Hellopeter
Share Your Experience
SD
Senzo D

1 reviews | Active since Sept 2011

03 Jul 2018, 09:28

VW Midrand Service Failure

I wish to air my unhappiness to the length of time in which VW Midrand and South Africa are taking to resolve my issue. The issue and chain of events summarised below:

On the afternoon of 28.05.2018 at around 17:00PM, I driving my 2014 VW Golf VII in peak traffic on the M1 north highway, the same as every other day. While driving, I noticed smoke coming out of the bonnet and heard a strange noise from the engine. I immediately stopped, opened the bonnet and saw flames in the engine compartment. I was fortunate that other motorists stopped almost immediately and extinguished the flames with a fire extinguisher.

I reported the matter immediately to my insurer who arranged for the car to be towed to Lindsay Saker VW in Midrand. On 29.05.2018, an investigation was initiated by VW (at dealer level initially, and at national level when the dealer could not make any findings) to determine (1) the cause of the fire, and (2) whether the car can be repaired. To date, I am still waiting on VW for feedback.

My interaction with VW (both the dealer in Midrand and VW national office) thus far can be summarized as follows:

1. The car was serviced regularly at appropriate intervals, and is still under extended warranty. The last service was on the first week of April for 105,000 KM, with the next service due at 120,000 KM.

2. Following the fire, on Tuesday 29.05.2018 around 9:30AM, I received a call from Ms Patsy Ramadeen (Service Advisor at Lindsay Saker Midrand) who would be handling my case. I explained to Patsy what transpired, and my expectations from VW. It took 2 days for Lindsay Saker Midrand to pull my car into their workshop to investigate.

3. There being no feedback from the Lindsay Saker Midrand, on Wednesday 30.05.2018 I reached out to VW national office directly for assistance to have the matter closed with the dealer. Ms Shinaaz Smith from VW Customer Care created a case which I believe my car's registration is the ***.

4. On Thursday 31.05.2018 at around 11:03AM I received an email from Lindsay Saker Midrand, then shortly a telephone call from Patsy where I was advised that the dealer could not find that the fire had a linkage to any of the maintenance items or any of the work they had done on the car. Patsy's email contained a form I needed to fill for the matter to be reported to VW national office to investigate. I completed the form and reverted to Patsy on email at 13:24PM on the same day.

5. Since this date, the only feedback I have received from the dealer has been that “VW is investigating and they cannot do anything further”. Shinaaz from VW itself keeps saying they are "waiting on internal stakeholders" and the report has not been finalized. This is the only feedback I have received in over a month, although I have spoken with both Patsy and Shinaaz (on average) once every week since the incident occurred. I am aware that VW sent a technician from PE to look at the car and take pictures and videos for the report on or around the 15th June.

I am clearly quite frustrated with the situation, as the vehicle is under extended warranty and apart from Patsy ( who I think is trying her best) also had to explain the chain of events to various other individuals on numerous occasions. Furthermore the non-response and delaying tactics is causing me considerable financial costs as I had to rent temporary transport, as no loan vehicle is available. I am further more annoyed that I have gone through the expense to extend the warranty to be treated like this. I also think I’ve been very patient but consider that the vehicle has been with VW for more than 35 days unacceptable and I don’t think it is unreasonable of me to request:

1. Concrete feedback (can the car be fixed or not and what caused the fire). 2. What are my remedies seeing that the car is under warranty and has a clean service record. 3. Some form of compensation for financial cost incurred due to this unacceptable long period of so called investigation.

0
Replies (3)
SD
Senzo D's update04 Jul 2018, 14:30
Reviewer Update
I have just received a call at 14:18PM today (04.07.2018) from Lindsay Saker Midrand and they informed me that VW Germany asked to have a look at my car Coolant Regulator. I take it these are the findings thus far that the issue is related to the Coolant Regulator, since I have not been given any helpful feedback. I am told that they have extracted this part from the car and sent it to Germany already. What should do now since I am still in the dark about everything and carrying the financial burden and inconvenience?
SD
Senzo D's update09 Jul 2018, 04:58
Reviewer Update
09.7 2017 : There has been no further feedback from Lindsay Saker Midrand or VWSA. I have therefore sent them my feedback on email as below: I hope all is well on your side. I wanted to just let you know that I am in Zimbabwe today and tomorrow, so I won't be reachable on the phone, but you may contact me on my local number +***02. I recall that just 2 weeks prior to the engine fire incident, I brought the car in to Lindsay Saker Midrand for coolant issues. The case was handled by Louise and insisted that the car be put into diagnostics to determine the cause of the issue since the car had just been serviced by the same dealer and this particular issue had not been raised. Diagnostics were promised and feedback I received from Louise was that all is fine with the car, but I simply needed to replace the coolant bottle (I am not sure if a "coolant flush" was also done), since it had a minor crack on the inside. I duly asked them to go ahead with replacing the bottle and coolant, as advised, and paid about R3,000. Following the inconclusive feedback I am receiving, it occurs to me that Lindsay Saker did not diagnose the right problem with the car, and I paid for the wrong work to be done on the car. As someone who is not a car technician, I did not get to interrogate the report given to me by Louise; I accepted her word that all would be fine after replacing the coolant bottle. Given everything that has happened, I believe Lindsay Saker was reckless and endangered my life. Also, their failure to identify and fix the cooling issue with my car has led me into serious financial losses and a considerable inconvenience. In addition, since I work in Sales and spend much of my time visiting clients, Lindsay Saker's actions put my career and livelihood at risk. Therefore, I believe I have a civil claim against the dealer. Regards, Senzo
SD
Senzo D's update08 Aug 2018, 07:50
Reviewer Update
There being no further response from VW, on Saturday 04.08.2018 I went to Lindsay Saker Midrand to attempt to get some sort of update. It has been 9 weeks with no conclusive feedback on the issue. During this entire period, I have had to make alternative arrangements for mobility at a high cost. After waiting for 2 hours, Patsy spoke to me and, after realizing who I am, she took me to see the Workshop Manager (??) who is handling communication with VW Germany on the matter. The Workshop Manager showed me all the correspondence with VW, however was also quick to mention that "it always takes with VW Germany". I told him that "that is unreasonable since I have been waiting for 9 weeks with no feedbank. I still don't know if the car can be fixed..", to which he responded quickly that they can definitely fix the car, however they "need confirmation from VW on whether they should go ahead and fix the car due to warranties in place". I then explained to him that it sounds like its a process issue and no longer a tech issue. Additionally, its clear that the investigation so far shows that I am not responsible for the events that led to the engine catching fire, so I needed VW to provide with transport in the interim while they work through their internal processes. He then referred to Patsy and said they will need to ask management on Monday (06.08.2018) to assist with arranging a courtesy car for me. I left the workshop chatting with Patsy where she promised to speak to management and that a car will be ready for me by Wednesday 08.08.2018. On the Monday, I saw an email from Patsy to a (cicrental) group at VW requesting a car for me, to which they rep**** fairly quickly with a form she had to fill to complete the request. That is, their response was not "NO". Patsy then went quiet until I sent her a reminder on Tuesday 07.08.2018 asking if the car will be ready for me to collect on Wednesday 08.08.2018. To this, I received a response from Patsy that they do not have any car for me and therefore cannot help. She went on to add that, they will probably have a car for me in 3 weeks. I had a brief exchange with her over this as I found it extremely inconsiderate. Eventually Patsy referred me to the cicrental group and said "maybe they will help" and I would need to call them.