Main dealers… here we go…..!
I’ve seen a few mentions on here regarding service (or not) received from VW main dealerships so thought I’d start a thread to publish my own experience.
For me it isn’t about highlighting the bad garages, or taking delight in having the most shocking story to tell (really? I can beat that!!!). For me it is really about recognising the unfortunate situation whereby VW have
(1) produced something fantastic- we all rave about our vans and rightly so.
(2) allowed ‘some’ dealerships to be mediocre at best, and downright dishonest and dangerous at worst
To my mind VW have missed a trick here. We love the product and happy to spend further money on it to keep it tip top, and maybe even improved! So why not employ likeminded people, especially front of house!!! Could start by by ensuring that their dealership staff selection process includes finding out where the applicant is on the scale of :-
10 (wow) I just love all things Vdub, understand the ‘ VW thing’, maybe have a van, love the van, love vans, can talk all day about the scene and what makes the owners tic, have boundless enthusiasm for the mark and all that love them
0 (ugh..) happy to just chew on a biro looking at facebook while not even pretending to give a cr&p, don’t understand the products and not really interested in learning about it either. Couldn’t care less whether you leave happy or not.
So my most recent experiences…
I bought a van - 9 months old 1800 miles on the clock. T32 4motion 204 with every option under the sun. A seriously beautiful van in my humble opinion and cost me way way WAY more than I had ever previously paid for a vehicle (and I’ve had a few
)
So I arrived at the dealership (not looking for special service, just good service) to pick up my new pride and joy and meet the guy who I’d been dealing with up to this point. I’d paid extra too to have the complete ceramic paint treatment and upholstery treatment, a princely sum of around £400 I seem to remember. So, who did I finally meet after waiting 20 minutes as various suits and ties employed there ignored me - a chap who started a couple of weeks previous. Could not tell me a damn thing about the van - the handover process with a sheet of tick boxes was just a farce. The guy said is it all right if I just tick the boxes I need to and get you to sign it as it’s part of the handover process if that’s okay.
. I very politely declined to give my signature and pointed out there didn’t seem to be a single box that actually deserved a tick. Seriously his lack of knowledge was absolutely shocking.
But there was worse to come….. I paid as I said for the paint and upholstery to be treated and protected. So… I asked whether it had actually been done given the dead bugs all over the bonnet. Then came more of the lies and BS seen during the handover checklist where he clearly hadn’t a clue about the features he was supposed to be explaining to the new owner. Yes definitely he said, quote those flies are just where it was left out here over night - okay that’s probably true, I mean flies are known to fly at stationery vehicles so hard they splat themselves on the paintwork aren’t they? Hmmm decided to step up and look at the roof - hadn’t even been cleaned so extremely unlikely it had been treated with ceramic paint protection.
Pointed out the obvious and suggested I’d have no faith the upholstery had been done given the paintwork had received no more than a bad wash! The BS and lies continued… ‘okay doesn’t look like the outside was done but I definitely saw them do the seats with my own eyes’ said the guy. So undid the seat covers and removed them - the seats hadn’t even been hoovered. Don’t get me wrong they weren’t disgusting or anything, but definitely without a shadow of a doubt had not been so much as hoovered let alone been treated. Silly me expecting them to actually DO the job they took £400 off of me for! Suggested perhaps they might want to look again at keeping the charge in place for something they clearly hadn’t done. To their credit they did knock the £400 off the bill and gave me FoC the kit to do it myself.
Then the kicker - an email from the guy I had originally been dealing with who said to expect a link from VW for a survey on my experience. He explained he would really appreciate 5 stars (or what ever it was) because anything less puts them at risk of losing the dealership (more BS? More likely at risk of not getting a bonus me thinks) So I mailed him back with the whole experience warts and all to explain why I couldn’t possibly give him 5 stars and gave a summary at the end of how it felt spending all that money on what should have been a wonderful experience but driving away reflecting on being ignored, lied to, ripped off, treated like a fool and as a customer with zero respect or care. I even had to pull over a mile down the road to work out how to pair my phone / set up CarPlay before I could call my wife from my new wheels as the guy BS’d through that too then had to admit defeat as he didn’t really know how to do it and no one else was available/prepared to help.(Draw breath)
Put it all behind me and enjoyed the van. Absolutely loved the van! Then received two emails from VW uk saying
a) van needs a service
b) gearbox needs an oil change
So booked it in to my local VW van centre. Who told me I didn’t need the gear box oil change as only needs doing every 40k miles. Said but VW uk says it does?? No it’s wrong they said, it’s just a glitch in the system and you shouldn’t have got that email as it is wrong.
