Going to be a long post this...

So stick with it please !

I'm currently in dispute and having big problems with sandcliffe Skoda in Leicester.

They have called me a liar and they have also accused another garage of tampering with the cambelt on my vrs before arrival of my car at Skoda Leicester.

I have threatened them with legal action and to contact the local press to hopefully resolve the case or if anybody on here has got any better ideas to resolve this, then I'm all ears !

First of all, I better give you the facts...

I have a pd170 57 plate vrs.

It had a cambelt change done on 11th Feb of his year at sandicliffe Skoda Leicester.

The milage was 134k, the current mileage is 143500.

The total cost was £486 which included the cambelt kit, water pump and new coolant and 2 years parts and labour warranty, even though I have no small print warranty details on the receipt...

On Tuesday morning of this week, my car broke down on the way to work, when it lost power and cut out on a hill, speed was about 15-20 mph in 2nd gear. This was caused by the cam belt slipping off the pulley due to a loose bolt on the bottom tensioner directly below the 2 big pulleys, although at the time I did not know this was the cause of the breakdown...

I rang autoaid breakdown services who came out to my car, he thought it could be fuel pump as the car was turning over normally but wouldn't start.

So I decided to have my car taken to wrightauto services in Hinckley, I've used this Garage several times over the last 3 years for service and repairs as he seems to have good knowledge of vag group cars.

On arrival at his garage, he plugged it into his diagnostic machine and it showed up camshaft position sensor, he said its a easy fix, although he will have to remove can belt to replace sensor as the sensor is behind pully.

About an hour later he said the cam belt is loose due to tension bolt being only finger tight which caused belt to slip off, he said he wasn't touching it as it was now a Skoda problem as I had mentioned it to him earlier that I had a new cam belt fitted only 6 months earlier when he originally told me it was camshaft sensor.

I immediately rang Skoda and told them that my cambelt had come off due to tensioner bolt coming loose, the guy did say that it wasn't covered by warranty IF that bolt had come loose, as it had done over a 1000 miles, but I didn't get into any dialogue about whether it was covered or not, I was just interested how and who was going to pay to get my car from Hinckley to Leicester.

I offered to arrange and pay for car to be transported to Leicester at a cost of 90 pounds ( i don't know if that was a good idea or not now ! ) and Skoda said they would pay for recovery if it's a warranty claim, I told them, as far as am concerned, its a warranty claim all the way...

So I went back to the garage in Hinckley, paid £24 for half an hours labour and diagnostic check, he also did mention that he thought it was shoddy workmanship as there was paintmarks on the pulleys when they should use pins to secure pulleys ?

So I have taken photos and video showing the slackness in the belt. The car was then taken to Skoda Leicester on the back of a pick up truck.

Skoda rang me yesterday to say that they had refitted cam belt an car was up and running and luckily there was no major damage which was good news but there was going to be a charge of £60 for diagnostic check, I didn't question why there was a charge or ask them if it was a warranty claim as I had had a long day and just wanted to forget about it !

But today is when the fun and games started when i did ring them and started asking a few questions...

The first question I asked is how do I claim the £90 recovery charge for my car to be taken from Hinckley to Leicester, to which they replied they will not be paying as its not a warranty claim as its not a parts failure, so I asked how has that bolt come loose then.

I then said I would not be paying the £60 diagnostic charge as there was nothing to diagnose by machine as the cambelt cover had been removed and they could see clearly that the cambelt had come off. But they still insisted that I pay the £60 bill, so I said that I would forget the £90 recovery charge if they forgot the £60 diagnostic charge, to which they replied that they are doing me a favour by not charging me £250 plus labour charge for refitting cambelt !

So I asked them how that bolt come loose, and they said as they couldn't find any fault with the part's, and bolts don't just come loose, they said that the garage in Hinckley had loosened the belt off and that I had lied to them about the belt being loose.

