[ajmat]

My colleague at work bought a Vento Automatic which is her pride and joy. On purchasing the car, she had asked for the VW bumper to bumper insurance. However, she trusted them did not verify the documentation.

During end April, a taxi ploughed into her right wing. The front wing, bumper, headlight were damaged. The car was handed over to Downtown VW for repair. On the due day, she collected it after a three hour wait.

Shock No 1: Car was not covered bumper to bumper so she had to pay almost Rs 7000.

Shock No 2: She discovered that the headlight was fogging up. She went the very next day after the 1st repair to get this sorted. Waited for couple of hrs for them to fix. She thought it was fixed but it wasn’t! However the steam kept coming back till the second attempt.

Shock No 3; Car was pulling to the right. Rather than bear another long wait, she went to Vijay Auto Alignment to correct this and was told that the lower suspension arm was bent as a result of the accident.

She took the car back to VW Downtown and spent 2 hours explaining to the Downtown manager Vikas who told her that the parts were not available and to leave the car for repair. Downtown kept her waiting from 11am till 3 pm who then refused to reopen the insurance claim and told her to file a claim that she drove into a ditch. She demanded a loan car. They gave her a Polo TDi with a flat tyre. She made them repair it and she drive home to find the tyre flat again. She told them to take the car away. This took 10 days despite constant followup.

When she went to collect her car, she was made to wait for 3 hours and the car’s upholstery was completely dirtied. With the sheer exhaustion from waiting and waiting, she just paid what they asked her to pay and she took the delivery of the car as is!!! While she was waiting, there were other people who had been waiting even longer!

From the data

1: Downtown misled her in arranging the insurance
2: Downtown did an incomplete job of repairing the car
3: Downtown forced her to commit a fraud to cover up their actions

Lessons learnt

1: Check you have got what you wanted - verify all paperwork!
2: If there is an issue with the repair, get back ASAP and dig your heels in

[ajmat]

Bumping up from assembly line

[dhanushs]

Volkswagen long term service cost are still unknown. On top of it, if VW dealers are going the Skoda way, one should be worried.

If I were an VW owner, then I would start befriending a reliable mech at the A.S.S as well as at an outside garage.

btw, yes. It is very important to verify all paperwork.

[Vid6639]

Surprising that they never caught the lower arm damage. This should have been checked.

0% insurance is a new way of fooling the customers. What they actually mean is cashless facility and try to fool you saying 0%.

[Prithvi]

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[GTO]

Unfortunate, Ajmat, and this experience will leave a bitter taste. I'd expect VW as a brand with mass market aspirations to outdo the established in terms of customer satisfaction. However, instead of bending over backward to please, it's clearly the opposite happening here. I don't know whether it's a lack of training, audit systems or simply dealer arrogance, but I'm hearing one too many complaints about VW's sales & after-sales experiences. And the bit about insurance fraud...SHOCKING!

Perhaps, your friend could consult with you the next time?

Originally Posted by vid6639

0% insurance is a new way of fooling the customers.

Not really. Some people have had a positive experience with 0% depreciation insurance : Thread Link

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by ajmat

My colleague at work bought a Vento Automatic which is her pride and joy. On purchasing the car, she had asked for the VW bumper to bumper insurance. However, she trusted them did not verify the documentation.

Ajmat, Why does the name of the manager sound so familiar? Which branch of VW downtown did this happen?
If Im not mistaken all of VW downtowns body work happens the Hesaraghatta branch. This workshop is shared by ford.

Originally Posted by vid6639

0% insurance is a new way of fooling the customers. What they actually mean is cashless facility and try to fool you saying 0%.

Vid, This actually does work. Premiums are much higher but everything is covered from bumper to bumper. In my policy all plastic parts are covered for the first 2 claims in a year.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by GTO

Not really. Some people have had a positive experience with 0% depreciation insurance : Thread Link

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

Vid, This actually does work. Premiums are much higher but everything is covered from bumper to bumper. In my policy all plastic parts are covered for the first 2 claims in a year.

No no, what I'm saying is that the guys try and sell you saying it is 0% insurance whereas it's actually cashless facility. They market cashless as 0%.

Since actual 0% has a higher premium, not many opt for it and are actually put off by higher quote.

I'm actually just weighing out the options myself for 0% for the Altis.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by GTO

Not really. Some people have had a positive experience with 0% depreciation insurance : Thread Link

The issue is that she specified that she wanted the bumper to bumper insurance but never got it. Again she failed to check the paperwork on taking delivery

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

Ajmat, Why does the name of the manager sound so familiar? Which branch of VW downtown did this happen?
If Im not mistaken all of VW downtowns body work happens the Hesaraghatta branch. This workshop is shared by ford..

You are referring to VW Palace Cross. VW Downtown is part of Elite Motors which is part of the Dakshin Honda group

Originally Posted by vid6639

No no, what I'm saying is that the guys try and sell you saying it is 0% insurance whereas it's actually cashless facility. They market cashless as 0%.
I'm actually just weighing out the options myself for 0% for the Altis.

Bumper to bumper and cashless are two different words!
Re: Your options as I suggested - calculate the potential cost of repair based on the liklihood, cost of parts and plastic in your car and decide. If it was a euro car - go for it!

[luky_13]

I have had my share of disappointments with VW Downtown, guys there are a bunch of frauds. I booked a Polo 1.6 last year in August, they promised delivery in 3 months and there was no news of the car right up to Jan (not to mention the agony and the follow up) after which I was forced to cancel the booking and buy the car from VW Palace Cross. It took me nearly 2 months to get a refund of the booking amount from Downtown, after countless phone calls and finally resorting to threats.

[srishiva]

I had some issues with my gear lever which VW Palace cross was not able to rectify. when VW (from Bombay or Delhi) called, I let them know that I was not satisfied. VW sent me a sms telling the dealer would contact me and no one has called for 2 weeks.

Over that my address is still wrong in their database and I have had courier guys call me to find the right address (and still not deliver the coupons)

[Xryder]

Ajmat,

I had been to Downtown VW about 2 months back to book a Vento. Had met a fellow BHPian, who was/is also an employee of Downtown VW. I think his handle is srikant. Do PM him and see if he can help out with issues like these.

Sad to see VW A.S.S - Downtown being so reckless about their customers, especially since there are people who are waiting to see reviews about their A.S.S before making a purchase. Three of my colleagues went into Downtown VW for their bookings, but eventually, due to various reasons, all 3 of them ended up booking with Palace Cross VW.

[libranof1987]

Pathetic to see a dealer getting the customer to commit fraud to cover up it's mistake/oversight.

Amidst this thread, check out :
Indian consumer is extremely value conscious: Lutz Kothe, Volkswagen Passenger Cars - The Economic Times

If they think the Indian customer is "extremely value conscious", they better rein in their dealers and A.S.S.! and at least go thru' this thread.

[svsantosh]

This thread is bringing out many complaints against downtown dealership, looks like there are few other threads at the bottom 'similar threads' named downtown, may be clubbed together?

PS - When my indigo ran over a boulder (total underbody damage), my TASS clubbed a existing crack in windshield (from many months ago) as 'related' and got the claim thru!!

[noopster]

ajmat, I feel sorry for your friend and hope she has got over the trauma of the accident and above all the shoddy treatment offered her by the VW dealer.

This is the second bad service experience thread I came across today, and what do you know and headed to VW Pune myself for my first service experience (monsoon checkup actually, but itshould give an idea how they treat customers there). Will post an update later on my ownership thread.

Is "bumper to bumper" the same as zero depreciation insurance? Why did she have to pay 7000, isn't that too much for a car in its first year? And how much did she end up paying in the end?