PCP - 4 months old, want rid.
Discussion
279 said:
May I ask exactly what sort of reaction you were expecting?
Those guys will deal with catastrophic faults and failures on a daily basis, did you expect them to gasp in horror at a bit of carpet coming loose or a non functioning USB port and agree the car is unfit for purpose and unrepairable?
Why are you so hell bent on making this as difficult as possible for all parties concerned? Why not at least let them fix the issues that you're highlighted? None of them are even remotely serious and (paintwork excluded) will most likely rectified within a day.
As for the bodywork issues, in the nicest possible way, if you're the type of person to get stressed about 'micro scratches' caused by people touching the paintwork, you're never, ever going to be happy from the level of paint/finish work you're going to get from any dealer, full stop. They just don't have the manpower, training, equipment or time to meet those sort of expectations.
A realistic form of compensation would be them agreeing to pay for a specialist detailing session after the paintwork issues have been rectified to a satisfactory standard. A brand new car is not.
I don't know if you've read the whole thread but my issue with the car is certainly not just focused on paint or trim. It's a constant stream of defect after defect, either from the factory or caused as a result of bad dealer workmanship. One of which concerned my safety.Those guys will deal with catastrophic faults and failures on a daily basis, did you expect them to gasp in horror at a bit of carpet coming loose or a non functioning USB port and agree the car is unfit for purpose and unrepairable?
Why are you so hell bent on making this as difficult as possible for all parties concerned? Why not at least let them fix the issues that you're highlighted? None of them are even remotely serious and (paintwork excluded) will most likely rectified within a day.
As for the bodywork issues, in the nicest possible way, if you're the type of person to get stressed about 'micro scratches' caused by people touching the paintwork, you're never, ever going to be happy from the level of paint/finish work you're going to get from any dealer, full stop. They just don't have the manpower, training, equipment or time to meet those sort of expectations.
A realistic form of compensation would be them agreeing to pay for a specialist detailing session after the paintwork issues have been rectified to a satisfactory standard. A brand new car is not.
Just to preface this, I'm not 'hell bent on making this as difficult as possible for all parties concerned'. I'm concerned about getting what I paid for, and the vehicle I have is not that.
I only mentioned the paintwork thing because it happened at the supplying dealer, it happened again when I took the car in to the local dealer. It just seems to be a thing that people don't understand that rubbing dirty paint onto paint = minor scratches. It was said in jest and in no way am I seriously bothered by them at all. In fact I had even forgotten they did it until you mentioned it so I won't be loosing sleep over it. Don't you worry!
In regards to what I expected. No, I did not expect gasps or people fainting or rose petals laid out on the presentation of a new vehicle. But as a customer I kinda expected them to communicate with each other and not waste my time. If the dealer calls me and says be here for 9am. I'm going to be there at 8.55 introduce myself at reception and await them to come and see me. I don't expect to be arguing with someone at 9.15 over wether my car is booked in or not or who is dealing with repairs. I expect them to get their act together and be prepared for when a customer walks through the door to attend a pre-booked appointment. I also expect for them to deal with me or my wife in a respectful professional manner. It's the typical 'she's a woman so she won't know anything about cars' response this morning when they spoke to my wife. I also expect to be part of their inspection as promised on the phone by VWFS and the dealership themselves, so to see them inspecting the car without me goes against my expectations.
I'm a reasonable guy and I have reasonable expectations. You are right a 'specialist detailing session after the paintwork issues have been rectified to a satisfactory standard' would have been appropriate. I even gave them that suggestion after they had their first attempt to fix the paintwork issue but I was told no and sent on my way.
I hope that answers just some of your questions and I hope to be able to update this thread in the future with a positive outcome. I do apologise if you feel I'm wasting peoples time but I don't think I am. The support so far over the last 7 pages and also on the VWROC forum as well as independent bodyshops, friends and professional contacts has been overwhelmingly positive so I do feel like I'm doing the right thing in pursuing this.
Have a lovely evening.
I'm inclined to think that a good dealer should be able to rectify all of the listed issues to your satisfaction. In my experience of dealers and mechanics, I doubt they are either willing or able to.
If I had just dropped £30k on any new car I would expect better. VW and their dealers need to be held to account, or they will keep supplying sub standard goods and services. I think a rejection and replacement is entirely reasonable, and I would expect the replacement to be delivered in absolutely perfect condition.
