Skoda UK Customer services low goodwill contributions to mechanical problems.

 

I have a Skoda Octavia VRS diesel from 3 miles, serviced fully from new at Skoda. At 6 months outside of warranty (3.5 years old) a sensor failed on the exhaust system. This was repaired at a Skoda garage, so i contacted Skoda UK customer services for a goodwill contribution. 

 

Initially the contribution was 15%, (more of a discount!), however after contacting the helpline again i received a 25% discount. It would have been still been far cheaper to get the car repaired in an independent garage!

 

Comparing the contribution to other cars i have owned which had issues after warranty e.g. Honda Civic, i received a full 100% payment.

 

Recommendation: Firstly but Japanese (Toyota have a 5 year warranty,or 7 years with Hyundia/Kia). If you want a Skoda I would not recommend paying the high cost for the final service before warranty expiry from the Skoda garage, go to an independent as there is no goodwill worth having after warranty has expired.

My experience couldn't have been different.

 

My 2007 Octavia vRS PD170 had around £5,000 worth of work carried out on it FOC outside of the 3 year warranty.

 

Turbo, injectors, oil cooler, diagnostics, repainted boot lid and spoiler and lots more. Skoda UK customer services were great.

 

They did however admit that their generous goodwill was down to my brand loyalty, two Skoda family and full dealer service history on both of them.

 

Their after sales service was part of the reason I replaced my vRS with a Superb.

 

Japanese or Koren cars may well be more reliable but boy are they boring.

We had the sump replaced on our old Fabia vRS (six years old at the time with full dealer history).  Skoda UK Customer Services and the dealer paid for the job in full between them.  They also replaced the boot on the Fabia estate we had before the vRS under the bodywork warranty.

Am I missing something? The car is out of warranty and Skoda don't have to give you anything, but they did give you something, so what's the problem?

Skoda UK Customer services low goodwill contributions to mechanical problems.

 

Recommendation: Firstly but Japanese (Toyota have a 5 year warranty,or 7 years with Hyundia/Kia). If you want a Skoda I would not recommend paying the high cost for the final service before warranty expiry from the Skoda garage, go to an independent as there is no goodwill worth having after warranty has expired.

Hmmmm hyundia and kia are korean, not japaneese......but welcome to the forum anyway. From what you've said above you would probably had a better outcome if the dealer had contacted suk at the point of diagnosis. Interesting that you say the final service is 'high cost' if its done under suks national pricing policy theres not a massive difference and to me anyway its worth the stamp just in case. If you compare serving costs to that of other manufacturers Skoda are very competative so I'll stick with them thanks!

Am I missing something? The car is out of warranty and Skoda don't have to give you anything, but they did give you something, so what's the problem?

 

Exactly what I was thinking...

 

 

Recommendation: Firstly but Japanese (Toyota have a 5 year warranty,or 7 years with Hyundia/Kia). If you want a Skoda I would not recommend paying the high cost for the final service before warranty expiry from the Skoda garage, go to an independent as there is no goodwill worth having after warranty has expired.

 

So after owning a Skoda for some time (?) you just went to the trouble of registering on Briskoda to have a moan about not getting work done for free outside of warranty.

 

A few pointers...

 

1. You can get extended warranties after the factory one runs out if you don't like having no protection.

2. You can get up to 5 years warranty on a new Skoda now.

3. I find it hard to believe you know what you are talking about, if you are recommending Kia/Hyundai and think they are Japanese!

Before we had the Octavia, we owned a Mazda3 (58 reg top of the range), and the dealer support was the absolute worst.

The car was a 1.6 petrol, and struggled to do 30MPG, to the extent that I nearly ran out of fuel in France, having done only 220 miles from full.

I reported this to the Mazda dealership six months before the three year warranty expired and took it in. They found nothing wrong, so I got an independent mechanic to check it, and he found that there was a serious intake leak, causing more air to be drawn in , and then more petrol to compensate.

I reported back to Mazda UK and they did not want to act, saying it was up to the dealer.

We got rid of the car - and this is what I think about main dealers:

**** service, **** honesty, **** manners.

The Mazda3 was supposed to be the most reliable car built for its year - such a shame that it was not more reliable than our 13 year old Mondeo.

Exactly what I was thinking...

 

 

So after owning a Skoda for some time (?) you just went to the trouble of registering on Briskoda to have a moan about not getting work done for free outside of warranty.

 

A few pointers...

 

1. You can get extended warranties after the factory one runs out if you don't like having no protection.

2. You can get up to 5 years warranty on a new Skoda now.

3. I find it hard to believe you know what you are talking about, if you are recommending Kia/Hyundai and think they are Japanese!

 

 

Sorry but I agree with the OP, six months is nothing.

Am I missing something? The car is out of warranty and Skoda don't have to give you anything, but they did give you something, so what's the problem?

 

 

Are you having a laugh? The car was only six months out of warranty.

I must be missing something too. Six hours outside of the warranty is still out of warranty. Skoda don't have to give any goodwill contribution.

They have given 25% which is 25% more than they had to.

I don't want to sound like an arse so please don't take it the wrong way.

Are you having a laugh? The car was only six months out of warranty.

 

But it is out of warranty so there is no obligation whatsoever to fix it. When would you say is the cut of point for ceasing to receive freebies? My 17 year old Rover has a knocking engine mount. Do you reckon I could still get it replaced for free? Maybe they could thrown in an air freshener aswel to really show goodwill.

I understand what farmboy is saying.

I myself wouldn´t be happy if needed to contact skoda for a goodwill on a part that my dealer ,who did the full service on my car, didn´t have the atitude to do so.

The dealer could have easily give  him 25 or higher % discount on part and labour.

Not good

Sorry but I don't see the issue either. A sensor went out of warranty and you expect Skoda to do something about it?

I would have been delighted at 25% discount myself not upset enough to post about it. If your tv broke outside of warranty would you expect some discount from Sony?

If you didn't want to pay main dealer prices you should have just taken it to an Indy...

I think expecting anything is taking the **** a bit... I had a boot lock fail on my Fabia outside of warranty by about 3 months, I wasnt expecting the dealer to do a bloody thing as it wasnt down to them, I knew the warranty had gone!! however I went to enquire about a new lock for the boot lid and the service guy asked why I wanted it... I showed him the issue and even though he knew it was out of warranty he booked it in and replaced it FOC...

 

Ive also had the pressure sensor fail on my Octy, and although this time it was well out of warranty and no chance getting it done for free, the service guy did come and speak to me, advised me its easy to replace myself, told me how to do it, and ordered me the part at cost.. so I guess a lot of good will comes down to where you go, and what the people are like.. you cant tarnish all Skoda the same, it appears some dealers do try harder than others!!

 

Personally, my local dealer has been great for pretty much everything, If my blistering spoiler issue gets sorted it will be another tick in the win column for skoda, but this ones a tricky one so we shall see.

I'm guessing it was the DPF exhaust pressure sensor, which is a very common failure part. Takes less than 5 mins to replace, but needs either VCDS or the dealer kit to run the required adaption process afterwards. Did mine on my old Superb MK2, cost less than £40 in total.

 

Out of warranty, is out of warranty. Time does not matter, 1 day or 2 years etc. its still outside and even one day after its expired Skoda UK do not have to pay any contribution at all.

Then why bother having anything to do with the dealer except for warranty work?

 

If the service history and loyalty counts for nothing, get all the servicing done at an independent and save yourself a load of money.

Interesting how we get locked into a discussion about the warranty. A warranty can be useful, it sets out what the owner is entitled to from the manufacturer in addition to statutory rights from the dealer. It doesn't diminish statutory rights though. When a manufacturer makes a goodwill payment they are seeking to avoid risks: risk of litigation, risk of publication of derogatory information etc. Simllarly when a dealer makes a goodwill payment they are drawing a balance with their reputation and their outright obligations under the sale of goods act.

