Letter to Simon Thomas

[DorsetDave]

Don't do it Bear. The Beemer is ugly, and no one will ever let you out of a side road if you get one. Also, this forum will not be the same without your posts.   Please stay with your original choice. You won't regret it.

[monkeyhanger]

Good luck to you Bear. I've just spent the last hour looking at M135i's and its a stunning car IMO and if I'd of known 4 months ago what I know now I'd of got one of those instead. Having also had beemers in the past I know how good they are to drive.

You will be missed Sir!

+1

Good luck with the new motor! Will you be ordering new, grabbing an existing order or taking an in stock car immediately? Not my scene with the extreme BHP (too much of a fuel tight-arse for that!), but 17% discount is not to be sniffed at and hopefully customer service that exceeds VW's by a long way (it's always good when they're vying for your money, but you should be in one sooner than you'd be in a GTI.

[drisser]

I guess welcome to the " I cancelled my order and bought a 135" club.

Although I still maintain the135 coupe is a better package than the m135   

It's such a shame its so hard to have pleasure spending 30k that you have to cancel a car you really want and buy something else. VW sound like a bunch or nobs to be honest.

I must write my note to evo tomorrow..

[KyleB]

Very well worded that mate. Hopefully it has some impact.

[Gryzor]

Good luck to you Bear. I've just spent the last hour looking at M135i's and its a stunning car IMO and if I'd of known 4 months ago what I know now I'd of got one of those instead. Having also had beemers in the past I know how good they are to drive.

You will be missed Sir!

Yeah good luck mate, it's been a rotten ride for you, and while it's a shame to see you walk away from the GTI, I completely agree with your sentiments and decision.  I know you'll be happy with the BMW, and at the end of the day that's all that matters.

I'm sure you'll stick around the forums though, just don't go asking us for any traffic light drag races 

[ChrisJL]

Good luck to you Bear. I've just spent the last hour looking at M135i's and its a stunning car IMO and if I'd of known 4 months ago what I know now I'd of got one of those instead. Having also had beemers in the past I know how good they are to drive.

You will be missed Sir!

Yeah well said! Good luck with the bmw bear. Hope you get what you want out of bmw unlike your pain with vw!

Hope to still see you around the forums, itd thsnks to you as well as others that i got the info i needed in the early days whem very little was availabe which enabled me to get my spec right in my order. So thanks again for your help and input throught the forum. All the best with this new motor!

[AAddict]

I called VW Exec just now and my anger levels about doubled.

Summary of the call:
- Lisa (usual contact, was due to call yesterday or today) is unavailable.  I ask how long for... unknown.  I elect to talk to the woman who answered instead.

- I am concerned about my BW37 as I am aware that some BW33 cars are still yet to be built and we're close to BW35 now.  What guarantee is there that there will not be any further delays?  I am told the new BS about 2 week windows.  I call them on it and say that isn't what they said about a month back, had anything changed or was I told the wrong thing.  She avoids the issue with "I'm telling you the information I have"

- Ok next point.  Today my car had an MOT and tax paid.  Total bill is £500.  This was not due to happen if because the understanding when I placed my order for the Golf was that I would have taken delivery by now.  Would VW like the £500 bill?  She avoids this by saying Lisa should discuss this with me.  Is Lisa now available?  No.

- I say there have been delay after delay and even now you can't explain anything or give me any information whatsoever.  Her response is frankly aggressive and rude and consists of all kinds of small print BS about how they can't do anything and "if I feel I have been mistreated" then I can take it up with me "relations manager" (aka Lisa).  But she is not available is she?  No.

My final comment, word for word:

"This doesn't reflect well on VW does it?"  Silence.
"Lisa had better call me quick because otherwise I'm going to make my own decision and I'm very close to asking for my deposit to be returned."

She says she'll pass the message along. "Goodbye" and I hang up.

Can it get any worse?  Well it seems it can, they can get ruder!  And yes I'm calling BMW now.

Fair play, and I'm 100% sure you'll love the M135i. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous. The M135i was my first choice but even with discount I just couldn't get it within my monthly budget. I was ready to switch if I could have made the figures work.

[monkeyhanger]

Just opened by Brutus spam box this morning - no reply from Mr Thomas, not even the slightest acknowledgement and a "we're looking into it for you".

I wish there was another non-VAG option out there i'd be into as much as a GTD or A3 S-line - i'd have kicked VW into touch weeks ago.

[skippy]

These experiences with you guys are seriously putting me off buying another VW. I currently have a Scirocco that I am very pleased with, but I am eyeing up the Golf GTI seriously as my next car.

The more I read about the frustrations that you are having with VW, the less it makes me want to buy from them. It is a LOT of money, and it should be an exciting experience, you want to feel good about the whole thing, but it ends up being frustrating and stressful. This is not how it should be.

Yet BMW, to use Bear as an example here, are welcoming the opportunity to sell you a car and seemingly do all they can to encourage you into their showroom.

Is this down to supply and demand? They don't care about anyone as they know somebody will always be willing to buy. Customers may start voting with their feet though and going elsewhere if this continues.

I am very disappointed for you guys. 

[Bill_the_Bear]

These experiences with you guys are seriously putting me off buying another VW.

Good.  I think big companies like VW and others I've had trouble with (Vodafone stole hundreds of pounds from my account) need to be taught a lesson.  Right now they know they have high demand and effectively they've got a sort of monopoly.  But that won't last forever.  I don't think it would take a huge shift for VW to see sales drop and depending on how flexible they are a small change in market share can be huge on their profit margin.

Forgetting VW, just in general, I really hope that some of these big companies suffer such that we can get back the kinds of customer service that capitalism should be promoting and away from the big bully business that anti-capitalists (evidentially not always inaccurately) accuse it of being in practice.

Apologies if that is too blunt.