Not happy at all ! now with photos 3 months on and resolved but what a joke page 3

[Poverty]

was qouted £300 to piant and fix so guessed parts at £200

still pissed off to spend that , no intercooler now

know how you feel mate its rubbish. Paint and blend 1 panel in should be roughly 150 notes. Some bodyshops do 100 notes a panel.

Could be added labour to remove and refit new wing, but that doesnt exactly take too long either.

As long as you get it done, they do a good job, hopefully the stealers will have to pay up.

 

[Jedimaster65]

Rob
This must be the worst SEAT customer service in the UK !

I would threaten them with What car, Autocar, Watchdog, Daily papers, and in the meantime go straight to SEAT customer careline.
In your shoes, I wouldn't let this one go.

I had the rusty wheel hubs issue and once they realised that I wouldn't back down, they eventually gave in and paid for them under warranty.

You should also tell them how the bad publicity on this website will impact their sales and service customers too !

 

[robdf2]

i am in the middle of writing a polite strongly worded letter to the dealer who worked on my car telling him the garages findings.
Also while trawling the various forums there is a guy on audi sport.net http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/showthread.php?t=83460 post 9
now i am asuming that Audi A3 uses the same hinges as SEAT? my damage is a bit different and not cased by wind but if these hinges are really that weak then why is my damage so bloody hard for the gargare and SEAT to understand that mine was caused by a badly aligned door !

i wash my car quite a lot and also the door shuts (not hinge side) and sills and on close examination of my car the bolt which is bolted on which cathes the door handle catch has a shadow of dirt around it showing it has moved , tbh the dealer did no investigation what so ever and just took it for granted on what they saw.

 

[John33]

Any update on this ?

 

[robdf2]

letter sent to the dealers who worked on the car , now just awaiting a response.
will let you know what i get back from them if anything at all.

 

[rbmike]

Went into the stealers yesterday , the guy came out to see it and straight away said that i have caused the damage , or the wind must have caught the door , or its been opened too far.
Tbh i knew this is what they would say.

so will see what happens will keep you informed.

its been opened too far. is there something in the hand book about how far you should open the door

 

[robdf2]

Right , i hope you are all sitting comfortably , then i shall begin.

As you have read the thread and seen what happened to my car , well it has gone in to 2 different dealerships over the last 3 months and each time they have rejected a warranty claim stating that there has been an outside influence that has caused the damage to my car , well finally today 3 months on SEAT UK have accepted responsibility !.

The journey i have had to get here has been a total joke , 3 months of being accused , firstly of causing the damage to the car my self , then being told the damage was caused by wind , then being told the damage has been caused by something striking the wing , it was getting beyond a joke , i even recieved a letter from customer care (i really hate using this sentenance)
"it was noted on inspection that there was extensive damage to the vehicle on the drivers door and front wing. This is due to the lower door hinge being bent away from the body allowing the door to interfere with the wing upon being opened. This issue has been caused by some form of external influenece and is not a manufacturing or material defect in the vehicle , unfortunatley outside of this SEAT uk are unable to comment on what the cause of the damage could be"
well as you will see it was manufacturing and mechanical fault !
Well this is what was wrong with my car , there are 2 bolts which hold the lower door hinge on to the car , 1 bolt is screwed in from inside the car and the other is screwed in from outside into the car , well on my car the bolt screwed into the hinge from inside the car was never fully screwed in , it was a good 8mm short , it was tight in the door but not enough to hold my hinge tightly to my car thus allowing the hinge to come away from the car , it was literaly holding on by a couple of threads !.

Now i had to prove this to SEAT that it was there fault so heres what i had to do :

i bought a new hinge from Dave at Serer motors (top bloke , thanks Dave) because i was resigned to the fact that i will have to pay to get the car fixed myself , anyway i offered the hinge up to the car and noticed there was a threaded hole in the hinge but i could not see from looking at my door what bolt could go into it , so i compared it to my passenger side and hey presto there was a bolt there.

so stupidly off i went to my local dealer and showed them my findings , they contacted SEAT and told them that there apears to be a bolt missing (bearing in mind 2 dealers prior to this had looked at my car and missed this fact ! )

so he filled in the paper work to request a waranty claim and i thought all was well and felt satisified that i had discovered what had caused my damage , i recieved a phone call the next day asking me to return to the dealership where they would need to take photos and investigate further so a week was agreed on.

I arrived at the garage where they took photos , then took my car away to check paint depths to see if it had been in an accident , i was starting to , in my eyes they were trying to get out of coughing up for the damage , i didnt need to worry though my paint came back normal all round , the photos were submitted to SEAT with the paint readings.
2 days later i received a phone call from the garage to say the warranty claim had been rejected based on the fact that the bolt had been in place on one of the previous inspections , so i said to the guy what are you impliying? "well the bolt was there before and its not now" he said , so i said are you saying i have removed it? " well basically yes " i was ing fuming. (so obviously the bolt was not there when it was inspected )

That day my blood pressure was through the roof , so after work i took a dental mirror and went looking for more evidence on my car , and i found it the bolt was in the bloody hinge but not all the way through , so off i drive to the dealer and show him what i found , firstly had a go at him for making me out to be a liar , he said its not him its what SEAT said
anyway i dropped my car off yesterday , they took the door off to investigate and found the bolt still covered in primer tight in the hinge and has never been in correctly from the factory.
so my car is being repaired at their expense.


