North Shore Skoda

[huntermotive]

Dealers response...

Hello Wai and all,

It’s been very interesting since joining this forum and amazing to see the amount of advice and assumptions bandied around that are just not true. In a position I held a few years ago I overseen many dealerships (18 franchises) as the COO for a large company, I have also personally been a Dealer Principal for Holden, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Volkswagen, Suzuki, Kia etc and have had an opportunity to see firsthand all programs and incentives provided to dealers and can categorically state that I have never seen any program designed to reduce or limit the amount of warranty claims a dealer submits to a manufacturer, the thought is actual ludicrous when you consider the bigger picture with safety and recalls etc, and the exposure that would have for the large company should they publicly declare to a dealer that we want claims not submitted or reduced.
I will accept that I have heard the “common for this model” or “within normal operating tolerances” type statements used and to be completely honest a little more than I would like as a consumer and that is something a good dealer will take up with the manufacturer on behalf of his company.

My recommendation for anyone with an issue is to ask to speak with the Dealer Principal, he wont get involved with all matters that’s why there are managers employed but on major issues a good dealer will support his customers.

Hope the info helps all enjoy their buying and driving experience, have a great day!

Mark

Unfortunately it is the way the dealer model is setup. Dealers will be given a target of camplaints that they pass on to VW and this target has to be kept low and preferably reducing over time. There are various incentives that are used to encourage dealers to keep reducing these reports and can vary from the availability of vehicles to fulfill orders, right through to bonus payments. These can be very subtle and difficult to pinpoint, but the dealers know that if they refer too many complaints as warranty faults, it will come back to bite them.

Unfortunately it is the fontline staff who cop it. In the majority of cases, it is not their fault as they are only working as instructed (the Nuremburgh excuse). This is of no consequence to the customer. They have a vehicle that is not working as described, and all they get told is that it is "standard for that type of vehicle". This can be anything from the transmission not operating as described through to the cigarette lighter not being able to be turned off, or tyres scolloping in a few thousand km, or the radio not operating because the antenna provided is not capable of picking up the station unless you are parked right next to the transmitter. It is not a short list, but none of the complaints warrant being told that whatever it is, it is standard for that type of vehicle.

I mean, the vehicle is sold with an AM/FM radio, yet AM reception is either extremely poor and intermittent or simply non-existent. Can you imagine going to an ICE shop and purchasing a system and then being told "by the way, the AM part of the radio is very poor and you may not be able to actually pick up any AM station"? The ACCC would be on to the retailer so fast, they would not know what hit them, yet this is exactly what we are being told by VW and their dealers!

VW and the dealers need to remember that they are only successful because there are people buying what they produce. It does not take much for buyers to look elsewhere. Support can collapse in the blink of an eye. They have forgotten the two rules of selling:

1. The customer is always right

2. If there is any doubt, read rule 1.

[Transporter]

In I.T. at least, the customer is often wrong, and an idiot.
I hate your rule #1... Its false.

That being said, I'm not a car salesman, nor do I plan to be.
That sounds like too much BSing around for not enough pay!! lol

I agree, I always make my own diagnose; despite of that nowdays we have so many driver-googlemechanics.

[The Speedfighter]

Hi all,

I'll keep it short, and won't go into many details as I like this to stay confidential.

But I would like to thank Mark & Andre (current GM at North-Shore) for taking their time to listen to my concerns in regards to this dealership.
They have been very helpful towards me & my partner in every aspect.

We sat down for almost 2 hours and went through every little detail of my concern/complaints.

So again, thank you very much for the great follow-up and rectifying the issues for me!!!!

Lex

[zei20t]

although i havent had a service at north shore skoda, i bought my car from them.

couldnt have been easier, got the exact car i was after to me in 3 days.

im sorry that you had a bad experience up there, my sales guy, damien, couldnt have handled the whole situation better.

