I've just purchased a new Fabia Black Edition from Beadles Skoda in Maidstone. Excellent car but a little warranty work may be required. When I tried to book the vehicle in, the service dept. informed me of a mandatory charge to inspect the vehicle (£60). SUK confirmed this charge as well. Apparently they only pay for parts and labour to rectify not inspect and identify the faults as the parts are too expensive.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? I've checked my warranty T&C's but nothing is said about this mandatory (non refundable) charge. This applies to all VAG group cars but not experienced it with my Polo or A1.

I would appreciate advice on how to overcome this.

Thanks.

.

I've just purchased a new Fabia Black Edition from Beadles Skoda in Maidstone. Excellent car but a little warranty work may be required. When I tried to book the vehicle in, the service dept. informed me of a mandatory charge to inspect the vehicle (£60). SUK confirmed this charge as well. Apparently they only pay for parts and labour to rectify not inspect and identify the faults as the parts are too expensive.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? I've checked my warranty T&C's but nothing is said about this mandatory (non refundable) charge. This applies to all VAG group cars but not experienced it with my Polo or A1.

I would appreciate advice on how to overcome this.

Thanks.

.

I've had warranty work done on mine and some VCDS tweeks at the same time but was never charged anything nor was any costs mentioned, not sure where these charges are coming from.

Me too I had oil test new engine badges side repeater and door seals and door pillars wrapped again and I only paid for the oil £7.

Get them told

Absolutely no way should you be charged. I went to two skoda dealers to inspect my car and neither of them charged me a penny.

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Charges for Diagnosing Faults or stripping parts might be expected with a Warranty from another Provider, 

ie Extended Warranties, Skoda Approved Extended Warranty from Car Care Plan ltd.

 

But, 

Not a 'Manufacturers Warranty' from Skoda for 3 or 5 years on a 'New Car' in the 3 or 5 years,

see the terms and Conditions of your Warranty, & have Skoda UK Customer Services send you a copy,

Ask them to show where this charge is set out.

http://www.skoda.co.uk/sitecollectiondocuments/brochures/warranty-booklet-single.pdf

 

See page 4.

& if there are no modifications, then they are removing Factory OEM Parts,

or even Approved parts if it was dealer fit Lowering Springs say or any Dealer fit Option Parts.

 

*Exclusions* 

See page 6.

 

.................................

????????

So what is the Little Warranty Work that the car might require.

What is Wrong that a Qualified Master Tech,, Tech or Fitter can not Diagnose or Identify without stripping parts

or giving no  more than a 5 minute road test or look see ?

Edited 21 March, 201511 yr by goneoffSKi

Also had similar in that I reported a rattle with the nsf door on the Monte in late 2013, while still in the first year of a factory 5 year warranty.

 

Tech came out for a test drive and agreed it needed investigating further but before they would work on the car I had to sign an indemnity bill, in case the rattle was not covered by warranty :wonder:

 

Refused as it was already priced up at well over £100 from memory and ended up fixing it myself (door card was chattering against the door panel); so much for extending the warranty to five years.

 

Believe Skoda UK's warranty department are now being very strict with dealers on warranty claims and thus some are going out of their way to pass costs back to the customer; again so much for a warranty.

 

 

TP

No good for a mechanical fault, but having a VCDS lead I'm more than happy to do a fault scan for people, at least then you are forearmed to point them in the right direction

Thanks for the replies and advice chaps.

I'm waiting for a Case Manager at SUK to contact me on Monday in regards to this issue. I will ask for a copy of the warranty document stating this charge. I did challenge the SUK customer advisor on Friday about the exclusion of this charge in my warranty books but they can still apply this fee even if if isn't mentioned. Outrageous! I will try and arrange a warranty visit with a different dealer next week, hopefully this will be a better experience.

My possible troubles consist of a bonnet that will not close properly (always bounces back up when closing), a very squeaky speedometer unit (I have read several similar issues on this forum) and a noisy chain during start up and idelling of engine. Very minor issues but Beadles want it all day + £60. A request for a quick 5 min viewing/advice of chain noise was also refused.

If SUK send a copy of the T&C's with this charge included, I'll upload it for you all to view.

No good for a mechanical fault, but having a VCDS lead I'm more than happy to do a fault scan for people, at least then you are forearmed to point them in the right direction

Thanks for the offer Brimma.