If I had just dropped £30k on any new car I would expect better. VW and their dealers need to be held to account, or they will keep supplying sub standard goods and services. I think a rejection and replacement is entirely reasonable, and I would expect the replacement to be delivered in absolutely perfect condition.
ashleyman said:
If the dealer calls me and says be here for 9am. I'm going to be there at 8.55 introduce myself at reception and await them to come and see me. I don't expect to be arguing with someone at 9.15 over wether my car is booked in or not or who is dealing with repairs. I expect them to get their act together and be prepared for when a customer walks through the door to attend a pre-booked appointment.
Absolutely this. It sums up how many of the bigger franchises operate. Incompetent.Some comments made by others - no they haven't read the whole thread and understood all of the issues encountered.
To be direct .. The ACC 'error' is the most serious and enough alone to ultimately gain rejection of the car.
The paintwork and the numerous other issues all serve to add much further weight behind rejection.
When did it become ok to spend circa £30k on a new car and experience what the OP has ? It hasn't.
Stick with it ashleyman and keep us posted !
ashleyman said:
I don't know if you've read the whole thread but my issue with the car is certainly not just focused on paint or trim. It's a constant stream of defect after defect, either from the factory or caused as a result of bad dealer workmanship. One of which concerned my safety.
Complaints not focused on Bodywork and Trim? Unless some other faults have cropped up, your complaint were:badly fitted seat covers - Paintwork/Trim. I haven't seen pictures, so can't really comment.
pen marks on bolsters - When was this documented? I'm still struggling to see at what point anyone within the factory to Customer hand off would need to sit in a New car without seat covers enough to mark more than one seat bolster with a pen - Incidentally, I glanced at your rejection letter and saw this complaint wasn't listed, has this been sorted?
broken rear bench seat-fold mechanism - The supplying dealer has this part on order? I'll agree that it's an unacceptable delay, but in it is in the process of being rectified (and in no way should affect the rectification of the other faults listed) . Energy should be channeled into getting this chased up.
squeaky exhaust valves - Fixed?
misaligned bumper - Bodywork Without seeing pictures I cannot comment in too much depth, although after PDIing Hundreds of cars I'm my lifetime and never once coming across noticeably misaligned trim coupled with some of the other complains I'm wondering if there are 'Unrealistic expectations' at play . Regardless, 30-45 minutes of labour to rectify, tops.
misaligned passenger door handle - See above.
2 scratches on rear off side quarter - Paintwork/Trim. Repair attempted not to an acceptable standard, but both dealers have already agreed to rectify it?
clear coat lump on bonnet - See above
ACC Fault - Sorry, but unless this is a reoccurring and clearly demonstrable fault, lots of people will be thinking user error. I'm thinking it, Golf R owners in this thread were thinking it and you better believe just about anybody with any real experience with radar guided C.C systems to being thinking the same. If its an actual fault then I apologize, but I say from experience these things are nearly always user error.
USB Port - Leave them your phone/be available when they are looking at this particular complaint and it'll be sorted. If the phone is being powered up through the cable its almost certainly a software fault (incidentally, I'm a little surprised the dealer didn't offer to try and pair your phone with a stock car. Would have been a very easy way to prove/disprove the 'debate' you were having)
Carpet Loose - Paintwork/Trim. When was this issue first raised? If not on collection, do you think it might have been possible that it was perhaps caused by one of your passengers? Regardless, Instead of taking the considerable time to take a photo, upload it to the internet and then manually HTML code a link to it in this thread you could have perhaps, I don't know, try slotting it back behind the trim that would take all of 5 seconds? If you're not willing to (why should you?) any Volkswagen technician would be glad to do it for you, FOC. In fact I'm kind surprised the service/warranty managers didn't try to do it for you, but from the fuss it sounds like you were making, they probably knew better than to actually fix the car for you...
A Dangling wire of some description - No picture so I won't comment too deeply. Minor issue and probably rectified within a matter of minutes with a basic screw driver set by a tech.
