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Volkswagon Complaint - Customer service and produce ar crap - 2009 Jetta
2009 Jetta - Complaint
I just want to let people who might be considering the purchase of a Volkswagen Jetta what they can expect. I have more things go wrong with this car than the last 10 cars I have owned. I live 6 hours from Saskatoon Saskatchewan a Volkswagen dealer, 8 hours from Winnipeg Manitoba and the dealership where I purchased this car.
I guess my first warning should have clicked in when I ordered my car through a dealership in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I ordered my car in July of 2008, at this time I was told not to expect delivery until mid December. This at the time was acceptable so I made a deposit and got ready to wait. Well the December date came and went, the dealer always had a real good justification for the delay. Well mid January 2009 comes and still no car, still really good with the excuses though. So I started phoning around the country and looking on the internet, and low and behold I fine several cars sitting on lots same features as mine only different colours. Soon February comes still no vehicle, and now I am getting impatient as we had plans for this car. Now I was able to arrange purchase of my present car, 2009 Volkswagen Jetta Sport Wagon, from another dealer in Winnipeg, Manitoba for less money than the car I had ordered, and the original dealer did return my deposit. Like I said this is when I should have started running and never looked back.
The very first incident came when I happened to pull too far ahead to a parking curb and cracked the front air dam below the front bumper. I phoned up the body shop of the dealership from whom I had purchased the car. I thought they could run the VIN number or look in their records obtain the colour code of the car, order me the part, paint it, have ready, and install it when I got into town. I was willing to pay for the part in advance, just so I would not have to make a second 8 hour drive to have the part installed. I got a flat no from the women at the appointment desk; they would not even consider working with me on the issue, just a flat no, without any consideration for circumstances what so ever. I assumed since I had purchased the car from them I could be afforded a little lee way, but once the car was purchased all bets are off, they treat you like you live next door to the dealership. I am getting so extremely tired of hear the standard line “this Volkswagen’s policy.”
Before the purchase of the car when I went into the show room every sales person who walked by stopped to talk. After I purchased the car I sat in the showroom waiting room for at least 2 hours one day waiting on the service department, not one salesman even said good morning not even the one who sold me the car.
The sunroof stops functioning, this is when I find out there is no manual way to close it (this has been discontinued). I have to look forward to and 8 hour drive unable to close the sunroof, thank god it did not rain and the weather held out. I also had a garage to park it in before leaving on a trip. This trip also cost a hotel room for 2 days.
When electric door locks stop working there is no way to manually lock the doors (this is not pointed out before or at the time of purchase), this makes for real passenger and content safety.
It was not long until my left rear door lock stopped functioning. I decided at this time find another dealership in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan closer to where I live; this one is only a 6 hour drive. I phoned to make an appointment to have the lock repaired, I explained my situation. This service person phoned me back to inform me because of the distance I have to travel she would order the part ahead of time and have it on hand when I arrived. This appointment went just marvellous, great I figured I had finally found a satisfactory dealership, which actually had customer relations in mind when dealing with the customer.
Before I was able to return home the right rear door lock stopped functioning, surprise. Circumstances are such that I am not going to be able to make a return visit to a dealership for some time. Well I phone to make an appointment to have the door lock repaired, as well as the 64,000km warranty check up. I inform the service personal of my distance to drive, and assume because of the service I got here last time they would have a door lock there to replace it.
In the meantime the stereo system stops functioning. I figure no problem I can phone up they can run the VIN number, order me up a stereo have it on hand to change out when I get there. Well guess what Volkswagen has another surprise in store, they cannot even order a stereo system until they run a computer scan on the car. There is absolutely no way to obtain the part number for the stereo without doing a computer scan of the system in the car. Well here are my circumstances; 6 hour drive hotel room for 2 nights, 6 hour drive back home to get the scan, now 6 hour drive back to dealership 2 nights in a hotel, 6 hour drive back home to have the stereo system installed. I wonder what high paid Volkswagen engineer came upon this pearl of wisdom. What would be very nice is they would inform you of these issues before you made the purchase. I may be the entire winter without a functioning stereo in my car, and guess what than it will be off of warranty and they won’t have to cover it. Here is a direct quote from an email from customer service when asked if I could not get to dealer before the vehicle was off of the first year warranty if the problem would still be covered “It is Volkswagen Policy that if there is a repair within the warranty period, it would have to be repaired within that period for it to be claimed under warranty.”, even though the problem was known to have happened within the warranty period. Let us make sure we screw over this customer good and proper.
