Well in that case I’d be fuming.
Here, they changed BFC from 3 then 2 to every 2 In 2018?!
Here, they changed BFC from 3 then 2 to every 2 In 2018?!
Volkswagen First Service Disappointments
- Thread starter Smoky14
- Start date
Like any other franchised business it seems to depend more on the people running that particular franchise than the parent company. I've had many problems with franchised stores (Dunkin, Napa, car dealerships, etc) and not once has the parent company been at all helpful in resolving the issue. It's almost like the whole point of the franchise was for the parent company to be able to absolve themselves of any responsibility. 
There is a VW dealership my sister went to once in MA (the name I forget at the moment) and they were outstanding. The tech took a video of the inspection of her car, everything it needed and why, and sent it to her. No pressure to do anything, but as a 22 year old female she didn't feel like she was getting scammed and could even send it to me to review for her. Meanwhile I took my car to BMW for a recall and they told me my car needed a few gaskets replaced simply because "all these cars leak there" and I needed $1500 worth of new tires that they would happily sell me. I told them send me a video of what needs replaced, knowing my car is 100% dry underneath and the snow tires I put on it were 2 months old.
There is a VW dealership my sister went to once in MA (the name I forget at the moment) and they were outstanding. The tech took a video of the inspection of her car, everything it needed and why, and sent it to her. No pressure to do anything, but as a 22 year old female she didn't feel like she was getting scammed and could even send it to me to review for her. Meanwhile I took my car to BMW for a recall and they told me my car needed a few gaskets replaced simply because "all these cars leak there" and I needed $1500 worth of new tires that they would happily sell me. I told them send me a video of what needs replaced, knowing my car is 100% dry underneath and the snow tires I put on it were 2 months old.
Based on my Career worth of experience more often than not the problems like these start at the top with the owner/owners group. They set the tone for the entire operation. When I worked at shops where customer service and satisfaction was Top-Notch with employees at every level going the extra mile it was Because of the Owner and the way they ran the business.. When I worked at places where I wouldn't want anyone other than me to touch the vehicle of anyone I knew personally it was 100% because of shoddy ownership at the top and the tone they set... it was really sad to see what happened when one of the "Mom & Pop" places I worked for got bought out by a huge national dealer chain.. The buck stops at the top of the food chain...
Call and complain. They likely will make your next visit free for same service.
Unfortunately we can only listen.
Unfortunately we can only listen.
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Leadership acquires the right people and does all they can to make attitude postive and adjusts as necessary .
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100%. I supported a number of small businesses in operation and sometimes transitioning to new ownership. Everything professional advisors tell small business owners is geared towards maximizing net profit in order to achieve a higher sales price when the business is eventually sold. This is true throughout corporate America and used to have some exceptions at the mom and pop level. But now any business owner with the brain is looking to maximize their net every year and most are being approached on regular basis by business brokers to sell their business. Thousands of business owners are selling their businesses every year and retiring with a few million in proceeds. And the new owners want to see improvement on those profit metrics every single year.
What this means for the average mechanic and service writer is that they are chronically overworked, underpaid and receive virtually nothing in the way of benefits. They are also asked to upsell at every opportunity. Mechanics are paid flat rate rather than hourly, which encourages them to do shoddy work at the fastest possible pace. Service writers often get a cut of the flat rate or percentage of sales so they're always incentivized to sell unnecessary services. An employee that takes pride in their work and does every job correctly will make far less money than one who does shoddy work and pumps the volume through. In my experience there are very few repair businesses now that do not go along with this business model.
It sounds like unfortunately OP's Volkswagen dealer does operate this way. The only suggestion I've heard in this thread that might gain some traction is the suggestion that the car burned the oil on the way home and get a check for oil consumption. However with the dealership 100 mi away it hardly seems worth it. I would advise OP to just pick a different shop.
And good luck with that. There are still a few out there that run an honest business and treat their employees well. But it is few and far between.
Corporate emphasis on quarterly profits has really destroyed small business in this country. Small businesses have a tough time competing against multinationals and internet businesses that have very low overhead and rely on independent contractors. There's virtually no financial incentive to treat customers well anymore. It's more profitable to pump up the volume and manage the complaints.
