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Inchcape VW Manchester (near Trafford Park) - Second visit

9K views 21 replies 9 participants last post by  Leeeeee 
#1 ·
How stupid am I for giving them a second chance?
Very583.33%
Probably would have done the same thing00.00%
Not stupid116.67%
 
#2 ·
Will update this thread shortly once I get the car back from another crazy experience, hopefully tomorrow.

Car went in for similar symptoms as last time, with a new issue:

Cold start issues & ticking noise - believe to be same fault as last time.
Hot start issues (new) - starter motor fault.
 
#3 ·
Good luck mate, wonder how deep your pockets need to be this time !
 
#5 ·
Wouldn't have gone back after your last 'experience'


Interested in the warranty issue.
 
#6 ·
"Wouldn't have gone back after your last 'experience'
"

Unfortunately here in Manchester Inchcrap have a virtual monopoly on VW. I used them in Stockport, Gee Cross and Trafford. Each and every time I suffered the incompetent service Leeeeee is experiencing (although not to the same financial degree) to the point I got shut of the car.
My sister has had her Passat from new, purchased 3 years ago from Stockport and has yet to leave the stealership without having had a "difference of opinion" with the service desk. She's already decided that BMW is the way forward when the time comes to change (not that I agree with her!)

Forum members here wax lyrical about their dealer experiences which is great, but I shouldn't have to drive God knows how far to get my car attended to by someone who actually knows what they are doing.
My Renault Trafic van has been faultless from new, and it really does graft. Important to me is that the dealer actually cares about me when I take it for a service and doesn't try & fleece me with invented problems and mis diagnosed faults.
The D4 has also been great and its a pleasant experience to visit the dealership, they address me by name and have all the customer service boxes ticked, again only charging for work carried out at quoted prices. (They did try & flog me a service plan which I declined)
Why does VW allow its service departments to treat customers so shoddily and with such incompetence? Escalating issues to VWUK was also pointless in my experience as I'd mistaken them for an organisation that could actually be bothered to respond.
 
#7 · (Edited by Moderator)
Why does VW allow its service departments to treat customers so shoddily and with such incompetence? Escalating issues to VWUK was also pointless in my experience as I'd mistaken them for an organisation that could actually be bothered to respond.
VW appointed a new Customer Quality Director in 2012 - Alison Jones:

http://www.motortrader.com/latest-news/vw-group-uk-customer-quality-director/

It seems that her role may not be solely related to experiences at dealerships but I'd be writing to her and highlighting the poor service and aftersales - VW needs to hear about such issues so that they are aware of them and can start to put them right.

More role explanation here:

http://www.volkswagengroup.co.uk/content/sites/vwcorporate/volkswagengroup_couk/en/home/our_brands_and_departments/customer_quality.html
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
Keyboard Warrior time….

Booked car into VW Inchcape Manchester for cold start and warm start problems - explained that the car was in October last year with cold start issues which turned out to be injector seal problems this problem was resolved but appears to have come back and now have issues cranking when Hot also so I believe possible starter motor issue - made the service rep aware that the car is on a Warranty Direct cover...

Day 1 (Monday):
Couple hours after dropping the car off, I receive a call:

Cannot reproduce cold start issue - will keep car overnight and test again. Fair enough.
Technician noted that cranking is slower than expected, would provide more information tomorrow once car has been left to rest overnight.

So far no issues.

Day 2 - Let the saga begin:
Cold test produced no issues - car apparently started okay, I personally found this strange as the cold start has been a problem for about 3 weeks now and had got to the point it was every day without fail for me.

Hot start - Technician again noted the cranking is a lot slower than expected resulting in failed starts diagnosis, starter motor failure.

Result: Service desk issued quote to me the customer for £726.00 to replace the starter motor.

I reminded them I have a Warranty Direct cover and asked them to contact them on my behalf sending them the quote for authorisation before any work starts.

1 Hour later I receive a call from VW Inchcape Manchester telling me the good news…. Warranty Direct have approved the starter motor replacement (Great I thought, that was easy!) - She then proceeded to read out the financial breakdown….

