Volvo Warranty & Paintwork Issue

[stevemack84]

Hi, To cut a long story short, what are peoples opinion on this?

18-24 monthes ago a rattle appeared in the rear drivers side door, it took 6-7 times of them attempting to solve it before they said we can't, we think it's in the structure of the door, that was december last year.

Feb this year, door was replaced and repainted (without the car present) as the new door took a while to come from sweden etc and it was then fitted when it was ready. (Irrellavent but at the same time they scratched a load of interior panels and the tinted security glass in the door which they had to replace too then via another warranty claim, dread to think what all that cost them)

Come May/June and some direct sunlight on it and the door looks appalling as per attached picture, but in any other light it looks spot on, perfect match.

Car went back to volvo who machine polished the side of the car, problem still there, but the dealer are now saying it's fine although they still agree with me it's not perfect, so it was escaled to volvo UK who have now refused to paint match it into the rest of the car as it's within tolerance apparently.

Any advice on how to persue this legally and what my approach should now be. The car is a 2014 XC60 in metallic black, original rattle was discovered around August 2015 to give an idea of how long it's taken to resolve. They are saying now that it's 3 years old, slight mismatches are going to happen....

Edited by stevemack84 on Monday 3rd July 11:00

[Penelope Stopit]

You are being had -over and the choice is yours about what to do next. Perhaps warning them that you will be taking legal action against them if they don't put it right will help get things moving
Remember that we are living in a bad world and many people have spent fortunes in seeking fair play yet have failed and sometimes even died from the stress

[V8covin]

I tell customers all the time,if you just have 1 panel painted edge to edge it is unlikely to match the adjacent panels.
They should have blended into the door and quarter,as any decent bodyshop would have done as a matter of course.

[stevemack84]

Thanks for replies...

I mentioned this about how could they get it to match correctly without the car (and blend if needed) and they said we do it all the time just 1 panel without the car.

I've escalated it to their uk customer relations team, I kindly offered to put it on volvos facebook account and see what their 2 million followers think of it

Next step will just be small claims court I think

[V8covin]

stevemack84 said:

Thanks for replies...

I mentioned this about how could they get it to match correctly without the car (and blend if needed) and they said we do it all the time just 1 panel without the car.

I've escalated it to their uk customer relations team, I kindly offered to put it on volvos facebook account and see what their 2 million followers think of it

Next step will just be small claims court I think

Yes they probably do it all the time and get away with it because most customers don't notice,not because it matches

[Summit_Detailing]

Just when you think you've seen/heard it all....that's a quite frankly laughable scenario - painting a panel without it being on the car, no chance of colour matching and blending to adjacent panels as necessary - what on earth are they playing at!

They really don't have a clue if they think machine polishing the panel will make it right...is the dull area to the left of the handle just the camera playing tricks or is it flatting marks that have just been left!?

I'd be giving VolvoUK customer care helpline some major grief.

Best of luck in getting this resolved properly - you have a courtesy car, they have yours and redo the door properly in a timely fashion.

cheers

Chris

[Squiggs]

The same (recent) problem here (although this was BMW)
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/post.asp?h=0&a...
(To which nobody commented to my last reply?)

In your case how can they say it's 'within tolerances'???????
As said earlier - you can't paint a door and bolt it on, and expect it to match!
It might just work out on a flat colour, but almost impossible on something with metallic or pearl tints (sparkles) in the paint


If they think yours is 'within tolerances' put it to them that:
"If every car 'within tolerances' came out the showroom and then out into sunlight showing different panels with mismatched 'sparkles' and/or 'mismatched coloured paint' how many new cars would they expect to sell?"
Then ask them to take a showroom car outside into the sun to prove to you that they do come from the factory with the same levels of 'tolerance' (mismatched) paint as yours currently has.

[stevemack84]

Hi, The bit by the handle is deceptive, there's no difference there it's just a bad shadow/reflection I think.

Further update, volvo called and have asked me to take pictures of the car to send to them again and a video, for the second time, it's now going in circles.

Just typical they ask as the weather switches back to rain/dark clouds near me

[Justin S]

Every time I was dealing with Volvo customer service was just a complete joke. You will be chasing your tail . They buried their heads in the sand with my cars issues . They ignore phonecalls, emails and get the dealer to deal with it by saying no to all warranty issues I had, even the dealer was embarrassed with it all . I feel for you having to deal with them. Even the dealers despise them and their help with customer cars.