PROPER RIPPED OFF BY VW DEALER!!!

[JOE SKANDAL]

We recently bought a QUALITY used Scirocco from VW Benfield, Silverlink, North Tyneside.
As neither my wife or i have good credit ratings, we were lucky enough to have her mother pay for it in cash, so we inevitably asked for all upgrades possible, including supagurd paint protector, sat nav, and DynAudio sound upgrade.
We paid for this before getting the car, as we wanted to drive away with it as quickly as possible.
Now a couple of days had passed, and we were fuming at the fact that they had not got back to us,and i had to basically argue the toss with the garage manager to allow us to drive away in our car that we had just paid £21,000 cash, and another 3 grand for upgrades....
We basically needed it to go away, and they said we could, but we would have to book it in some time next week and bring it back to have the upgrades fitted.
-They never got back to us, so we had to ring, and it seems again we had to argue with them for them to begrudgingly fit it in for the upgrades.
They gave us a Touran as a courtesy car!!!
So when we drove off with the fantastic Pioneer head unit, setting our destination to Kings Lynn, as we are doing a spot of house sitting, it came to crank up the volume on our amazingly new upgraded soundsystem!!
-Only to find out, that it was worse than before.

It wasn't until we stopped for fuel i noticed the fitter had left us the original head unit, and speakers he had replaced.
He had only put in a 2-way Speaker system!
We were expecting an 8 speaker, 10 point amplified DynAudio soundsystem with subs etc etc.
The car sounded a lot worse than it did when we had it before the "Up"grade!
Nightmare!
So we rang the dealer and he basically gave me spiel saying i had agreed to the soundsystem they were putting in, which was total bollocks!!
If he had told me i was paying £2079 for a 2-way speaker system, and a fancy head unit, i would have told him where to go, as i am a Dj, and have sound (get it) knowledge in setting up audio systems etc, and i know what im on about...
Basically we feel ripped off, and i spoke to the guy who fitted the system, and he said they just gave him a price to work to, and that we were good customers, that trusted their advice!
Apparently we had bought cars from them in the past, and that we were quality customers, thats what the sound man told us.
But he also said "there is no way i could really fit a soundsystem without speaking to the customer first."
But the VW garage said here is a budget, work to it.
They have basically ripped us off, and have kept over one THOUSAND POUNDS to themselves.
This is currently being dealt with, as we said to the garage manager if it is not sorted by Wednesday next week (taking into account the B.H Weekend) we will sort it ourselves and go to the managing director of VW himself, to which we got a snotty reply "i don't need to take your threats on this subject"!!!

I thought i would share my experience with this dealer, and see if anyone else has had similar problems in the past, and what they did to resolve it.
Also, has anyone had this DynAudio soundsyste, fitted, what is it like?
We are basically going to get the £2079 back, and take it to the guy who fitted the stuff, who insisted if we had a budget that high, he could install a monstrous sound system for us, and he is right, i went on their website and made a wish list of all the best gear on there including a rwo way speaker system, a huge space saving subwoofer, and an amazing 7 Channel amp, and it just brushed the two grand mark...

[maisbitt]

How old is this used Scirocco? That's the trouble with a used one - they're nearly as much as new!

Was the £21k price well specced or standard with few, if any extras? You could get a basic 2.0TSI GT (Manual) brand new for about £22500 with some serious haggling (or go through UKNEWCARS for less than £22,200), if you have nothing to part ex.

I live 2 miles away from Silverlink branch and find them very hit or miss. I go there for warranty work because they're handy, but they're expensive for servicing or paying for anything myself. The service people (for warranty work) are generally very good in a "the customer is always right" kind of way. I'm about to take delivery of a 170TDI Roc in Rising Blue (arrived at Tyne Dock this morning! ), and initially went to Silverlink to start my negotiations for haggling. They offered me a grand less part ex for my current 140TDI GT Roc than Sunderland Pulman and didn't offer much in the way of discount, despite letting it slip that they had 3 unsold Roc allocations they could modify to my required spec. Went to Pulman and a no nonsense salesman called Mick Stones sorted me out a great deal - if you reject the car I suggest you give him a try. I was £600 + free GAP better off going with Pulman.

Sometimes Benfield are receptive to offering a good deal (when you haggle, they won't offer it for nowt!) sometimes not, but nearly every VW I have previously bought from Benfield was bought at Scotswood Road branch, their sales-people are better to deal with.

If you can fully get out of the deal and can wait for a new one to be built (12-14 weeks), do yourselves a favour and order new with top discount and get Dynaudio factory fitted rather than retrofitted. VW Satnav is hideously overpriced. As for Supaguard/Lifeshine etc - these are well overpriced. If you are prepared to apply it yourself if you are insistent on having it, you can get the kits from Fleabay for £15-20 - you pay through the nose for the application of the kit. I certainly wouldn't have it applied to a used car unless it had been clayed (very doubtful dealership would clay prior to application) and was stone-chip free.

Who fitted the sound system? I once had a Cobra alarm and 6CD changer fitted by a place on the A1058 coast road, opposite side of the coast road to Crosslings, through Benfield on a Polo.

Are you dead-set on Dynaudio? It's a slightly noticeable improvement for me, but not worth the extra for a lot of people. Good bitrate MP3s etc on the standard set up can sound a lot better than low bitrate MP3s on the Dynaudio system.

I have never had a good courtesy car from Benfield - it's either a Touran, a Golf Plus, or a Polo, all low spec.

Benfield repair centre (Railway Street, Newcastle) is appauling, based upon an experience I had when my previous car got clipped by a bus, causing £6.5k damage - things stolen from my car during the period of repair, car held for 5 weeks before work even commenced (although the parts were all in, in around 10 days), brakes left in an unsafe condition upon return to me, and a paint job on a new rear quarter panel so thin that the wheel arch rusted up every 3 months. Yes, i'm a big fan of Benfield.

