Hello

After I had my first Skoda Elegance Combi I asked two dealers for a business lease quotation on an Octavia vRS, with absolutely no response!

Got a Leon instead, two years gone and got a Mazda that a dealer had in stock, Mazda is going back in three months so a local broker has been shopping around for me, requested two quotes for an Octavia vRS from two different dealers.

Exactly the same response!

It's not the brokers fault as he quickly secured prices for an Amarok, Navara, Merc C Class, Audi A4, Seat Exeo Estate.

So Skoda it seems are far too busy and don't need any extra business.

I ordered a Passat in the end

When you say 'asked' was it a dealer visit, phone call or email?

Not responding to any of the above is poor, if you can be bothered then you should complain, not to the dealer but to Skoda UK. The last time I did the dealer was very quick to ring me and apologise.

I know people say 'whats the point' but if we all took this stance and never complained the level of service is only going to go one way and it ain't up!

As it happens their apology came too late as I'd already taken my business elsewhere but hopefully it will go down as a black mark for Skoda UK towards said dealer.

Could it be the brokers fault? Perhaps the others were offering bigger discounts so he chose to give you those. I know Merc are offering good business discounts as a friend has just gotone.

Although the Octy vRS is popular, I would have thought any dealer would take a genuine request seriously.

I would go for they couldn't give a **** (insert your own word)

I went into my local dealer once asking about octavias, left details of specs etc I would be interested. They had a trade in event the following weekend. I'll give you two guesses as to the response I got back......

None what so ever.

If they can't be bothered to get back to you then they don't deserve your business.

If you have to complain before they call back, then that says something about the quality of service you'll get once they have extracted your cash.

I mean if they can't be bothered when they are trying to get you to part with money, why are they going to even think about being bothered once they have it.

I'd go with one of the other brands.

The first time (5 years ago) I went to the dealer and left all my details, car spec etc with a salesperson who couldn't do business lease prices for whatever reason. He promised to pass on my details. Called another dealer and gave them exactly the same details.

About a week later I received an email from dealer number 1 basically saying could I tell them what spec, length of term etc I wanted. Exactly the same as what i had left on the initial visit! Emailed the info again to get no response.

Nothing from dealer number two.

This time my broker sent the PDF I created from the Skoda web site to a dealer he knew, after a week getting no response he commented he thought he had burnt his bridges there and would send the info to another one. After a further week I told him not to bother chasing it.

Skoda have potentially lost out on the sale of five cars to my company, when I got my Leon a colleague choose one, since I got my Mazda two colleagues have picked Mazda as a company car.

I've ordered a Passat in the end and I'm now worrying that it's going to be a bit boring!

Passat will be a bit boring Dave, I have to say. Isn't particularly inspiring to drive.

Bizarre experience you've had with dealers though - not good to hear. I'm fairly sure this is down to individual dealers (which isn't good in itself, as the dealer network is obviously not behaving consistantly, SHOCK HORROR) - but I'd put money on the fact if I'd gone with the same enquiry to two good local-ish dealers I'd give time of day to down here, it wouldn't have ended in the same way.

Hope you enjoy the Passat though!