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Vindis Skoda - Cambridge


DGW

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Recently bought my MKII Octavia VRS from these guys and I can't praise them enough. The sales person I dealt with was superb, I badgered here with loads of questions which she was only too pleased to answer and negotiated a deal that I was very happy with. They turned the car around in record time and did all the prep work that I asked for (& more). In summary this is by far the best Vindis dealership I have done business with and one of the best dealerships overall that I have bought a car from.

Despite not been my local dealership i'll probably be going back for servicing etc as i'm so impressed. Highly recommended.

Incidentally this car didn't come with a Vindis sticker but my previous VW did. If it's a vinyl sticker everyone is speaking off it just peals off. simply lift one corner with your nail and slowly peel back - do it carefully enough and it comes off in one piece ;)

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  • 1 month later...

I bought the wife's Fabia vrs from vindis, fair price, good service, relaxed unaccompanied test drive for 2 hours.

Used them for 3 services & 1 minor warranty claim, always as good as gold, work completed, car cleaned etc.

Since selling the fabia I've test driven the MK2 vrs petrol & diesel & was quoted very competitive prices & would have bought from them but was able to wrangle a vrs through a lease.

Bizarrely, they quoted £130 more than vindis VW to service my sisters VW polo Tdi !?

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  • 4 months later...

I have used Vindis Skoda three times...

Firstly I visited them when looking for a Fabia vRS to buy. I spoke to Phil who was very helpful and ultimately gave me the final push to buy one. Unfortunately they they weren't quick enough in finding one and I bought elsewhere.

The vRS that I bought elsewhere then needed a major service. Phil had mentioned their service plans to me when I was looking to buy, but I was disappointed to find they only offer these on cars that they have sold. Nevertheless I managed to negotiate an acceptable price for the service that made it only a modest amount more expensive than going to an independent garage - still a large sum though as it was 4yr service including cam-belt. emoticon-0104-surprised.gif

I was happy enough with the service to go back there after a year when the MOT was due. At the same time my vRS had developed the faulty sensor in coolant tank problem. I tried to explain this to them but couldn't get them to budge past the £30 to investigate and report back. I would have hoped that they would know about these common problems and offer a quick/cheap fix, but no such luck. The MOT was completed with no problems however, and they also fixed my rear washers free of charge emoticon-0143-smirk.gif

That brings us up to date, with me feeling that Vindis were a little expensive and a little lacking in knowledge of common problems - but reliable enough and I would consider using them again. Except that yesterday I did try to use them again and couldn't get anyone in the service department to return my calls. It seems from reading this thread that this is not an uncommon experience. I have instead booked for a 10k service at ******** (another Skoda dealer near my work) and Vindis have missed out getting paid £150 to change the oil in my car - which is a loss of easy money if you ask me.

Edited by DGW
Inappropriate mention of another dealer deleted.
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  • 2 years later...

Major issues with Vindis. Bought an 07 Octavia from them in 2011, cash sale. Also bought 2 year service plan at same time. When I went to pick the car up they kept me waiting for 2 hours and tried to sell me more finance products despite the fact that I had paid in full for the car a week earlier. Day after I picked the car up the salesman phoned me to say that one of the headlamp washer jets had only been repaired temporarily and I would need to bring the car back. Not long after, I queried whether the timing belt had been changed at 4 years as recommended, was told no but it would last till 80k miles.

Fast forward to May 2012, 15k miles into 20,000 mile service plan, indicator hadn't come on. Contacted them to query and was told computer hadn't been set up correctly. Six weeks later the Vindis Group call centre finally booked my car in. In response to this Matthew Wootton (head of business) gave me £75 as goodwill gesture and agreed that service plan would be honoured for 2 years regardless of mileage.

Easter Sunday 2013, timing belt failed in lane 3 of M25, 62,000 miles. Car was going in for service on Tuesday anyway. Vindis recovered the car from my home where AA had brought it where it then sat in their workshop for a week before anyone looked at it. Finally a new engine was diagnosed with a cost of £4600, we discussed possibility of part ex/replacement but eventually agreed that repair was best option. I paid 50% of parts and no labour (£1200) they picked up the rest (£3000). Picked up car at beginning of May, 5 weeks after failure. Advisories after work included new front brakes, brake fluid (due in June), rear suspension components and oil leak from engine! Drove home and immediately spotted tracking was out and climate control not working. Car was picked up next day, repaired and brought back to me at work complete with rattling exhaust heatshield. Outstanding work completed 2 weeks later, £480 including a goodwill discount organised again by Matthew Wootton.

