Parts supply timelag

[mrcurlywhirly]

Hi All,

I was wondering if anybody had experienced delayed supply of parts for their VW.

Our R32 went in for a warrantly fix on its stereo, would not eject any CDs, and in the process of rectifying that (or wrecktifying), the mechanic put four indents into the fascia panels - probably by using the wrong tool for removing the panels (actually looks like a screwdriver..).
No problem with the dealer accepting responsibility, the car hadn't even left their service centre when it was noticed, however, ten weeks have since elapsed and still no replacement panels have arrived, supposedly they are on backorder.

The question is, what is an acceptable lag time for a delivery of parts from VW? When we ordered the car it only took 4-6 weeks to arrive from OS, i would expect small parts that can fit into a box would arrive sooner... Anybody else had similar experiences?

Actually, i wouldnt mind that much if it was self inflicted damage - or even if they kept me informed of an ETA, but that is obviously be far too difficult.

Imagine this scenario - you drop your VW off for a service and the mechanic accidently damages one of the xenon headlights. What would you do if the dealer agreed to resolve the fault, the part was then ordered and did not appear for over 10 weeks? meaning no legal night driving...

[bazzle]

Lights are held in stock in Oz. Fascia panels may have to come from Mexico, Sth Africa or Germany etc.
The dealer would of put in his order and has to wait. He should be able to give an eta maybe. Did you ask?

Bazzle

[mrcurlywhirly]

Of course. The response was they do not know what the delay is, its on backorder and we just have to wait for it to come in.

The headlight question is hypothetical, not specific. If a dealer inadvertantly damages something that actually restricts the use of your vehicle what recourse do you have? particularly if the broken part is ordered and does not arrive for many months.

As a matter of interest, why would a fascia panel coming from Mexico, Germany or South Africa take over ten weeks? I have ordered equipment from the U.S which has arrived at my door within 8 days, a con-note is even supplied so you can track the progress.

[blutopless2]

If a dealer inadvertantly damages something that actually restricts the use of your vehicle what recourse do you have? particularly if the broken part is ordered and does not arrive for many months.

if this were to happen to me i would insist on having use of a car from their stock that is no lesser than what i have in to be fixed. this would then speed up the process.

many years ago i had a fuel pump fail on my forester XT. had it towed to subaru to be fixed. this happened on a thu night at approx 2130 leaving school... rang them friday to find out what was going on. fuel pump was on order not arriving till the following week. spoke to the manager to discuss a replacement car, explaining i was leaving for tasmania on the monday night on spirit of tasmania for 2 weeks (not a lie either), manager said he would sort out something... rang them monday morning to find out that they had taken a pump from a forester in the showroom to fit it to mine and would fit the pump on order into that one so that i could pick up my car in time to take it to tasmania.
so when they are pressed they can come through.

bit different here tho as you can still obviously drive the car.. so there would appear to be less of a rush.

[GTI_racer]

I had the fuel pump fail on mine, very common engine and they didn't have the part.

Wait to get the part was almost 2 weeks. In the meantime I couldn't drive the car and they only offered a loan car for 4 days. Needless to say I was not impressed.

[Maverick]

As a matter of interest, why would a fascia panel coming from Mexico, Germany or South Africa take over ten weeks? I have ordered equipment from the U.S which has arrived at my door within 8 days, a con-note is even supplied so you can track the progress.

Because they are probably out of stock due to the part no longer being in current production and have to wait for the manufacturer to produce a run of these parts.

Once the part is manufactured it has to be distributed and VW don't just send parts direct to each dealer but they are sent with other parts through the supply chain which takes a while.

It would be incredibly inefficient if they shipped parts by themselves to each dealer rather than bulk shipping between distribution centres in the different countries and allowing them to distribute to the dealers.

Of course they could also have stuffed up and ordered the wrong part in and have now ordered the correct part.

[VW Convert]

Of course they could also have stuffed up and ordered the wrong part in and have now ordered the correct part.

As if a VW dealer would ever stuff up on anything!