Van went in for the service. Was hit with a bill for brake fluid change - said hang on a minute I have two years free servicing. No sir brake fluid is not a service item. Pointed out they were doing it as part of the scheduled first service lol and nothing in the servicing agreement suggested anything was excluded.
Got home and then the fun started (actually made my blood boil). I looked through the service documents that were handed to me when I picked it up after the service. Amongst them was a check list with one item marked in red as required but not done - the gearbox oil change…. But that wasn’t the bit that made my blood pressure go through the roof. It was the note entered into the box beside it stating the customer (me) had elected not to have the work done. Sorry what??????????
NB: the phone also said the document should be gone through WITH the customer and signed by both. No signatures on MY copy…
Spoke to the service manger, seems front of house thought the new 4motion was the same as the old - gearbox oil change every 40k. However the technician (and VW uk) knew the new ones have to be done at first service and then every two years REGARDLESS OF MILEAGE.
I pointed out in no uncertain terms that not only had they not done the work which should have been included in my two years free servicing, by not doing it they had put my van at risk of catastrophic gearbox failure. The risk of my wife and son bombing down the motorway for the gearbox to go bang gives me the shudders. Even if no one was hurt my gearbox and possibly more would be a right off - and I would have no recourse through VW as the dealership had LIED and FALSIFIED A DOCUMENT to make it look as if I had elected not to have scheduled work done which would have prevented it.
Both dealerships failed miserably, the second one was borderline criminal (probably not even borderline)
Both paid out but I honestly doubt either of them learnt, or even cared….
Right, where’s that beetroot juice, need to bring my blood pressure down again from just thinking about it…. Who am I kidding, I’m going to have a cuppa tea and a shortbread biscuit or six
Summary, don’t blindly trust dealerships, and read everything, properly!!! Be safe and don’t be fooled into thinking anyone else cares about your van as much as you do!
I’ve seen a few mentions on here regarding service (or not) received from VW main dealerships so thought I’d start a thread to publish my own experience.
For me it isn’t about highlighting the bad garages, or taking delight in having the most shocking story to tell (really? I can beat that!!!). For me it is really about recognising the unfortunate situation whereby VW have
(1) produced something fantastic- we all rave about our vans and rightly so.
(2) allowed ‘some’ dealerships to be mediocre at best, and downright dishonest and dangerous at worst
To my mind VW have missed a trick here. We love the product and happy to spend further money on it to keep it tip top, and maybe even improved! So why not employ likeminded people, especially front of house!!! Could start by by ensuring that their dealership staff selection process includes finding out where the applicant is on the scale of :-
10 (wow) I just love all things Vdub, understand the ‘ VW thing’, maybe have a van, love the van, love vans, can talk all day about the scene and what makes the owners tic, have boundless enthusiasm for the mark and all that love them
0 (ugh..) happy to just chew on a biro looking at facebook while not even pretending to give a cr&p, don’t understand the products and not really interested in learning about it either. Couldn’t care less whether you leave happy or not.
So my most recent experiences…
I bought a van - 9 months old 1800 miles on the clock. T32 4motion 204 with every option under the sun. A seriously beautiful van in my humble opinion and cost me way way WAY more than I had ever previously paid for a vehicle (and I’ve had a few
)So I arrived at the dealership (not looking for special service, just good service) to pick up my new pride and joy and meet the guy who I’d been dealing with up to this point. I’d paid extra too to have the complete ceramic paint treatment and upholstery treatment, a princely sum of around £400 I seem to remember. So, who did I finally meet after waiting 20 minutes as various suits and ties employed there ignored me - a chap who started a couple of weeks previous. Could not tell me a damn thing about the van - the handover process with a sheet of tick boxes was just a farce. The guy said is it all right if I just tick the boxes I need to and get you to sign it as it’s part of the handover process if that’s okay.