That's it? Nothing even vaguely serious, dangerous or catastrophic. All easily rectified within a day at the most and nothing that stops/impairs the use of the vehicle. Which one is supposed to be the the grounds for rejection?
ashleyman said:
I only mentioned the paintwork thing because it happened at the supplying dealer, it happened again when I took the car in to the local dealer. It just seems to be a thing that people don't understand that rubbing dirty paint onto paint = minor scratches. It was said in jest and in no way am I seriously bothered by them at all. In fact I had even forgotten they did it until you mentioned it so I won't be loosing sleep over it. Don't you worry!
Way to completely miss the point and construe what I said as an insult. To 98% of people, rubbing the mark is almost a natural reaction (especially when it looks from a layman's perspective 'That'll just polish out guv'). For the other 2% that know/care what a micro scratch is, there is cardetailingworld.co.uk levels of attention to detail and standards which are never, ever, ever going to be met within a main dealer. ashleyman said:
I'm a reasonable guy and I have reasonable expectations. You are right a 'specialist detailing session after the paintwork issues have been rectified to a satisfactory standard' would have been appropriate. I even gave them that suggestion after they had their first attempt to fix the paintwork issue but I was told no and sent on my way.
So what has changed in weeks/months between the first paint repair? The ACC mishap and a few bit of trim coming loose? I'm just trying to work out the mental tipping points between a detail being acceptable compensation, through to thinking about asking for a grand+ set of alloys, to wanting a brand new car?ashleyman said:
I hope that answers just some of your questions and I hope to be able to update this thread in the future with a positive outcome. I do apologise if you feel I'm wasting peoples time but I don't think I am. The support so far over the last 7 pages and also on the VWROC forum as well as independent bodyshops, friends and professional contacts has been overwhelmingly positive so I do feel like I'm doing the right thing in pursuing this.
I don't think you're wasting your time and I genuinely don't mean to come across as an arse; You've brought a new car and it hasn't and the dealer network have not met your expectations and that sucks, but in my honest opinion, you need to get a little bit of perceptive:- Even new cars go wrong, let alone with 6 months and XXXX miles of road use (this is why they come with a warranty, why would you not use it?).
- Even new cars don't come from the with flawless bodywork and may need some paint/trim rectification to satisfy people with high expectations. Granted they messed up the rectification of the paint issues - Highly frustrating I can agree, but why wouldn't you let them have another go/agree to have it taken else where? It seems every person on the planet agrees that it needs another look at.
- High volume dealers have to deal with hundreds of customers per day and might not be able to bend over backwards to accommodate your needs (especially if you've already resorted to the nuclear option and are unwilling to listen to any of their input).
Lots of people on the Interwebs, your friends and 'contacts' might agree with you, but then I'm willing to wager that they have next to no experience of what goes on in a dealer, what to actually expect from a new car, the complications of warranty repairs, parts being on back order or the processes of trying to back a car through warranty. If they did, they wouldn't be advising you to skip about 5 steps ahead and push for a rejection, especially for very minor faults completely unrelated to one another that you haven't given anyone a chance to rectify.
279 said:
If they did, they wouldn't be advising you to skip about 5 steps ahead and push for a rejection, especially for very minor faults completely unrelated to one another that you haven't given anyone a chance to rectify.
I think it's quite easy on the surface to look at all these things and go 'well yeah, it's a simple fix so get it fixed' - I've tried. Believe me. The car has been back to the dealer where some stuff has been fixed, some stuff has been caused and some stuff has been ignored. I'll be honest, I don't really want to reply to you. I'm tired and have had enough with this whole car situation for one day, I just want to watch the latest episode of Mr Robot and go to sleep but I do feel you deserve a reply so I'll type one out.
The car was prepped by the dealer before collection. On collection I picked up the car and drove home. Car sat for a few days until I had the time to wash and wax it. Whilst I was washing the car certain issues cropped up. Paint, misaligned trim and paintwork.
The issues were photographed and I informed the dealer. They offered to get the car in for repair and fix these defects. I was busy working so this couldn't be done immediately but after 2 weeks the car was picked up by a driver and exchanged for a courtesy car. I assume this driver accidentally allowed a pen to mark the seat because it was not there when I was doing the paperwork but the pen marks were there on collection. As detailed on the handover sheet which noted marks and dents etc... of which there was 0 apart from the paint and trim defects discussed with the dealer.
From this dealer visit, some of the issues were fixed (bumper, door trim and smart repair), some parts were ordered (seats and seat lock mechanism) and one issue (exhaust valves) was ignored and put down to being normal. Whilst the car was in the dealers care for these fixes to take place they did a bad job on the smart repair and machine polished paintwork that was perfectly satisfactory.