Broadly then, if a part fails and one might reasonably expect it to fail then the warranty period is relevant. But, if a part fails and one might reasonably expect it not to fail then the sale of goods act comes into force and the warranty is almost irrelevant except how it affects the dealer's recompense from the manufacturer.

In this case it sounds like a common failure part but it could still be a part one reasonably expects to last and so the warranty might arguably be entirely irrelevant and a 25% contribution under goodwill might be reasonable?

Goodwill is just that, not an obligation. It's often down to how much the dealership push the manufacturer and whether they have a good relationship.

So a part fails on your car 6 months outside of warranty and SUK offer to pay 15% out of the nothing but kindness and that's not good enough for you??

 

Nice first post by the way.....

Hi Everyone

 

Some really good discussions on my point thanks for all your contributions!

 

My main points were that the goodwill contribution was low compared to the Honda example. Also remember Sales of goods act does state/imply a product needs to be durable, and the exhaust should have lasted much longer. In my argument to Skoda I noted the other issues I had; new radiator, failed battery, leaking drivers door and the need for a replacement boot!

 

The next point was on the final service, usually worth getting done by the manufacturers franchised garage as this can help the argument for goodwill contributions in the year after warranty expiry. However, in my example there is limited value in that for goodwill.

 

Last point the Volkswagen group is behind its competitors on its warranty offer hence the Kia & Hyundia (yes Korean!! 7 years warranty) example, even Vauxhall now offer a 5 year warranty which is all in the price. While Skoda allegedly have been decreasing their goodwill offers over the past few years.

 

I do love the car, however the poor goodwill its a point worth knowing about and hence the post here!

What you receive in terms of goodwill will depend on the dealer and Skoda UK and what has gone wrong.

 

Although you mention Kia & Hyundai they will have exclusions on items not covered and probably expect you to take it to their dealers for all servicing.

 

Skoda do offer a 5 yr warranty at extra cost on new cars

What you receive in terms of goodwill will depend on the dealer and Skoda UK and what has gone wrong.

 

Although you mention Kia & Hyundai they will have exclusions on items not covered and probably expect you to take it to their dealers for all servicing.

 

Skoda do offer a 5 yr warranty at extra cost on new cars

 

All manufacturers will have exclusions and its EU law that servicing elsewhere will not invalidate the warranty and that applies to all brands.

 

If you also look across the pond, many companies offer 10 year warranties.

 

I imagine a lot of is due to the expected time of ownership. Leasing here seems pretty popular, especially on 3 year leases, so that length of warranty period makes sense here. They don't need to care about subsequent buyers.

Skoda UK Customer services low goodwill contributions to mechanical problems.

 

I have a Skoda Octavia VRS diesel from 3 miles, serviced fully from new at Skoda. At 6 months outside of warranty (3.5 years old) a sensor failed on the exhaust system. This was repaired at a Skoda garage, so i contacted Skoda UK customer services for a goodwill contribution. 

 

Initially the contribution was 15%, (more of a discount!), however after contacting the helpline again i received a 25% discount. It would have been still been far cheaper to get the car repaired in an independent garage!

 

Comparing the contribution to other cars i have owned which had issues after warranty e.g. Honda Civic, i received a full 100% payment.

 

Recommendation: Firstly but Japanese (Toyota have a 5 year warranty,or 7 years with Hyundia/Kia). If you want a Skoda I would not recommend paying the high cost for the final service before warranty expiry from the Skoda garage, go to an independent as there is no goodwill worth having after warranty has expired.

What mileage on your motor?

vauxhall offer a lifetime warranty

 

does it cover a lifetime.. no

 

up to 100k miles only for the original owner

 

the standard warranty what they give is flexible, but bet there is a get out of jail card somewhere in the paper work

I have the opposite experience. ABS fault repaired with only 1st hr labour to be paid. Not bad when it was 6.5 years old. Almost dissapointed that I didn't get to test Warranty Direct which I have had full cover with for 3 yrs to cover AC, ABS, Turbo etc. 1st majot fault in 60k miles.