Job Quote - £726.00 inc VAT
VW tell me Warranty Direct will cover £390.75 leaving myself liable for £335.24…

I questioned how much the part was as I was under the impression I was only liable for 20% of parts and £50 excess (yes I know I pay full cost upfront and claim back from WD)...

Starter motor was £185.38 + VAT

The numbers just did not add up, I asked why I am liable for £335.24 if that's the case.

'Oh Warranty Direct get a discounted labour rate of £73+VAT our labour rate is £105.00+VAT so you will have to cover the difference' - At this point I am even more confused as I am covered for up to £200 per hour labour rates with Warranty Direct, I assumed this was now a mistake with Warranty Direct and promptly called them.

I spoke to a nice chap named Simon at Warranty Direct who took a look at my job quote for me, he advised that the reason the labour rate is £73.00 is because the Garage had only quoted £73.00 per hour for the job and that he had this in writing...

He went on to explain that this happens a lot, Garages use a system called 1Link to put these claims through to Warranty Direct, the dealers are meant to keep this system updated however it appears they do not, he said it's likely at one stage the labour rate of £73.00 was correct and stored in the system but no one has updated the default values to the current rates.

He sent me Revisions 1 through 4 via email of the 1Link job sheet between VW and WD confirming VW only requested £73.00+VAT per hour.

Back onto the phone to VW Inchcape where the tone of the conversation quickly changed to comments like 'Well I am sure WD will claim we are the ones at fault' and 'We just want to get paid for the job and don't care who pays it'.

At this point VW Service rep sent over a new quote to WD via 1Link for the correct labour rate - again this was approved - a quick call back from VW to myself saying all has now been approved and WD have authorised £505.95 inc VAT…. I said great and hung up.
I then started to work out the maths again…..

£726 - £505.95 that leaves £220.05
-------------
£50 excess…
£222.45 for the starter motor of which I pay 20% towards - £44.49
Total liability to me £94.49
------------

Wait a minute…. £220.05 is quite a lot higher than £94.49 what the f$ck is going on… Can no one at VW add simple numbers together, why are they not quoting the job correctly to WD?!

I called back just before they close for the day and go through the numbers with VW and say things are not adding up, it appears there is around 1 hours labour missing from the quote you gave me vs the quote you are giving WD, FIX IT!

Day 3 - Saga continues:
I receive a phone call around 10am ish from VW Service rep stating she had now gone through the numbers herself this time (who did them last time?! Not sure!) And that the total is now £696.00 inc VAT and a new quote has been sent to WD who have now agreed to cover £606.75 inc VAT - I was perplexed how suddenly the quote has moved from £726 to £696 but I did not question it, instead I asked for it in writing via email...

I contacted Simon at Warranty Direct (via email) to ask if he could confirm what VW had told me was actually true - sure enough it's been approved AGAIN with the new costing.

Work begins on the car.

Late in the day I got a call to say the job has been completed but they requested to keep the car overnight again to check cold start and do further testing before releasing the job as complete.

Day 4 judgement day:
No phone calls happened, I expect she is fed up of speaking to me, instead I received a text at 15:07 stating my car is now ready for collection.

By 15:30 ish I was at the dealer to collect my car.

I sit down, she instantly announces that there was a problem, oh here we go…, the technician did not realise that a seal ring and coolant were required and so had not been quoted originally, however, she went on to say that as it was their problem they have absorbed the costs and the total remained the same - Great or so I thought!!!!

She proceeded to ask if I was paying by card - yep.

I pass my card over, she hands back the chip and pin device and suddenly the price is now £699.97 - I questioned this and asked why it had gone up from the £696.00 quoted yesterday, to which the reply was - it was £700.. I asked her to refer to the email she sent me. Sure enough £696.00 - so she voided the £699.97 and began butchering the invoice once again to make the numbers match.

We then started again with the chip and pin device £696.00 great I thought finally getting this finished….