I argued the point with the dealer about the exhaust valves - even had a staff member back me up but because he wasn't a tech his opinion was ignored and I was sent on my way.
I argued the smart repair and machine polishing was not of a satisfactory standard was told it was fine and I should go away. So I did, to a bodyshop where they inspected the work and gave me a quote to fix. I then took this back to the dealer, spoke to the brand manager and showed him it wasn't just me who thought it was bad but again they said go away, feel free to take us to court (yes, seriously).
I took the car to a different dealership to get a second opinion on the exhaust and they confirmed it was faulty and replaced it under warranty. Cool!
Second dealer would not touch paintwork as it now wasn't a warranty issue but a defect caused by another dealership so they can't be paid by VW to fix this.
Second and Third bodyshops were consulted for independent opinions, all agreed it was a bad repair but offered different price points of a fix. Again, supplying dealer doesn't want to know.
ACC Fault - We've not determined what caused the car to shoot forwards but we've done as much back tracking to find out the circumstances of the issue as possible and both me and my wife who were in the car at the time have both agreed that the car acted on it's own. I have no proof of this whatsoever but I know what happened. As others have said perhaps something else failed and not the ACC but something did fail which put our safety at risk. Still an issue.
USB Port - No. I won't leave my phone with them but he could quite as easily got his phone out and plugged it in as it was a Samsung S7 that he owned and was trying to convince me was the best phone ever. It's not up to me to determine how they find and fix faults but they didn't offer any solutions just rubbish excuses. The phone is not being powered up at all through the USB port which is the issue. So the issue isn't software as the phone isn't receiving power at all.
Carpet Loose - We've used the rear passenger seats less than 10 times since collection in 4 months. The carpet has come loose over the past few weeks when we haven't been transporting passengers. We bought a 5 door car for the extra space and easy access for my work gear to sit on the rear seats, not passengers. Work gear doesn't go on the floor at all so can't be this. The carpet in the front is coming away the same. It's just confusing how an underused area on the car is showing signs of wear when it's not used - drivers side I get and can easily be pushed back in, loads of cars have this issue even my last car did.
The service reception manager wanted to put it back but the warranty advisor said no, they can't touch or fix the car as it's under investigation. I could easily slot it back in myself, BUT it's a defect on a 4 month old car so I wanted to report it. Along with everything else it's just another thing gone wrong if you know what I mean?
I know to 98% of people rubbing paint is a non-issue. I just mentioned it as an observation. That was all. I don't actually care what a micro-scratch is, I only mentioned it because you've got 2 guys standing there inspecting faulty paint and ADDING to the faults.
In the months since the car went in there's been 0 update from the supplying dealer on ANYTHING. I've had to chase every step of the way. They've pushed back on everything I've asked them to do including reasonable repairs. They've had opportunity to fix things and told me no. They've had fair time to book the car in and told me no. They've had fair time to order parts but it's been 2 months and no sign of anything.
The reason I've decided to reject the car instead of seek repairs is mainly because of my wife. It's her daily driver, not mine. I need her to feel safe enough to drive the car and if she says to me. I don't want this car anymore as I don't feel safe then I have to do something about it. I attempted to seek a solution through the VW complaint procedure 2 months ago and got nowhere. I wanted 2 months to allow for people to have things ordered, repaired as VW complaints told me too and perhaps maybe a bottle of wine (or some alloys, which we both know was never going to happen) at the end as a sorry. But nothing.
I felt that the only way I was going to get anyone to actually take me seriously was to reject the car.
"Even new cars go wrong, let alone with 6 months and XXXX miles of road use (this is why they come with a warranty, why would you not use it?)."
They do, I have used my warranty but basically been told too bad get on with it we don't want to know.
"Even new cars don't come from the with flawless bodywork and may need some paint/trim rectification to satisfy people with high expectations. Granted they messed up the rectification of the paint issues - Highly frustrating I can agree, but why wouldn't you let them have another go/agree to have it taken else where? It seems every person on the planet agrees that it needs another look at."
I did, they refused and said the repair met their acceptable expectations. I can't argue with that and a different dealer won't touch it as it's not a warranty issue now. I can't force them to fix it can only argue my side.
