Poor Service/Poor customer care

Servicing your car at dealers it's not always guaranteed that you will get best outcomes for your money.

On 8 August 2022, I asked my wife to take my VW 1.0 Polo Tsi 2019 Model for 75000 km service at VW NTT East London (By then the millage was 76....Km and it was still under factory warranty). While the car was being service they noticed that my break pads were worn out and they called me to give a go ahead to change the brakes. During this call I remember that my car has been showing coolant light, I reported this on this day and explained that after topping up the light would disappear.

Service was done and My Wife collected the car, nothing was said to her or to me. On the 29th August 2022, the car showed airbag light and I took it to NTT VW EL to get this fixed on 2nd September 2022.(I was then informed that the factory warrant expires on 9th September 2022). All This time from 8 August - 4th of September 2022 we drove the car around East London (+-100km/day).

On Sunday 04 September 2022, I drove from EL to MP and I had to monitor the coolant light since it gave me problems before. On the way to MP I filled up fuel once and I topped up the coolant and I got to MP the same day.

I drove the car around Secunda (about 40km/day) from 05/09/2022 - 08/09/22, the coolant light started showing up again. 09 September 2022 around 13:00-14:00, I took the car to a VW dealer in Secunda and I was told it too late for the day I must bring the car back the next Monday 12 September 2022. I was also informed that the warranty might not pay since it's expiring that day and I might have to pay myself. I took this lightly hoping that I can still drive the car back to EL so I can take it to VW EL and I never checked in the car to the dealer on the 12th September 2022. Few weeks later, the issue started becoming serious and I decided to call NTT VW EL on 10th October and ask for the job card for the service of the 8th August 2022. The help desk person that assisted me told me that the Job card only shows service for the 8th of August and nothing more was done according to the Job card. I asked the person to send it to me but he said only the service advisor can do that. I called the service advisor and explained the problem and he advised me to take the car back to the VW DEALER in Secunda and ask them to check the problem and get back to him(Millage at this point was 80500km). Funny as it sounded I took the car to VW dealer in Secunda and the gentleman who assisted me explained it straight to me that this is not how it's supposed to work, if the guy in NTT VW EL wanted to assist he should have called them directly. He further explained that I'm also at fault by not attending the matter in time since the millage difference between 8 August and 10 October was +-3500km. I booked the car for 11 October and I checked it in this time and they found out that the coolant pump was damaged and it's leaking.

I called VW SA on 11 October to report the issue and to ask for their intervention. They told me it would take 24 - 48 hours to give feedback, so I waited. On Friday 14 October, I called and they called me back to inform me that they've forwarded the complaint to the dealer. Today 17 October, I called VW SA to check if they've received feedback and they told me that they regret to inform me that the dealer says they've done all the necessary checks/inspections on 8 August 2022. They checked the cooling system and they couldn't find anything wrong and that is recorded on the Job card. The same job card which I was told that it only shows service for 8 August 2022, but today VW SA is telling me that findings/response from their dealer is based on the Job card for the day of Service. All in All VW SA didn't do anything about my complaint, didn't do any investigation but yet they say they car about their customers. The lady that assisted me on this case told me that they TRUST THEIR DEALERS. Meaning the customer is always telling lies.

Now I have to fix my car and life must go on.