Public Defender: Greg Ingold’s dogged pursuit of justice reaped rewards in case of dud caravan

Greg Ingold is the wrong bloke to rip off. When he didn’t get satisfaction from Coastal Caravans, he went through all the right channels to get his money back.

Greg Ingold, who won a $67,000 refund on a supposedly new caravan that had been welded back together. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

GREG Ingold is the wrong bloke to rip off. I recommend all consumers do what he did after realising his “new” $65,000 caravan was a dud.

Mr Ingold didn’t take to Twitter or Facebook. Nor did he make phone threats a la Liam Neeson in Taken, ­although his pursuit of justice was just as dogged.

In February last year, Mr Ingold, of Singleton, went to the Newcastle Caravan and Camping Show and agreed to buy a Billabong caravan from Coastal Caravans for $64,708.

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He took delivery in June. A day later, he noticed problems. He rang Coastal Caravans and was told to document the problems ­photographically and email them to the company. A few days later he did — of all 35 defects.

The next day he got a reply email in which Coastal apologised and promised to fix everything; soon after it collected the caravan.

The following month he went to see how the repairs were progressing.

Nothing had been done. His caravan was covered in bird and bat poo.

He rang Coastal and didn’t get an answer that satisfied him. So a week later, he took the caravan back and lodged a complaint with NSW Fair Trading.

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Two weeks on, Fair Trading advised him Coastal’s service manager would arrange a meeting to address his concerns. But that didn’t happen.

So he began proceedings in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Next, he had Newcastle Caravan Repairs prepare a report on the condition of the caravan. What it found would prove persuasive at the NCAT hearing in December.

“The chassis has been cut and re-welded from new, this is not acceptable on a brand-new caravan,” the report said. “With all the faults/defects this caravan has … we believe the customer should be entitled to a full refund of their purchase price, or an equivalent replacement caravan.”

After considering the ­report and other evidence Mr Ingold had compiled, tribunal member Deborah Moss ordered a refund, saying the caravan “was not of acceptable quality in accordance with the consumer guarantees contained in the Australian Consumer Law”.

But that wasn’t the end of it, because Coastal didn’t pay by the due date.

Mr Ingold took his NCAT order to the Local Court, which registered it as a judgment, a ruling which should have allowed the NSW Sheriff to step in and get the money for him.

But because Coastal was incorporated in Queensland, it wouldn’t. The NSW Sheriff won’t cross the border.

So the intrepid Mr Ingold contacted the Queensland bailiff service and ultimately got his money back.

“Unfortunately for them, they met the wrong guy,” Mr Ingold said.

He said he hoped his ­experience could help others.

Clarification

Coastal Caravans, the Queensland company from which Mr Ingold purchased his caravan, is in no way associated with Coastal Caravan and RV Pty Limited, which operates in Tuggerah on the NSW Central Coast. Coastal Caravan and RV does not sell Billabong Caravans.