. I very politely declined to give my signature and pointed out there didn’t seem to be a single box that actually deserved a tick. Seriously his lack of knowledge was absolutely shocking.But there was worse to come….. I paid as I said for the paint and upholstery to be treated and protected. So… I asked whether it had actually been done given the dead bugs all over the bonnet. Then came more of the lies and BS seen during the handover checklist where he clearly hadn’t a clue about the features he was supposed to be explaining to the new owner. Yes definitely he said, quote those flies are just where it was left out here over night - okay that’s probably true, I mean flies are known to fly at stationery vehicles so hard they splat themselves on the paintwork aren’t they? Hmmm decided to step up and look at the roof - hadn’t even been cleaned so extremely unlikely it had been treated with ceramic paint protection.
Pointed out the obvious and suggested I’d have no faith the upholstery had been done given the paintwork had received no more than a bad wash! The BS and lies continued… ‘okay doesn’t look like the outside was done but I definitely saw them do the seats with my own eyes’ said the guy. So undid the seat covers and removed them - the seats hadn’t even been hoovered. Don’t get me wrong they weren’t disgusting or anything, but definitely without a shadow of a doubt had not been so much as hoovered let alone been treated. Silly me expecting them to actually DO the job they took £400 off of me for! Suggested perhaps they might want to look again at keeping the charge in place for something they clearly hadn’t done. To their credit they did knock the £400 off the bill and gave me FoC the kit to do it myself.
Then the kicker - an email from the guy I had originally been dealing with who said to expect a link from VW for a survey on my experience. He explained he would really appreciate 5 stars (or what ever it was) because anything less puts them at risk of losing the dealership (more BS? More likely at risk of not getting a bonus me thinks) So I mailed him back with the whole experience warts and all to explain why I couldn’t possibly give him 5 stars and gave a summary at the end of how it felt spending all that money on what should have been a wonderful experience but driving away reflecting on being ignored, lied to, ripped off, treated like a fool and as a customer with zero respect or care. I even had to pull over a mile down the road to work out how to pair my phone / set up CarPlay before I could call my wife from my new wheels as the guy BS’d through that too then had to admit defeat as he didn’t really know how to do it and no one else was available/prepared to help.(Draw breath)
Put it all behind me and enjoyed the van. Absolutely loved the van! Then received two emails from VW uk saying
a) van needs a service
b) gearbox needs an oil change
So booked it in to my local VW van centre. Who told me I didn’t need the gear box oil change as only needs doing every 40k miles. Said but VW uk says it does?? No it’s wrong they said, it’s just a glitch in the system and you shouldn’t have got that email as it is wrong.
Van went in for the service. Was hit with a bill for brake fluid change - said hang on a minute I have two years free servicing. No sir brake fluid is not a service item. Pointed out they were doing it as part of the scheduled first service lol and nothing in the servicing agreement suggested anything was excluded.
Got home and then the fun started (actually made my blood boil). I looked through the service documents that were handed to me when I picked it up after the service. Amongst them was a check list with one item marked in red as required but not done - the gearbox oil change…. But that wasn’t the bit that made my blood pressure go through the roof. It was the note entered into the box beside it stating the customer (me) had elected not to have the work done. Sorry what??????????
NB: the phone also said the document should be gone through WITH the customer and signed by both. No signatures on MY copy…
Spoke to the service manger, seems front of house thought the new 4motion was the same as the old - gearbox oil change every 40k. However the technician (and VW uk) knew the new ones have to be done at first service and then every two years REGARDLESS OF MILEAGE.
I pointed out in no uncertain terms that not only had they not done the work which should have been included in my two years free servicing, by not doing it they had put my van at risk of catastrophic gearbox failure. The risk of my wife and son bombing down the motorway for the gearbox to go bang gives me the shudders. Even if no one was hurt my gearbox and possibly more would be a right off - and I would have no recourse through VW as the dealership had LIED and FALSIFIED A DOCUMENT to make it look as if I had elected not to have scheduled work done which would have prevented it.
Both dealerships failed miserably, the second one was borderline criminal (probably not even borderline)
Both paid out but I honestly doubt either of them learnt, or even cared….
Right, where’s that beetroot juice, need to bring my blood pressure down again from just thinking about it…. Who am I kidding, I’m going to have a cuppa tea and a shortbread biscuit or six
Summary, don’t blindly trust dealerships, and read everything, properly!!! Be safe and don’t be fooled into thinking anyone else cares about your van as much as you do!
