Advice needed please, how to complain

[MilgeS]

Hi all, I'll try to keep this brief.

Vehicle: Monte Carlo 1.6 TDi 11 plate.

Recently I had a rear offside brake problem, the brake was sticking on. I took it to the dealer, told them the brake show wasn't returning and probably a broken spring.

They had the car in, stripped it down and found a broken return spring and ordered a replacement.

Today I have received a bill for £61.31 inc VAT, cost of spring £1.09+VAT.

Called dealer, they said they tried to claim on warranty but Skoda say it's a wear and tear part so it's not covered.

I've argued with the dealer that they could have known it wouldn't be covered by warranty and made me aware before stripping down. They argue they would have had to strip down to know what to order in.

My argument is they could have warned me about not being covered, ordered both springs in and I could have stripped it down myself, cost of springs probably less than £5, my labour £0.

Any advice who to take this up with, may be a contact number for Skoda UK? I know I probably won't get any joy but I shall at least feel a bit better for trying.

Many thanks in advance.

[seboni121]

Wpps well did you ask them just to find the problem out and not fix or just left it with them, it'll be very difficult to get money back I had similar issue with dealer and it went pear shaped, so I cut of my nose and sold both my fabias ! Big mistake

[Skully]

When I had problems with both MINI and VW I found that taking to Twitter and forums was a good way of getting their attention.

Simply by stating my dissatisfaction with the service I had received I was contacted by customer relations who sorted both problems.

MINI - Alternator belt, tried to charge me £130 for a new one, a month after I'd bought the car

VW - Completely ballsed up a service

Both sorted within a couple of days.

[MilgeS]

Wpps well did you ask them just to find the problem out and not fix or just left it with them, it'll be very difficult to get money back I had similar issue with dealer and it went pear shaped, so I cut of my nose and sold both my fabias ! Big mistake

Well, I took it in telling them the brake show wasn't returning, they tried to tell me that these problems never happen on Skodas! So I want to know why they didn't think to call Skoda and check whether it was a warranty item or not before stripping it down, surely they must be able to check these things? Or mention it to me that it might possibly not be a warranty item and what would I like to do. It was one of my pupils I'm teaching to drive that said it's probably a return spring, I told the dealer this so there's not a lot of investigating to find the problem!

[Ootohere]

If you are able to take off wheels and remove the drum and look, then maybe that is what you should have been doing.

20 minutes per side and you would have known.

Saying you could have done it after getting someone else to, is not really on.

(your labour is not £0 when you are doing Driving Instruction, & if you are spending an hour checking your brakes, you are probably not spending an hour earning.)

Brake Pads or shoes, Discs or Drums are wear and tear,

a broken Brake Shoe Spring is not Wear & Tear if the Brake shoes have not been changed previously.

(if they have then somebody can have put the spring on wrong, fought to put something on,

or commonly, wraxed off the drum with grooved edge and messed up the spring.

Newish car and not likely, but used to be common)

How many miles on the car?

Call Skoda UK Customer Care, and Also Email them,

& ask direct if the want to Continue to say that the Broken Spring is not a Warranty Issue.

It has happened on your car and they better check out some of the poor parts they appear to be getting from suppliers.

Did the dealership show you the communication with Skoda UK?

I must say that as an Business Expense i would be submitting the bill with my Tax Returns if you do have to pay..

Does the Skoda Warranty include Instruction Vehicles.

george

[XK140]

Assuming your car is in warranty,I would simply say that the spring should be covered.

It's expected life should be a lot more than under two years,therefore it was a faulty component at manufacture.

Complain.

(Is it not the case that dealers get paid a low rate for warranty work,so they would rather extract £60 from you than mess around and complete a lot of paper work to get £20 from Skoda?)

[MilgeS]

Assuming your car is in warranty,I would simply say that the spring should be covered.

It's expected life should be a lot more than under two years,therefore it was a faulty component at manufacture.

Complain.

(Is it not the case that dealers get paid a low rate for warranty work,so they would rather extract £60 from you than mess around and complete a lot of paper work to get £20 from Skoda?)

The dealer said they claimed for the spring but Skoda have sent back telling them it's not covered, I will be contacting Skoda CS whatever the outcome.

