[euroexotic]

Hello All,
I own a Polo 1.6 Highline purchased from VW Palace Cross aka Bangalore Motors in March 2011. You can find my initial test drive review of the car here: www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/103325-0-polo-18-days.html

Recently I gave the car for some body work to their service centre located on Hessarghatta Main Road. The service advisor was polite and courteous. He listened to all my queries. In addition to the body work, I had also asked the OVRMS to be painted (inevitable in Bangalore!) The necessary paperwork was taken care of without any hassles. I was given an estimate of the damages. And I walked off the lot feeling much better. This was a Wednesday.

The service centre is quite big but there is a lot of construction going on at the moment. They are beautifying the service centre. There is also a Ford service centre in the same lot.

One week went by without any updates. So, the next Wednesday I enquired about the progress. I was told to wait for another "1-2" days since there was a holiday and the work was delayed. At this point, the work had already started on Saturday (allegedly). Hmm.

The next day they were having issues with paint matching. Right!

So, on Saturday I walked into the service centre feeling that the work hadn't even started on the car. I was pleasantly surprised to find the car in the paint shop, with the paint drying up. The service advisor assured me that the car would be ready on Monday. Yay!

Monday, I called to confirm if the work was done. It was, the SA confirmed. I went to collect the car on Tuesday. Shock! Horror!

Paint bubbles on the body work.
Left OVRM unpainted.
Scratches on the driver's side front alloy wheel.
Bird poop on the car (ok, this was not a real cause for concern!)

Time to raise Cain- I spoke to the Manager of the service centre and the Service Advisor - in a loud voice, without expletives. They responded in soothing apologetic tones. Self-restraint and a thick skin helps in the service industry.

I was told to wait till Friday to get everything done. I told them that the car had to be delivered on Tuesday or further Cain would be raised.
To pacify me, they waived off all the charges on the car for the minor body work. The amount to be paid to the Insurance could not, of course be waived off. I was ok with this.

The car arrived that night. I went over the body with a torch, drove the car around. Satisfied and overjoyed, I paid the driver the outstanding amount. Too soon to jump for joy.

The next morning I found a 1" rip on the driver's seat. I cursed VW for having given these fancy beige seat covers to begin with and then the service centre folks.

The next day it rained. The wipers were leaving beautifully parallel, geometric arcs on the wind-shield. I sighed to myself as I remembered a big dusty arc on the wind-shield on the car the Saturday I went to visit. The wipers clearly need to be replaced before they start to damage the wind-shield.

So, fed up with the minor annoyances I rang up VW Customer care. Let us see what they do. I've also spoken to the Service Centre Manager. He's asked me to come in at my convenience to have the matter *looked at*
I will keep updating this post as I have updates. Overall, I'm not satisfied with the quality of the service. To summarise-

They fixed the car: +50
They took too long: -10
The work was unfinished: -10
The quality of the work could be better: -10
They added minor damages: -40
They "comp-ed" the extra work: 20
I had to make several (costly) time consuming cab trips: -30
The car is lovely: +30
The important parts of the car seem to be untouched (no parts swapping that I can think of) : + 30
Final Score - +30/(out of a number I will decide later!)

Jokes aside, I'm not convinced of the overall competence of VW Palace Cross Service Staff. The car frankly, outshines the sales and the service staff.

[mjkaushal]

Why only service, even the Sales staff at Palace Cross are pathetic . Today I had been to their showroom to look at the new Vento , but nobody to even attend to your queries. Forget about attending to your queries, no body is even prepared to talk even after mentioning that I am from one of the bigger corporate companies.

Finally forcefully had to tell them to give a quote !!

Later visited Mahindra showroom nextdoor and found a world of difference !! Forget whether you are buying any product or not, immediately you are attended to inspite of so much of crowd and even offered cool drinks etc.

I think the people at VW , Palace Cross are FULL and taking people for granted. I think its high time for people to avoid this show room in particular. I hope the guys at VW are listening !!

[Rudra Sen]

Originally Posted by euroexotic

The wipers clearly need to be replaced before they start to damage the wind-shield.

Blades need to be replaced? For a car bought in March this year? Did you tell them about this?

[Durango Dude]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

Blades need to be replaced? For a car bought in March this year? Did you tell them about this?

Better to get the blades replaced than get the windshield scratched and hinder driving at night. I doubt if the wind shield wipers rubbers are parts under warranty. Most rubber and plastic bits are outside the purview of comprehensive warranty.
Car may be German, but the sales/service is off/by/for Indians. Goes to show how poorly trained and ill equipped VW dealerships are. I bet the German boss of the Indian operations will get a 'heart attack' before he gets us Indians to work by German rule book.

[euroexotic]

@Rudra

The blades were fine before the service. In the service centre I had noticed the wind shield wipers had been used to clear away a thick sheet of dust. This is what has most likely caused the blades to go bad.

@Durango Dude,

Agreed, its better to replace the wipers before they harm the wind shield. While I can replace the wipers from local car parts dealers, I would prefer to wait till Saturday to speak with the Service centre folks. The wipers are not leaving scratches yet - just a fine mist and 2 sharp arcs as they traverse the glass.

[mayankjha1806]

VW Shoddy dealership is well documented, wish their service was at least acceptable levels. Looks like that is not the case.

