Very Disapointing Customer Service from Hortons Skoda

[knealeedis]

I have just recieved some very dissapointing service from Hortons Skoda in Lincoln which me result in me not using them again for sales or service.

I bought an 07 Octavia vRS from Rainworth Skoda at the begining of the year and have recently noticed now it is warming up that the AC does not appear to be cooling.

Explained the situation to Hortons as they are most convenient for me, and booked the car in for investigation and explained at the time the car was less than 2 years old, and still covered by manufactures warrenty, and I did not expect to be charged to rectify the problem

When I arrive today after finishing work early, they refuse to look at the car unless I sign to accept liability for a £70 charge for the diaognostic work.

This is not the kind of service I expect, and the car was taken away, and is now booked in at Rainworth for investigatin with no charge expected as the car is still under manufactures warrenty.

Fingers corssed for better service and resolution to the problem.

Hortons did not seem interested as the car was not purchased from them, and due to this lack of assistance it is highly unlikely they will get the upcoming service work on the car.

[expostmanpat]

I know that dealers and mechanics will disagree with me saying they can't claim for the time they have to spend looking for a fault back from the manufacturer, but imho what use is a warranty if you have to pay to be told what needs fixing under the warranty. Either the car and all its components are working or they aren't, and only if the problem is found to be of the customers doing (ie damaged by other factors) should the customer be expected to foot a search fee :( Like I said in the other thread, I had no problems getting the aircon re-gassed under warranty and they injected a dye to show if there was a leak. I mentioned it had been fine the previous summer and had gone awol over winter and they said if it happened again like that the dye would stain wherever it was leaking from, and it shouldn't be happening on a 2 year old car.

[scouter2]

Considering most "diagnostics" involve pluggin the laptop into the car, these charges really are a con which I wish somebody like the OFT would investigate...

Presumably they cannot charge a diagnostics fee if the work turns out to be coevered by the warranty?

[dan_the_v8man]

personally i've never heard of such a thing, its absurd that there asking you for that

[No Waiting]

Be interesting to hear what Skoda UK have to say on the subject....

[dstev2000]

Frankly, that is complete b0llocks :thumbdwn:

The car is under full Skoda UK warranty, the air conditioning does not work, it is fixed FOC - end of

I get really ****ed off with this inconsistent attitude with warranty across the Skoda dealer network. It took me 4 different dealers before one was willing to accept there were problems with my car, that dealer is 92 miles from my house :thumbdwn:

[uncle bulgaria]

IIRC this used to be how VW used to cover warrenty issues. IIRC the first year warrenty was the manufactures warranty, and the next 2 were a kind of manufactures "insurance".

Once you got into year 2 & 3 there were issues for the dealer if the fault turned out not to be a warranty fault, as they couldn't claim back the "diagnostic time". I think each dealer was able to decide how to handle this, ie the "signed disclamer" by the customer, or suck it and see!

I think this is still an issue for some manufactuers, when it concerns "wear & tear" parts,such as brakes, clutches and AC gas.

I'm sure some of the dealer folk on here will give you the correct interpretation of this issue!

I did have the exact same problem with a S Yorks VW dealer some year back. Needles to say, I too went elsewhere!

[dstev2000]

With Skoda the first two years are covered by an unlimited mileage manufacturer's warranty, the third year is backed by Skoda UK up to 60,000 miles. Thats why my work was done at just over 80k

[Stoofa]

I wonder if there has been some confusion here.

I bought my car from Horton's and it was a couple of days after I'd taken it home (back to Cambridge area) we found that the AC wasn't working.

We went back and explained the situation.

Initially we were told that it could well be that the system needed a regass, however that was not covered under the warranty.

If this work was required then we would be charged.

They got the diagnostic computer on the car and found the compressor had failed.

I returned a week later to have the compressor replaced (under warranty) - so I paid absolutely nothing.

Only if it had been something not covered by warranty would I of course be charged.

I'm only attempting to defent Horton's because both the sales and the one "after sales" issue were dealt with extremely well by the dealership.

[Bassa]

I think that all they are doing is covering themselves, after all they cannot be certain that you have not at some stage interfered with the car and invalidated your warranty. If it is all genuine and above board following the diagnostic check and the warranty claim's ok, your cheque would be returned/destroyed.

[EGC]

I am ex-motor-trade (not franchised, but independent sector). I have plenty of experience in dealing with franchised dealers and still have many friends and contacts in the industry.

No point in going into great detail but basically most service managers won't give two hoots where you bought your car from. In most of the dealerships (don't know about Horton's specifically) the Service Dept will operate as a discrete cost centre and the Service Manager will have his own KPI's, targets, bonuses etc etc. He will not turn away any customer because the car was not purchased from the dealership. His concern will be that your loss of gas is due to perforation of the condenser - hence the £70 for the initial inspection. If there IS stone damage then Skoda UK won't cover the costs of diagnostics and he may have problems getting the money from you unless you have signed to commit to the work.

Having said that, my own experience of VAG (both professionally and privately) is that they have a long long way to go in terms of customer satisfaction on warranty work. My own '58 VRS has got a couple of minor problems and none of the three nearest dealers I have contacted seems remotely interested in looking at the car. My aircon is also rather weak and the notion that this is a 'wear and tear' item is ridiculous - either the system was not filled properly at the factory, was leaking from new, or someone stole some of my gas! A healthy aircon system will lose no more than 5% of its gas a year, so even after three years it should be at 85% capacity and still capable of powerful cooling. Low gas is not a fault in itself, it is a symptom of a fault (a leak). If the leak is not caused by accident damage then rectification and re-gas should be covered by warranty. regassing a system which is low on gas is pointless unless the reason for the low gas is identified - you'll just lose the new gas. In fact it is ILLEGAL to regass a leaky system.

Incidentally, any dealer that turns you away for any kind of service or warranty work because you 'didn't buy the car from them' is in serious breach of their franchise agreement and I'm sure Skoda UK would be keen to hear about such cases.

[dstev2000]

Maybe its a case of poor communication. If the OP had been informed of this along with a reasonable explanation things might have been different.

I was told beforehand I MIGHT be liable for some clutch parts if it was determined they were not damaged by a faulty flywheel just wear and tear. I agreed to this as I had been fully informed of the situation.

Obviously this doesn't always happen

And don't even get me started on the regassing of leaky A/C systems

[monkster]

I have had poor service from Horton's. I chose them to service my Octy Estate prior to the warranty expiring . I told the service manager about a whining noise coming from the front of the car when I took it in for service.This was still there after the service was done. I took the car back, the warranty by then had by then expired. I was subsequently charged £200 to have a wheel bearing replaced.I complained and Oliver Horton agreed to give me half of the cost back.The service manager denied I had mentioned it in the first place! They boast they are the Skoda Number One dealer or whatever!!!

[Bassa]

I have had poor service from Horton's. I chose them to service my Octy Estate prior to the warranty expiring . I told the service manager about a whining noise coming from the front of the car when I took it in for service.This was still there after the service was done. I took the car back, the warranty by then had by then expired. I was subsequently charged £200 to have a wheel bearing replaced.I complained and Oliver Horton agreed to give me half of the cost back.The service manager denied I had mentioned it in the first place! They boast they are the Skoda Number One dealer or whatever!!!

Did you not ask them if they had found the cause of the ' whining noise' when you collected your car after service? Also, why did you not return or at least contact them until after the warranty had expired as the noise was still evident :confused:

[ednmra]

I wonder if there has been some confusion here.

I bought my car from Horton's and it was a couple of days after I'd taken it home (back to Cambridge area) we found that the AC wasn't working.

We went back and explained the situation.

Initially we were told that it could well be that the system needed a regass, however that was not covered under the warranty.

If this work was required then we would be charged.

They got the diagnostic computer on the car and found the compressor had failed.

I returned a week later to have the compressor replaced (under warranty) - so I paid absolutely nothing.

Only if it had been something not covered by warranty would I of course be charged.

I'm only attempting to defent Horton's because both the sales and the one "after sales" issue were dealt with extremely well by the dealership.

I had exactly the same. I'd had my last car from new and a short while before the warranty expired the AC stopped. I was told that if it needed only a regas, it was a service item and not covered. However, as above, the compressor had failed so I got that [and automatically a regas] free.

[whitemarina]

In the case of Mr Eadis, our standard practice is to cover ourselves with a potential diagnostic charge in the event that any faults are not covered under the warranty of the vehicle. The fact that this car was supplied by Rainworths not us is immaterial.

