How anoying, I take my car in for some work to be carried out and receive it back with a nice dent in the rear wing.
It's like no-one cares anymore. Managed to nail them down to responsibility though so they will pay for the paintless daint repair.
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Given your previous posts you're not having much luck are you?!
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and what happens if it has to be resprayed?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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nope, not much. Given the circumstances you'd think they'd have taken 'extra care' when my car was in for work.
I've lost all confidence in this dealership to be honest.
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i'm 99.9% confident no respray is needed - it's only small but noticable. in fact I said I'd get someone i know who will do a proper job and they'd pay the bill.
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Is this the same car that you had problems with recently with the paint job ?
I hate to say this and I will probably get picked up for going on a bout VW again but I always found it to be the case with their dealers. There are good and bad with any brand obvioulsly but my experience with the veedub boys was that they did not really care. I can honestly say that not one service was carried out correctly and there was always something I had to go back and get sorted. Usually it was simple thing like the service reminder was not re-set. It just always left this feeling that the job was not done properly. And I don't know why it was but with the 2 dealers I used whenever I got back in the car and switched it on - Radio 1 on high volume was what I was greeted with. Now being a Radio 2 listener this was terrible enough but it also made me think how can they be listening for anything on the road test if they have the radio that loud.
Dare I say it the 4 services I have experienced with Toyota and Honda have been excellent.
Although I'm sure there will be people who have experienced poor service with these dealers.
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true enough. This is my new replacement car by the way.
You only have to look on the VW forums to see how many issues people are having with quality of the product and service.
I really like the car - looks, drive. but there are always niggles with regards to build quality etc. I'm amazed how the residuals are so good.
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There's no doubt the VW's are good cars and in demand - I think especially with the Golf and that class-less appeal keeps the residuals high.
I could always forgive the cars any minor relaibility issues on the basis that with a 3 year warranty they would get fixed. Unfortunately the dealers seemed totally incompetent so the problems never got fixed.
SWMBO's Corolla has not been without it's problems but the difference has been the dealers have fixed every problem (almost) - there is just no problem getting them to help you. It still rattles now and again though.
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Doesnt matter how fancy the dealers showrooms are, or how good or bad the cars are that they sell, or even how long they have been in business.
What matters at service time is how good the mechanic (s) is/are.
The average main dealer (in my area at least) has maybe 1 experienced older guy, a couple of younger 1/2 trained guys and a couple or more of apprentices.
By law of averages, and demand, and assuming they are all at work; the experienced one is going to be sorting the difficult jobs. The other 1/2 trained will be doing the bigger jobs and the apprentices will be doing the servicing and joyriding (oops test driving) .
Ask the dealer if you can meet the guy who is going to work on your car? Chances are you won't be allowed to for any number of reasons. So get the name of the mechanic who worked on it and if you get any problems ask if you can talk to him about them. Then see if you are able to communicate ?
Dealers are like other sharks out there (lawyers etc) but at least they charge by the seniority of the person doing the work; not at a flat rate where the apprentices work is charged out at the same rate as the top mechanics !
You may get the impression i am not a fan of main dealers by the way !
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I remember HJ saying (a year of more ago) that VW management was aware of the problems in its dealers, but nothing seems to have changed?
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My mother had her car STOLEN from a dealers premises when it was in to get a creaking rear wiper motor replaced. The amazing thing was that the manager at the dealership said I should claim on my insurance!!!
I found a great mechanic about 8 years ago in Edinburgh and as soon as my car is out of its initial warranty period, he'll be servicing it. He's the kind of guy you give the keys to and you know he will only do what's needed.
My Toyota was in for a two year service and I was phoned up to ask if I wanted the 'recommended' brake fluid replacement done ... for a mere £45+VAT. I declined their
generous offer
Maybe an online directory of recommended mechanics would be a good idea.
I know of good mechanics in Glasgow and Edinburgh, where I now live.
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Maybe an online directory of recommended mechanics would be a good idea.
Maybe like this? www.honestjohn.co.uk/directories/index.htm
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My Toyota was in for a two year service and I was phoned up to ask if I wanted the 'recommended' brake fluid replacement done ... for a mere £45+VAT. I declined their generous offer
Actually that's not too bad. Local VW dealer charges £70+VAT for fluid change on a Polo which is a bit steep IMHO! I'm in the Midlands so I dread to think what the soft southerners get charged.
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My Vectra had its two year service recently. It was very refreshing when the dealer said that they had checked the brake fluid and it was well within limits and didn't need changing. They also said the same for the pads and discs.
It made me feel a lot more confident that things had been done correctly.
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My Vectra had its two year service recently. It was very refreshing when the dealer said that they had checked the brake fluid and it was well within limits and didn't need changing. They also said the same for the pads and discs. It made me feel a lot more confident that things had been done correctly.
I had a similar experience with my previous car - a Mondeo; they explained they had checked the brake fluid but it was fine. In fact, in five years of ownership I couldn't really fault the dealer. Buying was a pleasure and servicing was cheap, honest and reliable (ie easy to book and always completed when they said it would be). The 'interesting' thing is that this was a very large Ford dealership, that was part of a large dealer chain - which is probably the last place you would expect to find good service based on general opinion.
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This 'soft southerner' got charged £45 + VAT about two years ago.
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What matters at service time is how good the mechanic (s) is/are. The average main dealer (in my area at least) has maybe 1 experienced older guy, a couple of younger 1/2 trained guys and a couple or more of apprentices. By law of averages, and demand, and assuming they are all at work; the experienced one is going to be sorting the difficult jobs. The other 1/2 trained will be doing the bigger jobs and the apprentices will be doing the servicing and joyriding (oops test driving) .
The real problem is the way mechanics wages/bonus are calculated. Every job on a vehicle has a standard time set by the manufacturer - this will be what you are charged regardless of how long the job actually takes, i.e a service may be 2.5 hrs so you will pay the labour rate x 2.5 plus vat.
The mechanic however is paid on hours sold/hours attended so he is trying in every case to beat the time allowance. If he is able to complete a chargeable 60 hours work in his 40 hours then his wages will be 60 x his hourly rate (not the charged rate but his pay rate).
Inevitably this leads to exactly the sort of complaints we get here - minor things not done, lack of care and attention to detail etc.
The only solution is to find a "one man band" and be prepared occasionally to pay more on jobs that may take longer than expected due to unfamiliarity or lack of special tools available in the franchised workshop but to make it up on the lower labour rate for routine jobs.
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Have just had my MK V Golf serviced - its first variable one, at 12k miles (22 months for me) and the experience was no worse or better than I'd expected from my main dealer (the original supplier). Perhaps, if anything, the experience was slightly better than I imagined it would be.
However, I had to return to have the service book stamped thus causing me some inconvenience and cost. I also queried the fact that my service indicator (at the time) was not indicating a time/distance to next service but was told that this wont happen until at least 500 miles has been done - I wait with baited breath.
Interestingly, a few days later I had a phone call, one evening, from a VW call centre? asking whether I had 5 minutes in which to answer a few questions relating to my recent service and the dealer experience and then some days later still, I had a phone call from the dealership asking if I was now happy with 'everything' and received profuse apologies for not stamping my service book.
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Same with Toyota - always get a "Customer Service Feedback/Survey" call from the dealer and sometimes from Toyota GB.
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