How to get good service
The electric parking brake on my 10-year-old V W Passat developed a fault and I put it into my local V W dealer to be repaired. I was surprised when I was told that the motors, calipers and other bits on both sides should be replaced at a cost of £1350. The electric parking brake had been replaced before, by the same garage, but this was out of the two-year guarantee period.
I asked if there could be a goodwill contribution from the garage or VW UK. I was quickly and firmly told this was out of the question. Reluctantly, I signed the job sheet, but I felt that spending a total of more than £2000 on a parking brake over the past couple of years was unacceptable.
After discussing my complaint with VW UK, which contacted the dealer, and then having had the dealer threaten to withhold my car because I wouldn’t pay the bill until the complaint was resolved, I was presented with a bill for half the cost, with the dealer paying the rest. I agreed that was fair – I was never going to get the work done for nothing.
There are several lessons learned here.
Be polite but firm with reception staff. If you think the garage is being
unfair, say so and ask, plainly, for a goodwill payment.
If the garage will not resolve the issue to your satisfaction, escalate the issue to the manufacturer. They will want you to buy one of the cars to replace the present one.
When someone says they will ring you at a given time and they don’t, chase them up.
Don’t give in to threats that you will not get your car back.
Be prepared to negotiate. You will always have to pay something when the work is out of guarantee.
There are advantages to having your car serviced and repaired by a dealer. The independents are not as cheap as they once were.
I have been very happy with my Passat estate. I think its finest hour was driving back from skiing, fully laden, through Germany cruising at 110mph in temperatures as low as minus 10deg C. David Pinkney Sandhurst