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I bought a Volkswagen polo last year after researching and hearing from people rave reviews about german engineering and their service. I have enjoyed driving the car last year and it has been an absolute pleasure. I knew that I was paying a little extra upfront for the VW brand and service but I did not mind because I wanted peace of mind. A couple of days back, there was an underbody hit on my car and I could see some fluid dropping from under the car. I called up VW immediately and they towed the car to Palace cross service station in Bangalore. The service station executive called me and told me that there is no leakage and that is just water dropping from an AC outlet. I was happy and as the car was due for service I asked him to service the car.
Last year while purchasing the car, The sales manager at VW sold me an AMC plan with an Emi saying that my entire service would be taken care of. He said that the service costs around 9-10k and I just have to pay rs 503 per month(amounting to Rs 6000 per year) for the service. It made all logical sense to go for this plan. As you see from the AMC document below all charges are covered except fuel filter.
When I asked for the service estimate, Vishwanath at VW palace cross road service station told me that the estimate is Rs 8700, but under the AMC VW would pay only one labor which is Rs 360, all the other labor charges and fuel filter charge has to be borne by the customer. Which means VW pays only Rs. 4400 for my service and I have to pay Rs. 4300. I told him that I have already paid Rs 6000 in advance for the AMC and I was told the service mostly will be free except a few parts. He said that that’s not the communication from VW. Although it was a matter of 1600 bucks I was really upset by the rude behavior of the service station manager. Over the next few days I wrote several emails to VW, called them up, talked to Ms. Gayathri, customer care head at palace cross, Mr jasvir, finance head at palace cross, but shockingly no one is aware of what is covered under the AMC and what is not. VW customer service did not even care to reply to the queries till now. So after I gave them piece of mind, they said that if I pay for service in full they will refund the AMC charges. By now, I was not ready to trust these people and I asked them 5-6 times if they would do the full refund and they said yes. So I decided to pay in full for the service. While taking the car, to my horror, there was a small dent above the right rear tyre of the car. When I asked the service executive, he showed me the inspection sheet and told me that that dent was already there when the car reached the service station. That dent was never there, I showed him the inspection sheet I had made the towing person fill and obviously that dent was not there. But he said he will get in touch with his manager and see what can be done. Obviously I was disgusted and did not want to deal with these guys anymore. While giving the car I cleared my car of everything, but forgot to remove my phone charger and as expected it was flicked and was not there.
A few days later there was a feedback call from Volkswagen and I spent 10 minutes explaining the problem and they said someone will get in touch with me. Someone from VW called me and talked about some minor service issues I had(rattling and steering pulling to one side at high speeds) but was not willing to talk about AMC, car charger and the dent on my car.
Subsequently I wrote an email to Jasvir asking for refund. And as I mentioned earlier Gayathri had confirmed that full charges would be refunded. Now Jasvir tells me that he is checking what the charges would be. I do not know what these guys are upto and how this showroom and these bunch of clueless executives have existed and managed to sell cars.
So essentially in my service experience, I had
1. To pay Rs. 6000 for AMC IN ADVANCE, and get service for only Rs. 4400.
2. A dent on my car
3. A flicked charger
As far as VW service is concerned:
1. Clueless about whats covered and whats not covered in AMC.
2. No response from customer service.
3. Inability to understand and resolve issues by dealer, finance team and VW itself.
I used to hear horror stories about Skoda service and here it’s not even about money. It is the clueless executives, lack of transparency from VW and inability to resolve genuine issues that makes me wonder why I paid extra for this car. Well I was hoping to upgrade to Vento TSi later this year, but I’m better offwith the likes of Maruti I guess even if the rides are a little less pleasurable.
I want to say that the car is absolutely fantastic to drive, but please make sure that you don’t trust these people with anything. And do not but the AMC at all.
Hope this helps.
Last year while purchasing the car, The sales manager at VW sold me an AMC plan with an Emi saying that my entire service would be taken care of. He said that the service costs around 9-10k and I just have to pay rs 503 per month(amounting to Rs 6000 per year) for the service. It made all logical sense to go for this plan. As you see from the AMC document below all charges are covered except fuel filter.
When I asked for the service estimate, Vishwanath at VW palace cross road service station told me that the estimate is Rs 8700, but under the AMC VW would pay only one labor which is Rs 360, all the other labor charges and fuel filter charge has to be borne by the customer. Which means VW pays only Rs. 4400 for my service and I have to pay Rs. 4300. I told him that I have already paid Rs 6000 in advance for the AMC and I was told the service mostly will be free except a few parts. He said that that’s not the communication from VW. Although it was a matter of 1600 bucks I was really upset by the rude behavior of the service station manager. Over the next few days I wrote several emails to VW, called them up, talked to Ms. Gayathri, customer care head at palace cross, Mr jasvir, finance head at palace cross, but shockingly no one is aware of what is covered under the AMC and what is not. VW customer service did not even care to reply to the queries till now. So after I gave them piece of mind, they said that if I pay for service in full they will refund the AMC charges. By now, I was not ready to trust these people and I asked them 5-6 times if they would do the full refund and they said yes. So I decided to pay in full for the service. While taking the car, to my horror, there was a small dent above the right rear tyre of the car. When I asked the service executive, he showed me the inspection sheet and told me that that dent was already there when the car reached the service station. That dent was never there, I showed him the inspection sheet I had made the towing person fill and obviously that dent was not there. But he said he will get in touch with his manager and see what can be done. Obviously I was disgusted and did not want to deal with these guys anymore. While giving the car I cleared my car of everything, but forgot to remove my phone charger and as expected it was flicked and was not there.
A few days later there was a feedback call from Volkswagen and I spent 10 minutes explaining the problem and they said someone will get in touch with me. Someone from VW called me and talked about some minor service issues I had(rattling and steering pulling to one side at high speeds) but was not willing to talk about AMC, car charger and the dent on my car.
Subsequently I wrote an email to Jasvir asking for refund. And as I mentioned earlier Gayathri had confirmed that full charges would be refunded. Now Jasvir tells me that he is checking what the charges would be. I do not know what these guys are upto and how this showroom and these bunch of clueless executives have existed and managed to sell cars.
So essentially in my service experience, I had
1. To pay Rs. 6000 for AMC IN ADVANCE, and get service for only Rs. 4400.
2. A dent on my car
3. A flicked charger
As far as VW service is concerned:
1. Clueless about whats covered and whats not covered in AMC.
2. No response from customer service.
3. Inability to understand and resolve issues by dealer, finance team and VW itself.
I used to hear horror stories about Skoda service and here it’s not even about money. It is the clueless executives, lack of transparency from VW and inability to resolve genuine issues that makes me wonder why I paid extra for this car. Well I was hoping to upgrade to Vento TSi later this year, but I’m better offwith the likes of Maruti I guess even if the rides are a little less pleasurable.
I want to say that the car is absolutely fantastic to drive, but please make sure that you don’t trust these people with anything. And do not but the AMC at all.
Hope this helps.