Hi, I went into the local Skoda dealer in December and ordered a Kodiaq VRS and chose the options I wanted. I was advised 12 week lead time so I sat and have patiently waited. My new car was collected yesterday and its lovely. I noticed at the dealership that the door protectors were no longer on it and I mentioned this to the sales advisor who told me they are no longer made. Upon checking the skoda website these are now listed as an optional extra yet when I ordered mine these were included in spec. Has anyone else had this happen to them? 

It's a sad fact of life that manufactures do change the spec willy nilly and cover themselves with some small print. So we just have to grin and bear it.

 

My incoming car will be exactly the same. What I "built" and ordered in October will not be what I collect in a few weeks.

 

We have to grin and bear it.  And indeed, there are bigger concerns in life.

 

ps - I must go snooping round my dealer's yard as the car should be there now.

Edited 11 March, 20206 yr by BoxerBoy

I had this happen to my Kodiaq RS as well, ŠKODA NZ didn’t have updated MY20 spec out so I wasn’t able to order the now-available Family Pack. 

BoxerBoy, when I paid my £500 deposit to order I wasn't given any terms and conditions that suggested specs etc may vary etc. My point was that Skoda through the dealer should have contacted me to advise of this.

 

12 minutes ago, JayL said:

BoxerBoy, when I paid my £500 deposit to order I wasn't given any terms and conditions that suggested specs etc may vary etc. My point was that Skoda through the dealer should have contacted me to advise of this.

 

 

How did you choose the options, because everything listing the options has a small print disclaimer (although not always obvious)

 

However the dealer could have been more pro-active and advised they were now optional and did you want to add them

 

Having said that many people have had it work other way, and something was added that they weren't expecting so this changing specs works both ways

 

 

SurreyJohn, I created the spec for my car on CarWow and then went into the dealership with the reference code. They pulled it all through and said this was the amount etc and I paid my £500 deposit. When I collected the car the dealer stated that the bins had now been discontinued which I wasn't that bothered about but then told me some story that the door protectors had now stopped being made. I went home and checked and they are now an optional extra. Apart from the lettering on the back going from silver to black (which looks better) from what I can see the car has just lost small details and not gained anything. Admittedly the price has now gone up from what I paid for it, but no one had the decency to just advise or explain.

 

 

Unfortunately I think you're expecting a little too much from your dealer. Hardly any of them ring you to tell you your car is on it's way to the UK, let alone whether the spec has changed.

 

All you can do is complain and hope they'll sympathise with your predicament and offer you a gesture of goodwill or an apology.

 

From a contract / legal perspective your contract is with the supplying dealer, but if you look at Skoda UK's website they plaster this on almost every page...

 

 

 

"LEGAL DISCLAIMER

Please note - ŠKODA reserves the right to change the prices, colours and technical data of models shown and described in the car configurator. Accompanying pictures are for illustrative and informative purposes only. Appearance of colours depends on the set up of your monitor."

 

You're actually not missing much, a quick search on here and on other forums will reveal the door protectors are more hassle than they're worth.

 

You will also find there are number of other cost cutting initiatives, detailed here...

 

 

I've touched upon this issue in another thread. The brochure/pricelist more or less says "none of this might be accurate, check with your dealer." Thus whenever I buy a new or used car, I e-mail them to say "Skoda/VW/Toyota etc etc says check with your dealer. Please inform me of any changes to my car's spec relative to the price list." This e-mail is invariably ignored, or the response is "as far as we're aware, you'll get what's in the official spec." I've never expected or experienced a dealer being pro-active and informing me of any changes in the time period between ordering and delivery. Any car dealer that exhibited this excellent level of customer service would immediately lose their franchise and the staff would be publicly executed as a warning to others.

the dealers tend to not have a clue when it comes to the smaller specifics of the cars. 

if it was me i'd be in touch with Skoda UK and push for them to give you something from the accessories brochure as a gesture 

if you care that much about it that is

1. It's not that the dealer isn't being pro-active, their information is only as good as the information they're given. True, a petrolhead will be more informed on certain aspects, but don't go blaming the dealer if there's a spec change and they didn't inform you.

 

2. Manufacturer's cover themselves with the small print. And if you order on 1st March and there's a spec change on 2nd March ?

 It's all very easy to criticise but damn hard to put this in to practice.

 

3. Remember, you've ORDERED a new car, you haven't bought it. If you don't make it clear you want the furry dice that were listed as standard equipment then how is the dealer going to know?

 

4. If the car allocated to you is not what you ordered, then you can cancel the order and receive a full refund. If you were expecting protectors and the protectors were missing, you are legally entitled to simply cancel the deal. Nobody is forcing you to buy the car.

 

5. You order a car and when you inspect it before signing you find it has a digital dash rather than the analogue dash, or that a spec change means you have the newest 9" infortainment rather than the previous 8" - how many people complain about the small print / get out clause / dealer not informing them under those circumstances?

 

Anything you buy will have words to the effect "specs correct at the time of going to press". It's nothing new.

 

7 hours ago, JayL said:

BoxerBoy, when I paid my £500 deposit to order I wasn't given any terms and conditions that suggested specs etc may vary etc.

 

Did your order form state all the std equipment of the car? Or did it simply say the model of car you ordered, the engine, the transmission, the colour, optional extras and accessories? 