[Volkswagen]

My brother went there a few weeks ago and was hugely disappointed by the staff. Kept trying to pressure him into financing the car through them when he said he was thinking of buying it outright. Their logic was that he'd lose money on buying the car outright as it immediately loses 25% of it's value the second it leaves the lot. The flaw I see with that logic is that wouldn't he lose more money if he financed the car as he would be paying interest and in the end paying more for the car?
When it came time to talk about options he asked what they had and the reply was "Well, what do you want?" to which he replied "What options do you have?" and they replied "What options do you want?" and then wouldn't tell him how much the options that he was interested in would cost until after some sort of deal for the car had been worked out. In the end he just got fed up with being messed around and left. He was pretty disappointed as he owns a Golf GTi and loves it but wants a wagon. As he wanted to stay with VAG his only real options are the RS wagon or going up to something like a Passat/Superb/A4 Avant.

[Difinity]

I noted on the Fabia forum that my order has been delayed by about 3 months. The lease company are using North Shore. So far, the reps have been very helpful (I'm in Canberra, so won't be able to service there). I don't know how VAG, Skoda and/or the dealer relate to each other, or what influence they have when ordering a build from the factory, but having to wait 6-7 months for what is a pretty basic car is just poor. I've heard lots about delays with the GTI, but hadn't expected this to happen with Skoda. Has the RS model suddenly become so exclusive that there is a massive waiting list? Quite frankly, looks like Skoda have said 'we've reset delivery to Oz as a low priority, so you just gave to wait'. Not bloody good enough!
If I were waiting for a Bugatti, I could understand, but these things are not bloody hand made.
The only 'non-standard' part I require is a sunroof! What is wrong with Skoda Aust that they don't have any sunroofs in Oz?

Mark, if your lurking, can you speed this up? I am not going to function easily if I am without a car for a few months because Skoda have delayed everything. Is almost enough to push me back to bloody GM to get another Saab

[dArK5HaD0w]

My brother went there a few weeks ago and was hugely disappointed by the staff. Kept trying to pressure him into financing the car through them when he said he was thinking of buying it outright. Their logic was that he'd lose money on buying the car outright as it immediately loses 25% of it's value the second it leaves the lot. The flaw I see with that logic is that wouldn't he lose more money if he financed the car as he would be paying interest and in the end paying more for the car?
When it came time to talk about options he asked what they had and the reply was "Well, what do you want?" to which he replied "What options do you have?" and they replied "What options do you want?" and then wouldn't tell him how much the options that he was interested in would cost until after some sort of deal for the car had been worked out. In the end he just got fed up with being messed around and left. He was pretty disappointed as he owns a Golf GTi and loves it but wants a wagon. As he wanted to stay with VAG his only real options are the RS wagon or going up to something like a Passat/Superb/A4 Avant.

that's sh1et customer service...point blank!!!
1. for telling the customer how to buy, and
2. for refusing to show the options price list

[Bob51]

I noted on the Fabia forum that my order has been delayed by about 3 months. The lease company are using North Shore. So far, the reps have been very helpful (I'm in Canberra, so won't be able to service there). I don't know how VAG, Skoda and/or the dealer relate to each other, or what influence they have when ordering a build from the factory, but having to wait 6-7 months for what is a pretty basic car is just poor. I've heard lots about delays with the GTI, but hadn't expected this to happen with Skoda. Has the RS model suddenly become so exclusive that there is a massive waiting list? Quite frankly, looks like Skoda have said 'we've reset delivery to Oz as a low priority, so you just gave to wait'. Not bloody good enough!
If I were waiting for a Bugatti, I could understand, but these things are not bloody hand made.
The only 'non-standard' part I require is a sunroof! What is wrong with Skoda Aust that they don't have any sunroofs in Oz?

Mark, if your lurking, can you speed this up? I am not going to function easily if I am without a car for a few months because Skoda have delayed everything. Is almost enough to push me back to bloody GM to get another Saab

I don't know specifically about Skoda but with a number of other manufacturers the dealer network has to specify months in advance exactly what cars they want including colours, options, etc. Effectively they are guessing what their future customers want and if someone comes in wanting something different, there is no car and it has to be put on the forward order list for delivery x months later. This happened to me in 2006 when I wanted a yellow manual Mitsibishi Lancer - none in Australia because most people buy autos so it had to be ordered and it arrived 4 months later.

The days have gone when manufacturers have fields of new cars with all options to pick from. The inventory cost is prohibitive. If most people want cars without sunroofs then most Skodas will come in without them. A 7 month delay does seem excessive though but its probably beyond the dealers control.