[JOE SKANDAL]

Thanks for the reply.
it was quite well spread.
Well we think it was.
didnt get free gap insurance like, had to pay for that.
There is a Scirocco R sitting on the forecourt, but they talked us out of it.
I say the Kenwood Scirocco, and that was inspiring, and was expecting something similar when we got into ours, but was severely disappointed.
The manager there must think i'm a complete mug, trying to tell me that i agreed to whatever he said he was putting in.
I would never had agreed.
Good to see my £2079 going far isnt it, on a pair of speakers and a pioneer head unit.
I mean its a good head unit, but only costs about 700 retail!
I am so close to just telling them to forget the whole thing and go else where with our business, and get a scirocco R and do that up.

It was Autosounds on Scotswood road that put our equipment in, and the guy was great, but you could tell he wasnt happy with the way Benfield bullshitted him and said we trusted whatever their decision was, i.e do the cheapest job possible, and the dealers walk away with an extra G tax free!!
NOT THIS TIME!!

[maisbitt]

If you're going to try and return the whole car, i'd do it soon, before you rack up too many miles. If you put more than 1000 miles on it, you'll have no chance to return it for your dissatisfaction about the fitted audio system etc.

Like I said, if you are prepared to wait, get a new one for the money you paid. It will probably be a 12-14 week wait. I've waited 12 weeks for my new 170TDI that i'm expecting this coming weekend, although if you're after an R, there are a few of them unsold at the local dealerships - Pulman, Silverlink Benfield and Scotswood Road Benfield each had an unsold one when I was ordering mine, no queue at all if they already have one. It seems that people ordered them, expecting a 5-6 month wait and cancelled the order when VW kept delaying them to the point that it was over a years wait, but the dealers got them in anyway. If they have one taht's hung around for a while, make them a low offer - they'll want to shift it. You should be offering them 10% less than list as a starting offer and if they've heavily specced it with options, you don't want to be paying too much for those, especally on options you wouldn't have bought yourself.

If you are rejecting it for the audio not being up to spec, if the audio was an agreed part of the whole sale as opposed to buying the car and the audio on separate transactions at the same time, you should have grounds to reject the whole car, not just the audio system, if the car was to be supplied with the audio prior to delivery when you originally agreed to the sale.

I'm under the impression you got leather seats (from another of your posts). They do look good, and I was all set to get them, but my dealer said they were a collosal waste of money to buy new, he would consider them to have enhance the car's used value by only £300. The cloth seats on my current Roc still look like new after 2 years (I Scotch-guarded them), and the leather ones aren't as resilient as you would imagine. There have been more than a few people across the forums who have had split stitching, ripped or deformed side bolsters, and it isn't even all real leather. The point to all this is that if you do reject your car and buy new, those £1740 leather seats are not essential if you have to spec them on an order. If you order an R you get part leather seats anyway.

Good luck with the negotiations if you do reject the car - be cool but firm - you don't want the managers ego to get in the way of being reasonable by going in there all guns blazing. If you're happy just to get your audio money back then just go straight to Autosounds to have them do whatever you want, and again don't forget to haggle - get a few quotes from a few places and get them to match if they're not the cheapest. There is (or was) a good place at the bottom of Gosforth High street, past Asda roundabout "Car Audio Telecom" - had some stuff done there on some previous cars and they were spot-on.

[gibbsy]

Oh dear, does sound as if you've got problems. If it is not the upgrade that you ordered, and have the proof, then you can reject it under the Sale and Supply of Goods Act. If the guy who fitted it will back up your claim with what he has been told then you could even threaten them with Trading Standards. Thankfully the dealer I have gone to for my upcoming Roc has an excellent reputation.

As for upgrading standard sound systems in cars, they are just far too expensive. If I'm going to spend that kind of money on sound I rather spend it in the home where I can listen without road noise intrusion. My better half reckons I spend far far too much on sound systems being a Denon devotee.

Best of luck with your quest.

[maisbitt]

As for upgrading standard sound systems in cars, they are just far too expensive. If I'm going to spend that kind of money on sound I rather spend it in the home where I can listen without road noise intrusion.

I would agree with that statement, the Roc isn't exactly the quietest VW i've ever had - i'm sure those frameless windows leak a lot more noise in than a Golf/Passat etc. As a standard set-up, I find the RCD510 very pleasing to the ear. Unless you like the kind of volumes that you feel as your kidneys vibrate, using good bitrate MP3s and proper CDs is good enough for me.

I'd reject the car and put the audio money towards getting a brand new Roc, but it's your choice

You have a very generous mother-in-law there by the way Joe!

[Cuprabob]

I don't understand how anyone would handover several thousand pounds to a dealer for an audio upgrade to a used car without fully making sure exactly what they were getting. Unlikely the dealer offered Dynaudio because it's not easy to retrofit. Dynaudio from teh factory is only a few hundred pounds . If it's that important to you source a used car with Dynaudio fitted.

Solution is reject the car and either order new or get a used one in the spec. you want. After all what do you care how much it costs, it's not your money.

I also find it quite cheeky that since someone else is paying putting the price up with extras, but each to their own

[tonymar]

you got ripped on the gap insurance aswell cancel it like i did . u can get the same cover that they offer for 100 pound on the net

sounds like a place where u wouldnt want to give twenty odd grand to ! managers attitude stinks . bin it !!

[Deako]

Why didnt you check the car before you left?

And you paid cash in advance? Mental. Pay a deposit. Pay the rest when you collect the car with all the upgrades done.