More like “what I did yesterday” – more fun and games with VWUK…..
I phoned them up yesterday to get an update (having previously been told that scheduling shuffles happen on a Monday, so check progress on a Tues or later) – so expecting to find out whether my now “BW17” will go confirmed on Friday, and to get their response to my complaint email seeing as they contacted my Dad instead of me (how did they do that? You give your email address and mobile number on the “contact us” email form – it would have been far more work to dig up my Dad’s mobile number from his 2013 GTD order).
Story yesterday was that BW17 has slipped to BW21! I was transferred to the lass (Amy) handling the complaint case and she was very apologetic about chasing up my Dad rather than me. The confusion was compounded by my Dad assuming that I was getting my R from Pulman Sunderland rather than Pulman Durham as he didn’t know our preferred salesman had transferred to the Durham branch, so they were chasing the Sunderland branch.
She was unapologetic about the delay however. She is adamant that I had my order accepted by the factory on Dec 2nd (funny, it was Dec 4th last time I was having this conversation with a VW UK rep) and so BW21 (a 24 week wait is just about acceptable). I told her (again) that my order was accepted at the factory on Sept 24th (BW39), she said it wasn’t. I said that the only way my order could be from BW49 (Dec 2nd) is if the tracking number could have been decoupled from one order and reassociated with a later order placed in Dec. She categorically said that it’s impossible to do that. So I said that I had an email from my salesman on Sept 24 with a screen dump picture of his ordering system, with my tracking number on it, Durham branch details, the model (R 5dr manual), the car colour and interior colour, and order acceptance date of “24/09/2014” with acceptance status “V”. She went a bit quiet then. She didn’t ask for the email but I offered to send it, and then did (to a group email address she’ll pick up later). Asked about my tyres, as they’re barely legal, another 3 months wait is pushing it – I really don’t want to spend £400-500 on 4 new tyres and then hand the car over 2 weeks later when the R finally comes. She was taking no responsibility for delays or incurred costs, anything like that would be at dealers discretion (why would they stump up that when my p/x is already depreciating at the rate of £250 a month and they’re getting it 3 months later than planned, at an agreed fixed price?).
Seems at every turn VW UK shirk all responsibility and make the dealerships eat into their own margins for goodwill gestures, they will do next to nothing for you if it’s going to cost them. It’s a pity that when you get your new car and get the customer satisfaction survey, you only get to pass comment upon how good or bad the dealership was, and not how sh!te VW UK or VW AG have been throughout.
Amy said she could ask for a “push” on my order to try and get it priority built, no guarantees that it will do anything.
Anyway, my salesman rang me up later to say VW UK had been on the phone about my complaint and he was very apologetic – he wants me to get my car so he can get paid and get his hands on my p/x. He mentioned the priority “push” but said that’ll probably come to nothing as there’ll be likely 50 other people across the country in my situation all wanting a priority. He offered me a cancelled order (someone else got tired of waiting) that is coming through next week, but said although it is Lapiz on Prets, it is 3 door (I could probably live with that), DSG (I couldn’t live with that), and it has Pro-Nav/DCC/Rear camera (I wouldn’t want to be paying for those). On the tyres front, there’s no chance the dealership could or would pay for new tyres due to the wait (it’s VW’s fault, not the dealership’s – I can understand that).
Awaiting Amy calling me back today – hopefully with a convincing story about the BW39/BW49 order accepted situation and how it happened after she’s seen my screen dump email.
On the assumption it doesn’t shift back further and it gets delivered in 3 weeks from build, I will have waited 37 weeks. Better get the MK8 orders in now…..
