Steering failure - vw nightmare

[franko247g]

It's been a long while since I last posted but I thought I'd finally post something incase anyone in the future has a similar experience.

So on the 8th of August I sent my car into VW. On three separate occasions my steering warning light came on and my hydraulic steering failed. The first occasion the RAC found no fault apart from a precursor to a fault and asked if I'd been driving aggressively.

So Lookers Blackburn took the car and quoted 2 days... No courtesy car but no big deal. They then rang me and said come in we've got a car for you as we've had to order the part "should be in within the week" I thought ok no problem at least they're fixing it. So a week went by and I got another call - delayed a week this happened the next 3 weeks following.

I finally called Lookers and demanded a date be given for a fix as it was beyond a joke. They told me they couldn't give me a date because the part was back ordered, after much conversation with the parts department they finally caved and said it should be October 3rd :O

I was shocked to say the least I asked what they would do to resolve this (to keep this as brief as poss... They wouldn't do anything) I got passed onto head office... What an idiot I spoke too if anyone ever gets Briony hang up and call someone else. All she could say is what I already knew and I know her job involves "setting customer expectations" - she told me a million times.

Anyway her supervisor rang me and bribed me to wait until October as there wasn't another option and because I'd had a bad experience is be given a gesture of goodwill... Some accessories she said. So I left it...

The 3rd of October came by no call 10th of October no call. So yesterday I called them and asked what time I should pick it up. To which I was informed it's still on back order. They keep telling me vw has payed over £1000 for my courtesy car... I don't care I want my own car that is the one I payed for. Anyway the parts manager tells me the new date is mid November.

Well that was the last straw I rang customer services spoke to a decent guy who again couldn't help even after being on hold with him for 15 min he came back after reading my notes to rudely tell me that I'd already been told it's been delayed and there's nothing they can do...

So I rang vw spoke to the after sales manager to reject my car as unfit for purpose and he told me to email his boss who would look into it.

That's about as condense as I can get not to bore you all but the service and experience has been horrendous. I know it's vw and not Lookers but there is no way I'm waiting for 3 and a half months plus come November to maybe have a car fixed.

So it may be that I will soon have no polo

I'll keep the thread updated if anyone wants to know more!

P.s the parts required was the hydraulic motor and the wiring loom :/



Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[RUM4MO]

Strange, why can't they draw down these parts as they come in for current factory deliveries, ie borrow them from production? Oh, I've just had a brainwave, VAG does put possible future sales before current customer satisfaction (not all the Polos going through the factories will be hard customer orders will they?)!

Or, as the term "back order" has been used by them, I'm guessing that you are not the only one with this problem in the greater Fabia/Polo/Ibiza customer world, ie it is a big problem that they are attempting to fix by modifying or designing new parts - that can always happen when producing things, more so when the production lines need to run before they can walk, ie "get them out the door - we will fix them later" - how American that way of thinking is.

[aniseedvan]

I never know effective these programmes are, but might this be a call to Watchdog? Or at the very least your local trading standards to see if they can add any weight to the argument.

Having had various issues with my current, non-VW car, under warranty I feel some of your pain, but at least all my parts were sourced quickly.

[JayW]

Ha this brings me back to the Vauxhall days when I had my corsa D. I had a turbo failure where the turbo seals had gone and leaked and the whole turbo needed replacing after 3 years. They did it under warranty out of good will which was nice of them but when it came down to actually doing it... well what a nightmare haha. They had fitted everything and bolted everything on except for 2 bolts which were missing and had to be pre-ordered from Germany. So I asked them how long this would take and I was given a 1 week wait which at the time I thought, not too bad! 1 week went back and still nothing, I called them up and was told it hadn't arrived and later that day was told it would be back ordered for a further 2 weeks due to stocking problems. 2 weeks went by and I rang again and still nothing, this time I was told these bolts are special bolts and needed to be specially made for the turbo... At this point I was thinking wtf, what kinda of magical bolts are these?! So I waited again for a further month and this time i was peeved! I rang customer services which basically told me to F**k OFF we don't care putting it nicely. I then went into the dealers and demanded to see the manager and the mechanic working on my car. I asked the manager what the hell was going on only to be told he wasn't sure and that some bolts were missing so the car can't be completed. I then asked the mechanic who seemed to be the only one who knew what was going on. I asked him what these bolts he needed were and he basically said they're not special at all, they're just thick long bolts that you could probably buy from Halfords and cut them down to fit.

