Useless dealer (contains lengthy rant!)

[teedeeye]

The other day I carelessly damaged a tweeter trim cover in one of my rear doors. No problem I thought, I'll pop into the local main agent and order a replacement - should only be a few pounds anyway.

So this morning I write down the part number from the damaged piece of trim and trot of to said dealer. Perhaps I should point out now that I always hate visiting this place, it's all plate glass and mirrors and stinks of coffee and cheap aftershave. What few staff are ever visible sit motionless at their desks, hiding behind monitors not daring to look up for fear of making eye contact. Pity the poor unsuspecting punter who mistakenly wonders in in the hope of some form of human interaction, let alone speaking to somebody who has any knowledge of motor cars - from where do they recruit these people?

Anyway, I find the parts desk - deserted of course - and ring the bell. Then... nothing - just silence as the drones at the other desks sit fixed gaze at their screens (thinking, "if we don't move, don't look up, perhaps he won't notice us, perhaps he'll just quietly leave and we can get back to gazing at our monitors in peace). At least two minutes later a smartly dressed gentleman appears from an unidentified back chamber and asks if he can help. Right, we're in. I confirm that he is indeed the 'parts man' and ask if he can give me a price and availablity on this part number? He dissappears back into the inner sanctum. Three minutes later he re-appears and asks, "what is it, an aerial wire?". I tell him it's a rear tweeter trim for a Skoda Fabia. He returns to his cave for some minutes before emerging once more telling me the number is invalid. Well, perhaps my mistake, I should have taken the part with me and/or confirmed the number on ETOS before leaving home. He went on to ask the exact year and model and disappeared to try again. He came back this time with an ETKA printout and told me that the trim probably isn't available separately and will come as a complete unit with tweeter, loom etc. I express my disbelief and suggest I go home to confirm the part number on ETOS. I ask for his card so I can get back to him.

When I got home I checked the p/n on the trim - it was correct. I then checked on ETOS and again confirmed that the p/n relates to the relevant trim - no problems at all - everything very simple and as it should be - one p/n for the trim, another for the tweeter.
Fabia tweeter cover.jpg
So I sent the parts manager a very polite email indicating that I had the correct p/n and even attatched the ETOS screen shot so he could see the part and the number togeather. I asked if he would care to either email me back or phone to confirm the price and likely order time; this was late morning.

Suffice to say Mr parts manager failed to reply - what a surprise!

I just do not know why I bother, every VAG main agent I've dealt with in the past 5 years has just been absolutely useless - what the hell ever happened to customer service?

AAAAAAAAnd relax...... rant over

[ScoobyChris]

Sadly e-mail doesn't seem to be a universally accepted means of communication and I've found the best way to get an answer in a decent timeframe is to use the phone. I've had similarly bad experience of parts departments in the past, so I was extremely suprised to find Hendy Ford of Winchester who go above and beyond the call of duty and actually want to deal with and help customers

Chris

[youngsyd]

Did you quote the trim colour too as in 9B9, or 01C at the end?

Sometimes if its missed off it doesnt search right, but then again, by the sounds of it, your dealer is a bit.....special?!...Anyway, some dealers, not mentioning any names, do treat there customers very very well.

Is there not another local dealer you could use?

[Mort]

I've found the front desk people seem to be less helpful/knowledgeable than those out back actually doing stuff. But as long as they pass me over when they realise they can't help, I'm happy.

[gadgetman]

Wasnt Autohaus at Riverside was it teedeeye?

Since moving back to the county, on the look for a reliable dealer after years of pleasant experience with West London Marlborough.

[teedeeye]

Originally Posted by ScoobyChris

Sadly e-mail doesn't seem to be a universally accepted means of communication...

Chris

I'm afraid you're probably right, but if they do not or cannot use email then they shoudln't give it out as a form of contact on thier cards.

Originally Posted by youngsyd

Did you quote the trim colour too as in 9B9, or 01C at the end?

Sometimes if its missed off it doesnt search right, but then again, by the sounds of it, your dealer is a bit.....special?!...Anyway, some dealers, not mentioning any names, do treat there customers very very well.

Is there not another local dealer you could use?

Good point, I didn't give the trim spec, but although I have the beige uphostery (GA) I thought all the capping trims were the same colour? Anyway, he didn't ask.

As regard dealers in my area, the next nearest (16mls) is another branch of the same franchise! After that, there's a choise of three, all about 25mls away - too far for a £5 piece of trim. I usually use an old family run independant (8 mls) who despite losing their franchise some years back can still source genuine parts (usually from the o/p dealer) at the usual m/d price (sometimes even a little cheaper if they give me trade). They're great - old school, you stand with the parts lady (yes!) and go through ETOS togeather sussing the part nos etc. Trouble is, due to work etc I won't be able to get over to them anytime within the next two weeks. Probably will be worth the wait though - anything to avoid that other bunch of ****ers!

[teedeeye]

Originally Posted by gadgetman

Wasnt Autohaus at Riverside was it teedeeye?

Since moving back to the county, on the look for a reliable dealer after years of pleasant experience with West London Marlborough.

Nearly, it was the other one .

[national]

Not defending them
But the people up front at the pc's are I believe salesmen, and would not know a screw from a wiper blade, so thank goodness they did not offer any assistance or you would have walked out with a brand new SE :-)

Have you tried your local scrap dealer
tell him you want the full seat, wander off take the bit you want and tell him it is the wrong spec seat
Just watch the rottweiler though
Have you mailed Jason aka Devon Utopia, he may help?

Jimbo aka National

[RobClubley]

I had a similar experience trying to replace a boost hose. It had a part number but the number wasn't in the system because VAG only supply these particular hoses as a set.
Costing something like 200 quid IIRC. Or was it $200.
Anyway I used a bit of silicon hose from an auto parts place for $15

[skudmissile]

My dealer is spot on for parts. Phil at Dewsbury D M keith skoda is a genius

Always gets the parts correct first time and is always very freindly.

Service Manager seems ok too, think When i do eventually get round to getting a new car it will be through these guys

[3td]

Went to my local dealer recently to odrer some roomster accessories , couldnt find parts dept ! Salesman accosted me and explained parts dept now centralised ( local dealer has franshises for VW Audi Seat and Skoda ) and was a dual carriegeway , three road junctions and a good mile away ! Found it with a struggle only to be told "trade only " -you need to place your order with a salesman back at the showroom !
Have finally lost the plot now , had 3 attempts at getting a deal on a car from them unsuccessfully and now when price was not an issue , they still mess up !It's gonna cost me two 60 mile round trips to the country dealer I got the car from but don't care , they're nice people and I'm glad to support them .

[youngsyd]

The dealer i work for is family run, so we take pride in our service.

Its just the attitude of employees that make a dealership i think.

[Dougal]

There apears to be several Skoda dealers advertising on here, offering genuine parts with free delivery, why not try one of those if your local dealer is poor.

Just a thought

Dougal

[sharkrider]

Originally Posted by youngsyd

The dealer i work for is family run, so we take pride in our service.

Its just the attitude of employees that make a dealership i think.

I think this is true......

one of the reasons I no longer own a skoda is the terrible dealers, and terrible after sales service.... (and lack of warrenty backup from SUK) I went throught three dealers up here, trying to find one that was only just satisfactory, and that meant taking a 1.5 hour trip up into Scotland, and even they fell way short of the mark....

now Fiat have a less good reputation than skoda when it comes to dealers, but our dealer is a tiny family owned business, where the sales/office staff are the owner and daughter, with a service manager, receptionist, and three mechanics...

lets give an example... I had a wierd grating noise the other day (after a pupil of mine had driven over a brick and smashed it!) I turned up unannounced at the garage and collered a mechanic I know (you get to know them in such a small place) who had his head under the bonnet of a car... he immediatley put my car up on the ramp and had a look, finding no signes of damage from the stone, removed the offending wheel to find a stone (about an inch square) resting on the top of the brake caliper, scraping against the disc! he removed offending stone and sent me on my way, it took all of five minutes, and was absolutley cracking customer service (I bet I would have been charged for that at the skoda dealership I went to (not that I would have been seen on the day i turned up!) because it had nothing to do with being a warrenty issue!)

big difference to the attitude I used to get...... I will deffo go back there for every service, AND my next new car..... hope you're listening skoda!

[oliverreed]

Originally Posted by teedeeye

At least two minutes later a smartly dressed gentleman appears from an unidentified back chamber and asks if he can help.

I think tomb or crypt would be more apt!

Dealers can suck, only want your money when you buy the car, that's why Jabba sees me for servicing and I only go back to the dealer with faults.

[Chrispy]

Found similar issues with the dealer near to where I work. Useless zombified morons running the show, none of whom were willing/ capable of helping with any query you had.

Suffice to say they were bought out recently.

When it comes to working on the car I'll either do it myself if it's standard fare stuff or take it to someone like Awesome for the bigger things (cam belt will be next )

[teedeeye]

So it's not just me that's been unlucky with dealers. You would have thought that SUK would step in and do something here. Surely a successful dealership is not just about shifting x amount of cars per annum. I'm not talking about wholesale withdrawal of franchises, but perhaps some specific customer awareness training with follow-up surveys to assess improvements?

I know there are some excellent dealers and individuals working hard out there, but as they say, nothing travels faster than bad news. Reputations are so easily tarnished, it only takes one bad egg etc...

[national]

Why would SUK bother, when uninterested dealers are saving them a fortune in warranty pay outs
Yes SUK can not see that these savings will equal nothing to the lost business, when people do not re buy

Though are not all marques the same when it comes to warranty, get out of it at first possible chance
You were twenty miles over your max sevice mileage SIR

National

[Dmac1969]

Skoda lost a lot of their best dealers a few years back when they wanted all of them to invest 10s of thousands to make all their Showrooms into modern plate glass identikit types of places. A lot of the family owned small places (like where I got my car , Tweedmouth Service station) either dropped Skoda (if they had more than one franchise- Tweedmouth is now simply Tweedmouth Mitsubishi , they have dealt in those since 1978) or took another up an coming franchise such as Hyundai , Kia or Chevrolet. Im lucky in that T.S.S can order genuine parts for me from Silbury Skoda in Cramlington , so parts are not a problem , and I am still dealing with a small family dealer which has mechanics who are Skoda trained.

[colkai]

Alas, this is all too true.
Both my "local" Skoda dealers were dropped because they wouldn't cough up for the Skoda "refit" of their premises.
When it comes to know-how though, they are totally unbeatable and I still use them both.
Skoda alas are becoming, for me, more of a joke than when they were "unpopular" and being taken over by VW seems to have done more harm than good for the punter and small dealer alike.