GTI Build Dates - Anyone got one yet?

[Bill_the_Bear]

hmmm

VW online tracker has this morning changed to build week confirmed !!!

Checking mine now...

"processing"

DAMMIT!

[mcmaddy]

WOW

Just had a call from my dealer who tells me my GTD has been allocated build week 33.

Thats Mid august, so I'll be lucky if I get it by end of september.

Gonna wait and see what the website tells me to see if they have been told duf info yet again.

Not a happy bunny!!!

Hi Guys,

I sent an email to my dealer on Friday requesting an update on delivery.

Anyway, having being orginally given a week 33 build, I am now told it has been brought forward to week 27, however they stressed it cannot be confirmed until probably week 22. Roll on the next two weeks !!!

I hope for once that this is right and all orders have been moved forward now VW have pulled themselves together.

Just had an email from my dealer who tells me my gtd is now confirmed for a week 26 build !!!
Not too sure if its on the tracker yet, but very much doubt

hmmm

VW online tracker has this morning changed to build week confirmed !!!

You ordered yours the day after mine so will be very interesting to see what happens.

[monkeyhanger]

No change in mine yet and it''s supposed to be BW26 according to VW UK sales.

[monkeyhanger]

The plot thickens… Just spoken with my dealer and the mistake with my dad’s car was made at the dealership’s admin, with them mis-interpreting an email from my salesman.

When I requested to change mine from DBP to TR and to add the 5 year warranty onto my dad’s (but no other changes to his TR 5DR DSG GTD), what actually happened was admin changed his to DBP (so both of our cars were DBP at that point) and added the 5 year warranty onto mine. This mistake was discovered by the salesman a few days later when he got the revised paperwork back and checked it over. So then he got them to transfer the 5 year warranty to my dad’s car and then tried to change them both back to TR. My order accepted the change, but my dad’s was locked out to change because it had gone to “build week confirmed” status. VW UK could not change it.
So there is a Black DSG 5 door GTD with no extras going spare on the VW system getting built in BW25 if anyone wants to jump the queue (assuming it hasn’t already been snapped up) Order number 23181819. I don’t think it is going to Pulmans, it will just be grabbable on the “spare cars” system for any dealership to grab.
The situation with the mix-up was conveyed to VW UK and they have made a “special” build allocation for my dad at the spec he wants that seems to have avoided going to the back of the queue and will be built a few weeks after mine (no tracking number available for that).

This would explain why the dealer was saying the build week for my dad’s was a few weeks behind mine, but VW UK were saying my dad’s was a week in front of mine (using the black car’s tracking number which is no longer my dad’s car). I’m amazed that VW are prepared to allow a “special” build to be snuck in for a mistake that is the dealership’s and not their own.

I did ask why my BW26 car still was not on the tracker as "build week confirmed" now it was within 4 weeks of being built. He said to expect the change by the end of next week.

[matchboy]

Ok, the plot thickens.  Chap just phoned my up from the VW Executive Office, regarding my twitter query and subsequent email.  Had a long conversation.  I would imagine they've passed this up to this chap as I just won't go away pestering them. 

He started off by telling me that, according to the factory, NO orders have been given confirmed build weeks as yet.  When I queried this given the information that you chaps have posted on here he started to get all ar7ey and basically said everyone was lying.  I told him I find that very hard to believe, yet he stuck by his guns and reiterated that per the factory there have been no confirmed builds for any GTI's in the UK.  Confused?  I am.

I then explained to him that all this messing around with build weeks was ridiculous, and why couldn't I be given a definitive build week based on the information given to me over the last few months by my dealer, VW UK Customer Services and the Twitter UK VW - and given my order was early April.  He tried to blame the dealer, eg. they don't manage expectations, give out false information regarding dates.  I wasn't having that, and pointed out that it was VW UK that gave me the information regarding BW22 and also my "highly unlikely to move" BW of 26 - and not the dealer, who has been pretty good to be fair.  He had no answer for this other than at the time the information I would have been told was coming direct from the factory.

I explained to him that I couldn't understand this given its VW - started to get slightly miffed at one point and slipped a "p!ss poor" into the conversation.  Calmed down a bit, then continued.....in a nutshell he basically said its down to production in Germany and that they cannot control what is going on over there.

However, he did say he would be dealing with this personally and would be having a chat with the factory - and would call me back on Wednesday next week.  He agreed that all this messing around was not on from a customer service point of view, and conceeded that unfortunately there is a massive difference between what the marketing/sales/UK Customer Services guys tell us and what is ACTUALLY being build in Germany.