At this point i was angry, really angry! I asked the mechanic why he didn't voice his findings to the service manager and he said he did but he didn't do anything about it. So i told the manager and the mechanic to give me the old bolts which i took to a local tools place and matched some new bolts up! Brought it back and had them fit it! All done within a space of an hour! What a joke!

This is why i would never touch a vx again, and hearing this about vw as well puts me off abit too.

[StreetTriple]

Sounds as if there is a re-design of the parts due to numerous failures-but just think about the wear and tear your own car (and the mileage) that your saving on your own car.......every cloud and all that!!

And you still have a loan car from the dealer.....so no real inconvenience. What would you rather they do, remove the part from another car then wait x amount of months/years and it may be replaced again, or hang off for a period of time and get the improved part?

If they don't have the part, they don't have the part BUT if they had been honest you wouldn't have had unrealistic expectations and feel let down by their failure to return the car by the initial dates, even if they probably knew there wasn't a hope in hell of it being back by the 1st date they told you about!

I know what you mean.....just playing devils advocate

[franko247g]

So further down the line after many many hours of my life wasted on hold... Many emails back and forth the dealer aka Mr douche bag tells me after a meeting with his RGM if vw agreed to refund me partially (based on the milage I've used) he would look to exchange the vehicle but I'd have to put some funds towards a replacement... Then in the same breath says he's not accepting the rejection of the vehicle as they are doing their best to fix the car but vw can't supply the part so it's back to vw.

He also said they could adapt the steering so it would work temporarily until the new part came in? And if I did that vw would give me £250 good will... Needless to say I could tell on the phone he thought it wasn't good enough but he was still a douche to pass me onto the "customer rejection team" who don't exist by the way haha.

Anyway I'll be getting a call tomo regarding the buy back of the vehicle but was informed they don't do it unless the fault occurs 3 times within a yr...

Only reason I'm getting a call back is because they haven't even fixed this fault yet.

I just hope nobody else needs the same part it's a nightmare.

All I want is my car fixed...

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[franko247g]

So I was hoping to collect the car today as the part after three months has arrived. They fitted the new hydraulic part and just down to the harness ... Then I get a call to say that an unexpected issue has come up... They have sent the correct harness but with the wrong connectors... What a farse so my car has circle connectors and they sent square ones or vise versa I could have walked to Germany or wherever and back myself by now.


So all's I can do is wait for them to get a response off vw of how to best fix
(A) order a new harness
(B) adapt this harness to make it work

And so the pain continues

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[mark68]

My hydraulic steering pump went on my 62 plate R Line last week,took Sinclair VW Swansea two days to repair as part had to be ordered from Germany.What a difference in service.

[franko247g]

@mark68 did they have to replace the loom as well?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[mark68]

No mate just the pump thank god,being without the car for that long is a joke.

[franko247g]

The parts department rang me today to give me a update. They believe that the wiring loom was taken off a car from the production line to be expidited however they have been informed it was taken off a LHD model hence the wrong connectors.... Apparently the part is only £36 and all this drama is down to that. Regardless the dealers have just now been waiting for confirmation that they are authorised to adapt the loom e.g. cutting off the old connector and replacing.

I asked if this was safe and they said yes it won't affect warranty or have any further issues as it's just like repairing a faulty wire... I asked if it's a temp or a perminant fix to which they have said perminant and they are hoping once permission is given to have the car back to me this week.

I'm past the point of caring it has taken so long. Initially I was angry and disappointed and I've just come to the conclusion it'll be done when it's done and hopefully being the nice customer and not the moany pain it might go some way into getting it sorted pleasantly.

Meanwhile I've racked up just over 4k on their car

Does anyone agree if a car has been sat for three months it would be best to have it serviced or would it not affect it?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk