Front door locks

[Chappers.]

Here I am sat in the house yet again as for the third morning this week my brand new Blackline has decided to lock me out of the front of the car. The rear doors & boot unlock fine, but the front doors do not. I can eventually get the drivers door to open by physically putting the key in the door lock and unlocking it the old fashioned way, but the passenger door refuses to open (I've tried the button on the centre console, locking & unlocking again, turning the engine on etc etc).

I'm now waiting for a call back from the dealer who will be providing a courtesy vehicle today whether they want to or not as the wife requires a car for work at 7.30am and ours won't allow access.

I appreciate that the dealer will be fixing this fault, but out of interest, has anyone else had a similar issue and what was the cause?

[Chappers.]

Well a brief update, after waiting over 3 hours for a call back from the dealer I ended up ringing them again and speaking to the finance manager (who was the only "senior" member of staff on duty with it being a Sunday and happened to be the person that answered the phone). He agreed that the fact that the doors wouldn't open at all was a safety issue and so I took it back to them that afternoon and drove off in one of their courtesy cars so they could fix it the following day (Monday). Unfortunately, this is where the good news ends.

The following morning I received a phone call from one of the service staff demanding to know why I had one of their cars, telling me that they needed it for someone else and was it just sat on my drive and if so could they have it back. After informing him that the wife was using it for work he was not happy but couldn't do anything about it. That afternoon they rang me to say that it had been fixed, it was a thermal cut-out on the drivers door that needed resetting and was now working. The wife collected the Blackline Monday evening.

Tuesday morning the wife tried to go to work but the car wouldn't let her in again - yes the rear doors would open but the fronts remained deadlocked! We eventually managed to gain entry to the drivers door and she went off to work. I waited until the dealer opened and called them again - unfortunately from this point onwards things took an almost surreal turn of events.

The chap at the dealer was extremely off-hand and informed me that although the fault was a safety & security issue, they were under no obligation to provide me with any form of courtesy vehicle and that really I needed to address any issues about my car with Skoda Assist. To cut a long story short, I spent the next 8 hours being ignored, then lied to by the dealer who constantly tried to shirk any responsibility for rectifying the fault on my vehicle. They called Skoda Assist & Skoda UK giving false information about the problems including telling them that my vehicle was immobile and at one point even claimed to be me to Skoda UK in order to try and get my vehicle recovered. After many, many calls (usually from Skoda Assist - and to their credit they were very helpful even though none of the problems came under their remit) - it was established by them & Skoda UK that the dealer had been lying to all of us. Skoda UK ended up calling the dealer directly to "raise hell" with them and finally sort out providing me with a suitable hire vehicle.

So, in summary, I currently have a 2 week old Blackline with less than 250 miles on the clock that won't let us into it in a morning, and a dealer that won't ever return phone calls and lie's to both their customers and Skoda UK in order to try and shirk providing an alternative vehicle when one is off the road. I really have cut this story to the bare minimum, but to say that I am disgusted by the treatment from the dealer is an understatement.

[littleade]

I feel for you bud. Looks like you've had a real hard time with your 'dealer' - are there any other Skoda garages within drivable distance to you. There's 3 within 15 miles of me, 2 family owned and 1 by a comany that has multi dealerships. The difference in the quality of their customer service is quite significant. Have you contacted consumer advice? they may be able to help, though you migh have more succes geting back on to Skoda quoting their customer promise and insisting you speak to a senior manager and putting your appalling experience in an email to that person? I work for a big telecoms company and letters to the CEO are always very high profile. best of luck and let me know how you get on.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england.htm

[stevetdci]

Which end of Lincolnshire are you, is Peterborough your local dealer ( I'm Peterborough) dealers aren't usually under any obligation to give you a courtesy car and it's usually a case of first come first served. It sounds like the guy on Sunday was helpful but the rest of the staff not great. If the car had been 12 months old I could have understood putting it through skoda assist but with it being so new I would have thought the dealer would have bent over backwards so not to as spoil your new car experience.

If they won't give you a courtesy car I would ask them to book the car in on a Saturday morning and find out what is wrong with it, if they cannot fix the fault ask them for a loan car, I'd use something along te lines of you have no confidence that the car is locked and that it poses a risk to the car insurance. If they refuse to help I would say that you tell them you would like to see the service/after sales manager, then dealer principle ... Say that you intend to strt the process to formally reject the vehicle ( have a letter already drafted to call their bluff) and tell them that you will be putting it in writting to the deler principle (mark private and confidential so staff cannot open it ) just be fair and calm at all times.

I'd guess it is the convenience unit that is playing up, hope you get it fixed soon

[Chappers.]

stevetdci - I'm actually in Lincoln and am having the issues with my local dealer. There aren't any other dealers that are local to me, I think I'm looking at nearly 40 minutes or more away for the next ones although speaking to people in the trade those two further ones (Rainworth? at Mansfield being one) seem to have a very good reputation. It seems that my local dealer may have a staff retention issue also which is never a great sign.

