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.