What are your rights as a customer when it comes to dealing with the dealership? My car is at a dealership where I don’t live (my home is 95 miles away). My car has been at the dealership for 10 days and counting, but it hasn’t been worked on for the last 5 days because the mechanic has other cars that need to be worked on. I was told at the dealership there are cars that have not been in their possession but not looked at in over a week. I am already out of money behind a rental car. I am not sure if the extended warranty is going to cover the costs which may be over $5000. I feel I am being taken advantage of because I am a woman. Could someone please help me with some advice on how to handle this situation? Thank you in advance!
Did you leave the dealership knowing that they weren’t going to get to your car for a few days? If the time period they promised you has passed then they should offer a rental until the car is fixed… My dealership has given me a rental every time they could not finish the job in one day. especially for warranty work.
Model year, mileage, and reason for repairs would be helpful information here…
Folks, this has nothing to do with maintenance, and it actually concerns the same car that was posted about in another thread concerning a snapped 1 yr old timing belt. For details, see:
http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/2148006.page
OP–Most likely, it is taking some time for the dealership to tear down the engine in order to assess the damage from the snapped timing belt and to get the VW regional representative on site in order to view the damage.
i would contact the dealer and tell them you understand work piling up but your car doesn’t go to back of the repair line because of new jobs showing up that may seem to the service department to be quicker to fix and more profitable. Ask them for a specific end date. Ask them for the name and telephone number of the factory representative responsible for their dealership. Tell the dealeer you will call the rep. and them go ahead and do so, tell the rep what has happened and your problem. If all this doesn’t get you anywhere, contact your state’s consumer protection office. in my state, it is in the Attorney General’s office and an inquiry from the AG is a powerful motivator to make bad stuff right.
Oldmotorist
Do you want the man that knows what he is doing to work on your car or would you be satisfied with a trainee to do the work? There is a distinct difference in mechanics abilities (not all are equal).
Here we have a car that is only 10 days into the process and some are talking “legal action” this is an indication something is wrong with peoples expectations.
2007 VW Passat, 2.0T, mileage is @ 84,000. I’ve been given three different reasons at 3 different times as to why my car stopped: wrong gas; timing belt; and a “I don’t know.” If this comes across as being short, I apologize, but that is how the dealership has been communicating with me. I wish I could tell you more but that is all the information they will give me. Thank you.
I knew my car was not going to be returned to me in a few days, but the fact that no one has touched my car in 5 days is ridiculous. The dealership says they will not pay for the rental and my extended warranty says they won’t cover it. I have had to call everyday about my car. No one will communicate a deadline as to when my car will be finished. The dealership was supposed to call me about permission to remove a cylinder head and they didn’t. Because of their mistake in not calling, my car was put on the back burner for 4 days.
Thank you. I will follow up on this.