"High volume dealers have to deal with hundreds of customers per day and might not be able to bend over backwards to accommodate your needs (especially if you've already resorted to the nuclear option and are unwilling to listen to any of their input)."
I've been attempting to resolve this for over 2 months now. I don't think I've resorted to 'nuclear' for no good reason.
I totally get what you're saying and you won't know who I've spoken to about it. There's been a few body repair guys, a PDI tech for Audi and some family and friends who deal with motor vehicles, sales and performance related stuff who all know their stuff and have been at it for many many years. Lots of eyes with lots of different views and opinions and everyone is saying pursue it. There's been a lot of people who have had your view but in light of the amount of issues with the car and the dealer attitude they're siding with 'just get a new one'. So it's not just me and these aren't just random hairdressers who know nothing about cars...
I haven't skipped 5 steps ahead, I've allowed for VW to follow their processes and allow sufficient reasonable time for what are really simple jobs but the dealer and VW just have not bothered.
Basically, in the first 6 months of car ownership you stand a much better chance of reaching resolution on repairs and replacements than you do after 6 months. I've had the car 4 months and the VW rejection process can take up to 8 weeks. So at the end of my 8 weeks I'll be 6 months into ownership and my options for rejection become even slimmer than they already are. I hoped that by rejecting the car now it would leave enough time for them to carry out an investigation and get the car fixed or replaced. I'm gunning for replacement as it's a brand new bloody car with a ton of defects that so far have ruined most of the fun I thought getting a new car would be.
I hope this kinda helps you to understand that I've not gone from 0 - nuclear but have actually given reasonable time for VW and dealer to fix things. I've done my chasing - as much chasing as I can do without it taking over my life - perhaps a call or email per week. But nobody has done their side of things and followed up. I also feel really let down by VW and the 2 dealers who I've seen / been asked to see, my purchase of a shiny new car was also supposed to reduce the amount of time spent dealing with repairing cars and so far has done the complete opposite. It was a decision made to increase 'up-time' of the vehicle but has fabulously back-fired.
Edited by ashleyman on Friday 12th August 00:45
This was the scratch on the car before the smart repair:
This was the finish:
There's a lot of fish-eye marks and overspray as well as polish everywhere. They've also failed to fill the scratched area so you can still see the scratches in sunlight and if you run your finger across them they're still there. This repair is what all 3 bodyshops were not happy about and wanted to respray the panel instead of another smart repair. One body shop even said they think they've used a solid black paint instead of metallic but couldn't be sure. Also, this is slightly higher up than the scratches were. So these defects are on top of perfectly fine paint but obviously can't be corrected without re-spray. As it's the rear quarter panel which runs into the roof it's quite a large job considering they have to blend the door, go to the roofline and then work towards the front. Not a great place to need a repair, just unfortunate.
I would also just like to say that even though the smart repair doesn't look too bad in the photos, it's awful in real life and once the flaws were pointed out to me I decided I wasn't happy. It's a brand new car and that repair should really be better.
This was the finish:
There's a lot of fish-eye marks and overspray as well as polish everywhere. They've also failed to fill the scratched area so you can still see the scratches in sunlight and if you run your finger across them they're still there. This repair is what all 3 bodyshops were not happy about and wanted to respray the panel instead of another smart repair. One body shop even said they think they've used a solid black paint instead of metallic but couldn't be sure. Also, this is slightly higher up than the scratches were. So these defects are on top of perfectly fine paint but obviously can't be corrected without re-spray. As it's the rear quarter panel which runs into the roof it's quite a large job considering they have to blend the door, go to the roofline and then work towards the front. Not a great place to need a repair, just unfortunate.
I would also just like to say that even though the smart repair doesn't look too bad in the photos, it's awful in real life and once the flaws were pointed out to me I decided I wasn't happy. It's a brand new car and that repair should really be better.
Edited by ashleyman on Friday 12th August 01:00
Fair enough dude. Thanks for taking some time to clarify the situation in a little bit more detail.
