Before I purchaced my Superb I had heard so many stories of how Skoda owners were pleased with the level of customer service etc. Since purchasing my Skoda, my personal experience of service provided by any and all the skoda agents is that it is terrible (read criminal) - so bad in fact that I will never buy another one of their cars and would steer any potential buyers away.

I would be interested to see what the forum members think of Skoda service.

It it posible to set up a propper poll in this forum?

Cheers

Never had any problems with Bickertons of Sheffield, and this is my second skoda.

I bought my first one form a company (Albar Motors, N of Leicester - Tosh was great) that no longer has the agency to sell them.

The other local dealers knew less about the cars that I do - what they didn't know they bluffed and bull****ted. I don't take Bessie to a Skoda dealer for serviving.

Still can't get all the teckie questions answered.

Really dissappointing as the car is great.

Check the reviews for people's experiences with specific dealers.

The one that I had used were truly abysmal and stopped returning my calls.

The other that I now use have been better , though not without their moments.

Skoda CS themselves seem to be a total waste of space

I bought a 2 year old Superb. The Salesman was excellent and accomodated my needs (including getting rid of the aluminium wheels and fitting kerb resistant steel ones) but the servicing was unspeakable.

I was sold a car which had just been "serviced" with a flat spare (unused and not punctured), 2mm of friction material on the rear pads, engine overfull with oil (despite multiple warnings on the engine itself), brake bleed nipple cap missing, air filter choked solid with muck (scheduled for change), wheel bolts over torqued and with the coolant on minimum (never subsequently needed topping up).

You can see now why I hate the dishonesty of these guys and why they will never ever see any of my money again.

Pity - the car's not bad but there are others (Japanese) which have diesel engines which are now just as good.

rotodiesel.

I can only speak as I find and Mitchells of Chester have been truly superb(excuse the pun) they were very good before they got my money and even better after I had paid them.

This is my second Skoda from them and quite honestly can't see me going anywhere else. They even offer a free car wash every Saturday morning with tea, coffee and jam donuts while you wait. 1st class service and 1st class company.

Like everything else in life there are good and bad, I seem to be lucky and have got not just good but very good and no I don't work for the company nor do I have any financial interest in the company. They are just a honest and a good company that is lead by an owner who genuinely cares for his customers and his company.

Well I'm pleased that there are some good ones (Chester a bit far for free donuts though :-) )

Maybe we could have a UK & IRL wide Rate your Dealer.

Perhaps a Map with Green pins for the good ones and Red pins for the 'could do better' so that we can good dealers and near as possible.

To hell with coffee and doughnuts. I just want the machine properly serviced according to the maker's instructions. As I'm in the automotive business I'm in a position to check, but don't expect to have to.

If an organisation such as Tesco were to trade in such a dishonest way there would be a national outcry. My observations indicate that as Skoda dealers have "progressed" from tin sheds to glass palaces, the quality of service has descended to VW/Audi levels - the Internet is littered with complaints about these people.

Who pays for the glass palaces? (and the doughnuts - I'll buy these in Tesco if and when I want any).

rotodiesel.

I bought me car from alex lawrie liverpool and i found the a gang of robbing snides , the warranty they sold wasnt worth a carrot , and they wouldnt help me at all , i would buy a skoda again but not from them , but my next car could be a passat even though i like my superb most of the time .

Bought car after, obviously, looking at many places.

Coincidentally the salesman had moved from one branch to another so this was 2nd 'meeting' with him. Ever so friendly, polite, jovial.

Picked up car - got quick run through by salesman (he skipped through CD player - pun - functions).

1 week later discovered CD player faulty, also discovered 2" water in the boot.

Took the car back - "The water is a feature" was the fly response i.e. I've sold it and now couldn't give a flying fart.

One salesman who deserves shooting.

CD problem eventually fixed, later got half-price loyalty MOT which included free pickup and delivery back home, so was reasonably pleased overall. But the salesman's attitude does nothing for confidence in the breed (and he was oldish - so should know better).