Originally Posted by euroexotic

just a fine mist and 2 sharp arcs as they traverse the glass.

The mist is fine but the two sharp arcs are not, they are the starting signs of something wrong with the rubber on the blades. If used over long periods of time can leave permanent scratches on the glass. Also i think a week or two is fine, with the kind of rains we are seeing in bangalore every day its safer to replace the blades.

[euroexotic]

Just wanted this little piece of information. My car's gone there twice now - for body work, kind courtesy Bangalore's mad traffic - each time a few minor scratches have been added to the car.

Lets just say I'm less than pleased with their service. Contacting VW customer service doesn't seem to solve anything. They are extremely lackadaisical.

In March I'm taking the car down for the annual service, I'm definitely not letting it out of my sight.

[shashank.nk]

It seems like the jokers at VW Palace cross haven't learned from their previous mistakes.

My Polo is back in the workshop, barely 2 months after the rear drum brake assembly was replaced under warranty. This time, the strut bearings are to be replaced and also the wiper blades have become hard in a 6 month old car.

I'd taken an appointment for a monsoon check-up on the 7th of August,I reached by 11.45AM and was made to made for 40 mins before a SA was appointed to attend to my car.
I mentioned of wiper judder, steering noise and after noting down all the complaints, i was made to wait another 40 mins telling me the 'job card' is getting ready and i'll have to sign before i leave. I called him twice in between those 40 minutes and finally left the place without signing the job card as the SA told me he'll take another 30mins or so.

My car was to be delivered at 4.30pm the same day, and i'd called him twice once mentioning that i wanted my car to be washed, and finally at 4.15 to check if my car was ready. SA says the car is ready, but he'll check and call back.

Finally i get a call at 4.50PM from another SA(not the one who attended to my car earlier) saying the steering noise is because of 'steering cone' and its to be replaced under warranty.

New SA: "Sir, the steering cone needs to be changed and it'll take 4-5 hours, we can do it no" ?
Me: Why didn't you inform of this before ?
SA: Sir the diagnosis took time, but we're replacing under warranty no (Implying VW is doing me a BIG favor)?
Me: Agreed, but you're expected to inform me before hand of such major repairs, not in the nth minute after saying the car is ready.
SA: Sir this is not the nth minute, the job is only starting now.
Me: (thinking to self, whatever they did from 1-5 pm on my car) Ok replace it under warranty, but when will i get the car ?
SA: Tomorrow (8th) morning sir.

Since this was to be a 2 hr check-up we'd planned a visit to a relative's house and now that the car was unavailable my dad had to drive for 1.5 hrs to get to where we were as the family was at the relative's place and we couldn't take a rick.

On the 8th at 2PM,i call the old SA(New SA doesn't have a cell, he calls from the receptionist's phone)since i haven't heard from them yet,as he doesn't answer my call, i call the manager and ask him what's wrong.

He says its not the steering cone's but the strut bearings need replacement as they are responsible for the noise. I ask him why it failed in 6 months ?

He says its because of rain water entering and water when washing the car. I'm shell shocked! This is the EXACT same reason he mentioned for why the brake assembly needed to be replaced in May!

Looks like he knows nothing other than these reasons to give customers, so i ask him to look into the matter and he says he'll do so and call me back.
As usual he doesn't call back, SA calls me at 5PM and tells me that the rubber in the wiper blades have gone hard and it needs to be replaced, since its not covered under warranty i've to pay. I tell him not to replace it as it was working fine despite the judder and he also is 'updated' with the latest cause for the steering noise and tells me work is still going on.

Today (9th) they didn't call me till now, so i call the SA and he doesn't answer my call. I call him back again and he says the car is ready, but the supervisor has not given his approval yet and so the car can't be delivered till then. Its a mere telephonic approval and the supervisor is out of reach. On asking the New SA why the bearing had failed, he struggles to explain and begins to laugh after a while. After he's done laughing, he says he can't explain what has exactly been done or why it has failed prematurely but the supervisor can do so.

As I write this post, i'd called the SA and he says he can deliver the car as the 'technician' has given a go ahead and the supervisors approval is not required. I refuse to take delivery as I want the supervisor to be present as only 'he' can explain what really went wrong.

The manager,new SA are all a bunch of jokers really. Neither are they responsible, nor do they understand the car and its mechanicals. I've already written a mail to VW explaining my ordeal, i'd like to know how i can file a complaint against the dealer.

[shashank.nk]

Update:

Had been to the workshop to collect my car yesterday. We were made to wait for 20 mins or so before the manager attended to us. I'd posted my experience on VW India FB page and here, may be this made them change. Manager took personal interest in our car from the time we entered till the car left the premises.

He explained what was changed and also took us to the shop floor to show the difference in the old design with the new one. I had a few other queries and he patiently answered them. Wipers were inspected by him, though they were hard, as it was doing the job fine he advised no change is required. I decided to risk it as they were not leaving any streaks on the windshield.

When I went for a TD with SA, noticed noise in the steering again. A supervisor was assigned for a TD again and he told us that the bearings need to set in as its still new, it should happen in 2-3 days failing which they would look at it again. I felt the explanation was fair and so decided to take the car.

Car was washed again on my request as I noticed it was covered with dust. I bought door protectors and body cover for the car.

All in all, yesterday's experience was a surprise and a much better one than before, though it needed a complaint for the change of behavior.