The only thing that's going to fix this is probably a restructuring of how we treat corporations in this country. The maximization of shareholder value has taken over to the point where we're back where we were in the days of the railroad barons. Even criminal charges against the corporation don't result in any of the leadership going to jail or paying anything personally out of their pockets. The owners and officers are shielded from liability as long as they don't engage in fraud or outright criminal conduct. As a result they continue to manage the businesses in the same way, and it is getting worse over time.
SURELY there are other STEALERS closer if you really want or need to use them!! i know from experience VW can be a pain if you DIY it BUT by law simple upkeep with spec parts is acceptable if you keep records for warranty purposes, of course warranty work is best done at a stealer!
My VW dealer is great. Sorry yours isn’t.
Well, an appropriate answer would get a reprimand and maybe a temporary vacation but nobody has the work ethic of the greatest generation and the majority of the generation following. After that it's significantly downhill with no sign and little, if any, likelihood of improvement.
I would call them fast. And say when the correct parts come in I want them shipped to me , and expect a new filter and the proper amount of oil for an oil change for free, since you did shoddy work the first time.
All great ideas thanks, however the next closest dealer is across town town from them and really has a bad rep. It is 125 miles. I offered to install the part but got the big “ VW won’t let us” as if VW would sanction the services they did provide. A follow up call to the service manager to get specific brand of oil used got a response of “VW brand”. Didn’t know they sold oil in bulk.
Smoky
Smoky
You will probably get a survey from VW. That will likely get their attention.
Post on dealerrater might too.
Post on dealerrater might too.
Correct, but the next one is.
In some cases but in many cases it is the second generation running things and the third and sometimes fourth actually doing the shoddy work.
Call VWoA, they don't appreciate dealerships that do and while your at it you might as well inform MB too. If they cut corners on a Passat it's not to far off to believe they'll do it on an MB because the customers are open checkbooks usually.
This reminds me of a local Toyota/Ford dealer that had free wifi in their waiting are as most places do. The problem was it was a Linksys home router with the default password set. I could see it was feed from another router in there office. I could then see that router was feed from another ISP(dealer services) fiber box. I could attempt to login to each box but not knowing the passwords obviously was not going to help. I did get a stern warning from the ISP box about false attempts at logins would be recorded(as they should be). Now if I had more time I am sure I could have cracked the password or found a backdoor. I could have easily spoofed a MAC address and captured packet data on who various PC's. Hell I could have left a device behind to do exactly that and report back if I was so inclined.
I wasn't but an e-mail to their GM & Owner was well received at least in the fact that free wifi was gone on my next visit.
Yeah, I would be peeved especially after driving 100 miles to their location.
But I’ve read it’s a common problem with VW dealerships, and if you have a diesel version, forget about it being serviced there.
But I’ve read it’s a common problem with VW dealerships, and if you have a diesel version, forget about it being serviced there.
My experience since '02ish is that there are good and bad egg VW service departments but they have improved greatly since early 2000's. The worst I have witnessed over the years were typically dealers that didn't have another dealer within convenient driving distance so you either dealt with the indifferent service or you drove way out of your way to go to a different dealer. These were typically dealers under same roof as an entirely different brand (VW & BMW in one case and VW & Mazda in another).
Have not had any issues where I currently live and my current (and closest) service department has treated me very well over the past 3-4 years, they know us now as we both bought our current stable there and have been having our cars serviced there. One difference here is the dealers actually have to compete with each other, if I get miffed with my service department I have 7 other dealers to choose from with 3 of them being similar driving time to my current dealer and the other 4 being a little out of the way.
Have not had any issues where I currently live and my current (and closest) service department has treated me very well over the past 3-4 years, they know us now as we both bought our current stable there and have been having our cars serviced there. One difference here is the dealers actually have to compete with each other, if I get miffed with my service department I have 7 other dealers to choose from with 3 of them being similar driving time to my current dealer and the other 4 being a little out of the way.
