A couple of weeks ago I posted an update on our A3, and in particular highlighted the excellent service from 'our' Audi dealer. And that was just for a normal piece of warranty work. So when my mother told me at the weekend that her Golf (2010 2.0 TDI) had finally been recalled to fix the 'cheat' software I had high hopes for the customer service...after all, it went way beyond warranty - VW had been exposed breaking the rules. A degree of contrition, and some good old fashioned 'feel good' customer service should be the least she could expect... However, below is a direct lift from her email to me...
"You will be pleased to know in compensation for the inconvenience of the Nox recall, I have been presented with a large and exciting looking box containing two VW key fobs, a VW biro, a mug ( stainless steel, insulated, with lid ) and the visiting cards of sales man and service manager!!
The tyres had four millimetres of tread left and they recommended they should be replaced. We declined!!"
Now fair enough, it's a 100k mile 6 year old Golf. But it's got full VW service history, it's the 4th Golf in a row that they've owned, it's a second car (owned from new) and their other car is an Audi.. But its it unreasonable that my immediate ration was 'what were they thinking?' Better off not giving them anything than a heap of VW tat. You get 2 key rings when you buy a car, so they're not short of them... And trying to sell a new set of tyres is the final straw if you ask me...a damn cheek!!
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Car manufacturers and dealers are not a charity, you bought their car of your own free will and they have your money. Job done as far as they are concerned.
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Actually agree with you ON. Have be a Mk Vi Golf myself and it's an excellent car. The last thing that concerned me when I bought the vehicle was the NO2 emissions. They are going to apply a fix. I have lost nothing. Why should I be compensated?
Compensation culture gone mad.
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>> Actually agree with you ON. Have be a Mk Vi Golf myself and it's an
>> excellent car. The last thing that concerned me when I bought the vehicle was the
>> NO2 emissions. They are going to apply a fix. I have lost nothing. Why should
>> I be compensated?
>>
>> Compensation culture gone mad.
>>
>>
>>
Sorry if I didn't make my point clearly...never an expectation of compensation. Good customer service is not about compensation... The brand has a trust issue. It cheated. Fix it, by all means. Clean the car, throw in a bunch of flowers if you like. But definitely don't try and extract a further £500 from the customer while the car is there for work that's not needed.
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>> is not about compensation... The brand has a trust issue. It cheated. Fix it, by
>> all means. Clean the car, throw in a bunch of flowers if you like. But
>> definitely don't try and extract a further £500 from the customer while the car is
>> there for work that's not needed.
>>
Of course in the US owners were sent $1000 gift cards almost straight away the news broke, the warranty on their cars was extended 2yrs and they've now been offered either repair, further compensation or VW will buy back the vehicles - estimated to cost VW $5-$10K per vehicle.
I'm not bothered about our (my daughter's) Golf - it's a 5yr old petrol and we're keeping it. Our (my wife's) 1yr old Tiguan is EU6 and is unaffected directly, but its value has been hit such that over a 3yr term it's looking like we'd have been several £K's better to PCP or lease, rather than outright buy.
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>>but its value has been hit such that over a 3yr term it's looking like we'd have been several £K's better to PCP or lease, rather than outright buy.
Is there any proof of this - have seen lots of people claim this but as there are no guarantees of future values (unless you do a PCP) then I am not sure how someone can claim values are different from what they expected?
And as far as I can see, the Golf is still dearer second hand than the equivalent Leon the way it always has been?
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Well the Leon is also a VAG car so one might expect its value to be proportionately affected.
As to the expectation of future value... the PCP deals on offer from time to time are a matter of record If you have a 3 year old car worth say £7,000 and you could have taken a PCP 3 years ago at the same capital cost with a guaranteed RV of £9,000, then you can see what you missed out on.
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>> Is there any proof of this - have seen lots of people claim this but
>> as there are no guarantees of future values (unless you do a PCP) then I
>> am not sure how someone can claim values are different from what they expected?
>>
"Proof" is a bit strong, but when I did the sums before buying I looked on WBAC (considering that to be worst case) at the value of the equivalent model at 3yrs old. It was £16,500. The PCP GFV was £14500 so it made sense to settle the PCP as I didn't need the safety net of the GFV.
I just found a late 2013 63 reg car and put that in - £13,150.
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. But
>> definitely don't try and extract a further £500 from the customer while the car is
>> there for work that's not needed.