But the car will, in any case, be going to 'my' mechanic who has superbly looked after myself, my son and several friends and relatives over the last ten years.

Couldn't agree more if the Donuts were in exchange for a good service then I wouldn't do them the honour of my business.

The bread and butter of Mitchells of Chester is a quality service at a good price and I have to say they deliver that in buckets fulls, so it seems I have the best of both worlds good service, promises made and kept and the icing on the cake.......lovely donuts and coffee every Saturday morning chatting to a whole boatload of other satisfied Skoda customers and I come away with a clean car!!!

My previous Skoda was an Octivia 2.OL FSI which at 10 months old decided to throw the contents of the 6 speed gearbox all over the Chesire countryside.

The dealer bent over backwards to ensure I was on the road quickly afterwards and because the Skoda factory wanted to examine the car the dealer had a brand new car (at no cost to me) ready for my use within 12 hours,

My own car took 3 weeks to get back on the road. I had weekly updates from the dealer giving me information on progress.

So yes I agree it isn't just about a smiley face from the salesman trying to get you to part with your hard earned money, nor about donuts and coffee.

It is all about service and equally important after sales service, because of this and my other experiences with Mitchells of Chester I wouldn't dream of going anywhere else.

I like the idea of a good dealer/ bad dealer map of GB

Check the reviews for people's experiences with specific dealers.

The one that I had used were truly abysmal and stopped returning my calls.

The other that I now use have been better , though not without their moments.

Skoda CS themselves seem to be a total waste of space

Agree with the comment that Skoda CS being a total waste of space, in fact why Skoda bothers with a 'customer service' if thats what you call it, at all - wrote a letter to them, got two letters back to confirm they had the letter and investigating (one letter would have done thank you) and then wrote back just repeating what I had said ! Some sort of gesture like a free service or a gift voucher would have been fine. From this experience I'm in two minds to go with Skoda again.

my personal experience of service provided by any and all the skoda agents is that it is terrible (read criminal) - so bad in fact that I will never buy another one of their cars and would steer any potential buyers away.

My experience is unfortunately the same as yours.

And unfortunately for the local dealers I buy about 50 cars a year, so if they'd treated me with respect and honesty I'd have spent several fortunes with them.

Lucky for the Ford and Audi dealers I guess as they are impeccable!

I had to go to three dealers before I found one that was competent. I go to Brooklyn in Rugby who seem to know what they're doing - only downside is that they never have any Superbs in the showroom to have a look at!

I had a Passat for 3 years from new, and in my experience, the VW dealer was just as bad. I've had a few Saabs, and their dealers (again in my experience) seem to be better.

Anyone know of a dealer in the Portsmouth Area who is not useless? - NOT FAREHAM!

Someone in this forum made the valid point that Skoda owners have more sense than money. I believe this is true and that Skoda will soon start to pay the price and get what it deserves for treating customers like $%^&, failing to sort waranty repairs (on purpose) etc.

Anyone know of a dealer in the Portsmouth Area who is not useless? - NOT FAREHAM!

Someone in this forum made the valid point that Skoda owners have more sense than money. I believe this is true and that Skoda will soon start to pay the price and get what it deserves for treating customers like $%^&, failing to sort waranty repairs (on purpose) etc.

Oh you've noticed this too then? my mate reckons their dealership at Chichester is quite good, I don't think it's Sparshatts fault tbh, from what I can tell it seems they have to justify every minute to Skoda and struggle to get paid out for works, as far as the staff go at Fareham I found them as pleasant and as helpful as they were allowed to be, but I'm 99% sure a unit that was booked to replace only got cleaned first time around, seems ok now though, it's a shame really, I'm a Vx man really, I only got the Superb due to it's rear legroom, and I have to say I really like it, but come replacement time I'm going to have to weigh up the facts that Vx have a dealer a couple of miles away and they have always been pretty on the ball tbh, one blot was a service that I got the car back without the handbrake being adjusted, mechanic said it was ok, I said it wasn't and returned it, but we'll see 2008 is new model time for both marques so I guess it'll be a bit of a shall I shan't I time.

