VW dealer conduct - reasonable?

[trizza]

I posted a while ago about my wheels being damaged by a VW dealer during a service.

After a lot of toing an froing the dealer agreed to refurb 2 of the wheels and I agreed to pay for the other 2 to be refurbed.  After more toing and froing, the dealer agreed to have the refurb done by Lepson (the person who he wanted to do them was going to charge £150 a corner (for Monza 2's) and Lepsons were half the cost).

Delivered car to VW dealer to facilitate re-furb. Was told that due to a mix up Lepsons could not do them (seems like a lack of communication between the dealer and Lepsons).  Took car yet again.  Dealer subsequently agreed to do a swap with refurbed VW wheels.  Wonderful I thought.  So I took the car in again and the swap was duly done and all well.

Except... I got a call a couple of days ago from customer services to say that there was a problem.  Apparently my wheels are not genuine VW (I did not know this) and so they would need me to come back and have my old wheels replaced (which they said they would refurb...). Or I could pay them £1200 for the wheels they had given me!

Unsuprisingly I told them that I was not willing to do so and that I was suprised I had been offered the exchange option if it was not actually available (again an error on the part of the dealer).  The rather sheepish customer services rep accepted this.

Just got a call from the MD of the dealer trying to persuade me to change my mind.  When he couldn't he said that he would bar me from all the dealer's branches and tell all the sister branches not to serve me.

Am I missing something or is this pretty outrageous given it was all the dealer's fault in the first place?  Or do you think I sam acting unreasonably?

[A7 UFO]

they should repair the wheels they damaged.  If they are unable to, they should be replaced with a like-for-like.

On a side note, did you buy the car from a vw dealer with the non vw alloys?

[Jimp]

Barring you from dealerships? Total bull. If you remember the name of the guy who threatened it, report him to VW UK and he'll be out of a job.

[weston]

Keep the wheels and find a local VW specialist to use in the future. I would definitely be writing to VW UK too as this sequence of events sounds ridiculous to me. I remember reading the original thread about this quite a while. It shouldn't have taken this long to refurbish 4 wheels or replace them 

[2007GTI]

basic fact of life, all car dealers are c*nts, sadly some are worse than others.

stand your ground and make sure you document everything.

find out who owns the dealership you were threathen by and write to the MD directly.

[trizza]

Thanks.  Bought the car last year from a franchised Audi dealer - had no idea the wheels were not genuine at the time.  Think the time for complaining to them has long gone and not even sure they represented they were genuine VW wheels.

Some googling reveals that the guy who spoke to me is the Service Manager, not MD. I suppose it's not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it makes my blood boil that people try it on in this way.  You may expect it from a smaller garage, but not a main dealer where you are paying through the nose for the service in the first place...

[jv]

When he couldn't he said that he would bar me from all the dealer's branches and tell all the sister branches not to serve me.

Now that is funny. Rather than just put it down to their error, which has hardly cost them a lot really, they say that. They now don't make any money from you (or your friends/family etc) ever again.

Write a nice friendly letter to VW Customer Services expressing your disappointment at being 'banned'

[Agreeable Slick]

If he is just the service manager, go down and kick off at him, in front of the manager(s)

No doubt they will pull him up, and if not, you have his and his collegues on site to gather names for when you right to VW UK.

[garrardrj]

write

[rudy]

complain to vw uk and give them the facts and complain about the tactics they are using , its hardly exceptable from a corporate company ,  i only use a non francise dealer and agencys due to the poor standard of customer care i get from vw when i used to use them