Poor quality leather upholstery

[AGMort]

Hullo I'm new to contributing to any forum so I hope I am doing the right thing as I really need some advice.

I bought my leather upholstered DSG Octavia in June 2016 (after Skoda had built the wrong spec car!)  Loved it, still love it after 7500 miles... BUT after a few months the leather on the front seat cushions started to pucker or, as Skoda will have it, 'Augment'.  I took the car to my dealer, Citygate, Watford and the first comment from the engineer who had a look at the seats was, "Well, someone's been sitting on them with a back pocket stuffed with money or something."  After recovering from this dopey remark, I pointed out that a) yes, I had sat on the driver's seat - it was necessary to do so in order to drive the car and, more rarely, so had my son on the passenger seat but that b) we, neither of us, carry more than a couple of notes in our back pockets.  The manager was more positive and photographed the seats and suggested that they could be recovered.  Great!  But no! After contacting higher Skoda powers-that-be, he told me that help was not to hand - so I raised a complaint, SD564692x to the Help Department, Sheffield.  This decision not to help was confirmed by Zalikha Nazir, the Customer Services Manager, who sent me a waffling email saying that wear and tear was not subject to warranty. Come off it!  7 months and three thousand miles!  Does that represent fair wear and tear?  I think not. Any way, having gone into recess due to family illness, I have emerged and yesterday took the car to a well qualified car upholsterer in Wooburn Green who had a careful look at the seats.  He said that as the leather (if it was real leather) was such **** quality he would not make any attempt to cure the puckering seating with a heat gun as this well used process would probably do more damage than good.  The creasing by now has extended to the sides and squabs of both front seats.  The odometer registers 7400 miles.

So, what do I do?  Court action is prohibitive although I did suggest withholding my PCP payments until some action was taken.  This met with a prompt promise to compromise my credit rating...

Help, someone please.

[Guest]

Not sure what help you're after because at the end of the day, if you're unwilling / unable to take legal action then you're at the mercy of every retailer.

 

Just some pointers than may / may not help:

 

When did you first notify Skoda about this? The reason I ask is because within the first 6 months it's up to the retailer to prove the fault. I must say that it would need some very large pockets and an impossible driving style to make marks like that from something in your back pocket!

 

Secondly forget anything Skoda UK says. Your contract is with your supplying dealer and their word is final. If you disagree with them then you must take action against your supplying dealer.

 

You mention your car upholsterer said the quality of the leather was ****.  I'd suggest not returning to this person because such comment is not helping anyone. The car may not be a Rolls Royce but the leather most certainly isn't ****. Or put it another way, it's not any different from the leather most other manufacturers use.  You also question if it is real leather - once again that's more evidence to ditch your upholsterer - if he/she can't tell the difference between faux and real leather I'd be questioning if they're qualified to pass an opinion.   You'll find nearly every car manufacturer has seats made up of both faux and geniune leather. The base and back of the seat that you sit on is real leather.

 

Solution? I'd suggest not placing all your eggs the one basket and get quotes from several different upholsterers to correct the problem. Ask them for a damage report. What in their professional opinion has caused the issue and how much would it be for them to put it right. The aim of the exercise is to gather as much evidence as possible that there is indeed a manufacturing defect. If several of the repairers agree with you, return to the supplying dealership, ask to speak with the dealer principal and hand him your evidence. Then tell him that if he refuses to correct the problem, you'll have the problem corrected at your own expense and subsequently recoup the full costs from him via the small claims court.

 

But as I said right at the beginning, if you're not willing or serious about exercising your legal rights, you may as well give up now.

 

Whatever you do, never withold your PCP payments or you'll end up having legal action taken against you. Have you asked the finance company for their advice? Have you tried citizens advice?

 

 

 

Edited 11 January, 2018 by Guest
wording correction

[stu83]

My driver's seat looks exactly the same, and I NEVER carry anything in my back pockets. It's just p*** poor material.

[SashaGrace]

Odd how some seats go like this and some don’t. My leather seats are immaculate at 77k miles though my drivers seat was starting to go baggy, 10 mins with a hairdryer had it all nice and taught again. Skoda UK are completely useless, took them 12 months to send me the £500 fuel card I got with the Citigo after 20 emails and 8 dealer visits (equally useless). I hope I never have to deal with SUK again. I would certainly not be accepting that at such a low mileage but you’ll need to push every legal right you have and be prepared to threaten (and see through) court action otherwise they will get away with it. 

