Volkswagen UK customer service

I would like to add my comments on the poor level of customer service received from Volkswagen, this example being from a leading West Yorkshire dealership. I own a Touran and it has been the most unreliable car I have ever owned. It has been in the garage numerous times in the past year with the same underlying fault of losing power yet each time the expensive repair has failed to resolve the issue. The relationship between myself and the service staff has become so broken as I feel they do not take me seriously and are very condescending when I have questioned their blind faith in the computer diagnostics which they keep telling me has identified the fault and charging for expensive repairs yet still not resolving the issue. I keep being told I am unlucky and that all the faults are unrelated. The last straw came a few weeks ago when I returned the car three days after picking it up from a repair because it was still not fixed. Once again a different fault was diagnosed and they tried to charge me another £1300 for repairs. By this time I would only deal with the manager and yet still I had to suffer the unprofessional treatment of their staff who I overheard talking about me because they failed to put the phone on mute! Still it partially worked in my favour as on complaining my repair bill suddenly dropped to £500.

I have been having problems with my Golf (53 plate) now for about 12 months.

It will intermittently lose power and I find myself driving with my foot right down on the accelerator.

It has been to the VW dealership in Plymouth and they have insisted that nothing is wrong and quite frankly have treated me like dirt.

I have recently had the throttle unit replaced, with no luck, and am now considering a change of the coil pack.

I am fast running out of money and patience!

I am sorry to add that nothing has changed now that they are trading as Wayside BMW. MY car went in for a respray and will now be going back for its fourth return visit as when I get it back the Wayside body shop has created more problems including torn leather trim, bluetooth mobile phone connectivity control unit broken, paint runs, door trim broken and wind noise from poorly fitted window seals. If only the Germans knew!!!

Back in May I bought a MAF meter for my Passat as it had been losing power intermittently over a period time..I bought it from VW and had it fitted elsewhere...took 15 mins to fit....ok at first then started playing up again so I took it to vw to have engine checked over...result..the MAF meter was faulty....the car went in at 0900 25/8.....at 12.30 it had not been touched..by late afternoon I had a call saying it was the MAF and the new part would not be at the branch until 0900 26/8..could not get car back so it stayed with them over last night.....foned at 11 this morning to be told that part had arrived and was being fitted..I knew this not to be true.Right on cue 5 mins later,had a call back saying part would not be fitted until p.m today....so I wait....simply not good enough..a simple matter compared to some of the gripes but therefore all the more reason why the simpler jobs should be done and out the way. Apparently not....engineering may be good but your organisation at local dealership/servicing level leaves a lot to be desired.

We have experienced, what I know realise is the common problem, of a total g/box failure on our Touran 07'.Two months out of warranty with full service history. We have had no satisfaction from VW as to our complaint, but as we had serious safety concerns when the incident happened we have put in a complaint through VOSA. We realise that many owners have experienced g/box problems, particularly the well-known weak rivets issue, but if anyone has experienced an injury or felt they created an incident for other traffic if their g/box failed when actually driving could you post a reply. We were doing a relatively low speed and were able to deal with the situation, the day before we had been on the M5 and could have been seriously injured as well as injuring other people. Vosa are taking our complaint seriously, but information on other similar incidents would be helpful. I can give anyone who feels they have something to contribute the contact details of the technical engineer dealing with our case. It has become clear to us from everything we read and the opinion of well-qualified mechanics who work on VW g/boxes that there is a serious problem either at manufacture or assembly, and the potential for a serious accident, if like us your g/box basically disintegrates with a loud crack, pours oil onto the road and seizes up almost immediately. There is no prior warning or indication of anything wrong - it just happens. VW have not taken our concerns about safety on board at all and this message would go on indefinately if I described the stress and aggravation we have been subjected to by VW Customer Care.

Just to add to my previous post, my neighbour also had a run in with Inch (Batgate). They sold him a 70ps Polo but on trying to insure it, all insurers came back saying it was a 60ps. Even DVLA said it was a 60ps...! Inch completely changed their tune and said it was a 60ps all along and that my neighbour was the one at fault. A call to Trading Standards and a meeting with their "Brand Manager" in a hotel along the road and he managed to get a decent chunk of the difference in money between the 2 models back but it took him nearly 2 months. An absolutely disgrace is that dealership, and they should be ashamed of themselves. What goes around comes around though...!

