Just received a phone call in response to my email to Simon Thomson’s office last week (or was it the week before?).
A “Mr Kitchen” (either Ganor or Gavin, sounded like Ganor) rang to discuss the main points of my email i.e. why the delay?
He had a sympathetic voice, but seemed very careful not to directly apologise and admit blame. First of all he said that acceptance of order by VW UK (when you get your tracker number) may happen weeks before the factory accepts the order (when the true count begins, as far as VW is concerned). Then he says the factory accepted the order on April 5th, 5 days after VW UK order acceptance – so no real mitigation there, my unofficial lateness is only 5 days less than my unofficial lateness.
He starts rambling about high demand for GTD and GTI, talking allocation etc. So I ask him why I wouldn’t be at the front of any allocation queue if I was the first to order from my dealership, and my dad (who ordered 3rd from the same branch) got his on July 1st. I’d provided my dad’s tracking number in the email, so I think he’s looked into it a little. Maybe it’s the options. Nope, didn’t have any options on mine, neither did my dad. Maybe it’s the DSG box, there have been some delays for DSG boxes. Nope, mine was manual, my dad’s was DSG, the DSG came first.
Maybe your dad grabbed a build that wasn’t allocated? Nope, he ordered on BW14, long before any UK cars were built (they started BW22, in MY14), and his tracking number didn’t change throughout the process. Is it possible to detag a car order from a tracking number and apply a different car to it? No it isn’t he confirms.
At this point he realises that with April 5th factory acceptance, I have passed the 20 weeks mark at which they are obliged to offer a courtesy car. He offers me a car and I say that as my dealer hasn’t reeled in my part-ex yet, I don’t need one. This would lead me to believe that VW UK are responsible for getting you in a courtesy car after 20 weeks. How could he offer me one without checking with my dealer first for availability if the dealer is obliged to provide it?
I told him that this would be my 7th VW from new and I have never previously waited more than 12 weeks for one. If I had been treated the same way as my dad, I’d have had one within 13 weeks. Again he talked about high demand and low allocation, and again I reminded him that my timing regarding ordering should have put me at the front of any queue.
I keep politely heaping the excessive wait stuff onto him, hoping for a goodwill gesture, but he’s not taking the bait.
He tells me that my car being built 2 weeks later than schedule is something he’s never before experienced in his years at VW, but now it is on it’s way to Emden from the plant and should be there today. He has put into motion a request for my car to get priority shipping. It should not be hanging around at the port at all. He has just sent an email. Apparently they can’t request priority shipping until the car is at port and officially received by them. I ask why is the email already sent then? He says he has sent it to give them advance warning and will send the priority shipping request again officially when it has arrived at Emden. He says that it should then be on the next available ship. I should’ve asked whether that was the next ship to port of Tyne, or the very next UK bound ship.
If it is the next port of Tyne ship, not sure when that is leaving Emden, there is nothing scheduled within as far as I can look on the relevant websites (scheduling only available to 3rd Sept).
He’s quietly confident that upon arrival in the UK, it should be at my dealership within 3 days, and that I should get my mitts on it within 2 weeks.
He was fully aware of my enquiries with VW CS, knew a bit about my dads order as well as his own – it seems that he’d done a bit of homework on the case.