So all in all, I suppose I'm pleased that I have someone dealing with this for me, but on the other hand I feel slightly confused given I have still no BW, and also quite despondent that it seems that it really doesn't matter what we do/say/complain that the factory will do what they want, when they want - and b0llocks to the customer.

The saga continues....

[monkeyhanger]

Matchbox: He's probably sent a memo to Wolfsburg to ensure that they stick a kipper behind your dashboard when they build your car.   

Too many layers in the chain to deal with, lots of opportunity for crossed wires and misinformation.

[matchboy]

Matchbox: He's probably sent a memo to Wolfsburg to ensure that they stick a kipper behind your dashboard when they build your car.   

Too many layers in the chain to deal with, lots of opportunity for crossed wires and misinformation.

Ha!  No doubt!  Basically, its all a mess and its pot luck when you get your car or not. 

[Bill_the_Bear]

The saga continues....

Possible comment for next time you talk to him:

We're not so much upset by the long waiting times, that's just life, the problem is that we actually have no clue what the waiting times are because everyone is told something different with different or no explanations offered.

It really should be very very easy for them to keep us happy.  All they gotta do is tell us all the consistent truth.  That should consist firstly of accurate information about the factory, so at this stage it seems that should be "no confirmed BWs for UK yet, expect to start having them from week XX" and secondly an estimate of how long the wait should be for individual orders with a clear qualifier of how accurate it is.

Now the second part is obviously harder, but really should not be that hard.  They must know how many build slots for UK cars they have per day.  They must know how many total UK orders they have.  They must have a rough idea (from historic data) of if there are too many orders of something, say DSG, such that those orders can expect another Y many weeks wait.  All this adds up to an estimate.  Historic accuracy of these estimates to the eventual delivery adds up to a +/- error.

So we should each be getting something like this:

"There are no confirmed BWs from Wolfsburg for the UK yet, we expect to start having them from week 24 and will update you as yours is confirmed.  Your order, placed on 1st May, is estimated to be built in week 30 but this estimate may be off by 2 weeks either side based on past orders.  Demand for DSG is currently high so may require an estimated additional week."

Now why the hell can't they get their act together and do that?  Or does the fact that they seem not able to imply that actually they don't know how many build slots they have... or worse, they don't know how many orders they have!?!?!?!

EDIT:
Feel free to direct him to me and I'll go over to VWUK and set their system up for them.  I want my GTI for free in return.

[matchboy]

Bear, he sort of answered the first part of your question - by basically saying that the factory do what they want and do not always inform the UK team.  So when they tell us something it is what they've been told - but it could then get changed the next day by the factory who don't tell them everytime they make a change.  Seems a bit strange to me.

As for the second part, who knows.  Yes, it should be simple!  I forgot to put originally that he tried to fob me off with a BW of 28 by saying that there are other orders in the UK to consider.  What, 6 weeks of orders before mine?  I don't think so!

[Bill_the_Bear]

Bear, he sort of answered the first part of your question - by basically saying that the factory do what they want and do not always inform the UK team.  So when they tell us something it is what they've been told - but it could then get changed the next day by the factory who don't tell them everytime they make a change.  Seems a bit strange to me.

Thats an explanation but hardly an excuse.  Have they heard of networked computer systems in Germany?  They don't even have to update them more than once a week or once a fortnight.  Just tag a qualifier on the end of the statement "Information correct as of XX/XX/XXXX, next update in Y days."  Sounds like what he is saying is that "No one has any idea when any of you can expect your cars because the guys who know change their mind every now and then and never tell anyone else that they have done."  That is a systems failure.  They should have this as a very high priority on whatever corrective action process VWUK operate (because its impacting many customers and future business should automatically be at the top).  I'm assuming they operate one of course, dunno what to say if they don't.

To be honest what I think is going on here is a chronic lack of giving a damn about telling the customer anything.  As I said before, if they wanted to they could have a system of the kind I outlined up and running very easily.  These people seem to think that what we're upset about is that we can't have our toys now and we're going to scream and roll on the floor until we get them.  Why can they not understand that we are grown ups who just want to know the truth, not be kept in the dark because they are afraid we might be disappointed by the truth!

As for the second part, who knows.  Yes, it should be simple!  I forgot to put originally that he tried to fob me off with a BW of 28 by saying that there are other orders in the UK to consider.  What, 6 weeks of orders before mine?  I don't think so!

Yeah thats a stupid excuse from him.  I'm week 37 right now (others are even worse off).  Are there really 4 months worth of orders to process before mine?  Does he know how many UK cars are being built per week?  I can only assume it is in the region of 5 based on this...