Now back to the original appointment for the 64,000km warranty work and the malfunctioning right rear door lock. I drop the car off the dealership has the car most of the day, they phone it is ready. I get to the dealership to find out the warranty work is completed (great thanks), the door lock was not replaced because they could not duplicate the issue in the shop. I had told them this was intermittent issue. Service personal said they could not replace door lock Volkswagen would not cover it unless they could reproduce it in the shop. Yes I am going to drive 12 hours spend 2 nights in a hotel and lie about the issue just to get a new door lock, this is what I mean about Volkswagens customer service, don’t spend a few dollars on a door lock because the customer is a liar. I walked out to the parking lot at the dealership unlocked and locked the door twice and it would not lock again. Now they were able to replace the lock as I was fortunate enough that they happened to have one in the inventory. This meant having the car for another couple of hours and what plans I had made for after I picked up the car were scrapped. It is Volkswagen’s policy not to change a part unless the technician can duplicate the problem in the even if it means a tremendous inconvenience to the customer as long as does not inconvenience the mother company. I also had this dealership scan my stereo to get me the necessary information so I would be able to get the stereo replace next time I was close to a Volkswagen dealership.
A short time later I find I will be making a trip to Regina Saskatchewan. I phone up the dealership there give them the information from Saskatoon so they would be able to order the stereo and have it in stock when I got there to replace it. I now find out my car has to be rescanned the info from Saskatoon is not sufficient, the stereo cannot be ordered.
People if you are considering the purchase of a Volkswagen Jetta and don’t live right next door to the dealership, don’t appreciate the fact that you are automatically assumed to be a liar think long and hard. Is the great fuel economy really worth all the grief?
My car is a 2009 Jetta Sport Wagon TDI I purchased this car new because I was about to retire. The wife and I like to travel and were going to be in a position to start doing some now. We were looking for great fuel economy so we would be able to afford to travel. Well any moneys we may have saved in fuel economy has been more than offset many time over by hotel rooms and added travel expenses of obtaining warranty service. We now have to consider getting rid of our new car and making another purchase of a new car. My worry is that on my fixed retirement income I am not going to afford this car when it goes off of warranty. Hell I am barely able to afford in when cover by warranty.
I am so tired of hear this statement “this is Volkswagen’s policy”, to me this translates in English to “let’s see how bad we can screw this guy”. Volkswagen’s customer service is Germany’s way of getting even with the America’s for winning WWII.
I guess my first warning should have clicked in when I ordered my car through a dealership in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I ordered my car in July of 2008, at this time I was told not to expect delivery until mid December. This at the time was acceptable so I made a deposit and got ready to wait. Well the December date came and went, the dealer always had a real good justification for the delay. Well mid January 2009 comes and still no car, still really good with the excuses though. So I started phoning around the country and looking on the internet, and low and behold I fine several cars sitting on lots same features as mine only different colours. Soon February comes still no vehicle, and now I am getting impatient as we had plans for this car. Now I was able to arrange purchase of my present car, 2009 Volkswagen Jetta Sport Wagon, from another dealer in Winnipeg, Manitoba for less money than the car I had ordered, and the original dealer did return my deposit. Like I said this is when I should have started running and never looked back.
The very first incident came when I happened to pull too far ahead to a parking curb and cracked the front air dam below the front bumper. I phoned up the body shop of the dealership from whom I had purchased the car. I thought they could run the VIN number or look in their records obtain the colour code of the car, order me the part, paint it, have ready, and install it when I got into town. I was willing to pay for the part in advance, just so I would not have to make a second 8 hour drive to have the part installed. I got a flat no from the women at the appointment desk; they would not even consider working with me on the issue, just a flat no, without any consideration for circumstances what so ever. I assumed since I had purchased the car from them I could be afforded a little lee way, but once the car was purchased all bets are off, they treat you like you live next door to the dealership. I am getting so extremely tired of hear the standard line “this Volkswagen’s policy.”
Before the purchase of the car when I went into the show room every sales person who walked by stopped to talk. After I purchased the car I sat in the showroom waiting room for at least 2 hours one day waiting on the service department, not one salesman even said good morning not even the one who sold me the car.
The sunroof stops functioning, this is when I find out there is no manual way to close it (this has been discontinued). I have to look forward to and 8 hour drive unable to close the sunroof, thank god it did not rain and the weather held out. I also had a garage to park it in before leaving on a trip. This trip also cost a hotel room for 2 days.
When electric door locks stop working there is no way to manually lock the doors (this is not pointed out before or at the time of purchase), this makes for real passenger and content safety.
It was not long until my left rear door lock stopped functioning. I decided at this time find another dealership in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan closer to where I live; this one is only a 6 hour drive. I phoned to make an appointment to have the lock repaired, I explained my situation. This service person phoned me back to inform me because of the distance I have to travel she would order the part ahead of time and have it on hand when I arrived. This appointment went just marvellous, great I figured I had finally found a satisfactory dealership, which actually had customer relations in mind when dealing with the customer.