Car has been back again this week for diagnostics on engine vibration. Will need another £580 to have gearbox removed and clutch pack/flywheel checked. Can't really understand why this wasn't done when engine was replaced. Still waiting for a part ex valuation.

Edited by ttw
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Not going to retract my post as this all happened and was a nightmare. However, today Vindis have offered me a brand new Octavia 3, 2.0 TDI 150 Elegance on a fantastic finance deal with a great part ex price on mine. Going to take them up in the morning I think.

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  • 5 months later...

So I pitch up here to drop off my Octavia vRS. I had booked this service back in December and specifically asked for a courtesy.

Did they have one available when I got there?

Considering I bought the car from here you'd think they would like to keep their customers happy. Obviously not an issue for Cambridge Vindis. I will now be either making a trip to Letchworth or going to ALS in Ely!!

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I'm guessing the sales staff check this, or hoping..

Bought my car new just before Christmas '13, knew exactly what I was after, but each time I went into the showroom (twice) I was made to wait while it was EMPTY.

When I was eventually pressured into buying a car (to be honest, I wanted it so no big problem there) I was not kept up to date with when my car would be delivered, or when it had actually arrived.

Twice I came into the dealer before it was delivered, for various paperwork etc, both times I waited at least 30min and was ignored by sales staff. On the last trip in I was told it would be arriving the next day, and to await a phone call... It never came so I turned up to the dealer (this time I was greeted straight away, probably because my 13month old son isn't very quiet!) and found out it had arrived. Nice communication!

I then picked the car up the next week, and you guessed it. Waited again for around 30minutes while the salesman sold another car. I was then made to fill in a "customer satisfaction" questionnaire, in which I was coached the answers and never actually held a pen.

The car has now developed some quite annoying faults (Bluetooth is patchy at best, smells of diesel when pulling up and the climate mists the windows up and never clears them) so was duly booked in with them and a hire car was scheduled, turned up tonight after rushing around after work to get there in time, and lo and behold (just like the poster above) no courtesy car!

Only alternative was to let them pick it up from my work (25mile drive) and trust them not to thrash it.

In all this time, I've never once received a phone call from them, even when promised.

It's pretty abysmal!

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So, just to update a little

I got a hire car eventually, it was a Citigo that sounded like it was on it's last legs! Terrible car IMHO.

Nothing was fixed however, as the computer told them there was nothing wrong. Ugh.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

If have found the level of service very poor.

My main consistent gripe is this: I cannot get hold of them to service my car! I phone up, ask for service then one of two things happens - they put me through to service, no-one is there, I leave a message, no-one calls me back OR I am told there is no-one in service and so I ask to pass on a message to call me back, they never call me back.

There was a time recently when I called around 6 times in a couple of months to get some work done on my car. I never got through and in the end I took it somewhere else. I later rang and asked to speak to the manager, and eventually got through to him after 2 attempts!

Unfortunately, I am currently trying to get hold of the service dept again. Only been told I would be called back twice so far though, so I still have a little way to go! The last time I called I said "You will definitely get him to call me back, won't you?", "Oh yes, sir, of course....."

Otherwise they are pretty expensive (but aren't all main dealers?), and I can't say they are technically any better than my local independent (and much much cheaper) garage.

If there was a local SKoda alternative I would definitely use them instead.

The reason you don't get called back is because they don't have the experienced service staff.

Also when your car has been worked on the job card says it was done by a Skoda trained mechanic. They are short staffed and have rent a Tech's in who are not Skoda trained

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I'm guessing the sales staff check this, or hoping..

Bought my car new just before Christmas '13, knew exactly what I was after, but each time I went into the showroom (twice) I was made to wait while it was EMPTY.

When I was eventually pressured into buying a car (to be honest, I wanted it so no big problem there) I was not kept up to date with when my car would be delivered, or when it had actually arrived.

Twice I came into the dealer before it was delivered, for various paperwork etc, both times I waited at least 30min and was ignored by sales staff. On the last trip in I was told it would be arriving the next day, and to await a phone call... It never came so I turned up to the dealer (this time I was greeted straight away, probably because my 13month old son isn't very quiet!) and found out it had arrived. Nice communication!

I then picked the car up the next week, and you guessed it. Waited again for around 30minutes while the salesman sold another car. I was then made to fill in a "customer satisfaction" questionnaire, in which I was coached the answers and never actually held a pen.

