entrance. Vehicle exterior and interior was clean and shiny. The hall had a coffee corner and a toilet, as well as electricity and water outlet. The hall was heated.

2x Morelo caps and an umbrella was provided as courtesy - for sunny days

2x Morelo branded white hand and bath towels were placed on the bed and bathroom.

After a quick tour of the motorhome, we beginned immediately with the delivery presentation. Frankly, the presentation was quite systematic and thorough (perhaps not surprising, considering the fact that the factory delivers on average 1 vehicle every single day) .

We started with an exterior walkaround, then covered the garage, underfloor sections, main control panel, interior, heating/cooling systems, the cockpit, engine compartment, safety matters etc. Lastly, we took out the motorhome from the hall and tested the satellite system and TVs.

The presentation took a total of 5 hours.

Issues encountered during handover

Most of the systems seemed to perform fairly well during the presentation although we had not had the opportunity to thoroughly test some systems and appliances (like Retarder, Webasto heating, washer/dryer, dishwasher, coffee machine, waste transfer pump, apple tv etc…)

Issues spotted during handover:

Bathroom drawers were not installed properly and were falling down when pulled. Delivery agent called a service team to fix the problem.

Sink cover storage brackets were missing. Again, a service team was called in to put them in place.

Gray/Black water discharge extension hose (1.6m length) missing. Delivery agent went to the factory storage and grabbed one for us.

The exterior fridge ventilation winter/washdown cover was missing. A new one has been brought in and installed by delivery agent.

Driver's side exterior LED lighting was not dimmable, although order stated that it will be so. Delivery agent has been informed about the matter, but made no comment.

Order form confirming LED lighting on Driver’s side as dimmable

Conclusion

I went through our checklist and in general, the vehicle seemed to be in good working condition. The odometer read 56km.

There were a few more bits and pieces missing or not in working order but most of the spotted issues have been sorted out before handover.

At this stage, it is worthwhile to indicate that no inspection or survey will replace real life usage.

We finally went over the paperwork and completed the handover process. I asked the factory to keep the vehicle in their parking lot for a couple more days as we needed to make arrangements to pick it up.