If the system needs re-gassing - this is not covered under warranty and we would have had to have make a charge.

We simply sought to gain permission to work on the car and if the fault is a manufacturing defect it would be covered under warranty with no charge whatsoever.

This is exactly as we have been advised to do by Volkswagen Group Services Warranty Division.

Apologies for any inconvience caused.

[knealeedis]

In the case of Mr Eadis, our standard practice is to cover ourselves with a potential diagnostic charge in the event that any faults are not covered under the warranty of the vehicle. The fact that this car was supplied by Rainworths not us is immaterial.

If the system needs re-gassing - this is not covered under warranty and we would have had to have make a charge.

We simply sought to gain permission to work on the car and if the fault is a manufacturing defect it would be covered under warranty with no charge whatsoever.

This is exactly as we have been advised to do by Volkswagen Group Services Warranty Division.

Apologies for any inconvience caused.

I understand you wishing to recover any costs had the fault not been a warrently issue, but still feel that the policy should be to find the cause of the problem first and diagnose the fault, and then sort out the payment if it is found not to be a warrenty issue.

I was also very dissapointed not to have this explained when I booked the car in, as the fault was discussed and I was told there would be no charge to investigate. So to have this probelm after finishing work early specially to get it seen to I was not happy.

I still find the fact that a re-gas on an 18 month old car is considered a non warrenty and chargeable totaly wrong. I accept that over time an amount of gas will be lost but not in such a short time frame, and if it is lost in such a short period of time there is obviously a fault.

Hortons may naw have an oppertunity to redeem themselfs with the dissapointing service a recieved, as I have another warrenty fault which I will be contacting them about shortly. I have noticed the front passenger side door is leaking into the passenger foot well, this appears to be a well discussed known fault on the MkII Octavia, so lest see if there willing to sort it out. I just need to wait for a chance for me to get the car emptied and time to get it booked in.

[tonysnake]

I am having problems with the same dealer. Dennis Horton Lincoln. They sold my px on with my cherished plate still on even though I had paid them to put it on retention. Somebody signed the V5 in my name and subsequently I may not be able to get my plate back. Oliver horton has now started to ignore my emails but looks like once I get the info from dvla I will be pressing charges against the dealer for fraudulently alterithe document. As hortons name is above the door, he takes the blame unless he can prove otherwise. Skoda UK seem to stand by his actions and told me to "take a step back"

[Guest]

I saw what appeared to be a Hortons Skoda Lincoln courtesy car in Falkland the other day, kinda out of its usual stomping ground I thought...

[blackspaven]

I am having problems with the same dealer. Dennis Horton Lincoln. They sold my px on with my cherished plate still on even though I had paid them to put it on retention. Somebody signed the V5 in my name and subsequently I may not be able to get my plate back. Oliver horton has now started to ignore my emails but looks like once I get the info from dvla I will be pressing charges against the dealer for fraudulently alterithe document. As hortons name is above the door, he takes the blame unless he can prove otherwise. Skoda UK seem to stand by his actions and told me to "take a step back"

This'll be interesting!

 

Regarding the other case, perhaps in future Horton's will use some initiative and try explaining what the charge is for instead of apparently just pulling something out the hat to sign and leaving it at that. Glad I've got a dealer who is spot on and don't have to use Hortons, based on what I'm reading. :no:

[motr]

Plugging in a computer and letting the computer do the work? = easy money.

 

Just another way to rip off the customer. When I had an issue with a headlight in 2013 and independent garage did all the diagnostics as part of mot/service and gave me the full printout as they couldn't solve the problem. Basically, the print out gave the fault code and description and the idea was that I take it to the Skoda dealer but they wouldn't accept the printout and decided to charge me £60+ to get the same info from their computer.

 

Mine wasn't under warranty though.

 

Still a rip off imo.

 

PS I know this is an old thread.

Edited 23 October, 2014 by motr

[Toddie]

Mmmm   sounds familiar Oliver Horton owes me a substantial some of money for commissioned work, and he's stopped answering emails to me as well!!! Do i detect a pattern here???

[Norco]

Holy thread revival batman!

[Jelunga]

I also would not use Hortons. Poor customer sevice and miskeading unhelpful info. Rainworth Skida fir me. Far more pleasant people

[tonysnake]

I have a meeting planned with him soon. Lets see how it pans out. Will update once I have more info.