Bought a 58 1.2 Polo from local VW dealer (Inch, Bathgate) and it was been back over 10 times at a total time of about month. No compensation and just stand up arguments with the so called "experts". VW UK were worse, and so were VW Finance who I bought the car through. November 09 gearbox was tinkered with as some bearings had gone. April 2010 complete gearbox malfunction at 70mph in the outside lane of M6. No-one can say either way whether the work carried out in November 09 was the cause of the failure in April. A disgrace. In what could've been a serious accident, the dealer, VW and VW Finance all shrugged and said "well, it was repaired for free". You would've thought after the Toyota debacle they would be much more on the ball. It seems not. The car is not going next week and being replaced with a Mazda. I can't wait...!

bought a brand new vw touran- drove to south of france - 3/4 of the way down the turbo broke- I watched with my 2 kids as my brand car got towed away. VW France were utterly useless and after 2 days of being in the garage us in an hotel- then hire car to campsite etc.. they phoned to say it was fixed. On arrival to the garage it bacame clear it was not fixed at all- it would get us home allegedly. At the end of our holiday we drove home from the south of france with a turbo conking out every so often- and then just to wind us up some more the catalytic converter told us it was also broken- horay we thought! After 3 hours of frankly nervous driving that light disappeared- . on return home VW uk will accept no responsibilty as it all happerned in France and the car is booked in at our local VW garage. I am not feeling the joy of our new car and wish I had kept my old reliable slightly rusted and slow volvo.

Just bought my first V.W. - brand new - complete with one clutch problem - which after doing some research may be serious.

Confirmed the problem by email - ignored. 2nd email - ignored!

Telephoned and booked in for a check and road test - no fault. I asked them to recheck - no fault.

Contacted V.W. (UK) who contacted the Dealer and arranged for another road test. This time there may be a fault, but this was the downgraded after consultation with the powers-that-be, to a characteristic which will disappear with time. Then, after further discussions the fault (which is not a fault), affects all vehicles of this type, and is in fact a feature.

Even though I really like the vehicle I am beginning to come to the conclusion that I have made an error of judgement buying a V.W. The level of service, so far, is insulting.

I may let you know what happens.

Hi Folks, just to let you know I eventually recieved a phonecall from benfield v.w. that my car has arrived and is sitting in their garage . The bad news is I cannot pick it up until september, they say it is something to do with new registration plate or whatever, I honestly do not care by now as it will be the best part of 6 months it has taken for my car to come and another 2 weeks will make no difference now,but I will never go for another v.w. no matter how good their cars are supposed to be.Good luck to you all with your battles with v.w. dealerships and garages.

I took my VW Golf for a diagnostic check at Pentraeth Garage in Anglesey North Wales for a routine check because the car was missing slightly. Before leaving I checked that the car was under warranty and that diagnostics of any sort were covered under the agreement. I was later informed that the car was sorted and no cost was involved. I then received a phone call about 1 hour later stating that the mechanic had changed the fuel filter (without my consent) and a charge of £180.00 was administered. This is a total breach of customer care as I believe I should have been informed before any work is carried out on the car, especially if it involved money. On phoning the manager a few days later, the conversation was become very heated and his aggressive and the threatening behaviour was totally unnecessary. If anyone is ever thinking of buying any sort of car from Pentraeth garage I would seriously think twice, the customer care is diabolical and I for one will never set foot in that place again. Shameful!!

We went to the local Volkswagen dealer in Bathgate to lease a Scirroco. We were asked for a quote for 10k miles. When we went to sign the contract, we noticed it was for only 6k miles .. and to upgrade would cost more. When we said we didn't want to pay anymore, the dealer got really nasty. To save face, we said we'd look at leasing a cheaper car .. he said he didn't want to deal with us (does he realise that he's now not dealing with our family, our friends and their family and friends? .. sales must be good!). When I had another look at the contract, it also included a payment protection insurance that we'd never asked for ... and that we wouldn't qualify to claim on. We're now leasing a car through Trinity Sales and the guy that we are dealing with is fab! Anyone that's thinking of going to Volkswagen in Bathgate, needs to think again.