It is the dealer that is causing the issues. Skoda Assist had been placed in a "piggy in the middle" situation by the dealer but were absolutely great and a real credit to their staff and customer service, and it was them that took the time to delve deeper into the problems being created by the dealer. Although I have had no direct contact with Skoda UK Customer Service (as yet - this will be changing soon), it was Customer Services that ended up contacting the dealer directly and managed to sort out a hire car for me.

I am at the moment using a hire car so am still mobile (or the wife is anyway), however it still does not alter the fact that I've spent a considerable amount of money on a brand new car that is defective and I can't use as it's now been at the dealers for 5 days out of the past 6. The dealers response when I raised my concerns about it being a safety issue (front doors remaining deadlocked despite any and all attempts to unlock them) was simply "they are anti-burst locks and will undo in an accident" - hopefully people will forgive me for my scepticism on whether that would actually work when they won't unlock normally.

I am almost at the stage of rejecting the vehicle altogether if I'm honest - I've certainly lost all confidence in the dealer and the longer I am paying for a car that I cannot use the more I have to question it's suitability as being fit for purpose and it's long term reliability. As it happens, there has been no contact from the dealer since it went in on Wednesday morning so I can only assume that I won't get it back until some time next week now - so we are driving around in an almost base-spec 1.6tdi Octavia - not exactly what I wanted after coming from a BMW!

[monkster]

See my recent post about Horton's of Lincoln and their warranty person who is inept at best Chris Chester.

[stevetdci]

I wouldn't want to be trapped in a car with the doors locked ... I certainly wouldn't trust that dealer .... I'd give them a call and request an update, or go direct to skoda if they booked it it. I'd get the car fixed then look at using an alternative dealer. I look after our fleet cars and over the past 9 years there have been very few that have been troublesome when new. I can remember a focus that spat its power steering fluid out on delivery and a laguna that spat its fuel pipe off. Both went on to be good cars.

It's unfortunate that it takes the fun out of a new car, it's not so much the problems but the way dealers treat people when things go wrong. I'd get it fixed and see how you go. Good luck

[Chappers.]

I received a follow-up phone call today from Skoda UK just enquiring about the service I had from them providing a hire car. As I told the woman on the other end of the line, the service from Skoda UK & Skoda Assist has been exemplary and a credit to both companies, but after 4 days I have not had any update or call from the dealer to let me know how they are getting on with my car. She was shocked that the dealer had not attempted to contact me at all as I should be regularly updated.

The woman has called the dealer on my behalf to be told that they have had a look at it this morning but couldn't see any fault so will look again on Monday. It would appear that after-sales service or basic courtesy does not matter to my dealer which is a great shame as I really like (liked? this experience is rapidly taking the shine off ownership) the car. I dread to think what the rest of my ownership will be like!

[Chappers.]

Finally got an update from the dealer a few minutes ago (co-incidence that I've just e-mailed the dealer & Skoda UK about this and threatening to formally reject the vehicle?) - it wasn't repeating the fault and they were about to hand it back to me but it's locked them out today. I did tell them that I wasn't going to accept it back until they had found the fault anyway as I know it is there and I refuse to accept an intermittent fault on a brand new car.

They still don't know what the problem is though. Lets see what happens next (the Octavia 1.6tdi hire car is proving to be extremely economical though :think: )

[mattrixdesign2]

Sorry to hear this... Hope you get it solved soon, disgraceful service from the dealer.

[stevetdci]

I guess its always difficult if they cannot find the fault, although i'd go for the convenience module. I've just had a golf off the road because when the windscreen was changed it didn't seal water got onto the module and it did things like refuse to unlock and even start. I had the same thing with my mk5 golf many years ago, that would unlock every door apart from the front passenger side, again the module replaced quickly under warranty. My Leon is now doing the same but its either the lock itself or another bloody module !

[littleade]

Hi Chappers,

Any news yet on your BL?

cheers

Ade

[blackspaven]

Not being funny, but i'm surprised they've not gone overboard on this since the dealer won't be paying anything?!

When the little aircon flap in my jumbo box refused to stay up in either hot or cold weather, can't remember which now, I told them what it was doing and videod it on my phone as it didn't want to do it after the half hour drive to the dealer's themselves, so they KNEW it was doing it and I thought they'd just swap out the little flap, but i'll be jiggered if they didn't replace the ENTIRE jumbo box! got it sorted although a huge overkill, and when I showed surprise, they said they didn't really care cos the cost was covered under warranty.

[Chappers.]