>>
Where do you get £500 pounds from? If you mean tyres, then this very morning I had four Michelin Primacy 3 tyres fitted to my new MK7 Golf, for £350, only marginally more expensive than Kwik Fit. The tyre size was 205/55 R16.
I had these put on my new Golf, only 2.5 months old, as I thought that the tyre noise and hardness from the factory fitted Hankooks would be eliminated and this rather expensive exercise has at least improved the ride comfort with a slight reduction in noise.
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I'm not expecting them to be a charity - indeed if all they can stretch to is a key ring or two then don't bother. There was no expectation on my mothers part, and the only reason I expected anything was because of the fantastic service we'd received. But when the reason the car is there is because VW have been caught cheating, trying to make money out of it by attempting to sell un-needed tyres (X4) is not only insulting, but completely counterproductive. They are supposed to be rebuilding trust in the brand, not underlining the fact they are not to be trusted!!
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Very succinct PeterS
In a previous life, actually 3 ago, I owned a small chain of retail stores so know a bit about handling customer complaints. And boy could they complain!
But trying to sell something, and extract money, whilst resolving a widely publicised issue is not the way to go about it.
Personally I have found VW dealers to be rubbish...no names, no shames, but actually found BMW dealers for more pleasant to deal with. Not that I have ever bought anything from them although I came close in August '15!
Last edited by: legacylad on Tue 20 Sep 16 at 22:00
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Not excusing their behavior, but I imagine they are swamped with "recall" work for which they make nothing. Somewhere along the line they need to balance the books
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>>t I imagine they are swamped with "recall" work for which they make nothing.
The dealers are not funding the recall work, VAG is.
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>> >>t I imagine they are swamped with "recall" work for which they make nothing.
>>
>> The dealers are not funding the recall work, VAG is.
>>
Yes, I'm aware of that, but the hourly labour rate the dealership gets for warranty / recall work is nothing like the rate you or I pay if we walk in as a paying punter.
I vaguely remember hearing talk of twenty odd quid an hour type rates for warranty. Those kind of rates don't cover the overheads of glass palaces
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Kind of...
Its not so much the hourly rates reduction, as the other stuff. Actual number of hours allowed, cost of parts, inclusion of dealer supplier "materials", scope of work etc. etc.
VW will have agreed all of those things in advance, with a discount, and won't pay for extra stuff. "Extra stuff" is generally profitable stuff - fluids, cleaners, washers, etc. etc.
But a dealer typically cannot afford to lose the warranty work both for direct and indirect/future revenue implications.
Actually the worst is pre sales work - because every car has its own P&L, Sales don't want to pay Service for anything, Service don't get a mark up on pre sales work and can't throw in anything extra, and both Sales and Service would prefer to repair it after it's been sold.
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>> "You will be pleased to know in compensation for the inconvenience of the Nox recall,
>> I have been presented with a large and exciting looking box containing two VW key
>> fobs, a VW biro, a mug ( stainless steel, insulated, with lid ) and the
>> visiting cards of sales man and service manager!!
>> The tyres had four millimetres of tread left and they recommended they should be replaced.
>> We declined!!"
The gifts sound fair enough, what's wrong with that?
What was actually wrong with the car? VW had fitted a widget which controlled the emissions. What's wrong with that?
Lots of people change their tyres way before the legal minimum. Perhaps they thought you would be grateful for having the tyre tread depths pointed out to you? What's wrong with that?
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>>The tyres had four millimetres of tread left and they recommended they should be replaced. We declined!!"
If they had reworded the statement along the lines of..... it might have been better eceived!
The tyres have four millimetres of tread left which is OK & above the 3 mms which we consider to be a minimum before changing.
You might like to consider replacing them in the near future baring in mind that the winter season is approaching.
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Were you offered a courtesy car, which i think is the minimum they could have done.
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>> "You will be pleased to know in compensation for the inconvenience of the Nox recall,
>> I have been presented with a large and exciting looking box containing two VW key
>> fobs, a VW biro, a mug ( stainless steel, insulated, with lid ) and the
>> visiting cards of sales man and service manager!!
There's a picture of the inside of that box on VW's Facebook page from a few weeks ago and it's mainly empty spaces as most of the items were missing! VW's response was they didn't know what was supposed to be in the missing spaces!!
>> The tyres had four millimetres of tread left and they recommended they should be replaced.
It's because if that sort of thing, and being told that "the tyres are worn close to the European legal limit of 3mm" that our Golf goes to an indie for its service and maintenance.
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Volkswagen Golf VI - VAG - brand differences - Old Navy
