VW Australia need to change

[brimway]

Sadly,yes. I had the mechatronics replaced under warranty in my MK V Golf GTI and thought that my bad luck with DSGs was all used up. But I was wrong. Hopefully, my current problem is software related, but I fear not.

My friendly service manager is test driving this Thursday in effort to diagnose the problem, will report back.

[quozl]

The problem is that unlike Germany the dealerships are not owned by VW they are independent business's in most cases owned by multi car franchisees who have little to no incentive or reason to follow the VW guidelines for sales, service or support. So you get inconsistent / nil training for sales and service staff, no incentive to improve and no consequences when they don't follow VW guidelines.

It would take a monumental blunder or consistent low low sales numbers for VW to take away a franchisees rights to sell VW.

The best thing for the consumer that could happen would be for VW to open all their own dealerships run by VW themselves and remove all the multi dealership franchisees. Taking things in house would allow them to control the quality and training of all staff and make sure things are done as VW intend and not the way some dealer selling 12 different brands of cars from various lots thinks it should be done.

Cheers Al

[Buller_Scott]

Do you know what I dread the most? When today's kids are out of school and replacing those people that serve you today. There was the article in the newspaper by principal from one of the private school; he was saying that the school should start later, so kids get more sleep in the morning because they're spending time with their smart phones and the tablets playing games till late night and are sleepy in the morning.

and something tells me that it's only going to get worse. i know three people who have had relationship break ups because of fuggin facebook status (''are you seeing someone else? why did it take you 3 days to change your facebook status from 'single' to 'in a relationship'?!?!''), and i heard somewhere that kids these days spend up to 6 hours a day between their texting, calling, and social media.

i know i'm one of the few who doesnt have a facebook account (although i made one for my dog, which i update whenever we have new pics of him at the beach etc), but i agree with the sentiment that facebook is really all about the following:
- getting as many ''friends'' as you can, to prove that you're a better human being than the next person, even if you dont know those ''friends''
- catching up with people that you never even really gave two farts about
- looking up old school mates and feeling all warm and fuzzy inside when you discover that they're less successful than you.

but back on topic - who knows? perhaps someone might get the idea to outsource after sales and parts purchase to overseas call centers - it would probably make for a smoother, less frustrating experience, given that at least with call centers, you know right off the bat that nothing's going to be done to address your problem, rather than dealer staff pr7ck teasing you.

besides, im sure that after two weeks of sat-down training, the people with medical and engineering degrees in india who work at the call centers, would likely be much more proficient when it comes to parts, car features etc than the seemingly large number of clueless folks here...

[Ideo]

Just forgot to mention - last christmas I got a card from the dealership, signed by the staff.

Good VW dealers are out there.

[ConR]

I'll echo McCarroll's...so far at least. The buying experience has been great. Still haven't taken delivery yet (two more weeks), but hoping that goes smoothly. Sales staff is friendly. Dealer Principal is a straight guy.

Have taken my car there for service before and it's been good. Honest dealings. Which is more than I can say for other dealers I've dealt with.

[ziggyboy]

I'll echo McCarroll's...so far at least. The buying experience has been great. Still haven't taken delivery yet (two more weeks), but hoping that goes smoothly. Sales staff is friendly. Dealer Principal is a straight guy.

Have taken my car there for service before and it's been good. Honest dealings. Which is more than I can say for other dealers I've dealt with.

That's because you haven't taken delivery yet. 'Nuff said. Is this the first time you have ever purchased a car in your life? That you judge a dealership by your initial sales experience?

I bought my car in December 2011 from a well known Sydney dealership. Everything was fantastic. My car had an RCD510 upgrade and the dealer forgot to put the RCD510 manual and I had the stock RCD310 manual in there. I requested multiple times over phone and email to my salesman to which he initially promised to send via mail. Never got anything.

In one of my later emails to him I said I was interested in buying extended warranty.

Within 2 hours someone from the dealership called me to talk about extended warranty. My RCD510 manual? Well, let's say I gave up on that. They are quick to respond when selling you stuff but no sense of after sales service at all. It's a frikkin USER MANUAL for crying out loud... and one that I paid for (as part of my purchase price). I even offered to pick up but was told "don't worry I'll mail it to you".

---------- Post added at 05:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:24 PM ----------

Just forgot to mention - last christmas I got a card from the dealership, signed by the staff.

Good VW dealers are out there.

To follow up on my previous post...

I would rather receive my RCD510 user manual than get a card for Christmas.