At this point I said I have photos and video of cam belt before it arrived and I shall be seeking legal advice and contacting the Leicester mercury, as it's another matter to be called a liar, so this is how the conversation ended with 'Holly' the lady i was talking to at Skoda Leicester !

Not sure what to do now !

All this over £60...

I will give the garage in Hinckley a ring because he did say if there was any problems he would try to help out, even just to say he didn't loosen the belt off !

I will also give the Leicester mercury a ring, but I don't know if they will be interested as it could all be hearsay....

And as for me taking legal advice, i wouldn't know where to start, I only said it hoping to shock the garage and they won't charge me...

What to do ?

Do I just pay the 60 quid and be thankful that there wasn't big damage to my car....

Or do I pursue it, because at the end of the day, a Skoda dealer has called a so- called valued customer, a liar...me !

What to do ?

Edited 27 August, 201510 yr by studmuffin

Pursue the ******s to the hills, yes Techs make mistakes, own up to it and sort it. Not **** the customer about

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I hate this sort of thing. When they expend more time and energy denying responsibility and mucking the customer around than it would take to resolve it to everyone's satisfaction.

What happened to customer service? 

I've used Wright Automotive several times for works/MOT on both my Roomster and Touran and would happily support that they

A: won't have tried to rip you off.

B: won't have done something they shouldn't have and try to blame others.

You need to call the Skoda garage back and ask to speak to the dealer principle about this.

Explain the issue and that you want action taken.

At least give the main man their a chance to sort the issue.

Never trusted Skoda Leicester, when it was Farmers and now under Sandicliffe. Had to book my car into a main dealer for warranty work and so went to them - initially they were really cagey about doing it, non committal etc. They took my details and said they would get back to me once it had been assessed - i gave them my company details and email address, and they then immediately agreed to do the work (the company I work for do lots of work with VAG). I am confident that they wouldn't have authorised it otherwise.

 

 

As ruffday says, you need to get to the DP either in person, telephone, email or letter. Get the facts of the matter across and explain you are not happy. Wonder if Wright Autos would be willing to offer a written statement to back things up.

 

Yes the monetary values are relatively low but it's the principle of the matter. It could have been a lot worse.

Any Genuine Skoda parts fitted by a Skoda Garage are Guaranteed for 2 years for Parts and Labour providing you have paid/contributed to the cost.    :yes:

 

Therefor any repairs/labour to those parts within 2 years should be Free of charge 

 

 

Disclaimer:-- I think

Thanks for the replys guys...

Have spoken to wright autos in Hinckley to see if he would back me up if this escalates any further if I got no joy when I speak to the service or dealership manager at Leicester.

My next step is to speak to the Skoda at Leicester and hopefully get it resolved if they gime me an apology and I have no more money to pay...

If not, going to give them one more chance by sending email off to Skoda UK, if not resolved then, it's phone calls to the local press ! Hopefully it won't come to that, because I've already had enough of all the stress, because as I have no curtsey car, I've lost over £200 in wages plus the hassle of getting from Hinckley to Daventry everyday, a 40 mile round trip and there is no direct public transport !

Will keep you posted !

Sounds like a plan.

 

(Whereabouts in Daventry - I also work there)

I know nothing about social media apart from this forum but a friend of mine got a very positive result in a dispute with a local garage by posting on their's and others' twitter feeds with a well written factual account of what happened. I am told it's far more powerful than the local press and am considering the same action with my daughter about a local store who ripped her off with her foreign exchange.

I would personally go straight to Skoda UK and raise the issue with them, tell the garage this will be your next port of call and certainly dont give up on this, on any bolt the should use a reasonable amount of thread lock due to engine vibrations etc, sounds to me like this isnt the case so they cocked it up!! i would def start with claim from skoda UK and if that gets you no where solicitors!!

http://www.skoda.co.uk/about-us/contact-us

 

May also be worth mentioning that should this not be resolved to satisfaction an updated post will be made on here to reflect the fact they are not customer focused... keep it slander free but they will lose business from it thats for sure!! 

