So many points of failure and there was theft.

Dear VW South Africa.

I write this addressed to you as it was your product, which is excellent, that received such poor service at The Glen VW.

I chose to stick to a VW service center even though my car is out of warranty as 'obviously' a VW dealer is best for a VW. Right? I drive a 2012 Jetta 1.4TSI comfortline. Brilliant vehicle and has never given me a days trouble. My vehicle is just over 130 000km and still feels like new.

Let the days events unfold. I arrived at 7:00 as requested and was about the 6th to 8th car in line. A short bit of time was spent with Karen who took my vehicle in and confirmed my details. I confirmed the major 120 000km service which I was informed, when booking in, to be between R3800-R4000. I was informed that Brandon would be my service advisor, a bit confusing as I told her everything and about the airbag light issue. I initially requested wheel balance, rotate and alignment. I was told to wait in the seating area but there was no space left so I sat at, which I know now, was Karen's desk. During my wait, which was just over 1 and half hours, point 1 of my disappointment, I requested Brandon, the service consultant to rather not do the tyre balance rotation and alignment. The only guy in the place that gets what service is. After my somewhat frustrating 1.5 hour wait for lift back home, a driver appeared to take me home. Elias, another gem. We had a great chat on the way and he drove very well and that relaxed me somewhat. At 11:10 Karen called me to give me the breakdown of extra items required on the vehicle. 1, a new battery???? Hasn't been sluggish once on start and to my knowledge replaced not too long ago. I politely declined. 2, my front left taillight. Confused, I rep****: "a taillight is at the rear of the vehicle". Karen then said it is the front running light. Which is rather different. Being concerned that it was an attempt to just make a quick buck, I decline, even though it was R40. But imagine getting an extra R40 on each service, just because you don't know your lights. (PS, on collecting my vehicle both running lights were working fine, with no bulb change... rather odd.) 3, brake fluid flush and coolant flush, which I considered for all of 3 seconds until Karen mention that would be an extra R2400 ex Vat.. I could not wrap my head around that amount of money. I was told it included fluids, parts and labor. Parts? What parts? There are no parts in putting fluid into a vehicle. I declined. 4, I mentioned at drop off that I took the blower motor out and cleaned it as some dirt got in there and when I plugged everything back in the airbag light on the dash remained on. I was told that it was the switch that needed replacing and it was close to R4000. I can't afford that. So I declined, even though there are many YouTube videos saying that if you remove the clip off the switch and plug it back you just need to do a reset on the computer. It is very hard to break a completely unused switch in a vehicle and very hard to get unplugging and plugging of a switch these days wrong, as the little clips prevent just removing it and plugging in only goes one way. I'll be very surprised if the actual switch is broken. Which is what Karen was telling me. I declined. I requested that just the 120 000km major service be done and I'll need to address the rest on my own. Note I could have gone to another service center as the vehicle is out of warranty. After hanging up feeling like I had just experienced an attempted *******. My wife checked Hatfield VW website and found a price for brake fluid and coolant flush including labor. Their price was around R750 each. That equals R1500 (probably ex Vat). I was quoted R2400 for this. Now I am getting my blood levels up as again, I feel I'm being ****** or attempted to be at least. How can there be such a difference in price? I called an Audi/VW specialist in Randburg and they informed me that they would charge around R750 for each flush, so Hatfield VW appear on par and the Glen VW appear to be ****************. The actual fluid values after a little research on quantities required for my Jetta, is round R650 for both. The other R1650 must be for the "parts" and labor. Would love to ask the technician how much he/she gets for flushing? Weirdly, there are 2 items that I know are not working on the vehicle which were not picked up. 1) the globe inside the boot, and the drivers door lock doesn't lock. Now, if the technician had taken my vehicle for a test ride after servicing, assuming that is what happens, he/she would have instantly known about this issue.. as it clicks 3 times attempting to lock. This only implies that technicians are pushed to hard, and test rides take too much time.. (Assumption here)

Elias arrived just after 4:00pm to collect me and drove us back. Me and 2 other hopefully happy customers. On route back someone called him asking him to pick up a Mr Du Plooy in Soweto, at the time Elias said there is no time left as it was now +-4:30pm and that is a 2 hour round trip. I don't think Mr Du Plooy saw his car that day due to bad planning. On arriving, Brandon welcomed me and gave me some sweets, which my girls enjoyed. Then ran me through the service details. To which I asked, why are there are no sparks plugs on the invoice? At that point he mentioned that sparkplugs are an additional R900 and something???? I'm a calm guy, but enough is enough... but wait there is more. I mentioned politely that I was informed that a major service of 120 000km which everyone knows includes sparkplugs, would cost between R3800 - R4000, so I'm not paying extra for plugs. Turns out it was some invoicing issue and the plugs were requested just never checked out and fitted. And due to the time now being slightly after 5:00pm, all the technicians leave at 5:00pm, like they hate their jobs and just want to get out, no back up plans for potential problems. I was requested to bring my vehicle back the following day. I politely, after realizing there was no one left to help in the workshop, agreed to bring my vehicle back the following morning at 10:00am. That evening my wife pointed out to me that our daughters wallets were left in the glove box and the R100 note , which she was given by Ouma for finishing grade R, was gone. Now this is tricky one, as I signed a form saying that there are no valuable items in the vehicle. I can not prove this and no one willingly would admit to *****ing, but there were 2 empty wallets that my wife found after the service that evening. I do not want the money back as I can not prove this, but there is a rat in the kitchen. Wednesday morning I arrived about 9:45. Brandon took my vehicle in and I walked over to the Glen shopping center to look for something for a family member. He called me around 30 minutes later, saying they are done. After arriving back there, I only then informed him and the Service Manager of the event of the missing R100 note and that I would be doing this Hello Peter compliant.

I Believe in service and helping people. There are multiple points of failure at this dealership's service center. 1) Waiting over 1.5 hours for lift when being offered this service. 2) Pricing and the attempt to sell stuff that is not faulty (the light bulb) and potentially not faulty (battery and airbag switch) and over pricing of fluids flushing. 3) Being told that one person would contact me and another does. (creates a broken telephone situation) 4) Missing such a basic thing like sparkplugs on a major service. What if I never checked and drove away, thinking I had good plugs for the next 30 000km???? Who else has this happened to. This is a great way to reduce costs in a company like this. 5) Not picking up real faulty issues. 6) Theft, which cannot be proven, but it happened.

Now I ask you. This was my experience on one interaction with this dealership, I can only imagine that 100s more people have similar events. If there is a service center that would like to check my airbag switch and advise if it is broken, please contact me. I truly will eat my words if it is indeed broken, and not just a reset. Brandon picked up straws through the entire process which is horribly flawed at this dealership, and was the star of the show. Thanks Brandon, you work in a broken place.

You can have a brilliant product, but if the after service is ****... you will crash... I encourage everyone to comment of their experiences at this dealership.

Your in all honesty Craig