1st service

[Pumatron]

Yes, you read right. My 1st service after a year of motoring has cost £482. Now, how?

I'll break it down;

£0.00-1st service free as part of PCP deal.

£482.00 Estimate to repair damage to rear spoiler whilst car in dealers possession.

I hate main dealers, never trusted them, never will. I worked in one for 14 years, so I know the tricks they get up to. I asked for no service wash because I didn't want any grotty sponge getting on paint. I even got them to check vehicle over for damage before handing keys over because I knew they wouldn't be able to keep it in condition I brought it in.

They didn't let me down.

So now they want to spray the tailgate and fit new spoiler, badges etc.

If I fell into a barrel full of breasts I'd come out sucking my thumb. I'm just that lucky.

So, thanks to dealer my car will have a dodgy spray job and will never be the same again.

The shine out this car is slowly going.....

[meb90]

Ouch! That sucks :( I wonder how you stand as the damage was caused while the car was in their possession?

[LadyVienna]

No way!!!! If it was checked before and that damage wasnt there you def shouldnt be paying a penny for it!

[Shermo]

So they damaged your car whilst in for a service? I would just get an independent quote from a quality bodywork specialist and charge them for the repairs.

[allyst170]

What did they do to cause that amount of damage?

[Neily03]

I'd be straight onto SUK!

[Pumatron]

Thank you for all the replies.

The dealer has admitted that they must of done the damage as i got them to check around vehicle before i would let them have the keys.

I had a small issue with the rear washer which I got them to address and it just so happens that is right near where the damage is now.

The independent quote comes out at £482.00 which involves as above new spoiler, and repair to tailgate which will occur when the bonded on spoiler is removed. It cannot be masked around so has to be removed for paint which will destroy it along with the paint on tailgate. I believe the damage was caused by either an air hose rubbing along spoiler (whilst trying to rectify washer problem) or more likely a clothing zip as it it is approximately 6 large chunks of paint gouged out of the edge of spoiler right in front of rear wiper.

Yes Neily03 a call to SUK did cross my mind regardless if they have said they think they might of done it (which they did, because it certainly wasn't there when i dropped car off!). Its just not good enough. The first and last time I will be using this dealer in east kent.

The fact I told them to please take great care as i don't trust them, as I knew cars get easily damaged whilst being crammed into ever shrinking customer parking and dealer sites makes me boil into a crescendo of molten fire.

Interestingly this late evening i had a great thought, you see I have a rear facing camera, "IF" the ignition was on when the incident occurred it may well have been recorded. Its something I will have to check later. :|

[LadyVienna]

Forgot you were in a similar area to me. Dont suppose you would pm me the dealer please so I can make sure to avoid if possbile?!

[Pumatron]

Forgot you were in a similar area to me. Dont suppose you would pm me the dealer please so I can make sure to avoid if possbile?!

PM sent!

[themanwithnoaim]

PM sent!

You must be politer than me, I'd name'n'shame the shower of ****s that did that to my car 

[Mence]

Likewise, there are some cracking dealers out there and some right ******** so I would certainly name and shame.

[Neily03]

 

Interestingly this late evening i had a great thought, you see I have a rear facing camera, "IF" the ignition was on when the incident occurred it may well have been recorded. Its something I will have to check later. :|

 

Have you checked this yet?

[whitep]

That's interesting. The local BMW dealer has a bit of a reputation for finding damage on new cars in for a service and denying they did it. In fact my wife works for a company that always had BMW's for company cars had all 6 of them found to have damage on the front bumpers within 3 months... a huge row erupted and it ended up with 6 BMW's bend parked on the forecourt with the keys posted through the door and then 6 Mistubishi Warriors or something like that being purchased.

[banksie]

Not sure why the independent seems to be saying that the spoiler removal will cause so much damage! I've put a new spoiler on my vRS and it was an easy job. Take out the 4 screws, get the wife's hairdryer and warm up the area, get some strong fishing line and cut through the bond, bit of nail varnish remover to get rid of the excess and hey presto clean paint!

It does need two people to slightly prise the spolier up to keep the fishing line moving but its definitely an "easy" job.

Sorry to hear about the damage though.

[Pumatron]

Have you checked this yet?

Unfortunately not yet, stuck at work doing silly shifts!!

