Delays on new Altea delivery dates, help needed

jasonrk

Guest
Hi there newbie here!

I'm looking for anyone else who may have experienced substantial delays with ordering a new SEAT in the past 6 months & were not informed about it when they purchased.

Having spoken to others it would appear a pattern of new buyers build dates being pushed back in order to allow scrapage scheme purchases through is begining to immerge. I'd like to bring this to the attention of the motor press & consumer rights groups so any similar stories you may have would be of great help

Below is an out line of the current debacle my wife & I are experiencing at the hands of both SEAT & Perrys.

On September 13th of 2009 my wife put down a deposit with Perry’s for a brand new Seat Altea 1.9 DSG with a number of extras. We were informed at this time that in all likely hood the delivery date would be approximately 12 weeks however it was not possible to confirm it at this as Seat were installing a new tracking system & so exact dates for the car’s manufacture could not be given as it was not yet possible to view them on the their systems. We were told that as soon as this system became live we would be informed of a date.

Several times through out September & early October my wife called Perrys to be informed that the systems were still not live & so the car could not be tracked. During this time we were led to believe by Perrys that in all likelihood the car was in fact being manufactured & that the fact it was not visible on the systems did not mean it would not be delivered on or around the anticipated date at the end of November.

The middle of November arrived & despite several phone calls from us about the status of our car we were still no closer to having a delivery date. I must point out that during this time any contact with Perrys was made by our selves & not once did they call to update us, or inform us out of courtesy that there was still no news.

By this time we had also spoken to friends of our who were also looking in to purchasing a Seat, but had been put off when their local dealer informed them of issues with the delivery times due to scapage scheme purchases being pushed through first in order to meet the deadline for the scheme. On one call to Perrys my wife enquired as to this being the problem & was told unequivocally that Perrys had no such knowledge of these issues & to their mind this was not the case.

With mid November arriving & still no news, I decided to take a more direct approach, contacted Seat UK directly & spoke to a customer service agent there. I pointed out that whilst I understood our contract was principally with Perrys who are a Seat franchised dealership, I felt this was now reflecting on Seat’s brand & image as we still had no build or delivery date.

Again I was informed of the situation with the live tracking system by Seats customer service agent & informed that the car still could be on its way or in the process of being built. As the system was due to go live in the next few days the agent promised to contact Perrys to find out the situation & up date me regularly over the next few days.

Over the next few days true to their word I was contacted by Seat & informed that the car was not visible on the system however could have been built & might be part of a two deliveries expected at Perrys over the coming days. Unfortunately the car was not part of either of these & so we were left back at the start with still no build date or delivery date & that in all likelihood it would now be mid December that the car would be with us.

On hearing this I expressed my dismay & asked that it be found out what was happening with the car & when it would be with us.

Seat again came back to me to inform me this time that the car had yet to be built & that it’s anticipated build date & delivery would likely be February.

I am sure you can now imagine my dismay at this. For all of this time my wife & I have been with out a car as it was ordered to replay another car that was written off in an accident. I expressed my dismay again to Seat over this & ask that it be escalated. When pushed for a reason as to why this was happening the agent admitted that this was due to demand with the scrapage scheme & that this was an issue that both Perrys & Seat were aware of when our car was ordered.

When asked what compensation my Wife & I would be provided with for our problems I have been met with platitudes & repeatedly told that Seat will not talk about this until such time as we have received the car. I get the impression that they want our money first & then will give us a set of free interior mats or service for our troubles.

My last contact with Seat before the Christmas period was that we would speak closer to the delivery date & that Seat would at least pay the increased VAT now due owing to the car being late, although I have yet to receive any such confirmation in writing.

Following the Christmas break in early to mid January my wife received a phone call from Perrys saying that our build date had been pushed back again & that the expected delivery date was now early March. Again I called Seat to express my dismay yet again at this & again asked what compensation would be given & what could be done to ensure that the car was delivered on this date. Seat again returned my after call after investigating, feeding me the same platitudes regarding compensation & confirming the new estimated delivery date but with no explanation as to why.

Finally yesterday my wife received another phone call from Perrys (one of only to made by them in this whole debacle I hasten to add) to inform us that there is in fact still no build date for the car on the system, the car has yet to be built & no one can inform them when this will be. As the car takes an estimated twelve weeks to build & deliver it seem highly unlikely that we will now receive our car for the start of March & in fact our looking most likely at the end of April or beginning of May, a total of nearly eight months & nearly three times that of their estimated delivery date.

Through out all of this my wife & I have been left with out a car since the initial estimated delivery date. This is now starting to cause us financial implications.

We in fact chose to stay with Seat as the performance of the safety equipment in the car during our accident was 1st rate & having a young child this is of paramount importance to us.

However we now feel almost as if Seat is pushing us to cancel the order so they will not have to fulfil their obligations as the customer service we have received to date is as I am sure you can agree appalling.

Sorry for the length of the post guys but thanks in advance for reading & any of you own experiences you can add.
 

dlm2310

Rocco Is God !!
Dec 17, 2006
164
0
West Yorkshire
Ordered a new Seat XL SE in mid Oct with a delivery date of mid Jan.

It turned up bang on time although I was sent an Altea not an XL !! not Seats fault but the car lease co (company car) so now I have to wait another 3 months but have been promised it for April.
 

altea phil

Active Member
Jan 25, 2009
128
1
West Yorks.
It all depends on how much you want that particular car.....how much deposit you have paid, and is it returnable ????
I don't think anyone would argue that you have been treated very shabbily in deed by both Seat and Perry's.
You say that this is now having financial implications for you, so would it be cheaper to cut your losses, and possibly look round for a nearly new one instead ??
 
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