David Ian Ltd - Morecambe..

[lewiswal47]

Dealt with this dealership the other day. Definitely gone downhill since owned by David Ian.

 

Booked it in for a cruise control retrofit. Was told Friday at 10:45. Get there on time & I'm told techs wont be ready to look at the car until "At least 2PM". I ask if its okay I drive the car away to my grandparents down the road & if they ring me nearer the time to bring it back, they agree. I get a call an hour later from a very rude tech who asked where my car was. I told him what the receptionist said & said id be ten minutes, to which the phone was hung up. 

 

I get there ASAP and hand them my keys. I receive the keys back 4 hours later, after having sat outside the dealership, gone on a walk etc. I found out the car had been sat in their back car park for the past hour & nobody could be arsed to tell me it was ready!

 

It gets better, As when I get home (30 mins away) I realise I can no longer toggle my main beams. I call back, and the woman - in a very patronising tone - asks me "have you tried pulling the stalk towards you instead of away" - as if I haven't tried everything I could think of... 

 

I believe the part is broken, as it should hold at the back when pushed back, yet it doesnt. The woman told me "I think its a coding issue with your car", as if a coding issue would effect a physical stalk from remaining back!

 

I drive it back just for them to look at it for 2 minutes & say they'll call me back Tuesday. 

 

Overall, I haven't had a very good experience with this dealership. Maybe I just went on a day when everybody had woken up on the wrong side of the bed! I'll update this post once I hear back from them on Tuesday RE the broken part.

 

[DavidF1]

Thanks Carlston & Toot. Very helpful!

I've just been told by an independent garage that broken steering racks are very rare, worn ones a bit less so.

The Warranty is with Skoda - 3 year.

The issue was a underfloor rattle. I took it in to have it looked at under warranty.

Had a four hour wait to then be told that they had charged me £114 for  a " Vehicle Health Check Report" (This included 50 checks on things , even though the car had been fully serviced in January. Oh and they even washed the car - presumably also at £95 per hour labour!) (Nice if I could get that job!)

They also said that the steering rack would need to be replaced and this would cost ,yes, £1000. I never got to find out if that included labour. Our conversation had become rather limited by that stage! 

[DavidF1]

I have just had a helpful initial response from Skoda UK Head office so maybe we will see a resolution to this issue with the dealer. 

I will report back on what happens.

[DavidF1]

Well, no reply from Skoda Head Office and it is well past  the promised "middle of the week"!

Now very annoyed with Skoda AND the original dealer.

Is Skoda becoming a joke once again?

[lewiswal47]

I returned today to try and get my cruise control fixed after they failed to successfully retrofit it - they made CC work but I could not toggle my main beams.

 

They installed new software, Which has ALSO now buggered the cruise control and the speed limiter system. Who would’ve thought that software could fix an issue with a physical stalk?!?!

 

I handed in my car at 10am and didn’t see it back until 17:30. 7 and a half hours?! What’s the point of an appointment system if you’re not going to look at my car in that time. I could have enjoyed my morning and taken it in later had they have said! When I recieved my car back, The chap implied that this is my fault and not theirs as I provided them with the product number - This was countered by a long email that proves the part is compatible and documented on their own brochures.

 

I have written an email to Skoda themselves AND Vantage motor group regarding this, As it is simply awful. I hope i’m not left in a situation like @DavidF1 where they do not reply to me.

 

Rubbish Dealer, AVOID!

[DavidF1]

A bit of an update on my experiences of claiming under warranty.

Well, in the end, Skoda Head Office and their Roadside Assistance were very good in pointing out that the steering rack (£1000+ to fix) was not the problem but the anti roll bar links (£50 to fix) was.

Skoda Fabias are turning out to be tougher than the garage suggested. (And thanks to the people on here for pointing this out too.)

The problem rests squarely with Vantage Skoda Morecambe and their original wrong diagnosis. No apology from them, of  course. (Arrogant bunch) and no response yet to my claim for expenses incurred.

Small claims court is next.

 

[DavidF1]

Well, eventually after a lot of letter writing (signed for delivery to high levels!) the garage settled our out of pocket expenses before having to go to court.

 

So much fuss for a wrongly diagnosed  fault (The anti-roll bars (£50 to replace) were the culprits NOT the steering rack (£1000 + to replace.))

 

The only thing to come out of this well is the Skoda Fabia itself. (Tough little vehicles)

 

Thanks for the information and support from the members of this Forum.

[GAK]

Interesting read especially as having recently brought a fabia and live just north of heysham, this was going to be my Skoda garage, may now look towards cars lie or independent, have you found a better garage?

 

[lewiswal47]

44 minutes ago, GAK said:

Interesting read especially as having recently brought a fabia and live just north of heysham, this was going to be my Skoda garage, may now look towards cars lie or independent, have you found a better garage?

 

Cant honestly vouch for any garages as I usually do work myself, or if things go wrong they’ve gone wrong outside of home.

 

Ive heard good things about kendal VW center from some pals who have used them.

 

Maybe have a read of this https://www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/people/16-mechanics-and-garages-in-lancaster-and-morecambe-with-a-perfect-5-star-rating-from-google-reviews-4025554 personally i’d always go independant instead of a dealer, I unfortunately had to use a dealer for the work I wanted. Another VW money making tactic 🤣

[GAK]

Agree good independent survives on reputation. Kendal worth a look to. Thanks

[Chib]

Bought a Superb from them recently, I refused them the press from selling the car to me, wasn't liked by the sales person. Also had the manager come to see me as I was trying to get the sales person to drive the car out the show room so I could leave, it was pressed on me that I give them 10's in the survey marketings for the sale and that 8's mean nothing.

 

As you can imagine I wasn't impressed from that conversation and if it wasn't the fact I couldn't leave yet I would have told him that this was very rather rude of him and that I was unhappy considering the lack of money offered for my trade in. They were never going to get above 7 from me and that wasn't going to be lover the board either.

[DavidF1]

Interesting  but also depressing that they don't seem to have learned anything from the mistakes they made last July,  in our case.

 

Our Skoda continues very well - a great little vehicle but  Vantage Skoda Morecambe are still best avoided in my opinion.