Finally, had a safety recall done last week to repair insulation on the main battery (it's an iV). My local garage, Meadens in Brockenhurst, Hants, are literally at the end of my road,  couldn't do it as they are the wrong 'level' of services, don't have the kit, nor the training. So after a long wait it went to Skoda Winchester some 40 miles away. They discharged the battery, dropped it out, did the recall work, and put it back together. Two days, excellent communication and service. But then they found they couldn't re-energise the battery, the pre-cursor to charging it. Interrogated the car computer, and found several identical fault reports going back to July last year that the charging control unit was faulty. I have had charging issues, spoken to Meadens, who blamed the supplied cable. Meadens have had the car several times since last July, normal service, software upgrade after a nav fault, and faulty SOS module which they replaced after it started making random calls. Each time they've plugged the computer in. That's how they diagnosed the SOS unit failure. But not once have they told me the charger control unit was faulty, nor tried to address it. Winchester even had to argue that it was covered by my extended warranty, and fortunately won, its a £2000 part. So well done Winchester and back on the road in six days. But Meadens really let me down. I queried this and had an email about having to drain the coolant to diagnose the charger unit issue as if that makes the difference. So I have asked them again to explain. Either did they miss it (unprofessional and incompetent) or did they ignore it and fail to tell me (negligent and destroys my trust). Maybe it too was beyond their service level, but surely it should be communicated to me. Even my service record from this Feb fails to mention any issues and gives a clean bill of health. Or another reason. What would you do or think? Should I use Meadens (who we've bought four new cars from over the years, such is my trust) again...should others trust them?

UPDATE: July 9. Heard back, some apologies for lack of comms, but basically they can't remember, long time ago, claim it's undocumented, and as trust has broken down, could I use another dealer henceforth. 

They say I only complained when I had a problem. Duh?! So no proper explanation, and sacked by Meadens. Actually had reached the same conclusion about their failings, so after four cars bought and serviced there, ta ta. 

Edited 9 July, 20241 yr by Brockysuperb
Update

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/64378-meadens-skoda-brockenhurst/page/2

 

The charger unit is quite likely to be 'water' cooled. Why it would need to be drained to diagnose a fault - as opposed to being replaced -  I have no idea though.

1 hour ago, Brockysuperb said:

Finally had a safety recall done last week to repair insulation on the main battery (it's an iV). My local garage, Meadens who are literally at the end of my road,  couldn't do it as they are the wrong 'level' of services, don't have the kit, nor the training. So after a long wait it went to Skoda Winchester some 50 miles away. They discharged the battery, dropped it out, did the recall work, and put it back together. Two days, excellent communication and service. But then they found they couldn't re-energise the battery, the pre-cursor to charging it. Interrogated the car computer, and found several identical fault reports going back to July last year that the charging control unit was faulty. Now Meadens have had the car several times since last July, normal service, software upgrade after a nav fault, faulty SOS module replaced after it started making random calls. Each time they've plugged the computer in. That's how they diagnosed the SOS unit failure. But not once have they told me the charger control unit was faulty, nor tried to address it. Winchester even had to argue that it was covered by my extended warranty, and fortunately won, its a £2000 part. So well done Winchester and back on the road in six days. But Meadens really let me down. I queried this and had some rubbish email about having to drain the coolant to diagnose the charger unit issue as if that makes the difference. So I have asked them again to explain. Either did they miss it (unprofessional and incompetent) or did they ignore it and fail to tell me (negligent and destroys my trust). Maybe it too was beyond their service level, but surely it should be communicated to me. Even my service record from this Feb fails to mention any issues and gives a clean bill of health. Or another reason. Silence from Meadens. What would you do or think? Should I use Meadens (who we've bought four new cars from over the years, such is my trust) again...should others trust them?

That sounds as if they cannot now be trusted - unacceptable that they 'missed' the control unit fault report when they were diagnosing other issues.  

If you ask them for the printout of the full service history from the Skoda system would it show fault codes read during the previous services/visits? 

 

Issue for many with a PHEV and dealerships lack the staff to work on them.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/521737-coolant-missing-and-coming-back

 

Pretty amazing that dealers can sell cars which they have zero ability to properly service. I’d stick with Winchester. Most decent dealers will do a while you wait service. 

Having used both of those mentioned (albeit a long time ago) I had plenty of issues with one and almost none with the other.

Do they have evidence this fault was long running? Also if one dealer is not EV approved can they even pick it up? I assume they can, but you know what they say about assumption.

 

Not saying the fault wasn’t missed just that people perhaps need to take a step back before jumping on a dealer.

 

I never understood the allegiance to a garage that sells you a car.  Yes you may have had friendly chatter with the staff but beyond that.....  You have bought the car but there is no reason you have to go out of you way to use them for servicing.  Clearly in this case it is very local so I get that.  But they often charge through the nose and also produce many stories of bad service for those elevated prices.

 

I just don't get why you'd use them.

18 hours ago, cheezemonkhai said:

Having used both of those mentioned (albeit a long time ago) I had plenty of issues with one and almost none with the other.

Do they have evidence this fault was long running? Also if one dealer is not EV approved can they even pick it up? I assume they can, but you know what they say about assumption.

 

Not saying the fault wasn’t missed just that people perhaps need to take a step back before jumping on a dealer.

 

I have the diagnosis print out (provided by Winchester Skoda) which shows the fault from last summer onward.

Fair enough, when I used the two and others locally sway were cheaper and far more reliable. I found other local dealers charged much more and missed things.

 

i don’t deal with either now, but sitting in the garden/lounge of the pub opposite for lunch was far better than the usual waiting area.

Just (belatedly!) read this thread… very alarming , especially since I’ve been looking at buying cars from Meadens!

 

IMHO this needs to go to Skoda UK - they keep tabs on dealer performance & this might be the trigger for enforcing dealer standards!
 

It also seems to me incredibly short-sighted to “sack” you since -  as anyone with a marketing background knows - it takes years to create a good reputation but seconds to break one! As is always the case one unhappy customer tells everyone who”ll listen whereas satisfied customers only tell their friends!

 

Have you been communicating with the dealer principal as my understanding is this exec has responsibility for the franchise relationship & not just the relevant department(s)??

 

Best of luck!