Servicing nightmare

[medusa]

Hi, I thought that I would share my experiences when having my car serviced at a large well know VW dealer at Gatwick, Crawley. The car a 2002 model Golf GT TDI 150 went in for a routine service.

When I collected the car there was a huge gouge down the side along the O/S sill 18 inches long by 2 inches deep. The dealer did not own up to this damage, luckily I spotted it. There was no way the dealer could deny that it had happened there as it was obvious that this was freshly done.
The dealer agreed that they would pay for the repairs but insisted that I used their own body shop. This I grudgingly agreed to as I felt that I had to let them try to put things right.

Well, my car was returned to me on Friday after 8 days. I am disgusted that the dealer believed that this was an acceptable standard of repair. The profile of the sill has a noticeable flat in it. There are 8 separate silicon marks, 2 runs, a bit of fluff in the paint, a noticeable line where the car was masked, over spray on the wheel arch cover, the rubber trim around the window in not fitted properly and the under seal is a completely different texture than the other side of the car. The basically means that even a blind man could tell that the car has had bodywork.

To add insult to injury someone opened the driver door against something and leant against it as the door bump trim was crushed and the paint is flaking off.

The General Manager of the dealers body shop (an approved VW repairer incidentally) offered to put this all right, I've declined.
I will be taking my car to Lawrence Nicolas who are an Audi approved repairer and who have done some fabulous repairs on my Audi A4 when a runaway car crashed into it in a car park (honestly). The dealer has agreed to pick up the bill.

I'll keep you informed on progress.

Always check your car over when collecting from a dealer.

You can view pictures of the damage here:-

[Mildred]

I had a similar experience with the same dealer - my A2 had its roof replaced and came out sounding like a bag of nails. After sending it back to be fixed properly i finally picked the car up from the pub car park across the road, drove 5 minutes only to find i had a very bad slow puncture. They of course deny all blame and im having a tough job proving they caused it while having the car for 4 days.

This has soured what had been until then a very pleasureable relationship with that dealer - the A2 has since gone to be replaced with a Bora TDi 150 Sport. Needless to say i wont be going there for a service, i have however found a VW specialist at Burstow but prices are very very high (quoted £400+VAT for a cambelt/waterpump change, have since been quoted £438inc VAT for that + 50k service at a place in Melksham Wiltshire)

[medusa]

Thank you for the information. It is shocking what they think they can get away with. I hope you got some recompense. The dealer has offered a free service but I don't think I could possible trust them again. I should have known better than to deal with them again after an incident with my A4. I had some wishbones replaced to a total cost of around £1200 after the work was carried out there was a subsequent recalled by Audi. The dealer tried to imply that I had damaged a wishbones in an accident not that it had just worn out. They said that the wishbone was bent, funny that those 2 wishbones are supposed to be bent. They just lied to me thinking I didn't know any better as a woman. How I thank Merton Tech for my City & Guilds Mechanical Engineering course.

You can see a couple of pics of the damage above.

[medusa]

Well, I am delighted to report that my car has been returned to me having spent a week with Laurence Nicholas (Approved Audi repairer) to rectify the previous repair by Sidlow's Accident Repair Centre, Felbridge. The guys at Laurence Nicholas have done an excellent job of making good. Thanks guys.

What an enjoyable drive I had today after enduring two weeks of driving probably the most underpowered car ever!! Shame then that my car is off to the garage again this time for warranty work. The front antiroll bar bushes have worn out and also the rear suspension bushes have collapsed. Something else that was not spotted by Sidlow during the service in June. Incidently the car is booked into Martins @ Andover. Lol, won't trust Sidlow again!!