The car has now developed some quite annoying faults (Bluetooth is patchy at best, smells of diesel when pulling up and the climate mists the windows up and never clears them) so was duly booked in with them and a hire car was scheduled, turned up tonight after rushing around after work to get there in time, and lo and behold (just like the poster above) no courtesy car!

Only alternative was to let them pick it up from my work (25mile drive) and trust them not to thrash it.

In all this time, I've never once received a phone call from them, even when promised.

It's pretty abysmal!

You wrote while the salesman sold another car. I was then made to fill in a "customer satisfaction" questionnaire, in which I was coached the answers and never actually held a pen.

That questionnaire if for there CSS report if they get poor scores it can affect the dealership you say you were coached was it to give a good score

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  • 2 months later...

You wrote while the salesman sold another car. I was then made to fill in a "customer satisfaction" questionnaire, in which I was coached the answers and never actually held a pen.

That questionnaire if for there CSS report if they get poor scores it can affect the dealership you say you were coached was it to give a good score

Sorry, been off here for a long time!

Yeah, I was forced into giving good scores.

Same as I am when it's in for warranty work (they don't even get me to do them anymore come to think of it)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've just bought a new Octavia from Vindis Skoda.

 

I popped over one day, largely out of curiosity. I was considering changing my old Octavia diesel, and wanted to see what the options were. I got chatting with Gary on the forecourt, and over the course of the next few weeks we discussed my options.

 

I made it clear from the start that I didn't need to buy a car; I was simply in a position where I could if they had the right deal for me. I wasn't put under any undue pressure, and all my options were explained clearly. 

 

I ended up settling on a nice 1.4TSi with the plus pack and a bundle of other extras, and for what I considered to be a pretty good price. I was given some good advice on how to best arrange the PCP, and once I decided the service plan option wasn't for me, they didn't try to persuade me otherwise.

 

I was also offered a fair trade-in price for my car, considering it required a cam belt change. At the last minute, a friend offered to buy it off me for a little more, and Gary simply adjusted the paperwork accordingly.

 

So, thumbs up from me!

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  • 4 months later...

Terrible garage they never call you back fob you off because they can't tell you what's wrong with your car even though independant garages can. They couldn't even get my service right they forgot to reset the service indicator left off engine covers and put wrong info on the invoice. Vindis called my to ask my opinion and I reiterated the above, they asked if I wanted a call back by someone senior at Cambridge I advised no as they wont bother as they have never bothered before.

Edited by chunkymonkey02
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I bought my Fabia II from the Cambridge branch last year. They had a four-year old used 1.2 TSI in very good condition, and this was a model that suited my needs pretty well. I found them pleasant to deal with and helpful, though a bit inflexible over pricing.

 

For many years I swore that I would never deal with Vindis again. Years ago I had a Golf that I had bought at the Sawston branch, and took to that branch for routine servicing. One occasion they broke the digital clock. The setting buttons had become a bit tricky to use, but I could set it without much trouble. When they tried to set it, after a battery disconnection, they broke the thing by letting a gorilla loose on the buttons. When I complained the foreman swore blind that it was broken when I had brought it in. What is the point of lying to a customer who knows that he is being told fibs?  I never dealt with that branch again, and was a bit reluctant to go to the Skoda branch, but theirs was the car that suited me best.

 

I'll give the Cowley Road branch a try when I need to have the car serviced, and keep a careful eye on what they do and how much they charge...

A local private garage used to service my old Honda Civic carefully and competently, at half the cost of the Cambridge Honda main dealer. If I am unhappy with Vindis Skoda at Cowley road, I will resume using the local blokes.

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  • 2 years later...
On 23/11/2015 at 15:03, JohnK said:

<snip>

 

So, thumbs up from me!

 

But sadly, no longer. Gary has left, and with him seems to be any real interest in retaining customers.

 

My PCP deal comes to an end this May, so they called me a couple of months ago to talk about changing. Since then, I've been singularly unimpressed with their ability to keep scheduled appointments, to call me back when promised, or give me the correct quotes.

 

E.g. I sat in front of a salesman and talked through what I wanted. He found three cars matching the spec on their way over to the UK, and mailed me a quote including all the finance extras, explaining that he was made to do it this way by the management. However, he promised me he'd call back first thing Monday with a revised quote.

The mailed quote was for a different spec, and he didn't call. When I finally got them to talk to me again, he said there was only one car, and that had been claimed by the Bury St Edmunds dealership already.

 

Long story short, I'm taking my business elsewhere.

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  • 11 months later...

Have tried contacting them via email with queries but they don't bother to answer (even their parts dept).

I guess they want to get your car in so they can charge you to look at it.

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