[Pumatron]

Not sure why the independent seems to be saying that the spoiler removal will cause so much damage! I've put a new spoiler on my vRS and it was an easy job. Take out the 4 screws, get the wife's hairdryer and warm up the area, get some strong fishing line and cut through the bond, bit of nail varnish remover to get rid of the excess and hey presto clean paint!

It does need two people to slightly prise the spolier up to keep the fishing line moving but its definitely an "easy" job.

Sorry to hear about the damage though.

Thank you. The quote of £482 is if they cannot get the spoiler off without damage. The spoiler isn't like the VRS one. It is a lip spoiler and is bonded across the whole rear of tailgate along with some 3M tape for good measure to. It stands about 1-2cm high and is solid plastic with a curved back edge down the tailgate edge which means a cutting string could I imagine damage the edge of tailgate paint? It had no securing bolts and is purely glued on. There is no real gap around it as we couldn't even get some masking tape into gap yesterday at the Bodyshop. We tried to see if could just mask around spoiler to spray it. It's got to come off to paint. I have Skoda uk involved now as a back up should the dealer go sour on me.

All I wanted was a service!! ARGHHHHH!

[banksie]

Ah, ok was wondering what sort of spoiler it was when I saw you had the 1.4 TSI. Yes indeed that will be more difficult, sorry to have made out it would be easy! Hope you get it sorted with minimal stress!

[wantaskoda]

My inlaws have just had their car (Fiat Punto) returned from the repair shop after an accident in a car park. There was an area of damage that was not their before the accident, and the repair company admits it was there on arrival, however as my in laws had an independent company tow the car from the accident site, the repairer is saying that this damage could have been done by them!!!

 

it is insane as it was in the same area as the accident and just needed some painting.

 

The argument ensues......

[Pumatron]

UPDATE

I checked my road safety cameras to find the whole event recorded. (Luckily for me).

Turns out they knew about damage and decided to ignore and not tell me. As per previous posts I found damage 2 hours after picking car up from service and noticed whilst washing it.

Needless to say this has now gone to management level and I'm currently embattled with working my way to the top.

Lying to customers is completely unacceptable.

The saga continues....

[JamesVRSmk3]

Now that's some footage I'd like to see. What cameras do you use incidentally?

[Supurbia]

Regarding getting it repaired without too much risk to existing paint,

 

Boil the kettle, start at one edge and pour the hot water over the spoiler at the lip edge where the spoiler meets the boot, assuming it's taped on and not bonder glued it should enable you to peel the spoiler away, you simply clean up the residue if there is any afterwards, hth.

[Defenderben]

These onboard cameras are proving to be so handy

I assume when you say they know they damaged it, they are trying to make good or similar after the event, on camera?

Hope it works out OK.

I'm of a similar vein to you, I so do not trust the big garages. Had a short stint in a British Leyland garage a few years back and that opened my eyes to the sort of short cuts they do and the way your pride and joy can be mistreated/abused.

Edited 11 June, 2014 by Defenderben

[LaceSensor]

Hi

 

I had my car serviced once and delivered back to me.

When I dropped it off they didnt do the usual check of damage etc.

Came back with a curbed alloy.

 

I fought my case, and said provide the damage checklist that you should have filled out and had me sign, they couldnt.

Assuming the same is the case here, you are totally in the right and they should fix everything for free.

 

I got my alloy refurbed and it was like brand new, couldnt tell the difference.

 

good luck!

 

remember, the onus is on them to prove the damage was there prior to them taking the car in.

[greatdane]

your car sounds like mine  ,,,,,f****** jinxed.................

 

I just wish someone one pinch mine and write it off..............

huge piece of wood flew of a lorry hit front of car ,,,,windscreen / roof / bonnet / side windows / roofbars all scratched

some arse went down side and damaged all door ...

backed into in a supermarket damaged back bumper

going into work metal barrier came out of floor and damaged all front end well a couple of thousand damage

of all the cars that get pinched why carnt it be mine

[Pumatron]

Thanks to all for the posts.

So to conclude, I've had a meeting with general manager. The car in the mean time has been repaired to a satisfactory condition. The dealer admitted they was in the wrong and put together a compensation package which was a good outcome for all. I'm hopeful that this is the end of this issue. I know some have asked what camera I use. I have two roadhawk cameras a basic hd camera for rear and a hd camera with gps in the front. They seem to work quite well (after some initial hardware glitches which required flashing the memory with updates). I have them wired after ignition but I am now thinking about modifying their power supplies to be switchable so I can run them all the time if need be. They certainly have helped with evidence for my recent problems!!