Evening guys,
I thought i'd share my latest experience with my local VW Dealer in Derby, which has been an absolute joke. So anyone who wants a good laugh, read on.
So, I thought i'd try and tackle the dreaded centre cap white worm corrosion that is so common on VW's but I noticed a few people had managed to claim through the 12 year anti-corrosion warranty and get them changed. I attempted to do the same.
So first of all, I ring the dealer and they tell me to pop the car in and they'll take a look. After waiting for about 20 minutes in reception the mechanic finally came out and shook my hand (he seemed like a great guy actually, not sure of his name). So he comes out to my car and looks at all 4 wheels after discussing with me how common the problem is. After a visual inspection of all 4 wheels he goes "Yep, definitely a warranty claim that one." Then he takes me back inside the showroom to book the car in to have all 4 centre caps replaced under warranty.
That was today. So I get my car in nice and early, hand the keys over and they confirmed that the car was booked in for work under warranty. All is great. They even gave me a taxi to work, result!
So i'm at work when I get a phone call from one of the mechanics, the conversation went like this. "Just been on the phone to the warranty department and they are telling us that the centre caps aren't covered under warranty." "Oh, I thought it was covered under the 12 year anti-corrosion warranty?" "Yeah so did we but they say it's only covered for 3 years." "Right..okay." "Do you still want us to do the work?" "How much would it cost?" "£14.19" "Oh, that's not bad." "That's just for one cap." "??? So how much in total?" "Well around £60 for the caps and a little labour of £34 so a total of £94." "£94!? Don't bother, i'll get it done elsewhere. Thanks." "Bye."
Then I had to walk from work in the rain to the dealer to wait another 20 minutes to be given my key back and nothing more, didn't tell me where my car was or explain anything regarding the warranty, no apology. Then I go out into the car park to find that my car was in the exact same place I had parked it. Not even been looked at, opened, nothing.
So I went an entire day without my car for absolutely no reason at all. I was furious and as soon as I got home I rang up the dealer and the conversation went... "I booked my car in to have warranty work carried out on the centre caps today, I was told by your mechanic that they aren't covered on the phone but VW themselves say it IS covered under the anti-corrosion warranty." Then he puts me on hold while he goes and asks the service department, when he comes back "Yes they are covered under the warranty as long as the damage wasn't caused by stone chips" "????" "You say you had your car here earlier?" "Yes the entire day" "Oh, well take photos of your centre caps and e-mail them to <insert e-mail address here> who is our service manager."
So now they want me to send them photos of the white worm and probably book the car in again to then tell me that they want almost £100 to replace the centre caps. I'm going mad here!
The great part is that one of the sales advisors was trying to sell me the Mk7 GTI while offering that sort of level of service.
So morale of the story, i've given up with VW, going to cancel my service plan and go back to trying VAG specialists again....which brings me to the main part of the story, can anyone recommend a really good VAG specialist in the midlands where the staff actually know what they're talking about?