 

32 minutes ago, Scot5 said:

1. It's not that the dealer isn't being pro-active, their information is only as good as the information they're given. True, a petrolhead will be more informed on certain aspects, but don't go blaming the dealer if there's a spec change and they didn't inform you.

 

Skoda UK do communicate the changes out to their dealer network, they have a dedicated internal communications system designed for this very purpose. More often than not it is the dealer at fault. Their processes and procedures on how they manage the information received from Skoda UK i.e. how they filter and then cascade the information out to their frontline staff is often where the issue lies.

 

When placing an order for a car you should be issued with a contract, within which will be the dealers terms and conditions. If you aren't provided with a contract, or all they give you is the order form and there is no mention of them reserving the right to alter the specifications prior to delivery then the blame can be apportioned to the dealer.

 

Your contract is with the dealer, not Skoda UK. If it is indeed a case of Skoda UK not passing the information on to the dealer then it is of no concern to the customer. There is no reason why the dealer can't be proactive and chase for the information, rather than simply using the lack of it as an excuse for poor customer service.

 

Some rogue dealers all too often blame anyone and everyone but themselves.

Thanks everyone for the information I will challenge the dealer first then as after all these are the ones that took my money and see what response I get from there. 

 

To be honest it's not about the costs etc it's more about principle and lack of care and diligence. 

 

Thanks again. 

OK, in a bit more detail.... When I've done my research and got the best price etc, I go to a dealer (or broker) and, followed up with an email (in polite and friendly language, not nearly as blunt as what follows) I say to them "I want to order this vehicle. The brochure and Skoda UK tell me that the advertised spec may be incorrect but you, the dealer, will have the correct information. Please tell me if the actual spec differs from the advertised version, because the contract between us is that you will sell me an item which is 'as described'. Also tell me if the spec changes between the order date and build date. Failure to disclose would mean that I would be entitled to reject the vehicle if I judge that the change in spec is sufficiently detrimental."

 

I don't believe that UK consumer law would allow the dealer to rely on T&C which effectively says "we can change the spec of the vehicle we supply and - the important bit - simply not tell you."

 

The reality is that it's a really good idea to do even minimal research so that you are at least aware of a new price/spec, then speak to your dealer (in a happy, polite, constructive way - the people you deal with are human beings, after all, despite the popular image of car salespeople, and you want them on your side) and ask them if the spec of your order has changed and if so, how exactly. It might change to your benefit, it might not, but you are entitled to be informed.

The spec changed on my car between order and delivery, meaning the car that was delivered to me was not the specification that I ordered. The dealer didn’t communicate the change, and didn’t notice until I inspected the car on delivery and pointed it out to me. The choices they gave me were:

 

a) walk away, they keep the car

b) refund the difference in price for the spec change, and give a small amount of compensation by way of goodwill for their mistake. 

3 hours ago, MrTrilby said:

The spec changed on my car between order and delivery, meaning the car that was delivered to me was not the specification that I ordered. The dealer didn’t communicate the change, and didn’t notice until I inspected the car on delivery and pointed it out to me. The choices they gave me were:

 

a) walk away, they keep the car

b) refund the difference in price for the spec change, and give a small amount of compensation by way of goodwill for their mistake. 

This is pretty much what happened to me with our current (soon to be replaced) VW, although it wasn't a spec change, it was an error in the brochure/price list - the important bit being that the car was not 'as described'. I wasn't offered the choice of 'walk away' because they were, er, very keen that the sale went through, so a discussion with VW followed and I accepted the ample compensation for the (to me) relatively unimportant discrepancy, so everyone was happy. To their credit VW thanked me profusely for noticing the error and changed the online price list very quickly.

Thanks for all the feedback and info will definitely be visiting the dealer again, very soon.....

On 12/03/2020 at 18:07, MrTrilby said:

The spec changed on my car between order and delivery, meaning the car that was delivered to me was not the specification that I ordered. The dealer didn’t communicate the change, and didn’t notice until I inspected the car on delivery and pointed it out to me. The choices they gave me were:

 

a) walk away, they keep the car

b) refund the difference in price for the spec change, and give a small amount of compensation by way of goodwill for their mistake. 

Yoy  a

On 12/03/2020 at 18:07, MrTrilby said:

You  are    pretty lucky   that  your dealer is  one  from  the good ,  in my case  although I bought  the one  that  was in the show room  , as I saw it,  I found  after   a lot of visits and arguments after 5 months that  my car  is not equipment   with auto lights  from the factory and they  don’t  charge me for this , but, bay mistake(?)  they had put  the shift  with the auto operation  .The only refund I get  is  a big  sorry,  the workers in the  factory  just make an error,  you  haven’ t any right to want anything  because  we  don’t  charge  you   for this…and this answer come  both   from the local  and the country representative

 

You  are    pretty lucky   that  your dealer is  one  from  the good ,  in my case  although I bought  the one  that  was in the show room  , as I saw it,  I found  after   a lot of visits and arguments after 5 months that  my car  is not equipment   with auto lights  from the factory and they  don’t  charge me for this , but, bay mistake(?)  they had put  the shift  with the auto operation  .The only refund I get  is  a big  sorry,  the workers in the  factory  just make an error,  you  haven’ t any right to want anything  because  we  don’t  charge  you   for this…and this answer come  both   from the local  and the country representative