spud279 wrote:I ordered mine on the 14th sept 2010, was told it would be about 12 weeks and would have it just before christmas. I got told that if it did get delayed then i would be offered a hire car from jan 4th until my car arrived. The dates came and went and I then had an e mail saying the hire car was withdrawn as I would have my car soon. Now im being told im still awaiting a build week. Ive been onto customer services and they are just as bad as their dealers, you get different lies each time you call. Ive been told hire cars are at dealers discretion, then today I wastold there is no such scheme. I asked her to confirm the dates on the system and she said VW uk had my order on the 14th of Sept, but the factory did not accept it until 22nd feb 2011 and now I have an unscheduled build week at the end of may. She says this could change and take longer or could be ready earlier. if this is how VW treat their customers, I will never go there again. Im going to cancel and order something else. no car is worth this much hastle.
This is the reply I have had from my contact, its a bit long, but pleased they are taking the time to try to help and reply.
I have read your email through thoroughly and shall do my best to answer the questions that you raise.
I thought that it might help to give you a quick summary of the events that we have seen:
- In August / September 2010 VW introduced a range of attractive offers on VW Scirocco / VW Passat CC / VW Touareg. These were coupled with attractive rates through VW Finance and we were told by dealers that the vehicles would be available for delivery in approximately October, depending on when the order was placed.
- As we approached October, the estimated delivery dates from VW were still not being confirmed – and the information from VW (the manufacture) was becoming sketchy at best – with the dealers struggling to obtain firm information.
- In October it became apparent that VW were not able to even confirm the expected “Build” dates for a large number of vehicles… and that some lead times were now stretching into late 2010 / early 2011.
- At around this time VW announced, via their dealers, that they would be providing customers with a free loan vehicle 14 / 16 weeks (depending on the vehicle model) after the vehicle order was placed with the factory by the dealer.
- Our dealer provided us with a list of vehicles affected – along with the date when each customer would be eligible for a free loan vehicle. We emailed this information to our customers at this time (as you know)… and everything seemed to be going OK.
- As customers started to become eligible for loan vehicles in November, we provided the information requested by VW and a number of customers were provided with a loan vehicle. At this point, the process appeared to be running smoothly.
- In December, VW announced that rather than providing loan vehicles 14 / 16 weeks after the order was placed with the factory by the dealer… the loan vehicles were only available 14 / 16 weeks after the factory “confirmed the order” (which they only do when a build date is known). This meant that a number of people, like you, were suddenly not eligible for a loan vehicle when they had previously told they would be.
- VW tried to tell people that contacted them that this had been the policy from the start… and that nothing had changed. They suggested that dealers (and people like us) had been misinforming customers. However, we had people who would not be eligible under the “new” rules, but despite this they were driving around in a free loan car that had been provided by VW in the previous days / weeks.
- In December, we were still of the view that the loan scheme was still in place for all customers… but that, in some cases, the dates of eligibility had moved. At this stage, we had a number of customers, with confirmed build dates, who were expecting loan vehicles to arrive in early January. They had provided the required information, as requested by VW, and this had been passed to VW.
- In early January, we suddenly found ourselves in a situation where these vehicles were not arriving on the day requested… although no information could be obtained from VW as to why these vehicles had not arrived. At this point, we had a number of customers who were without a vehicle at all – having returned their previous vehicle in anticipation of the loan car arriving on the particular day.
- We began to hear rumours that VW were scrapping the loan vehicle scheme completely… although even the dealers were not able to find out one way or the other… and all VW could say was, “A bulletin will be issued later this week”.
- After a number of days VW finally conceded that the loan scheme was not running any longer… an no further loan vehicles were to be provided. This also applied to the people who had been literally sat at home waiting for the loan vehicle to arrive. So, it wasn’t just a case of ‘future’ loan vehicle requests not being processed… it also applied to the ‘late’ loan vehicles (despite the problems that this caused a number of people).
- In the subsequent days, VW suggested to dealers that they could provide loan cars to customers on a ‘discretionary basis’. However, in practice, what they were suggesting was that individual dealerships buy (from VW) and register a number of vehicles and for these to then be given to customers. With some dealers having up to 100 or more affected customers, they simply did not have the available credit or finances to buy 100+ vehicles from VW, and let customers use these for free. In addition, the margin on these ‘promoted’ deals for the dealers was very small and to find themselves this situation, where the only solution from VW was for the dealer to provide a free car, would have had severe financial implications on a number of dealers.
- Therefore, at this point in time, we are now effectively “back at the start”, where VW are not able to provide firm information on when vehicles will be provided… and no loan vehicles are available from VW.
My view of the situation is that someone within VW began the loan scheme without all of the necessary sign-offs etc. Then, in December, VW began to back-track on what had been initially offered… only for the scheme to be pulled completely when the people higher up in VW decided that they shouldn’t have offered so many free loan cars in the first place.
However, rather than be honest about what had happened, VW instead seemed to decide that it was better to try and blame dealers etc for misinforming customers – which I do not believe was the case at all.
The messages coming from VW and their customer care department have been confused and often contradictory, leading to even more confusion and resentment from customers like you.
As is often the case, there has been all sorts of speculation as to why these vehicles are being delayed in this way. We have heard it suggested that VW are building vehicles for China, rather than Europe, as they can sell them for higher amounts of money over there. I am not sure if this is the case, however.
We have also heard, as you indicated in your email, that these vehicles have been delayed due to the fact that they are less profitable to VW as a lease deal than they would be as a regular retail sale.
It is true that these manufacturer supported deals can offer a lower margin… but, at the same time, these offers were put in place by VW themselves and have continued to run beyond the date after which the problems started to manifest themselves. So, that would suggest that either the deals are not viewed any differently by VW… or they just don’t care (which, unfortunately, has to be considered as an option).
My personal opinion is that VW created such demand with these offers that, coupled with increased demand throughout Europe (including the UK), they found that their factories (which had been running at reduced capacity during the recession) were not able to cope.
None of this, however, excuses the lack of information and confused (and evasive) approach adopted by VW.
I can promise you that both we and our dealership contacts have been doing everything that we can to try and get solutions for customers in your position. The problem that we are facing is that VW have effectively “retreated into their bunker” and are not appearing to accept the situation is what it is. They seem to be humouring customers that call to complain… without actually doing anything to address the situation.
You seem to have experienced this first hand in your dealings with VW “customer care”… and I completely agree that having to wait 8-10 months for a car is unacceptable (unless you are told that this would be the case from the start). I find it hard to work out how a lead time of 8-10 weeks can become 8-10 months… without there being some clear reasons for this being the case.
I can assure you that we are doing everything we can to get information and vehicles through. Although, I do have to be honest and say that short of storming the VW Head Office in Germany and taking the VW board hostage, it seems that our efforts have very little effect.
I shall speak to K**** so that he is aware of our communications and so that he is able to keep his eye out for possible alternative vehicles (on the off chance that a cancelled order becomes available at any time – as I am sure there will have been people cancelling their orders, due to these delays).
I shall also make sure that our contacts at the dealership are aware of our discussions and your feelings on the matter. I am sorry that M****** didn’t get back to you. I suspect that he has been inundated by people with similar concerns and simply does not know what to do. Our main contact at the dealership, ******** does keep us updated with developments – although much of what she has to tell us is either ‘not good news’ or ‘nothing to tell’… due to VW’s stance on all of this.
I am very sorry that I am not able to produce a magical solution to your problems… as this situation adversely affects our business too. But, we shall keep doing everything we can, and hope that VW are doing the same at their end (even if they are not telling anyone about it).
so lets see if arrives week 10
