So, I first ordered my GTI at the beginning of September at Crewe Volkswagen. I managed to negotiate what I thought to be a good deal, on par with online brokers such as Drive the Deal. I asked again and again, are you sure you have allocation for this to be built, and yes I was told. Nothing progressed after a few weeks, so I started to ask more questions and get VW customer services involved. Eventually, after a lot of calls to customer services and to the dealer, it came to light that they had no allocation, and I was told by a manager that they had been trying to purchase allocation from another dealer (unsuccessfully) - so I cancelled and got a refund. I didn't really kick up a fuss with them (although I look back now and think why not) but they are my local dealership and I may need to go there in the future. I would also add that I have had a few bad experiences with other dealerships owned by their parent company, both sales (Audi - which lost them the sale) and their body shop, so I will certainly be avoiding them in the future where possible.
I then called up and spoke to a salesman at Chester VW. I've never been there before (it's about 25 miles away) – in fact I’ve still never been there. I said what spec I wanted and what I was prepared to pay, and Chester came back with a fair offer and I accepted. I said to them, I’ve been f**ked around already and explained the situation, and I said if something is wrong I’d rather know than be in the dark – and they agreed. A few days later, I was given a provisional build week of 4, and they even sent me screenshots to prove, so you can’t really get any fairer than that!
Just before Christmas, the built week disappeared, I could understand if it went back by a week, but this didn’t it was just left without a build week. I spoke to the dealer and told them I would contact customer services, who were “ok” at best. They can tell me what the system (SLI) says but not much more. I’ve made lots of calls to them and you get different answers from different people.
I then decided to write an email to VW UK’s CEO – Chris Craft. A colleague from his office contacted me and they were great – they took over the case until the build week was confirmed. They made enquiries with Germany etc regarding the delay, and eventually build week 7 was provisionally stated. I was told this could come forward before confirming, which it did to week 6. The order was confirmed and the car would definitely be built in week 6. I received £50 worth of vouchers from VW UK which I used at TGI’s and I thought that was a nice touch, not so much to apologise for being messed around by Crewe, but for the delays with the second order.
So, the car was built during week 6! Hooray! And it was released for shipping at Emden on 10/02/2012, so I thought – great, March 1st delivery. Unfortunately, as far as I’m aware (I last checked on Saturday) it’s still sat at Emden. My hopes for March 1st delivery are slowly diminishing, as the dealer said they’ve had cars sit at Grimsby for a week or so too before being transported because they’re so busy at the moment.
When my car was built, I agreed to let my current car go to its buyer on 25th Feb as I assumed I would have it for the 1st. I spoke to VW UK (CEO’s office) and they have agreed with Chester VW to provide me with a hire car from when my car is picked up by the new buyer (25th Feb) until I pick up the GTI. Very nice of them – as it’s actually only been 15-16 weeks since the order was accepted by the factory, and I know hire cars are usually provided for 20+ weeks, so it looks like they have taken my previous experience into consideration.
I have to say I am extremely pleased with the way both Chester VW and VW UK have handled the situation. But I am very disappointed with my local dealership. That said, it really didn’t surprise me, and I will stop giving them the benefit of the doubt as I have done so many times (Swansway Garages).
I currently have the RNS 510 sitting here, waiting for the car to arrive so I can retrofit it. Bad times indeed lol!
Happy motoring!
Scott