If the need arose, where about are you located (I'm in Essex)?

Having the VCDS data may prove invaluable if a potential claim was disputed.

I had the squeak issue with the perspex on the clocks rubbing with the housing at the bottom. Causing a really nasty noise. In the end the dealer changed it with another car so it sat better. I took my previous monte to the dealer at least a dozen times for rattles, broken seats and squeaks and wasn't ever charged. Not even for a loan car. So hope you get yours sorted!

The Bonnet can be said to be in the EXclusions if the car was over 6 months old, 

but then this is a safety critical item if liable to open because of bad Workmanship and fitment, 

so this is a Warranty item that needs no diagnosis, the DEalership Workshop needs to align the Bonnet.

 

The Dash is a known issue, and they must have dealt with many, 

more than 1/3 of Skodas sold in the UK for recent years are Fabia MK2, so they see a few at every Dealership with the Squeaky Dash.

 

As to the Noisy Chain,

That is the Biggie.

A known issue, a Mechanical Issue & exactly what your warranty is for.

 

You want to speak in Person on Monday to John Good, Tom Chadwick or some other Skoda UK Customer Services Manager.

Use another Dealership.

Personally if your New Car has issues that they do not resolve Free the First time 'They arrange the Warranty Work to be done'. 

& a Courtesy car for you,

Invoice them for £60 every time you are inconvenienced taking the car in for them to rectify the car which is 'Not of Merchantable Quality',

and they want you to pay to make it so.

Edited 22 March, 201511 yr by goneoffSKi

I've never had a Skoda with a warranty, but I know two other manufacturers (Kia and Subaru) do not refund dealers for fault finding on warranty jobs and only pay for fixing it (as I asked them how the warranties worked) so it wouldn't surprise me that Skoda are the same. However, neither have charged a penny when I've had to take the car in.

The good thing about Briskoda is that there are thousands of Owners & Registered Keepers of Skoda Cars,

bought New & Used,

and some have had issues and problems, so getting other Skoda Owners experiences are rather easy.

 

Maybe someone can start a Poll or Thread,

 'Were you charged to have your car checked when it suffered snagging issues after delivery?'.

.................................

 

Yesterday i put a link to this thread in the one in General Chat.

Skoda CZ need to sort out Quality Control, & Skoda UK CS need to Sort out dealing with Selling Skodas and the Quality Control, and After Care / Warranty Issues and Skoda Franchised Dealerships might then provide better Customer Care.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/347958-skoda-placed-in-bottom-4-of-dealers-attitude-franchise

Edited 22 March, 201511 yr by goneoffSKi

Thanks for the offer Brimma.

If the need arose, where about are you located (I'm in Essex)?

Having the VCDS data may prove invaluable if a potential claim was disputed.

I'm near Lincoln, but there will be others local to you who would do the same for a few beer tokens......check out the map on the forum

Having worked for main dealers over the years I can say that most manufacturers won't pay for much or any investigatory work to determine what a problem is. But it does depend to some degree what the problem being complained of actually is. Gearboxes often throw up intermittent faults and can be difficult to diagnose. So a charge can be made if the work required to find the fault is extensive.  It's up to the dealers to find the problem and they can charge for work done if a warranty issue isn't then found. Obviously, if a fault is found that's different and the owner should not incur any costs. Dealers will tell customers if a charge is likely to be levied if a fault is not found before diagnostic work is carried out. But it tends to be the bigger work intensive jobs that attract this sort of thing where a dealer has to cover his costs if a fault is not found and subsequently not paid for by the manufacturer. 

Very True.

 

But where a Work Shop operates 40 hours a week minimum with the same Technicians and Fitters on the pretty much same vehicles 

with the similar rather common simple issues and complaints, its odd where, 'We have never heard of that before'.

'That is a first on us'  etc.

 

If the Service Reception Desk staff are even slightly clued, they know the Bonnet needs the 4 bolts loosened and the Bonnet Aligned,

or they need go talk to the Work Shop Manager.  

re Post #9.

Or the Rubbers checked.

 

The dash might need the quick fix or the full on job,

& there are Technical Advice on the Timing Chain issue.

