Hello folks,
I just became a victim of incompetent ASS of VAG. Pardon me for a long post.
Ahmedabad has two VW dealers - VW Automark & VW Karnavati. I usually get all ASS jobs done at VW Automark & I was happy with it however I thought about giving VW Karnavati a chance to experience what they have to offer (Note to self: if it ain't broken, don't fix it.)
So I decided to award VW Karnavati a small job of Suspension greasing a few months back. The odo was around 46k at that time. I wanted to do get it done during the third service (44k) at VW Automark but acquainted SA told me that I can give it a pass for now.
There was also an intermittent issue of noticeable vibrations inside the cabin at idle. It was usually occurred with warm engine, no specific pattern though. So I thought I will visit VW Karnavati for a change for suspension greasing & the vibration issue.
Here's how it went:
I got an appointment visited the workshop during the second week of July. I explained SA the jobs that need to be carried out. He told that he would get the suspension greasing done however I need to pay for General checkup (~800 INR) if I want them to look into the vibration issue. I told him that the car is still under extended warranty & his response was if I had awarded them the third paid service then they would have done it for free. Since I got the car serviced at the other dealership workshop, I need to pay for it (as if the extended warranty was dealer specific!!)
I didn't find the issue worth my time to escalate & I was in hurry so I decided to let it go & asked him to skip it & just get the suspension greasing done.
I went to pickup the car in the evening. He presented me the invoice of general checkup instead of suspension greasing! I confronted him about it & he told me that GST rates are not updated in their system for labor charges of suspension greasing!! I asked him when can I get the invoice of the actual job done to which he answered approx 10-15 days. Again, I had an early morning trip waiting for me the next day so didn't have time to escalate it at that moment.
I asked him to email me once their system is 'updated' with GST rates. Called him after 20-25 days, he answered 'system still not updated'. Called him again after 5-10 days, he said that he will email me which I never received! Needless to say, the only job done on the car was 'washing'. I couldn't feel any difference in ride quality/suspension thud post the job.
I got real busy after that & couldn't escalate the issue further. A few weeks back, a close friend of mine raised a complaint on VW India FB Page against VW Surat related to ASS issues. I added a comment about my invoice blunder by VW Karnavati as well & things escalated quickly. I received calls from VW India & VW Karnavati SA. I was invited to workshop to get all the issues sorted out.
I visited the workshop & their technical head TDed the car. His conclusion was the sound was not coming from suspension but they were rattles from door!! During the testride, it rained & the bi-xenon headlight unit had little condensation (pics attached in the end) so I asked them to fix it as well. Instead of fixing it, they tried to reproduce it on another Jetta highline but they couldn't. So now, they had two tasks on their hands.
- Fix rattles from the door (as per the technical head's analysis)
- Take care of headlight condensation issue.
The car & I were kept waiting for an hour & then a mechanic started to work.
- A guy came with a small hammer & a cloth. He put a cloth on door strike & started to mildly hammer it! He did it for all the four doors. Another TD with the technical head & service manager followed. They both were sure that there is no suspension thud & rattles have settled down as well however I didn't feel any difference. I gave up because there was no point in fighting on it if their technical head & service manager didn't acknowledge it. In hindsight, the 'settings' mechanic did with his hammer, is forcing me to apply extra force in order to close the driver side door. I have lost the count on number of time I had to reopen the door & close it!!
Issues rectified: 0, Issues given birth to: 1 - In order to deal with headlight condensation issue, they opened the headlight assembly & filmed the headlight units so that they can send it to VW for the claim of extended warranty. After filming both the units, they screwed & locked back the headlight units & bumper however I could a huge panel gap between the RHS headlight & the bumper. I pointed it out to the mechanic & he 'pushed' the headlight unit downwards to fill the gap! I could see the bumper was not fitted properly but it was getting really late for the mechanic & service center folks. They informed me that VW has tie up with bajaj allianz for extended warranty so I will have to drop the car for a few hours when the bajaj guy comes in for the inspection. I decided to get the bumper refitted properly during that visit. In hindsight, that push of RHS headlight is causing has decreased the reach of RHS low beam to 25-30% which is extremely annoying.
Issues rectified: 0, Issues given birth to: 1 + 2 = 3
Regarding the invoice, service manager told me that they don't have any entry for suspension greasing inside the system (yet somehow they performed the job!!) so that they generated the invoice for general checkup. I told him that I have heard many folks have get it done with proper invoice so he asked me to share invoice for the same so that he can generate the correct invoice for me. It was getting really late so I didn't dive into the details of how they performed it.
After a few days, received the call from SA to drop the car in order to get it checked it by the bajaj guy. I got an appointment & reached on the scheduled date/time. The SA & service manager were on leave that day along with a few mechanics (Navratri time). I was appointed another SA after waiting for 30 mins! I asked him to get the door, bumper & headlight throw issue fixed. He noted them down. Received a call from their technical head that they did their standard procedure to check condensation issue in the presence of the bajaj guy & the headlight works as expected.
This amount of condensation is normal & it evaporates after specific amount of time & there is nothing they can do about the condensation. I asked him to write the details of the procedure & conclusion in email so that I can contact VW regarding the same. I received a call after a few minutes that they will still try to replace it under warranty after further communicating with VW & asked me to wait for 2-3 days. The car was dropped to my residence in evening after confirmation from SA that other issues are fixed as I was busy with some other business. In hindsight, neither of the three issues created by them during the previous visit was fixed!! Also, there was no update from him regarding the headlight replacement in the next 2-3 days.
I called him after 4 days for the update & he told me that it is mentioned in the owners manual as well that it is normal. I told him that I will check it out. I couldn't find anywhere in the manual that condensation can happen & it is normal so I called him yesterday, he didn't pick up the call or called back. I will chase him further today.
My request/queries to Tbhpians- Is the headlight condensation in the pics below normal? Has anyone faced it? Does the owners manual say that it is normal?
Mine is Aug 2014 manufactured DSG Highline. I think Tanveer's Jetta was from the same batch & as he lives in Mumbai where the humidity is high & it rains heavily, would really appreciate his input/experience. - Can anyone please share the invoice for suspension greasing?
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