Thank you for your post :-)

[MilgeS]

If you are able to take off wheels and remove the drum and look, then maybe that is what you should have been doing.

20 minutes per side and you would have known.

Saying you could have done it after getting someone else to, is not really on.

(your labour is not £0 when you are doing Driving Instruction, & if you are spending an hour checking your brakes, you are probably not spending an hour earning.)

Brake Pads or shoes, Discs or Drums are wear and tear,

a broken Brake Shoe Spring is not Wear & Tear if the Brake shoes have not been changed previously.

(if they have then somebody can have put the spring on wrong, fought to put something on,

or commonly, wraxed off the drum with grooved edge and messed up the spring.

Newish car and not likely, but used to be common)

How many miles on the car?

Call Skoda UK Customer Care, and Also Email them,

& ask direct if the want to Continue to say that the Broken Spring is not a Warranty Issue.

It has happened on your car and they better check out some of the poor parts they appear to be getting from suppliers.

Did the dealership show you the communication with Skoda UK?

I must say that as an Business Expense i would be submitting the bill with my Tax Returns if you do have to pay..

Does the Skoda Warranty include Instruction Vehicles.

george

I called the dealer to explain what happened to begin with, they said they'll have the car in to look at it so I didn't think for one minute that the spring wouldn't be covered by warranty, it's a £1 spring for goodness sake, surely Skoda know that it will be an hour labour to replace a £1 spring and cover that under warranty!!

Ok, I would have had to rearrange a lesson to check myself but the dealer had it a day and a half because they had to 'fit it in' to their schedule and then kept it stripped down while the spring was on overnight order.

32k miles on the car but I think my main point is, why are we having to pay for a £1 spring, if the shoes were worn and need replacing etc I can understand that.

I will be contacting CS and also claiming it on tax returns as expenditure.

Thanks for your input George :-)

[MilgeS]

When I had problems with both MINI and VW I found that taking to Twitter and forums was a good way of getting their attention.

Simply by stating my dissatisfaction with the service I had received I was contacted by customer relations who sorted both problems.

MINI - Alternator belt, tried to charge me £130 for a new one, a month after I'd bought the car

VW - Completely ballsed up a service

Both sorted within a couple of days.

Hi, thanks for your post, was it Skoda UK on Twitter you caught the attention of? I follow them so I can DM them. Thanks again

[James I]

Call Skoda UK on:

Contact Us

Got a question? Please try our Frequently Asked Questions page or complete the form below to contact us.

Are you interested in a ŠKODA franchise? If so please email us at [email protected].

Useful Telephone Numbers

• ŠKODA Customer Services - 08457 745745.
  
• ŠKODA Insurance - 08003 167895.
  
• ŠKODA Finance Customer Services - 08700 102022
  

They have been very good with any problem I have thrown at them.

Good Luck

[Ootohere]

I would be taking off the drum on the otherside, and checking, taking pictures of the spring.

When Skoda UK admit and accept that it is a Warranty Issue,

tell them you want a Dealership to check the other side & replace those springs.

* No idea why the Dealership think they can charge 1 hour or even 45 minutes labour for,

removing wheel, removing drum, finding spring broken, replacing spring, replacing drum, replacing wheel.

30 minutes tops.

Or did they check both sides?

george

[MilgeS]

I doubt very much they looked both sides, I'll ask why they charged £50+VAT labour.

[CRASH67]

I not sure how many of you realise how a dealer work or not.

A Dealer and manufacteur cannot be expected to commit or confirm something is warranty with out any sort of inspection.

The dealer should also make you aware that its possible that should the issue be found not be warranty you can me expected to pay the bill.

The dealers do have the ability to contact SUK and discuss the issue giving them an idea wether it would be warranty or not

Now in respect of times manufacturs have standard time codes, which are very generous.

My best example is Mercedes Give there dealers 2 hours to carry out a 6 weekly inspection on a truck, a task a tech can do in 30-45 mins.

I ve seen many techs beat these standard times for chaning clutchs and brakes etc.

I would be inclined to ask the dealer for confirmation of the word back from skoda uk that its not warranty. And to see the damaged part.