I think the Skoda UK twitter page is quite active, maybe worth putting a titbit on there if you get no joy with the dealers.

twitter.com/skodauk

I hope my dealers don't turn out like this if I ever need them.

Might save time to send them a " letter before action", you should expect the garage to carry out the work with due care and to a professional standard. You can claim for consequential losses via the small claims court. But you need to lay out your complaint IN WRITTING  and what losses you incurred and give the dealer a chance to rectify.

 

Send copies of the photos, videos and the report from the indy as well.

Think yourself lucky it was a minor problem, and put the expense down to experience. It could have cost you thousands - but it didn't.

 

Don't patronise the offending business again.

for the sake of £60 I would just count your losses and lodge your dissatisfaction with Skoda UK and move on.  Is it really worth the added stress of fighting this especially when your engine is fine and if lose you could have a bigger legal bill on your hands.  

for the sake of £60 I would just count your losses and lodge your dissatisfaction with Skoda UK and move on.  Is it really worth the added stress of fighting this especially when your engine is fine and if lose you could have a bigger legal bill on your hands.  

+1

 

Pay the £60 and drive away, never to return to the garage.  Inform Skoda UK that you still expect them to honour the remainder of the warranty.

Well its resolved, maybe not to my liking, I'm still out of pocket of £114, but they canceled the 60 quid diagnostic charge...

Had a conversation with a chap who is based in Nottingham and he is charge of the leic and Nott branches, basically he was still adamant that someone has tampered with my vrs, so I basically said I'm not interested over who's done what or about warranty small print...at the end of the day the car is running and it hasn't cost thousands, and its just over 150 quid, I said I'm happy to forget the £90 if they forgot the £60, which he agreed to.

I know I'm still out of pocket, but I don't need all the stress of trying to get 90 quid out of Skoda...

But I will still send a complaint email to Skoda UK to say that there customer service is pi55 poor and I they will never find me in a Skoda dealership again...

Great cars...

But there customer service is shocking !!!

the bigger the group the worse the service(generally)   oh for the days of small (scruffy?) family dealerships which is what built Skoda over here   now they're just as bad as the rest      can't wait for TESLA to start building some smaller more affordable cars 

Well I've just collected my car from Skoda Leicester, but before i drove off, I thought I would lift the bonnet, good job I did because the top big engine cover was hanging off ! I know it's a relatively small issue and nothing major could have happened, but ' holly ' was standing right next to me when I lifted the bonnet, first thing I said was...I suppose another garage has tampered with that then...

She said its been out on road test to check it, well I said they haven't checked it properly or it wouldn't be like that would it...

Sandicliffe Skoda Leicester...

Avoid !!!

Ring skoda UK up pal .

I'll happily retweet any issues posted on Twitter. #justsaying

Jeez, that's awful mate. I think you're correct regarding the customer service unfortunately, had a crap experience at the moment regarding a steering rack failure.

Likewise, love the cars, hate the customer service.

 

(Feel free to re-tweet mine by the way! Happy to do the same for you) 

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/367837-goodwill-contribution/page-2

Another vote here for contacting Skoda UK, send them a quick email here and they'll call you back...

 

http://www.skoda.co.uk/about-us/contact-us

 

They'll open up a case, speak to the garage and come back to you with their findings.

 

You need to tell Skoda that one of their franchised dealers has failed a customer, if not then Skoda can't make efforts to improve things.

 

If nothing else a customer complaint is a black mark against them on their record.

Thanks for the advice guys !

I'm going to send skoda uk a complaint email which will be mainly my first post on here with a few alterations...

Will also send photos and video of cambelt as well.

I don't do Twitter, but if anybody wants to 're-tweet' anything on here, feel free to do so !

Would like to put the photos and video on here, but haven't got a clue how to do it !