I say bye take my invoice and 2x card receipts (voided and actual) then head to my car - Amazing difference, the starter motor spins very quick and the start-up is a black and white difference to before.

I get home and look at the invoice which I need to send off to WD along with service and MOT documents for my claim - its now that I realised she has not charged £0.00 for the seal ring and coolant instead to fudge the numbers she has reduced the labour costs!!! So the invoice the job no longer matches what WD have on their system!!!!

I am now going to have to follow this up tomorrow with VW and make sure they issue me an invoice which is correct - i.e. their fuck ups are either not on the invoice at all or they are marked as £0.00 and the labour is put back to original quote!

I am never buying another VW - I love my Touareg and will keep it for the time being but when it's gone I won't be returning!

Best thing yet is my next service and MOT is due in 12 day's time, no idea where to take it for that.
 
#9 ·
So my word of advice to anyone who has a WD policy, or any other warranty for that matter.

Do as I did, always get confirmation from WD about exactly what costs the garage have put through the system, they can email you copies of the 'Warranty Direct Policies Jobsheet' from the 1Link system which lists all revisions from initial job request.

Throughout this whole mess my liability has gone from £335.24 to £220.05 and then to £89.25 - all due to VW Service staff incompetence - VW don't care they even stated on one of the phone calls they just get paid for the job and don't care who pays for it, yet we the customers are in limbo land as we need the dealers to put the job through the system correctly.

It appears they don't know how to use the 1Link system.

If they quote you for X work at X labour they should put the identical quote into WD - which is not what happened in my case.
 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
Crap service and it seems the right hand does not know what the left is doing.

Sadly, this can happen with third party warranties and clearly dealers are attempting to maximise their profit but no way should they be quoting a discounted rate to WD and then asking you to stump up the difference


All you should have paid was your excess contribution and not been involved at all with the negotiations between WD and the dealer.

I know VW warranties are more expensive, but you wouldn't have had as much hassle over this.

Not a good experience at all and no wonder you are thinking of going elsewhere for your service/MOT


On a slightly separate but related note - I got my first service done earlier this week at my local dealer under the VW 3 year service plan. All carried out OK but seeing as the service plan is underwritten by VW Finance, they get the invoice and I get nothing, apart from the usual stamped up service book


Seeing as I am the customer and have already paid for this, I believe that a full documented history should include all invoices for future reference, so I've just emailed the dealer to send me a copy as I do like to keep a FSH with all relevant docs
 
#11 ·
Damm good point on that Cass , I like to keep every bit of paperwork and also on the invoice you see any irregularities too.
 
#13 ·
Sent an email to the dealer network last night and got a response first thing - request sent to dealer and I should be hearing direct from them.

This is not the first time this has happened with a VW/dealer service plan - I like to see things itemised and good point on future warranty requirements as proof of servicing
 
#14 ·
My last service invoice was handed to me for my records with a zero value on it as it was paid by VWFS.

On the matter of Inchcape, If they are quoting one figure to WD and charging you a different rate to claim the difference, I would be getting onto trading standards. (use that threat in your letter).
 
#15 ·
When I collected my car from Listers Nuneaten, they tried to charge me over £500 extra but luckily I had copies of emails confirming the correct figures. All these types of experiences do is make us the customer feel as though we are being fleeced in return for being loyal to the brand.
 
#17 ·
When I had a service plan, VW Windrush at Maidenhead always gave me a copy invoice with a zero value on it.
 
#18 ·
Well an update - I now finally have an invoice stating the correct values from VW so I now have all the correct matching documentation to provide WD with for claim.

Still undecided where to send my car for its imminent service/mot.
 
#19 ·
Leeeeee, I've used the guys in Altrincham the last few times - it's stillI Inchcrap but they have been pretty reasonable.
I have previously tried VW Macclesfield - again no problem but as with Altrincham, it just adds a lot of extra time onto your day.

As with Hey Hey I definitely would not recommend Stockport VW.
 
#20 · (Edited by Moderator)
Fully itemised and costed invoice arrived on the post this morning
 
#21 ·
 
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