[dunc69]

@SashaGrace do you think a hairdryer would sort out the OP’s seat ‘dimples’? 

[SashaGrace]

Hard to say, but I wouldn’t, on the basis that the OP doesn’t want any more trouble if Skoda send someone to see the seat and they decide it’s been damaged because someone has tampered with it, thus refusing a warranty claim.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, SashaGrace said:

If Skoda send someone to see the seat and they decide it’s been damaged because someone has tampered with it....

Exactly.

 

[AGMort]

Thanks, all of you who have replied so quickly, with virtually similar replies!  Do Skoda ever respond to the poor publicity that this sort of exchange engenders?  I have copied my Post to the great Customer Service in the sky - but who knows whether they will bend.  I will email that Mr Trump for some ideas on Twittering;  he seems to get a rapid response.  Perhaps I described my upholsterer friend a bit unfairly.  He does know what he is talking about and spoke to me in a break from re-trimming a Ferrari 250GTO - so somebody trusts him!  Anyway, I will report on any comeback from Skoda.

[Robbijay]

45 minutes ago, AGMort said:

Thanks, all of you who have replied so quickly, with virtually similar replies!  Do Skoda ever respond to the poor publicity that this sort of exchange engenders?  I have copied my Post to the great Customer Service in the sky - but who knows whether they will bend.  I will email that Mr Trump for some ideas on Twittering;  he seems to get a rapid response.  Perhaps I described my upholsterer friend a bit unfairly.  He does know what he is talking about and spoke to me in a break from re-trimming a Ferrari 250GTO - so somebody trusts him!  Anyway, I will report on any comeback from Skoda.

Yes, bring it up on their twitter and Facebook. you usually then get more help as they don't want people to see negative press! I've done this with many other companies

[Gerrycan]

The mk3's seem to be down on quality of materials used on the mk2, even in the cloth seat world I inhabit.

While the cloth looks very similar and is holding out well after 3 years, my wife tells me the material is more scratchy on her shoulders (in tank tops) than the old mk2 was after 6 years.

 

[ahenners]

Definitely something not right with that seat - the indents are smack in the middle of the seat. Doesn't look like the sort of thing caused by having something in your back pocket as its not offset to either side.

 

As others have alluded to and you have found yourself, Skoda UK aren't the best to deal with and despite being called "customer service" they don't provide a particularly good service to customers. Good luck and stand your ground!

[Guest]

2 hours ago, AGMort said:

He does know what he is talking about and spoke to me in a break from re-trimming a Ferrari 250GTO - so somebody trusts him!

Explains everything.  Try talking to someone who has experience of VAG cars, not Ferrari's.

Edited 12 January, 2018 by Guest

[Octy0GG]

The whole issue of what constitutes leather is not as simple as all that, it would appear that coated split leather may still be called leather and while it does contain animal hide, I have always thought that calling it leather really is stretching things a bit. 

[BigEjit]

There is also the factor of the foam pad under the seat cover. If the density of the foam isn’t high enough in the centre of the pad or hasn’t been crushed properly straight out of the mold tool, it will take a while to return to a normal condition after being sat on or it will get softer over its lifetime leaving the cover baggy. Also, if some of wire inserts that the stitched seams are hog-ringed to have pulled out of the foam slightly or the rings have been stretched a little, you lose tension on the covering.

 

Only the primary contact surfaces are leather, side panels, backing and infills are pvc based material. Leather puckers up when you press into it with your finger, pvc just caves in with no puckering.

 

Automotive seat building plants use steam irons to finesse out creases and irregularities in fabric and leather covered seats. A bit of applied heat on the leather won’t be a problem. Just avoid the pvc parts if you can. 

Edited 13 January, 2018 by BigEjit

[AGMort]

Thanks to all of you who took the trouble to comment.  Skoda have been in touch (!) so I'll see how we get on and comment in due course.  maybe a 'Damascene' conversion!

[mabnz]

Mine does something similar. I've not been too concerned...