Id be concered the dealer may have mislaid the part or have missed something thats caused Skoda to chuck this out, and prehaps they are sending you the bill to see if they can recoup the cost. A bit naughty if the case.

I would say a well written letter/e-mail to dealer/skoda will get it taken back, as the money envolved isnt worth them arguing over.

[Ootohere]

MilgeS,

is your car due/overdue to get a 30,000 mile service or has it already been done and its Drums Off, cleaned and checked?

george

[MilgeS]

The dealer should also make you aware that its possible that should the issue be found not be warranty you can me expected to pay the bill.

The dealers do have the ability to contact SUK and discuss the issue giving them an idea wether it would be warranty or not

This is my main argument, they told me on the phone that they are often surprised what Skoda say isn't a warranty repair, if for one moment they had any doubt that there could be an issue (let's face it, shouldn't any mechanic have guessed from my description that it might have been the return spring?), they should have warned me of cost, I would then have either given the go ahead or not.

This repair took place on 12th January, I bet the spring is long gone in the rubbish now, I don't doubt that it wasn't the faulty part, I believe them.

I have sent details to Skoda via the 'Contact Us' query box, I'll also be calling them tomorrow if I find time.

[MilgeS]

MilgeS,

is your car due/overdue to get a 30,000 mile service or has it already and it and Drums Off, cleaned and checked?

george

Had it done at 28k at a different Skoda dealership as they don't do the fixed price servicing at my local. Initially my dealer tried to tell me the handbrake had been adjusted up too high at service, even though it wasn't adjusted and that was 3000 miles previous.

[Ootohere]

That will not be wear and tear then if someone had the drums off already.

One of those things, but not Wear & Tear.

george

[MilgeS]

That will not be wear and tear then if someone had the drums off already.

One of those things, but not Wear & Tear.

george

Ok, thanks for the update.

[MilgeS]

The dealer should also make you aware that its possible that should the issue be found not be warranty you can me expected to pay the bill.

The dealers do have the ability to contact SUK and discuss the issue giving them an idea wether it would be warranty or not

.

Sorry, my bad quoting above in earlier post

This is my main argument, they told me on the phone that they are often surprised what Skoda say isn't a warranty repair, if for one moment they had any doubt that there could be an issue (let's face it, shouldn't any mechanic have guessed from my description that it might have been the return spring?), they should have warned me of cost, I would then have either given the go ahead or not.

This repair took place on 12th January, I bet the spring is long gone in the rubbish now, I don't doubt that it wasn't the faulty part, I believe them.

I have sent details to Skoda via the 'Contact Us' query box, I'll also be calling them tomorrow if I find time.

Edited 28 January, 2013 by MilgeS

[Richf]

Write SUK a letter , i got a £400 bill refunded despite my car being 2 years out of warranty

[MilgeS]

Write SUK a letter , i got a £400 bill refunded despite my car being 2 years out of warranty

I'm hoping to call them tomorrow, have already sent a message via their contact us page and I'll write a letter to similar effect now on your advice, many thanks.

[Carlodiesel]

Dont use 0845

Use 01 numbers.

01908 601601

See her....

http://www.saynoto0870.com/search.php

[Richf]

Just in case you dont have the address

Škoda Customer Services

Selectapost 34

Sheffield

S97 3FA

[MilgeS]

Just called Skoda CS and they are going to look into my annoyance at paying so much for a spring to be fitted, he did explain how the warranty works and I do understand why it isn't covered etc. I still think my dealer could have softened the blow a bit, bearing in mind I've put best part of £30 his way in the last 18 months.

I think it was just the shock of being charged so much for something of such little value, would anyone else feel the same as me in this situation or am I overeacting and expecting too much, be honest, I can take it and it may set me up better for future shocks!

Many thanks to all who have contributed and I'll update when I hear any news, good or bad.

[MilgeS]

Hi, just had a call from Skoda UK and they are arranging for my bill to be refunded. I am very grateful to them for this, although I can see how the warranty system works and the part wouldn't normally be covered, however, it is mainly due to poor customer service/relations at my dealer that I felt the need to complain in the first place.

Thank you all for your valuable input which has helped me get to this stage.

Kind regards

Dave