All I can do is reiterate that I think you should now be using this as a serious push to get whatever warranty work that is currently outstanding done at your soonest convenience at the local dealer, all whilst someone in Wolfsberg physically walks over to the production line and grabs a seat back for you to be sent to the supplier dealer ready for fitting, right after someone sorts those buffer trails. Multiple month back order parts are not acceptable in any case, neither is making a car worse than it came in bodywork wise (Although I'm not going to comment too much about Paintwork as its not my area of expertise)
I have dealt with warranty rejection vehicles from both sides of the workshop doors as 10 years as a tech and service advisor. Its a rare enough occurrence in itself but I've never come across it for a couple of low level warranty quibbles, hence my interest in this case.
I not belittling your faults by the way, you haven't listed a single thing (excluding the paintwork - Again, not my area of expertise) that I'd say 'Deal with it', if the faults are as described they all need looking at, I'm just surprised that list of faults a half competent apprentice could have fixed within a morning has been allowed to escalate to the point a customer actively wanting a full blown rejection. They are, in the grand scheme of what can and does go wrong with a modern motor vehicle, pretty minor, as annoying and unacceptable they might be.
It seems like many of your issues are done to the Dealers/VW warranty/VW Parts supply - Its part of the reason I got out of that world. 'Customer care' isn't valued much past a customer satisfaction survey, the waiting times to get just about anything done at any main dealer are frankly ridiculous and there are so many different levels of bureaucracy with warranty claims that someone always gets screwed.
You will have put the frighteners on already (regardless of the likelihood of car being taken back or not, having a rejection looming over heads will make the dealers/vw warranty and even parts supply make special concessions for you), IMO use it to push for the more realistic out come of the car being repaired to a satisfactory standard in a timely fashion as opposed to pinning all hope on the (IMO) unrealistic outcome of a new car.
But at the end of the day, its your money and car, all I can do is share my opinion. Regardless, there's not much more to say that I haven't already, so I'll now bow out of your thread and wish you the best of luck coming to some sort of resolution
.
All I can do is reiterate that I think you should now be using this as a serious push to get whatever warranty work that is currently outstanding done at your soonest convenience at the local dealer, all whilst someone in Wolfsberg physically walks over to the production line and grabs a seat back for you to be sent to the supplier dealer ready for fitting, right after someone sorts those buffer trails. Multiple month back order parts are not acceptable in any case, neither is making a car worse than it came in bodywork wise (Although I'm not going to comment too much about Paintwork as its not my area of expertise)
I have dealt with warranty rejection vehicles from both sides of the workshop doors as 10 years as a tech and service advisor. Its a rare enough occurrence in itself but I've never come across it for a couple of low level warranty quibbles, hence my interest in this case.
I not belittling your faults by the way, you haven't listed a single thing (excluding the paintwork - Again, not my area of expertise) that I'd say 'Deal with it', if the faults are as described they all need looking at, I'm just surprised that list of faults a half competent apprentice could have fixed within a morning has been allowed to escalate to the point a customer actively wanting a full blown rejection. They are, in the grand scheme of what can and does go wrong with a modern motor vehicle, pretty minor, as annoying and unacceptable they might be.
It seems like many of your issues are done to the Dealers/VW warranty/VW Parts supply - Its part of the reason I got out of that world. 'Customer care' isn't valued much past a customer satisfaction survey, the waiting times to get just about anything done at any main dealer are frankly ridiculous and there are so many different levels of bureaucracy with warranty claims that someone always gets screwed.
You will have put the frighteners on already (regardless of the likelihood of car being taken back or not, having a rejection looming over heads will make the dealers/vw warranty and even parts supply make special concessions for you), IMO use it to push for the more realistic out come of the car being repaired to a satisfactory standard in a timely fashion as opposed to pinning all hope on the (IMO) unrealistic outcome of a new car.
But at the end of the day, its your money and car, all I can do is share my opinion. Regardless, there's not much more to say that I haven't already, so I'll now bow out of your thread and wish you the best of luck coming to some sort of resolution
.Edited by 279 on Friday 12th August 02:00
Edited by 279 on Friday 12th August 02:02
279 said:
Fair enough dude. Thanks for taking some time to clarify the situation in a little bit more detail.
All I can do is reiterate that I think you should now be using this as a serious push to get whatever warranty work that is currently outstanding done at your soonest convenience at the local dealer, all whilst someone in Wolfsberg physically walks over to the production line and grabs a seat back for you to be sent to the supplier dealer ready for fitting, right after someone sorts those buffer trails. Multiple month back order parts are not acceptable in any case, neither is making a car worse than it came in bodywork wise (Although I'm not going to comment too much about Paintwork as its not my area of expertise)
I have dealt with warranty rejection vehicles from both sides of the workshop doors as 10 years as a tech and service advisor. Its a rare enough occurrence in itself but I've never come across it for a couple of low level warranty quibbles, hence my interest in this case.
