My Scirroco GT was broken into...

[LewisSellers]

Hi all!

Ok, so after a long chat on the phone with VW Customer services the other day, I'm absolutely shocked at the response!

To cut a long story short, VW said there was absolutely nothing they could do to assure me that this won't happen again and they didn't really know what else to say.

'Peter' (the guy I spoke to from VW) basically apologised, said it wasn't good news, and that he'd spoken to a lot of the technical people involved in the cars. They can't reprogram the key signal to the car, they can't assure me that someone doesn't have a duplicate of my car signal and he said 'it's not the news I'd like to tell you but theres nothing we can do'.

That was pretty much all my phone conversation said. It went around in circles for 13 minutes whilst I argued my point (basically, that if he was in my position, he wouldn't accept that as an answer). He agreed with me on all points but kept saying, 'Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do'.

So, all in all, they can't offer me or give me any reassurance that someone won't get into my car again without a key.

A few points through the conversation, he made reference to the boxes that thieves can use to get into the car. They are obviously aware of the issue and made never once suggested an alternative way of someone getting into the car. I find it absolutely shocking. They've pretty much passed the problem onto me!

It's the second car I've purchased from VW and whilst I love my Rocco, It's completely put me off VW. Before this, I wouldn't have had any bad words to say about VW, but they've really been appauling at dealing with this.

I don't really know what to do from here?! We left the conversation where he basically said, 'It's really up to you where you take it from here'. I'm obviously not happy and don't want to leave it there. I still haven't got my car fixed because the dealership wouldn't code in the new system without an invoice. They didn't ask for this originally so I've got to wait another week until their next slot (even though I took the invoice to them about 15-20 minutes later!!).

If anyone has any recommendations on what I could do next, I'd be interested to hear.

Cheers,
Lewis

[thecrofter]

Watchdog?

[RisingRoc]

Well given time since purchase I'm not sure Trading Standards can offer you anything - especially as cars being broken into is a common problem.

It's also not a problem exclusive to VW as the daily mail article highlights.

Name and shame/bad press might get a 'goodwill gesture' from them.

[davyhawk87]

Exact same thing happened to me last night...I have to park on the road outside my flat so there will always be increased vulnerability but I didn't expect someone to be able to render my car's security useless so easily!

Thankfully no permanent damage to the car (as far as I can tell) and all that was taken was my iPod and a pair of dodgy sunglasses.

Very frustrating, made even more annoying when I phoned VW a short while ago and was basically told "there's nothing we can or will do to help you". I suppose there's no point in getting the keys/locked recoded as it will just as easily be cracked again in the future. I didn't have time to read through all of this thread as I'm at work - was there a consensus on whether using the key to physically lock the vehicle would be any safer than remotely locking?

DH

[LewisSellers]

Exact same thing happened to me last night...I have to park on the road outside my flat so there will always be increased vulnerability but I didn't expect someone to be able to render my car's security useless so easily!

Thankfully no permanent damage to the car (as far as I can tell) and all that was taken was my iPod and a pair of dodgy sunglasses.

Very frustrating, made even more annoying when I phoned VW a short while ago and was basically told "there's nothing we can or will do to help you". I suppose there's no point in getting the keys/locked recoded as it will just as easily be cracked again in the future. I didn't have time to read through all of this thread as I'm at work - was there a consensus on whether using the key to physically lock the vehicle would be any safer than remotely locking?

DH

Interesting! Sorry to hear about the break-in! After my last post, I didn't really get anywhere with the break in.

The car has all been fixed by my insurance company now (they've added it up to £3k damage + vat which I think is crazy) so my premiums are going to go up next year!

You had exactly the same response as I had from VW with the 'nothing we can do to help you'. It's terrible!

Using the key technically stops someone picking up the signal from your remote, but if they already have a signal, then I guess they can get in again. Apparently the VW had a code hopper on it, so it does hop through various codes. The code crabbing systems these people are using have the ability to decode the code hopping extremely quickly from the base signal it gives out... So all in all, there's no real point in using the key now that you've been done over!