Cheers

George

[bazzle]

Because they are probably out of stock due to the part no longer being in current production and have to wait for the manufacturer to produce a run of these parts.

Once the part is manufactured it has to be distributed and VW don't just send parts direct to each dealer but they are sent with other parts through the supply chain which takes a while.

It would be incredibly inefficient if they shipped parts by themselves to each dealer rather than bulk shipping between distribution centres in the different countries and allowing them to distribute to the dealers.

Of course they could also have stuffed up and ordered the wrong part in and have now ordered the correct part.

Took the words out of my mouth for my reply

Bazzle

[mrcurlywhirly]

Because they are probably out of stock due to the part no longer being in current production and have to wait for the manufacturer to produce a run of these parts.

Once the part is manufactured it has to be distributed and VW don't just send parts direct to each dealer but they are sent with other parts through the supply chain which takes a while.

It would be incredibly inefficient if they shipped parts by themselves to each dealer rather than bulk shipping between distribution centres in the different countries and allowing them to distribute to the dealers.

Of course they could also have stuffed up and ordered the wrong part in and have now ordered the correct part.

Agreed, these are most likely the processes VW follow for part delivery. There may be efficiencies for them, however their processes are obviously flawed if there is this length of delay in supply to a customer.

With the worldwide volumes of VW sales I would expect them to at least hold sufficient spare parts for two year old vehicles, without resorting to running additional production runs.

This used to be an area VW excelled at - picking up NOS parts for my ancient Type2s was never such a protracted process, and they were well over 2 years old .

[mrcurlywhirly]

Thanks for the responses anyway guys - hopefully the hypothetical scenario will never happen..

[v.w.dave]

Something else to think about is Customs..... The main supply warehouses for Australia are Singapore, South Africa and a few smaller ones around the world. About 90% of all the parts that come to the Sydney or Melb warehouse come through Singapore.
So think about it the part has to be pulled in Germany and packed with 500 other parts in a big box(1 day) gets to airport and is inspected by out going customs (1 day) flight from Germany to Singapore then offloaded and inspected by customs (2 days for incoming customs) gets to Singapore warehouse and the big box is then broken up into smaller boxes to be distributed to the Asia Pacific reagon (1 day) That part then gets shipped to the airport and goes through outgoing customs and the flight to Sydney (1 day) then it gets to Sydney airport and sits in customs for at least 1 day before it even gets looked at then at least 2 days to go through customs (so all together 3 days) then it gets to the Sydney warehouse sorted out and shipped to your local dealer (1 day)
So you do the math I see 10 days.
Now if the part was already in Singapore then it takes 3 less.
Most parts are in Sydney but if they are not they are normally in Singapore. But if all of a sudden 50 cars all have the same problem they will run out. It’s a fact of life you can only prepare so much.
The dealers can order parts to be expedited a little faster but only under a few very strict guidelines. The part ordered must be the part that is keeping the car from being road worthy meaning the car must be immobilized due to this part failing. This kind of order is called V.O.R. (Vehicle off road) Not all parts can be ordered like that though. Doing that only gets it there a day or so earlier.
You talk about how much quicker it was years ago to get parts well since that time there are a lot more cars on the road and plenty of new motors and models they can only keep so many parts ready to go.
Just a little food for thought from the other side….
The time taken is a lot to do with customs and other BS like that its not all VW fault.

[gregozedobe]

Thanks for that interesting info VWdave.

I guess these days there are a lot more differnt models of cars, and different parts on what you'd expect to be the "same" cars. That along with pressure from bean counters to reduce inventory is going to mean importers are less able to supply all parts from their stock on hand in Oz. But if that is the cost of having the vehicles I want, then so be it.

Of course if it was my car that was off the road for too long then I'd probably be significantly less complacent.

[Arctra]

<snip>
I was wondering if anybody had experienced delayed supply of parts for their VW.

<snip>

The question is, what is an acceptable lag time for a delivery of parts from VW? <snip>Anybody else had similar experiences?