I not belittling your faults by the way, you haven't listed a single thing (excluding the paintwork - Again, not my area of expertise) that I'd say 'Deal with it', if the faults are as described they all need looking at, I'm just surprised that list of faults a half competent apprentice could have fixed within a morning has been allowed to escalate to the point a customer actively wanting a full blown rejection. They are, in the grand scheme of what can and does go wrong with a modern motor vehicle, pretty minor, as annoying and unacceptable they might be.
It seems like many of your issues are done to the Dealers/VW warranty/VW Parts supply - Its part of the reason I got out of that world. 'Customer care' isn't valued much past a customer satisfaction survey, the waiting times to get just about anything done at any main dealer are frankly ridiculous and there are so many different levels of bureaucracy with warranty claims that someone always gets screwed.
You will have put the frighteners on already (regardless of the likelihood of car being taken back or not, having a rejection looming over heads will make the dealers/vw warranty and even parts supply make special concessions for you), IMO use it to push for the more realistic out come of the car being repaired to a satisfactory standard in a timely fashion as opposed to pinning all hope on the (IMO) unrealistic outcome of a new car.
But at the end of the day, its your money and car, all I can do is share my opinion. Regardless, there's not much more to say that I haven't already, so I'll now bow out of your thread and wish you the best of luck coming to some sort of resolution.
Hi there, I just wanted to clear up a few things I said. When I said I didn't want to reply, I meant at that very moment in time. Of course I'm more than happy to answer questions and provide insight. I am using this as a time to make things happen. Having someone at VWFS who is looking at the situation and co-ordinating makes people do stuff rather than a customer so that's a positive. All I can do is reiterate that I think you should now be using this as a serious push to get whatever warranty work that is currently outstanding done at your soonest convenience at the local dealer, all whilst someone in Wolfsberg physically walks over to the production line and grabs a seat back for you to be sent to the supplier dealer ready for fitting, right after someone sorts those buffer trails. Multiple month back order parts are not acceptable in any case, neither is making a car worse than it came in bodywork wise (Although I'm not going to comment too much about Paintwork as its not my area of expertise)
I have dealt with warranty rejection vehicles from both sides of the workshop doors as 10 years as a tech and service advisor. Its a rare enough occurrence in itself but I've never come across it for a couple of low level warranty quibbles, hence my interest in this case.
I not belittling your faults by the way, you haven't listed a single thing (excluding the paintwork - Again, not my area of expertise) that I'd say 'Deal with it', if the faults are as described they all need looking at, I'm just surprised that list of faults a half competent apprentice could have fixed within a morning has been allowed to escalate to the point a customer actively wanting a full blown rejection. They are, in the grand scheme of what can and does go wrong with a modern motor vehicle, pretty minor, as annoying and unacceptable they might be.
It seems like many of your issues are done to the Dealers/VW warranty/VW Parts supply - Its part of the reason I got out of that world. 'Customer care' isn't valued much past a customer satisfaction survey, the waiting times to get just about anything done at any main dealer are frankly ridiculous and there are so many different levels of bureaucracy with warranty claims that someone always gets screwed.
You will have put the frighteners on already (regardless of the likelihood of car being taken back or not, having a rejection looming over heads will make the dealers/vw warranty and even parts supply make special concessions for you), IMO use it to push for the more realistic out come of the car being repaired to a satisfactory standard in a timely fashion as opposed to pinning all hope on the (IMO) unrealistic outcome of a new car.
But at the end of the day, its your money and car, all I can do is share my opinion. Regardless, there's not much more to say that I haven't already, so I'll now bow out of your thread and wish you the best of luck coming to some sort of resolution
.Unfortunately, you sound like a nice guy! To me, it seems nice guys don't work in dealer service departments. If you can see they're simple fixes and can see an apprentice being able to tackle these things then surely the service departments I've visited would be doing the same, booking the car in and getting the tea boy to fix the car. That would be fine, but the fact is - they haven't! They've refused! If I ever get a survey, I'll be answering honestly. Customer Care to me is a massive deal and I'll re-visit places that care and avoid places that don't provide good care.