Before I was able to return home the right rear door lock stopped functioning, surprise. Circumstances are such that I am not going to be able to make a return visit to a dealership for some time. Well I phone to make an appointment to have the door lock repaired, as well as the 64,000km warranty check up. I inform the service personal of my distance to drive, and assume because of the service I got here last time they would have a door lock there to replace it.
In the meantime the stereo system stops functioning. I figure no problem I can phone up they can run the VIN number, order me up a stereo have it on hand to change out when I get there. Well guess what Volkswagen has another surprise in store, they cannot even order a stereo system until they run a computer scan on the car. There is absolutely no way to obtain the part number for the stereo without doing a computer scan of the system in the car. Well here are my circumstances; 6 hour drive hotel room for 2 nights, 6 hour drive back home to get the scan, now 6 hour drive back to dealership 2 nights in a hotel, 6 hour drive back home to have the stereo system installed. I wonder what high paid Volkswagen engineer came upon this pearl of wisdom. What would be very nice is they would inform you of these issues before you made the purchase. I may be the entire winter without a functioning stereo in my car, and guess what than it will be off of warranty and they won’t have to cover it. Here is a direct quote from an email from customer service when asked if I could not get to dealer before the vehicle was off of the first year warranty if the problem would still be covered “It is Volkswagen Policy that if there is a repair within the warranty period, it would have to be repaired within that period for it to be claimed under warranty.”, even though the problem was known to have happened within the warranty period. Let us make sure we screw over this customer good and proper.
Now back to the original appointment for the 64,000km warranty work and the malfunctioning right rear door lock. I drop the car off the dealership has the car most of the day, they phone it is ready. I get to the dealership to find out the warranty work is completed (great thanks), the door lock was not replaced because they could not duplicate the issue in the shop. I had told them this was intermittent issue. Service personal said they could not replace door lock Volkswagen would not cover it unless they could reproduce it in the shop. Yes I am going to drive 12 hours spend 2 nights in a hotel and lie about the issue just to get a new door lock, this is what I mean about Volkswagens customer service, don’t spend a few dollars on a door lock because the customer is a liar. I walked out to the parking lot at the dealership unlocked and locked the door twice and it would not lock again. Now they were able to replace the lock as I was fortunate enough that they happened to have one in the inventory. This meant having the car for another couple of hours and what plans I had made for after I picked up the car were scrapped. It is Volkswagen’s policy not to change a part unless the technician can duplicate the problem in the even if it means a tremendous inconvenience to the customer as long as does not inconvenience the mother company. I also had this dealership scan my stereo to get me the necessary information so I would be able to get the stereo replace next time I was close to a Volkswagen dealership.
A short time later I find I will be making a trip to Regina Saskatchewan. I phone up the dealership there give them the information from Saskatoon so they would be able to order the stereo and have it in stock when I got there to replace it. I now find out my car has to be rescanned the info from Saskatoon is not sufficient, the stereo cannot be ordered.
People if you are considering the purchase of a Volkswagen Jetta and don’t live right next door to the dealership, don’t appreciate the fact that you are automatically assumed to be a liar think long and hard. Is the great fuel economy really worth all the grief?
My car is a 2009 Jetta Sport Wagon TDI I purchased this car new because I was about to retire. The wife and I like to travel and were going to be in a position to start doing some now. We were looking for great fuel economy so we would be able to afford to travel. Well any moneys we may have saved in fuel economy has been more than offset many time over by hotel rooms and added travel expenses of obtaining warranty service. We now have to consider getting rid of our new car and making another purchase of a new car. My worry is that on my fixed retirement income I am not going to afford this car when it goes off of warranty. Hell I am barely able to afford in when cover by warranty.
I am so tired of hear this statement “this is Volkswagen’s policy”, to me this translates in English to “let’s see how bad we can screw this guy”. Volkswagen’s customer service is Germany’s way of getting even with the America’s for winning WWII.
Comments:
Posted by trmn8r on 2010-12-10:
As far as the bumper cover/air dam, it makes sense to me. It comes in unpainted, and they match it to your car. They may not want to rely solely on the paint code.
Your main problem is that you live a 6 hour drive from a dealer. That may be normal by Canada standards, but would be far beyond excessive for me. Volkswagens are fun to drive but have never been as reliable as other cars.
Your main problem is that you live a 6 hour drive from a dealer. That may be normal by Canada standards, but would be far beyond excessive for me. Volkswagens are fun to drive but have never been as reliable as other cars.
Posted by momsey on 2010-12-10:
I totally disagree that VWs are not as reliable as other cars. All of my cars have been VWs, and they are very reliable and very hardy. Obviously, the car in the review had major issues, but as trmn8r said, the main issue here is how far you are from the dealership. Without that long trip each way, I think everything would be a lot more manageable.
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