I have no idea what I can do from here... I guess now, I'm just hoping it won't happen again. If it does, I'll open a can of whoop ass on VW!

[davyhawk87]

Sorry to hear about the extortionate final cost of the damage from your break in, I'll count myself lucky I didn't have to get my insurance company involved. I'm a young-ish driver too, and living in London my premium is high enough as it is without giving them an excuse to bump it up any more!

Not really sure what to do now, except hope that it never happens again...if it does I'll probably go crazy and camp out one night to watch my car, hoping to catch the b*stards trying it again!

The only cars I've heard of this happening to are German marques - VWs, BMWs etc - any ideas if the problem is restricted to particular manufacturers, or just that these cars tend to be targeted more because they include some high end models?

D

[LewisSellers]

Sorry to hear about the extortionate final cost of the damage from your break in, I'll count myself lucky I didn't have to get my insurance company involved. I'm a young-ish driver too, and living in London my premium is high enough as it is without giving them an excuse to bump it up any more!

Not really sure what to do now, except hope that it never happens again...if it does I'll probably go crazy and camp out one night to watch my car, hoping to catch the b*stards trying it again!

The only cars I've heard of this happening to are German marques - VWs, BMWs etc - any ideas if the problem is restricted to particular manufacturers, or just that these cars tend to be targeted more because they include some high end models?

D

Yeah, it's a complete pain. The police assumed that I'd probably been targeted at some point, so I'm more aware if cars are driving around our area now. We're not in an area that's likely to have people walking around, so I guess it's fairly easy for me to spot people out of the ordinary! Will be getting some CCTV setup soon around the house as a deterrent but I guess that doesn't really solve the issue of it happening!

Yeah, premiums in general are extortionate at the moment. I'm paying just over £1000 a year for my Rocco insurance. Expecting this to go up to about £1300-£1400 next year based on the break-in (based on me putting through a couple of test quotes just after it happened).

I wrote a letter to VW customer services and a guy called Peter called me back. I have a copy of all the telephone calls with him, but he did say that if they had 'enough complaints', they would look into the issue further.. If you called VW customer services and ask to speak to Peter (I'm sure his surname began with an M, but they all knew who he was on the various times I called up), you could complain and say you've spoken to someone else on a forum who had a similar issue. You can tell him my name and tell him I'm still ****ed off with the way I was treated!

From what the Police told me when they came around, cars such as VW's, Audi's and Skodas are targeted as the parts can be used in many other models. This makes them much easier to steal and creates a bigger market for the people stealing them... Not sure in your case why you were targeted (as it seems to be personal belongings that were stolen only), but maybe the tools they use are designed to work with cars like this and it's just unlucky?!

Hope this helps!

[dimexi]

Hi Guys, I am new to the forum.
I have lurked for a while, but then I stumbled across this thread when searching about the 'Roc security.

I must say, there are some concerning issues here!

Lewis: I am so sorry to hear about your break in, I do hope it NEVER happens again. I know how bad it feels to get your car broken into.

To confirm what a poster said, it isn't adviseable to press the lock button on your key fob multiple times, because you end up deactivating the deadlock, and the alarm I think - I came across this in my car manual last night.
The way to be sure if your deadlock and alarm are active after locking is to observe if the red LED on the driver door "blinks" roughly every 3 seconds.

If you did manage to deactivate the deadlock AND alarm, then it's possible they could have got into the car just using a plain key (cut to match your car specs obviously), and the alarm would not activate.

As for VW, I am surprised you got far with them. I am saying this ONLY based on my experience, having dealt with many car customer service departments. I think Peter had done all he could do, there is absolutely NO WAY you would get them admitting liability to something like that, except you get someone like Watchdog involved. I do hope you wrote to watchdog, just on the off chance they air your concerns, THEN you might be able to get something out of VW.

Anyway, hope it isn't prohibited to bring up topics that have been close, I just thought to add my two pennies of thought. And having bought a 'roc recently, I am pretty worried having read this.