I really do appreciate the things you've written and whilst I agree with a lot of it I also know the I've spent a whole ton of money - 35k might be NOTHING to you, I don't know. But 35k is a lot to me and it's not what I expected. Thats my problem and that's what I'm trying to fix. If it was a lower value item it would have gone back already for a refund but obviously cars work a little different to that.
Edited by ashleyman on Friday 12th August 11:03
KTF said:
Have you got any photos of the misaligned bumper, handle, pen marks, etc?
This is the bumper plastic. It was all sticking out around the bottom so whilst it doesn't look like very much in this photo there was more going on than what you can see. 
This isn't my photo but this is what's going on with the seat lock. It's apparently the wrong part for my car. If I brake hard enough I can get the seat to fold forwards.
Here's a better photo of some of the bonnet buffer trails.
Pen pic below but honestly, the pen isn't too bad. It's just the fact it happened and they tried to wiggle out and say it wasn't them.
Edited by ashleyman on Friday 12th August 11:24
279 said:
Lots of people on the Interwebs, your friends and 'contacts' might agree with you, but then I'm willing to wager that they have next to no experience of what goes on in a dealer, what to actually expect from a new car, the complications of warranty repairs, parts being on back order or the processes of trying to back a car through warranty. If they did, they wouldn't be advising you to skip about 5 steps ahead and push for a rejection
Without exception every time I approach a dealer with regard to vehicle warranty work they are obstructive. OK they've some work to do get repairs actioned - so what ? This shouldn't be coming across to the customer like its some kind of problem.
Time is of the essence. 4 months in on a new car and knowing his story the OP is right to reject. Leaving it any longer is futile.
ashleyman said:
Pen pic below but honestly, the pen isn't too bad. It's just the fact it happened and they tried to wiggle out and say it wasn't them.
That looks almost exactly like a pen in a leg pocket has popped out. Edited by ashleyman on Friday 12th August 11:24
Hope you get it all sorted.
I took delivery of a brand new VW 9 months ago. Not an R, but still £26k's worth.
Over time, I found a couple of minor dings and - obvious from the moment I sat in it - a mismatched colour interior trim to the passenger door (quite how that got through quality control...)!
I never complained about the minor dings and was quite happy to have the interior trim rectified nearly 5 months after purchase.
I was once just like the OP - I'd have wanted these things sorted; I was a member of Detailing World; these things mattered.
So, what changed?
Having 2 young children! They will soon make any brand new car far worse than any dealer's efforts!!!!
I'm about to get my paws on a 12-year-old Clio that's been through the hands of my parents and brothers, with no cosmetic care shown to it at all since 2004. Puts things nicely into perspective for me.
Over time, I found a couple of minor dings and - obvious from the moment I sat in it - a mismatched colour interior trim to the passenger door (quite how that got through quality control...)!
I never complained about the minor dings and was quite happy to have the interior trim rectified nearly 5 months after purchase.
I was once just like the OP - I'd have wanted these things sorted; I was a member of Detailing World; these things mattered.
So, what changed?
Having 2 young children! They will soon make any brand new car far worse than any dealer's efforts!!!!
I'm about to get my paws on a 12-year-old Clio that's been through the hands of my parents and brothers, with no cosmetic care shown to it at all since 2004. Puts things nicely into perspective for me.
It's 5.30PM on Friday and their self appointed deadline has passed for the Volkswagen Executive Office to make contact with me.
My signed for letter was delivered last Friday, 2 separate people promised me they would be in contact this week. The original case manager said they'd be reaching out Thursday afternoon. No calls. My VWFS case manager said they'd be in touch on Friday to make contact, introduce themselves and speak some more and there's been... no contact.
I phoned just after 5 to chase this up and was told they'd gone home. They all know I'm away on holiday from Monday so this is quite a big disappointment.
My signed for letter was delivered last Friday, 2 separate people promised me they would be in contact this week. The original case manager said they'd be reaching out Thursday afternoon. No calls. My VWFS case manager said they'd be in touch on Friday to make contact, introduce themselves and speak some more and there's been... no contact.
I phoned just after 5 to chase this up and was told they'd gone home. They all know I'm away on holiday from Monday so this is quite a big disappointment.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff