firebits

Skoda brought their customers into a commercial dispute between them and one of their suppliers. The End

Why would they tell you this but tell me that they could not honour the car at the original price and that I was to negotiate a new deal with Simpsons?

One variable, my custom. I was a Skoda Customer, now not. I'm not alone, this is not a win for Skoda nor myself. All parties lost here.

Thanks. Happy with my purchase. I couldn't get the Skoda but I managed get a very decent Audi instead. Talk about a first world problem! It's a bit of a transition, it's taking a while to adjust and I've discovered that I now have 3 different sat nav's, perhaps this is one too many. I don't have all the toys that the new Superb would have but I need to loose that mentality, it's a different car and that's it. When Kate called and I was in the new car and she was talking about contacting a dealer who has screwed us all over here I was like "nah, yer alright. I'll just keep what I've got thanks".

So, got the call from Kate. Skoda UK have reached the decision that they cannot sell the car at the original price, however if I call Simpsons Skoda I could discuss a new deal for the Superb. I took the call hands free in the Audi, it worked fabulously. Sound quality was excellent.

Audi in Stirling. It wasn't advertised however.

It has some very nice features, it being in my driveway is my favourite so far. You'll never guess through - shhhh! (keep this to yourself). We agreed a price for the car yesterday, and today I gave them that money, and they gave me the car! Nobody said a word, it was like this was what normally happened there.

Good news, my new Superb has arrived!

Mate, I ordered a 159 in Carbonio Black. It arrived in Stromboli Grey, missing blue and me, and had left hand drive front seats. But atleast it arrived.

I can only use my own industry models as reference, I am a VAR/Partner for a few software companies. This would never have happened to my clients, I for one would never have allowed it. The software companies I partner would never have allowed it either. They would have kept any conflicts between themselves and my Company, none of us would ever bring the customer into a commercial dispute as Skoda have done here. The question of who is the Customer. If you for instance purchase Cloud Services via my Company you are both my customer and the software Companies customer, there is no single ownership of you as customer and we are both responsible to you as the customer. If I used an external agent to sell that software Companies Cloud Services, even though the agent is neither qualified or authorised to sell those services, I would still be responsible for you as customer and the software company, if brought into it, would still be really keen to make you their customer. This dispute is between Simpsons Skoda and Skoda UK. It should never have involved the customer. The lack of care, professionalism and responsibility shown by both companies is toe-curlingly ghastly, and in a market where customer retention is so important when under the skin the products are very similar retention of the customer should be the priority. Today Skoda lost a customer, I bought a brand new Audi A4 Avant Sport. It took around 2 hrs and 45 mins and as the car is onsite already it should be ready for me to collect tomorrow evening. This is nearly a full 4 months after I ordered the Skoda. That Skoda is onsite in dealership in Preston and has been for nearly two months now. Overall this has been an appalling experience, and I say that having been an Alfa Romeo customer in the past. If you manage to do customer service even worse than they do then that is as big a red flag as you can ever possibly wave.

My partner gets legal cover via her work, she called them and discussed when this all happened. I've already sent them on the order form and invoice as well as email correspondence as they requested but I've sat in the stuff they sent to me hoping that Skoda UK would sort it. I'll fill it in and let them get on with it.

How many times have we been told now that we will have a resolution in 24/48 hours now? It's simply not acceptable. I think that it's stalling tactics, the less of us they have left the more stock they have to sell at a higher price.

I was assured by Skoda UK that there would be a resolution to this today. There wasn't even a call and my call was not returned. Tomorrow I shall start the order process on an A4 and fill in the forms from the lawyer on this. Not happy, and no longer a Skoda customer.

It is Skoda UK's insistence that we are their customers. Regardless of how the supply model works, I ordered a Skoda which Skoda then built and delivered. So the order has been accepted, built and shipped. I as customer have no idea of how the fulfilment model of a car business works and nor should I care. If the dealer happens to be ordering through their fleet department instead of their retail department and if this is against their license/agreement/whatever with Skoda then this should be an issue between the Dealer and Skoda only. It's pretty poor that Skoda have brought the customer into this disagreement too. The price must have been acceptable when Skoda built the car because they built the sodding car. Sorry if I'm a bit emotional. It has been 4 months now since I ordered.

Anyone had an update from Skoda today?

Given the fact we have no cars I would say that the orders are in fact cancelled. Furthermore they say that we are free to negotiate the sale of the cars through the dealer network, which is a new deal. Not cancelled orders means the car supplied at agreed terms. Calling a dealer tomorrow to negotiate a new deal is exactly that, a NEW deal!

Below is the statement from Skoda in full: We understand you may recently have received a communication suggesting that ŠKODA UK has cancelled certain customer orders because of discounting. We wish to clarify the position and reassure you that ŠKODA UK has not cancelled any customer orders (either for this reason or at all). We are, however, currently investigating the legal status of certain third parties which have been involved with ordering ŠKODA vehicles. The purpose of the investigation is to ensure ŠKODA UK complies with its legal obligations. Whilst this may have affected trade with such companies, we hope to find a way to be able to process all properly placed orders as soon as our investigations conclude. You are free to use an intermediary to negotiate/conclude a purchase on your behalf and/or arrange finance (in either case purchasing through one of our network of approved ŠKODA retailers) and our investigation is not aimed at preventing any such lawful activity We have not been informed of any customer details and therefore we have been unable to be pro-active in contacting any customers If you have placed an order you think may have been affected by this issue, and wish to obtain further information, you may contact us on 033 300 37504.

NCD

Skoda Superb 1.4 TSI DSG SE-L in Graphite Grey

There appears to be stock at Audi Dealers of the new A4 1.4 TSI SE (manual only)

Would this be a Trading Standards issue?

a tad excessive I thought

1.4 TSI SE-L DSG Saloon, Graphite Grey, DCC, nozzles, interior LED, Phonebox thingy, Smartgate, Paddles, some other things

Oh, the cars are not embargoed. Even today Skoda UK said that I was still free to purchase the car, I can even negotiate with a local dealer if I want. They even said if I did a fresh order for a new car they could simply just allocate the one already built if I wished. But of course, any new order does not have the same level of discount.

Simpsons at the start of my discussions mentioned another party as rights holders, FOS Europe. No idea who they are and if it was even true.