 

It is not Rocket Science, its a poorly built car sold i Presume by a UK Skoda Outlet and with a Warranty.

If Skoda do not pay the Dealers,  that is the Dealers needing to discuss that with SKODA UK over Warranty Work,

not the Paying Customer buying a not Budget Car.

Edited 22 March, 201511 yr by goneoffSKi

In reality almost no one pays any charges at all for warranty work. It should only be on very work intensive diagnostic jobs as I mention in my earlier posts, where no fault is found. I missed Craigs post saying exactly what the problems he is having are. In my estimation on jobs like that there should not be a charge if he goes to the supplying dealer as especially the bonnet should have been picked up before selling the vehicle to him. 

Beadles in Maidstone,,,,,,,,,in the words of the Marco from Tropoja " Good Luck"

 

Always poor service there, my brother bought his VRS from them and nothing but a pain in the ass, he ended up moving to Caffyns in Ashford when i bought my VRS.  They seem to be pretty good.

 

I just booked mine in for warranty work today at Caffyns and no mention of any charges.

Charges? What kind crap is that??

I bring the car to a dealer with a problem, they are legally obliged to fix the problem if it is covered under warranty (i.e. not wear and tear or consumables) and if they do not they are in breach of contract and you can sue them.

I do not care if it requires diagnostics or for that matter rebuilding of the whole car, that is what the warranty is for, it is an insurance type financial product regulated by appropriate authorities. I have never paid for any warranty work of any kind in my life.

If they do not want to do diagnostics that is their problem, keep replacing parts until you lucky upon the faulty one....

This is bl00dy outrageous, what the hell happened with customer rights and service in UK!?!?!?

If they do not want to do diagnostics that is their problem, keep replacing parts until you lucky upon the faulty one....

This is exactly what they do when your car is out of warranty

The time it happened to me, I refused to pay for all the unnecessary work and had them either drop the charge or refit all the original bits. Never really knew which option they chose, but I only paid for the one tiny thing that did fix it after a two week argument.

They will double bend backwards to bully you into paying for all the unnecessary work resulting from their lack of diagnostic knowledge and general ineptitude. Problems like that cannot be simply dealt with by blindly following technical bulletins :( Unfortunately there is very few automotive engineers employed at dealerships who would actually know how to look for problems properly. Everybody with a minimum of training can dismantle an put a car together given time and required tools and a minimum of discipline.

Fitters not Motor Engineers/Mechanics,

and as for the Technicians they might as well get an intake of School Leavers that have IT / Software as their first language and understand systems.

I think this outlines one of the important issues that the trade faces. Gaining the trust of owners. Also, it's apparent that folks have no idea what a technician is. A technician is a highly trained, experienced individual who has studied and worked under supervision for years, passing many exams both paper and practical before becoming fully qualified. He is capable of not just plugging in a computer but also using his skills to look for the problems that won't show up on that computer. He can join up the dots! In the dealerships I worked for there were no 'fitters' just fully qualified and factory trained technicians and master techs. Fitters largely don't exist in big dealerships because of the complexity of the modern car, but may exist in back street garages or some non franchised dealers. Now whether you get good service from a particular dealership, well that's another matter. But it usually won't be the techs fault if you don't. I think too that owners don't always understand the detail of what some dealers are trying to explain to them, however simplistically it's put. And that's not meant to be disrespectful to the owners or anyone, it's just a fact. And of course, we all know that owners who have little or no idea about cars and engines always know best because they read up on it on some forum or google! It also doesn't matter how experienced or skilled the techs are, there are some occasions when diagnostic delving into the engine or gearbox is still required to find the exact fault. To think otherwise is not realistic. If a fault is very apparent there will not be any kind of talk of charges. If the fault is still at the intermittent stage or cannot have a definite problem identified which is causing the problem without a strip, then a charge is quite legitimate if NO fault is found when the workshop has done the work. If the fault is found then the manufacturer will pay the costs. That's how it works. It's legal and that's how it's always been. As I said earlier in a post, few people ever pay any kind of charges because the techs are able to do their job and identify most issues without scaring a customer with talk of charges. But you do have to warn customers who may have labour intensive potential warranty jobs that a charge can be levied if no fault is found. But to go back to the OP, that sounds like a badly prepared car which should never have been sold without the issues being fixed before hand.