[Ideo]

That's because you haven't taken delivery yet. 'Nuff said. Is this the first time you have ever purchased a car in your life? That you judge a dealership by your initial sales experience?

I bought my car in December 2011 from a well known Sydney dealership. Everything was fantastic. My car had an RCD510 upgrade and the dealer forgot to put the RCD510 manual and I had the stock RCD310 manual in there. I requested multiple times over phone and email to my salesman to which he initially promised to send via mail. Never got anything.

In one of my later emails to him I said I was interested in buying extended warranty.

Within 2 hours someone from the dealership called me to talk about extended warranty. My RCD510 manual? Well, let's say I gave up on that. They are quick to respond when selling you stuff but no sense of after sales service at all. It's a frikkin USER MANUAL for crying out loud... and one that I paid for (as part of my purchase price). I even offered to pick up but was told "don't worry I'll mail it to you".

---------- Post added at 05:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:24 PM ----------


To follow up on my previous post...

I would rather receive my RCD510 user manual than get a card for Christmas.

Yeah, fair enough.

I'm just saying that there are some positive experiences out there, and it was made all that much sweeter by poor experiences from other places.

I didn't go McCarrolls cause they didn't have any stock coming in that suited me. But they were good to deal with for me.

[Transporter]

I would rather receive my RCD510 user manual than get a card for Christmas.

Not exactly RCD510, it's Skoda's Bolero and you can downolad it from here.

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/forums/f149/d-i-y-maintenance-inc-oil-info-also-links-popular-useful-threads-44764.html

[Blitzen]

I had a hell of a time with buying my Polo GTI back at the start of 2008 with a Penrith VW dealership that went out of business (the owner was caught at Sydney airport with $100,000 in cash fleeing the country after he left his wife and kids at home).

First the car was not delivered with the wheels I ordered, then was told that they would sort it with the Darwin dealership where I lived. It was too hard for them to do that, so they said they would refund the $2500 for the wheels... That took 5 weeks, and several very angry phone calls and run arounds.

The car I traded in had cash owing on it that the dealer was going to finish off paying as part of the trade in... That took them 4 weeks, so all the while I was paying for two cars... I got the back payment when I got the above cash back for the wheels.

Finally, the after market tint that was fitted was abismal to say the least... It took two attempts at re fitting it to get it right.

Customer survey... I never got one, but I did keep a record of conversation for the whole debacle, 6 A4 pages in total... It's amazing how quickly they reacted when I told them this.

I am very gun shy about buying a new VW from a dealer again.

[Buller_Scott]

i'll be honest, i had dealings with/ bought my car from burwin VW in victoria - they were very good to deal with the entire time. they had two demo polo tdi's, and when one was sold, leaving the remaining one that cost $2k more, i was lucky to get them to reduce the price to the same amount as the one that i'd originally test driven (black), as the demo i was buying had similar km's on it.

essendon VW is the closest to where i live, and dealing with them was just... well, it was a complete waste of my time, after taking a mk4 2.0 sport for a supervised test drive around a residential block that was riddled with speed bumps, then being told "if you arent willing to sign paperwork today, perhaps you should think about test driving when you're ready to do a deal, as non-serious test drives can become a bit taxing on dealer time and resources".

guess who didnt get my money?

dont know what burwin is like now - i've read good and bad things about them lately. i've heard that VW in hoppers crossing is great in terms of their service department, but by now im going to independents like volkspower and volkewerke for bigger things - oil changes etc i just do myself.

[Big_M]

I've been to a couple of VW dealers for spares. I've found both I've had dealings with to be great.

They have looked up p/n's for me, even some obscure numbers. Checked out options from overseas for items not standard fitment to our cars and ordered items for me with never any negativity no matter if it was just a bolt from Syd or trim items from Germany.

The guys on the Gold Coast would have to be slightly ahead with the guys at Kedron a close second.

Asking for the VIN just helps them make sure they get the right part for the car. BMW do the same. I know can seem silly for items like wiper blades etc.

As for the sales staff, not had any dealings with them so cannot comment on that one.

[rob64981]

I am all for naming and shaming the bad guys but,

Could we not have a list of the good guys people have used so we know who to look for if we go in a particular dealership?

It could save us thousands and more in heartache....

Rob

[ConR]

I agree with that. Gives credit where credit is due, and avoids having to point out the poor ones.

[gecko2k]

I agree with that. Gives credit where credit is due, and avoids having to point out the poor ones.

That's more then fair for both sides!

+1

[brimway]

That's more then fair for both sides!

+1

Fair, maybe, but read the first post, I have not named the dealer I am whinging about.