Volkswagen Luxury Aftersales Support Centre....

Thought I'd share my (bad) experience of Luxury Aftersales Support Centre. My car and I are not outside of the UK though it was bought new when I was in the UK. Like many on this forum, my car ate tyres after less than 7000 miles. The first 2 poeple I spoke to at the Support Centre both told me to send in the tyre invoices and alignment report (whcih showed it as being out). After I submitted these and a welath of other papers they then told me that as the car was more than 6 months old a contribution to the tyre/aligment costs by VW would not be made. I then called the Support Centre and was told by one of its employee's that, to paraphrase 'as the car was out of the UK it would not qualify in any event'. I then asked him to explain this misleading statement (which of course he could not becuase it is a false statement) and he then argued for the next 15 mins how I was missing the point. I asked him to put this in writing (which of course he would not) and he then backtracked and said VW only make payments as 'a gesture of goodwill'. When I put my complaint in writing to the head of Luxury Support she replied to tell me the same - that tyre costs are only re-imbursed or contributed to if the alignment is shown to be out within the first 6 months of the car being bought and that the gesture by VW to do this is purely a gesture of goodwill.

My view is that VW contribute to the costs not as a gesture of goodwill but because the Touareg has a set-up problem causing unreasonable and premature tyre wear for which they are liable as manufacturer and God help them if anyone sues on the point and gets a fidning of fact for the same from a Court.

If anyone has be compensated for tyre wear outside of 6 months please do let me know as I am considering suing VW under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1992 on this point.

All that aside, the level of service and the attitude and response of the Support Centre should not be said in the same breath as the word 'luxury'. People should know that spending a small fortune on a top-end car with VW does not guarantee an after-sales service to match. It's a pity an otherwise excellent car is ruined by a Support Centre who at worst deliberately mislead customers and who at best could not care about resolving an issue now that VW has banked the money for the car.

I spent ?24,000 on a used (13k miles) 52 plate TVR Tuscan, the car was bought from Stoke Audi, a few days after I took delivery, the cooling fans stopped working, I called the dealer and was basically 'fobbed off' with all manner of very poor excuses, I ended up writing letters and threatened to take legal action as the car was sold with a 3 month warranty etc, they didn't even reply to any of my letters and if I called I was put on hold and cut off after 10 minutes. I'd call and ask for the salesman and would be told that he was away on holiday, so I would wait 30 minutes and then call back saying I was someone else, the reply would be that he had just gone out on a test drive with a customer!!Their incompetence and deception was so bad that in the end I decided not to bother and gave up, I would never trust them with ANY car and will never use them again. I went to an independent TVR specialist and found that it was a common fault and cost just ?18 for a new sensor!!

It's a shame especially in the current economic climate that these people ( Inc VW) seem to forget that we pay their salaries and expect some sort of expertise when it comes to a product. Tregs are not cheap after in any way.