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Crawley Down Skoda - Copthorne..


DGW

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Originally posted by 4x4Octavia - Sun Oct 3, 2004

I have just had a very bad experience with Crawley Down Motors (a newly appointed dealer). The letter I sent to Trading Standards and to Skoda Customer services (below) explains it all!

"I feel I must write and complain about the shameful and fraudulent business practices of Crawley Down Motors, Snow Hill, Copthorne, West Sussex RH10 3EQ.

I booked my Skoda Superb 1.9Pd in for a 20,000 mile service on 30 September, 2004 having first phoned for a quote which was given as £220. A comparison quote was obtained from Clarion Cars, Worthing at £180 but I opted for Crawley Down Motors on the basis that it is only a few miles up the road whereas it is a 70 mile round trip to Worthing.

On collecting the car, the first bill presented was for £276. When asked to justify this versus the original quote the bill was reworked to be £220. Included in this bill was a cost for screenwash which had not been changed as I had deliberately marked the levels and the bottle cap. The garage claimed that it was standard practice to drain and refill the system although it was obvious that the cap on the screenwash bottle had not been moved.

When challenged to produce the old parts that had been changed on the service (sump plug washer, pollen filter, oil filter) the garage refused and told me that if I wasn’t happy with the service, then I could go elsewhere."

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Originally posted by Moose - Thu Jun 30, 2005

The salesteam at Crawley Down are brilliant, they can always work to getting a good deal for you.

Sadly, their aftersales team let them down, they will not return calls, any problems they do not want to know, courtesy cars that you have booked are not always available and always check your invoices with them as they like to bill you for parts that they have not done, or bill you twice.

I bought my secondhand Fabia at a great price, but noticed 2 tyres were getting close, they replaced one. Also my spare wheel seems to have come from a mk4 Astra of all things (they are 4 stud, Fabia is 5) however they do not return calls and are always busy so I've had to source replacements myself.

My advice is go there to buy the car but get it looked after by a different dealer who specialise in Skoda.

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  • 3 weeks later...

:mad:

Not happy with the service and thought I better let everyone know what has happened so as no-one else gets caught out by them. There are a few details in the Fabia section.

I recently had my 40k service. I took my own oil in and booked about a month in advance. I also requested a car for the day.

They have moved if anyone doesn't know. The sales is on the same site but the service and repair centre is now next to the Duke's Head roundabout. Basically, from the dealership, head towards Crawley/Horley and the first roundabout is the Duke's Head, its just before this.

Dropped the car off and was given a 1.2 Classic Fabia for the day. I pointed out that I would like my oil to be used and that was okay'd.

I got home and then received a phone call saying that several things need to be done to the car. Most important was the brake fluid needed changing. Was quoted at £25 +VAT. I agreed to this but only this repair.

Turned up to pick up the car later on, car had been put through a car wash and hoovered out, nice thought I guess.

Went inside and was told it would be £320.08 :eek:

The service was quoted at £280 ish minus oil then plus brake fluid. I queried the amount straight away. Turned out they tried to charge me for their oil, they did correct this immediately. Brought it down to £286.59. It sounded about right so paid up on my VISA (knowing that I could claim the money back if they had done something wrong etc).

Got home ok. The next day at about 12.30pm I noticed that for the brake fluid change I was charged £34.75+VAT not £25+VAT as quoted. They were closed so left it until Monday.

Called on Monday and got told that the charge sounds about right but they would have a look and get back to me. They didn't.

Called back on Tuesday and got told they would look into it and if I was correct they would credit my card.

Today, Thursday, they have credited my card, so now the money is correct. But last night I noticed that I have a hissing noise. This has been indentified in the Fabia section as being a possible pollen filter or glovebox cooler. I know how to do the glovebox one and I'm sure I can figure out the pollen filter given a few minutes.

But why should I have to challenge any price at all? Surely they quote a price and stick to it?

Bottom line is, if you are going to use them, ensure you double-check the invoice before you pay and query on the spot anything thats not quite right. If you are still not convinced its the right price, don't pay at all for that particular item and just pay what you are happy with. The rest can be sorted another day.

Oh, I got a satisafaction survey through the post today (weekly post deliveries here now). I wonder how I will rate them? Would be honest but, the results just go back to Crawley Down and not Skoda Auto. So I have this strange feeling that if I don't put 'Brilliant' down, they will give a worse deal next time. Ho-hum. I'll try Station Garage next time.

:)

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  • 3 weeks later...

I tried Crawley down for a new set of locking wheel nuts, the fleet company had given me the nod for them so I explained the situation and they told me no unless i got an authorisation number from them myself, then book it in via the service department to have them fitted, he totally refused to phone them to obtain the auth. number which would have taken two minutes, very unhlepful IMO.

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  • 7 months later...

Do not use this garage - they are clueless and rip you off.

I got charged for parts that had nothing to do with my car - never got a refund.

I put my car in for specic fault code issues that they never solved - yet charge me for. Little did they know I have VAG-COM so could easily prove they were lying - they didn't care.

Also I paid for an aircon regas - but they failed to detect a leek - meaning I had to then return my car. They then succesfully manged to blow one of my aircon pipes covering my engine bay in green dye - which they would not wash off as I told them to halt work , they would not tell me which pipe had blown. Cost me over £300 and aircon still does not work , now I have a £135+vat pipe to buy and the labour to fit it etc etc.

The only plus point is you could drop your car off out of normal working hours as they had the airport parking service who you could leave your keys with and settle the bill.

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  • 5 months later...

I've got another bad experience to mention!

Took my car in as there was a small fuel leak coming from around the fuel filter. The AA man removed a small piece of plastic that was stopping one of the seal's from making proper contact but he advised me to take it in to be looked at as it appeared that the two small rubber seal's were damaged.

So, I called them up, they said it would take about 30min to look at and a few min to deal with if the seal's needed to be replaced. Took the car in at just after 9am and was reprimanded, like a school child, for being a few min late (about 5-10min). Apologized as was stuck in traffic, drove to sales center by mistake ect. They sent me up to the waiting room. After an hour and fifteen min a guy came in and told me that the fuel seals were damaged and that it was not their problem as the car he previously been serviced at a Nationwide Service center. I told the guy to show me what exactly was damaged so that I could inform Nationwide. Took 20min to find someone to show me the problem. I asked them why it had taken close to 2 hours only to be told what the AA man had already told me! They offered no apology and told me it would cost £15 plus labor to replace damaged equipment.

So, I took it back to Nationwide who dealt with if for free on the spot however, they couldnt quite see how the damage had been caused by them but it least they dealt with it in a polite, friendly manner.

I recommend caution if taking your car to Crawley Down Skoda!

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  • 1 month later...
  • 8 months later...

Have had 2 X-Trails from CDG and am now awaiting a new Scout. Have to say, all of the sales team members from both Nissan and Skoda have been extremely helpful. Special mention to Amy in Nissan sales (we looked at the new X-Trial when trying to decide on the latest car) and Dan in Skoda.

Dan arranged for us to have a Scout overnight, as I was working weekends and could not get to the dealership for a test drive. I have also been driving them hard for discounts, which was reasonably successful.

We had some issues with the last X-Trail which were dealt with without too much fuss, but were prolonged by Nissan rather than the dealership as it was warranty work and CDG needed to Nissan's authorisation to replace parts over and above the standard fix. The only real issue we had was that we had to chase the service guys for updates (our car was with them for 7 weeks at one point!) as they were pretty poor at calling us back and passing on updates and information.

As with any garage, check the bills, query anything you are not sure about and don't take BS from anyone because their will always be a franchise manager above the service manager. ;)

Regards

Mark

PS I'll let you know how we get on with the Skoda after sales once I have some experience.

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  • 5 months later...

***********************************

I took my Skoda fabia to Crawley Down for a service. Luckily I said they had to call me before doing any work beyond the agreed service.

The week before I had fitted new cheap wipers from Tesco. They phoned during the service to say that the wipers needed to be replaced. It was raining on the way there so I know the new wipers were working fine. I said no thank you.

Picked up the car after waiting an hour and drove off quickly as I was very late by then.

It started raining and when I tried the wipers they were all over the place. Ispection showed someone had cut the rubber on the ends of all the wipers except the back one which had been torn as it was knackered. (I won't deny that)

I drove back and complained and they assured me that nothing had been done. NOT BLOODY LIKELY!!!

I won't be returning

Edited by DGW
Inappropriate starting comment deleted.
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  • 1 year later...

I have had a good experience with this dealer when they diagnosed and replaced my DMF in my DSG octy. They even dealt with Warranty Direct and got everything sorted as quickly as they could.

Overall impressed.

Mike

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  • 1 year later...

Hmm - worrying! I bought my 2010 Superb Estate at CDG. Dan and Amy in sales were great and 18,000 mile service seemed OK. They also have a Ford service franchise and took my wife's Focus there for its 2 year service. Her car has sculpted wheel trims with cable ties in place. Having had one tyre replaced 3 cable ties were the same but one was a different colour. After the service, which included checking the brakes and security of the wheel nuts, guess what - the cable ties clearly had not been touched and the trims had never been off the wheels! On contacting the service manager the response was "Its OK, its a low mileage car, in good condition there won't be a problem, but if you really want you can bring it back and we will check it while you wait" He totally missed the point that this is actually fraud - the check sheet said work I had paid for had been done when patently it hadn't. What else had I paid for that hadn't actually been done?

I did take the car back "early afternoon" as arranged. Arrived at 12.50 pm, at 13.05 pm car is still where I left it. Ask receptionist what is going on. Brusquely told "You were early, you weren't meant to arrive until 1 o'clock, all the technicians are on lunch". Eventually at 13.10 pm the car disappears off. As 13.50 pm I again ask what is going on "the technician is just putting the wheels back on, won't be long now". You would think that having screwed up on the first visit they would pull out all the stops to get the remedial visit right. Instead they simply made an already bad situation worse. No one from the service management made an effort to see me face to face to apologise. After my initial complaint, Chris Voller the Commercial Director, did call me, but the re-assurance of his call was totally dispelled by the second visit. I subsequently returned their customer service assessment form with low scores and an "unhappy customer" covering letter, but no-one has bothered to follow it up. Pretty clear to me that the problem starts at the top. Whether they just condone the technicians cutting corners or actively encourage them to cut corners I can't say but with strong management it wouldn't happen.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 9 months later...

If this helps anyone, our 2009 1.9 estate is going for its 4 yr (third service) under the variable service next week for £168.50 and the quote on changing the front brakes was £209 inc parts, vat, labour and £189 for the rears. If, please no...., the cambelt needs doing its £349.

 

I'll tell you how they did next week.

 

Matt

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hummm....so Matilda went in yesterday and later on they called to say we needed new brake pads (yep expected that), new front discs (expected that) and it was cambelt time too (ouch! but also aware that was on the horizon.

 

I was a bit pi**ed that the brake fluid, air filter, fuel filter changes were not included in the initial quite although I'd stressed that this was 4 yrs and over 51K service when I asked for a quote.

 

And one of the wing mirror indicator lamps has 50% of the LEDs u/s too.

 

Get to collect her later on...

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My experience is in this thread: http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/297474-vrs-blackline-oil-leak-after-delivery/

 

Positives: They provided a good courtesy car, were apologetic, fixed and cleaned the car and my drive, refurbed a wheel and replaced a tyre for free.

 

Negatives: I'm guessing they must have cracked the oil filter housing when overtightening things, which makes me wary of their service dept. Having a MK3 Octavia as a replacement spoiled things a bit as while I prefer the car I bought, I drove a better specced car for 5 days so coming back to the Mk2 VRS felt a little like a downgrade.

 

Overall, I don't think they could have done anything different; they did their best.

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Hummm....so Matilda went in yesterday and later on they called to say we needed new brake pads (yep expected that), new front discs (expected that) and it was cambelt time too (ouch! but also aware that was on the horizon.

 

I was a bit pi**ed that the brake fluid, air filter, fuel filter changes were not included in the initial quite although I'd stressed that this was 4 yrs and over 51K service when I asked for a quote.

 

And one of the wing mirror indicator lamps has 50% of the LEDs u/s too.

 

Get to collect her later on...

On the plus side, despite needing some extra work, they wiggled the price back to the initial value and were very understanding when we left Matilda there over night and a bit because of trains, small child, timings problems.

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  • 2 weeks later...

And now we've bought a new Fabia from them.

 

Very nice salesperson who fully understood the 'fun' of car buying with a 2 1/2 yr old, including nearly having his ( the salesperson's) banana eaten and his business cards rearranged all over his desk....

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  • 9 months later...

Thread revival....mines in there today for its 1st service. Never used them before.

So far....booking in was done over the phone and utterly painless, lots of email confirmations and reminders which was good too.

Did not realise their service centre is separate from the dealership so ended up driving down there 1st to be referred back. A little annoying as faced alot of traffic on the Copthorne road returning to the service centre. No biggy but probably would have been useful if they had told me whilst booking in.

Service centre v impressive, huge modern compound where all marques of vehicle they market are serviced. Did have to wait a while to be seen but chap was v friendly and made booking in quite quick and painless. Something that was nice (though unnecessary as I've owned one already) was that he took time to explain the controls for the courtesy car whilst looking over the car for damage.

Also did say that it is fairly common for cars to not be ready to collect until 5:30 which was useful info.

Got a half decent 1.2 TSI Fabia courtesy car too, though the CDW was £15 despite being told £12.50 over the phone. Also had practically no fuel in it so probably going to lose a fiver there too (luck of the draw and not a major criticism though).

Car has a few warranty issues to be investigated too so be interesting to see how they get on. Will reveal all later.

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......well not a terrible experience all in all, pretty good as a matter of fact but not 100% sure I would use them again at this point.

Car was serviced, put on fixed 10k interval (which I didn't have to ask for which is quite good) and was cleaned and hoovered as well as you could expect (grateful as I rarely get a chance to clean it myself). Copy of electronic servicing left on front seat along with a letter asking for feedback so no grumbles there.

RE the warranty issues they could find no faults, not a train smash and nothing major but a couple of their responses on a couple of things I raised were quite dismissive...could however see their point and they did say monitor the issues and If they reoccur/get worse then bring it back in.

No charge for anything other than the (£2.50 more expensive than originally quoted) CDW for the hire car and having to put a few quid of fuel in the bone - dry courtesy car. Also received a call at 17:00 hrs to say the car was ready to collect but wasn't informed the centre shuts at 17:30....didn't leave much time for fueling the car and getting back there.....sure it also says they close at 18:00 hrs on Google.

My main issues with CDG are two fold....can't fault the staff or service but can't say I am a big fan of the ultra service centre operation they run, personally prefer the small, more personable service centres run by other dealerships...mainly because you tend to deal with the same people all the while and they get to know you and your car...also becoming a little more supportive RE faults/warranty issues over the course of time.

Also not a fan of the location. To get there from Crawley you really have to take the main drag back out towards the M23; the Copthorne road seemingly very busy morning and evening which made dropping the car in and collecting (as wasn't ready until the rush hour had really kicked in).

Just to reiterate not a bad experience though and did what it said on the tin. I live near Eastbourne so think next time I'll probably work from home and give Birchwood a go TBH.

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  • 5 months later...

I bought my Octavia VRS MKII last August from a Skoda Dealer in the North West, and had a terrible experience with them, however I am not willing to name at this stage as Skoda themselves are involved.

 

I took my car to Crawley Downs for a major service, they were brilliant.  I explained the issues we had had, and they checked all the Skoda systems to see if everything had been done on any recalls etc.

 

The service department was great, very polite and got my car in when I wanted and a courtesy car.  I got a call earlier than expected to say the car was ready.

 

I have the car booked in next week to have it looked at, it looks like the Clutch Master Cylinder is leaking, and Skoda Warranty have said they will cover it.  I will report back next week when I have the car back.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have to say the post above about the wipers rings a bell with me. My wife's car went in for a service and MOT with them. I drove it down and before I did I checked the car, specifically the wipers for damage, as a previous car had problems with worn wipers

I cleaned each wiper and wet the windows to check for smears and they were perfect, as I expected only being replaced six months previous.

Phone call later that day saying it had failed on wipers. Went down and sure enough both wipers smearing all over the window. Had I not specifically checked them hours before I may have shrugged it off as I suspect many would.

I marked the air filter as it is easy to do and that was also not replaced but charged for.

Couple of letters back and forward and got nowhere other than to be ridiculed to think they would do things like that.

My wife's runaround may stand a bit of rough servicing but a more complicated machine with a haldex and DSG is relying on things being done

I would have real reluctance to take my new one there, dealing with so many makes there not just VAG they cannot have the expertise needed even if I could trust them - which I don't

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  • 1 year later...

I have just bought my first Skoda - Octavia and called Skoda Crawley to ask for the service. Spoke to Chris who was unhelpful and told me he has asked his colleague to call me, he did sound like he did not want to help... His female colleague from Service team (can't remember the name) left me a voicemail but she did sound so tired, bored and unwellcoming, I decided not even go there and I am going to cancel the service I booked. I have spoken to the Skoda in Medway where my car has always been serviced and they sounded great and spend 30 minutes answering all my questions about the car history and what needs done when. I am therefore going to Medway even though it will be longer journey than to Copthorne.

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