<snip>

Imagine this scenario - you drop your VW off for a service and the mechanic accidently damages one of the xenon headlights. What would you do if the dealer agreed to resolve the fault, the part was then ordered and did not appear for over 10 weeks? meaning no legal night driving...

Unfortunately I have experienced what you're talking of, and with something some consider fairly important... my Tiguan's drivers side window. It was smashed in a couple of months ago and when I called to get it fixed, discovered there were no spare windows in Aus. My dealer tried to source one from Singapore (which is the VW AsiaPac spares hub) and they didn't have any either. So the dealer had to end up special ordering it in from Germany.

In the end I have to admit that they got the window to me within the week, but that required a lot of jumping around to happen. I was absolutely astounded at the initial lack of concern or urgency about the fact that they didn't have a spare. I had to phone VW Aus directly and complain before they gave it the attention it deserved.

Chatting with the dealer afterwards he said they often have issues with the lack of readily available spares as the area managers intentionally keep stock levels to a minimum. To be honest this makes business sense to me as you don't want to have capital tied up in slow moving stock, but I suspect they are trying to run their Just-In-Time inventory model a little too lean.

Lights are held in stock in Oz.

I'd hope so as they'd be considered important, like say, a window would? It'd be interesting to know how they classify their parts and what their minimum stock levels are.

if this were to happen to me i would insist on having use of a car from their stock that is no lesser than what i have in to be fixed. this would then speed up the process.

I tried that. You'd be amaized at how booked up their loan cars are! It's worth a try, but I wouldn't hold my breath when doing it if I were you.

[mrcurlywhirly]

Yet another parts ETA has come and gone and I am still driving around in a dealer damaged R32 after over 3 months! I am a particularly unhappy customer.

It is not purely because the trim parts are taking so long, it is that at no point has anybody from the dealership bothered to contact me to advise when the parts are expected - or why they have been delayed. It is up to me to keep chasing them around asking why the delay and when will they arrive, a very frustrating waste of time.

Does anybody know a contact at VW Australia? I notice their website has no contact numbers or email addresses. I would like to tell them what i think of their spare part availability.

[mrcurlywhirly]

Something else to think about is Customs..... The main supply warehouses for Australia are Singapore, South Africa and a few smaller ones around the world. About 90% of all the parts that come to the Sydney or Melb warehouse come through Singapore.
So think about it the part has to be pulled in Germany and packed with 500 other parts in a big box(1 day) gets to airport and is inspected by out going customs (1 day) flight from Germany to Singapore then offloaded and inspected by customs (2 days for incoming customs) gets to Singapore warehouse and the big box is then broken up into smaller boxes to be distributed to the Asia Pacific reagon (1 day) That part then gets shipped to the airport and goes through outgoing customs and the flight to Sydney (1 day) then it gets to Sydney airport and sits in customs for at least 1 day before it even gets looked at then at least 2 days to go through customs (so all together 3 days) then it gets to the Sydney warehouse sorted out and shipped to your local dealer (1 day)
So you do the math I see 10 days.
Now if the part was already in Singapore then it takes 3 less.
Most parts are in Sydney but if they are not they are normally in Singapore. But if all of a sudden 50 cars all have the same problem they will run out. It’s a fact of life you can only prepare so much.
The dealers can order parts to be expedited a little faster but only under a few very strict guidelines. The part ordered must be the part that is keeping the car from being road worthy meaning the car must be immobilized due to this part failing. This kind of order is called V.O.R. (Vehicle off road) Not all parts can be ordered like that though. Doing that only gets it there a day or so earlier.
You talk about how much quicker it was years ago to get parts well since that time there are a lot more cars on the road and plenty of new motors and models they can only keep so many parts ready to go.
Just a little food for thought from the other side….
The time taken is a lot to do with customs and other BS like that its not all VW fault.

Interesting information, though I am not too surprised to see this level of delay, 10 days transit holdups is quite reasonable.
I would not even mind if it was 3 or 4 weeks waiting for a replacement part, but over three months is just plain outrageous ..and it still isn't here!