Skoda Customer Services are looking into the issue. I've e-mailed the dealer telling them that I want to reject the vehicle (it has now been off the road for almost two weeks), however the dealer principle is away on holiday until the end of the month and "there is no one that can so anything except him".

I might be collecting the car tomorrow as it should be ready and the hire car from Skoda UK is due to be returned as the dealer has told them that it's been fixed. I did raise my concerns about using a car that I've rejected with Customer Services but they have ensured me that it will make no difference and I should continue to use it. They have also said that if it is not fixed properly then they do not see how there could be any argument about a rejection.

So, in short the situation is still not resolved and as yet I do not have my car. Quite what I will do about a replacement vehicle if they accept the rejection I'm not sure yet - my confidence in the dealer has completely gone and I doubt that Skoda would be able to source an equivalent spec vRS to the Blackline from stock. I can't even begin to describe how this whole experience has left me feeling about the car and the dealer.

[littleade]

That's grim. you must feel like this....

[Chappers.]

After having to ring the dealer this morning to check it was actually ready, my wife has been to collect the car again. It's now a waiting game until the dealer principle returns from his holiday or we have a frosty night to see if the fault has been cured (I'm not convinced that the garage are really happy that its fixed) they told the wife that they've altered the locking so all doors open on the press of the keyfob - I've just altered it back in case.

I am pleased to have it back though if I'm honest as its a brilliant car when we can get into it

Sent from my HTC Sensation using Tapatalk

[Chappers.]

Well the car managed an overnight stay but faulted again first thing this morning - it would unlock without any problems but would not lock again despite the alarm arming etc.

We are now back in yet another courtesy car and I really have had enough of the damned thing now

[Welsh_kai_boy]

I would insist they change the module or if they won't do that then get a master tech from Skoda to solve it.

Edited 18 November, 2012 by Welsh_kai_boy

[Chappers.]

Looking at the Warranty Invoice that they gave the wife when she collected it on Saturday, they replaced both front control units. I did call in yesterday in person as they did not know why the car was outside the workshop again

I get the feeling that even the warranty chap (that has up to this point been almost obstructive) is now accepting that things are not good enough and that the car has now been off the road more than it has been on it and does not seem to be accepting that my rejection of the vehicle is the only option left - the only issue with this being that there are no Blacklines left and I do not want, and would not have bought, a standard specification vRS.

The caseworker from Skoda Customer Services has not called me back like she promised she would either. I am really struggling to understand how a company can operate with such a lack of basic courtesy to their customers.

[littleade]

Daft question, but coud it be something to do with the key(s) or the reciever in the car if they've changed the control modules?

[stevetdci]

I'm not sure of the spec but I'm pretty sure there is a race blue estate black line in wings peterboroughs showroom, or it was on Sunday.

[Chappers.]

The dealer has been in touch this morning to tell me that as the dealer principle will not be back in the country until next week there is still nothing that they can do. The car is in the workshops but they do not have a clue what the problem is. They have said that they do not know if the fault would be serious enough to warrant a rejection (how about the 3 times it's been in and the 3 weeks out of the past 4 that it's been off the road for the same fault that is still not fixed?)

They have also told me that if the rejection is accepted there "will be no replacement vehicle" - awesome display of customer service again then. I really am beginning to loath the day I walked through the door to the dealer now. Skoda UK are unable to do anything until the dealer principle returns either.

[Dedders]

Have you got the problem sorted yet?

[Chappers.]

Unfortunately not - and I'm still without the car.

Yesterday I fell out big time with Skoda Customer Services whose only response so far has been "I'll update the case notes". After this amount of time I don't want case notes updating, I want action and the situation sorting out. Apparently the dealership has told them that the car is now fixed - however they haven't bothered to inform me of this.

I also turned up at the dealership shortly afterwards and had a face to face meeting with the Dealer Principle. I would like to think that it was getting me somewhere but it appears not. He has admitted that as a dealership they have c*cked up with their service over this though. That said, it doesn't get me a car that is working and he is very reluctant to agree to a rejection. He has admitted that although they think that the fault may be fixed, they cannot be sure and if it goes back for a fourth time then they would not have a leg to stand on. They still have the car.

It would still leave me with the question of what other vehicle to buy instead of an Octy though. That said, with a 5 week old car that has spent most of the past 4 weeks off the road with the dealer, almost anything has to be an improvement surely?

[reverse]

It would still leave me with the question of what other vehicle to buy instead of an Octy though. That said, with a 5 week old car that has spent most of the past 4 weeks off the road with the dealer, almost anything has to be an improvement surely?

Well, the problem is not with an Octavia is it? It's with the Octavia you bought. So an improvement would be even buying another Octavia It does sure sound like it's an electronics fault and why the dealer doesn't just want to change out parts that are covered under warranty anyway puzzles me greatly. It's so bad how these kind of incompetent dealers ruin the brand for a lot of people :(