I've only rang Skoda customer services once, over paint related issue I had with my Octy vRS.

The girl I spoke to appeared to be totally disinterested and (IMO) had a rude telephone manner

When I rang back several weeks later and asked to speak to her for an update, I was told she had been sacked

simple answer to this, get your car to Faintree Garage, Bridgnorth, Shropshire they will sort you.

THis post reminds me of Mercedes. they make sort of the most beautiful cars in the world, yet their customer service is useless

Well , to be fair to Skoda CS , they finally realised that I wasn't impressed that it had taken a year and 12 visits to fix the creaking noises and have offered to pay for my next service - a couple of hundred quid's worth.

I doubt any manufacturer would have offered any more , but it still shouldn't have got to this point

Anyone know of a dealer in the Portsmouth Area who is not useless? - NOT FAREHAM!

Someone in this forum made the valid point that Skoda owners have more sense than money. I believe this is true and that Skoda will soon start to pay the price and get what it deserves for treating customers like $%^&, failing to sort waranty repairs (on purpose) etc.

For main dealers if Winchester isnt toooooooooo far Winchester Motor co are excellent, weve used them for nearly 5 years with 3 cars & can only rave about the service.

If you want an independant try JKM, their details are on here as they are a site sponsor.

speaking as a salesman myself, and obviously not speaking for them all by the sounds of it i always tell my customers to come and see me when they are going into service. just in case they come up against crappy service. Its my greatest bug bear that i try my hardest to do the best job possible so that the customer comes back to us and not somewhere else, only to be thwarted by a unheplful service dept!

luckily mine is like most others, they have their good days and bad days. but i'd like to think my customers would come to see me if they had a issue, rather than just go elsewhere.

it would be a shame to not buy another skoda if it was only the service dept that let you down. there are always other places to get them done. hopefully not a million miles away from you though!!!

Bought two Skoda's, one new, the other used, from two different Skoda dealers. Both gave very good/excellent service. Neither are still Skoda dealers.

The few times I've had a nosy round local dealers at new cars since, I've left signally unimpressed, either patronised by not very bright people or been given acres of flannel.

I still like the cars but I'd buy a s/hand one out of warranty and take it to my local garage just so I didn't have to deal with the chumps. My experience seems par for the course with a few notable exceptions. It's something Skoda really need to get a handle on before they lose the goodwill they spent a decade building.

Skoda have been thoroughly infected with the corporate VAG disease as far as servicing goes - my guess is that there is little prospect of this improving until VAG have "brainstorming rethink" which will be triggered by a serious loss of market share to the Japanese.

VAG have in the past traded on a reputation for reliability and longevity which goes back to the air cooled models. They have, to their credit used galvanised body shells in recent years and have been at the forefront of engine development, particularly diesels.

What they have not been good at is designing electronic systems reliably and using common sense in their application (eg. Passat/Superb water ingress). They also have no understanding of the culture of vehicle maintenance in markets other than their home market. It seems that to the Germans, putting the wrong oil in a PD diesel engine is inconceivable, but it happens all the time outside Germany because their documentation is so lousy - try reading a VAG service book really carefully, and you'll see what I mean.

Time for a good shake out at VAG I think - the Internet probably hasn't done them any favours. My present Skoda will be my last VAG vehicle.

rotodiesel.

I go to Brooklyn in Rugby who seem to know what they're doing

Not my experience, by a long chalk.

They used to have a young guy called Ian who seemed good and he's not been there for years now.

My experiences have all been good so far (touch wood!) with bridgwater irvines .

I think it's all just a matter of luck whether your local dealership is run by genuine people who care for the customer who ultimately pays their wage of a corporate r-sole who just wants to get cars out of the door and screw 'em afterwards.

Every brand has their bad apples - I wouldn't touch honda with a bargepole after the arrogant way we were treated when I was a potential £10k customer :thumbdwn: .