The way i have been treated my dealers and SEAT uk is disgusting , it has taken 3 months to prove to them that they are at fault and along the way i have been accused of dmamging my car and been made out to be a liar by removing the bolt.

i will repeat what i have said before there is no SEAT customer care !

Lets just say SEAT will be hearing from me !

 

[Mr Cellotape]

I feel you pain Rob.


I'm still waiting to hear about the incorrect VIN numbers on my car from new............1 1/2 years later............Well done SEAT UK ....covering yourself in real glory all round.

If I did my job the way SEAT UK do there's I would not expect to have one for very long.

 

[George Grayson]

Absoloutly unbeleivable mate! good on you for sticking to your guns,they would have got away with that with 90% of their customers.






Seat Leon FR Tdi 170 58 reg
Speed Blue

 

[Knight_Rider]

I admire your restraint. I don't think I'd have had the strength to go looking for further evidence. Think I'd have spent my time building a large ramp outside SEAT HQ and deciding which floor to launch my car through

 

[jaykicksass]

if you dont mind me asking what dealer was this if you want to name names?

 

[C_ED_99]

Ouch.

Glad you finally tracked down the problem and got SEAT to admit responsibility!

 

[owen lcr]

good on you mate, i still think there must be something else you can do. you should contact seat uk and tell them what has happened with the salesman calling you a liar etc.

at least you proved them wrong

 

[HuckingFell]

You must have the patience of a saint, I'd have gone absolutely mental being called a liar! Well done for proving yourself right though, must feel very satisfied!

 

[robdf2]

i will not let this go with SEAT , they are bullying customers and tretaing them like children , i entered into a contract with them when i purchased my car , and they have tried every way to get out of fullfilling it by even using tactics where they have accussed me of removing a part from my car to avoid paying out.

I a not alone in this Mr Celotape (steve) is having similar problems along with jezyg.

once my car is repaired i will name the dealer in the appropiate section.

I have had numerous dealings with SEAT regarding my car and i thought i had heard it all but this takes the biscuit.
2 so called technicians failed to notice that a bolt was not in place , and then SEAT backing it up with a letter is beyond a joke , imagine if they were surgeons ffs !

there was no care , no common sense used , and my car spent a whole week at one dealer who was supposed to investigate my door but who made their mind up just by looking at the damage , uttrer dissgrace.

i fought for what i knew was right to get it sorted , i should have never been put in that position in the first place.
Thanks for the comments guys , however satisfied though i am its not over yet by a long shot , they still have to sort my engine , but thats only been going on for 19 months !

 

[coggie]

Good on you for sticking it to them, consistently and accurately.

Your experience reminds me of the time I staged a 1 man 'sit-in' at a Vauxhall Service Reception, trying to get through to Peter Vardy (head of Reg Vardy at the time) on my phone.

You've got the right attitude, I hope you get it resolved ASAP.

 

[jezyg]

I am glad things are getting sorted Rob it seems bein tenacious is the only way and doing your own research back up with the knowledge on here.

 

[warren_cox]

When you think what you spend with dealers:

a) buying the car
b) servicing the car
c) buying other odds and sods / additional services

the way UK franchise dealers treat customers after spending £20k+ is becoming laughable. If you spent £20k in a 'generalist' shop they'd roll out a red carpet, and have nubile virgins fan you with blessed palm branches in case you happened to break a slight sweat blowing £20k in a transaction, and they may even treat you with a modicum of respect.

Car dealers seem to pretty much ALWAYS jump on the defensive, and look for the easiest route out of any situation where they may have to support the customer when the customer needs their help the most. Then they lie to you, treat you like a tw@t, and basically tell you to go fly.

If the nations passions with cars wasn't so intense, a lot more of these monkeys would be forming an orderly queue at the DHSS offices. The UK head offices aren't a lot better as they are scared to death of expensive recalls (which on volume cars can be enormously costly). It's cheaper to lose a customer in many cases than own up to something.

If it is any consolation, I spoke to Audi this week about a recent spat of really poor customer services on the M4 corridor, but interestingly Audi want to know more (note that doesn't mean they will necessarily act). The dealers (for all their glass showrooms, newspapers, B&O hifi's and pastries are NO better).

Best of luck pursuing this; keep it calm, measured and objective and they will struggle harder to shut down on you.

 

[jezyg]

It is not just the deffensive stance some dealers take it is also the lies and spin that they give. Honesty and being up front about things earns far more respect and customer satisfaction than telling porkies or fobbing a customer off!!

 

[robdf2]

one of SEATS 10 commitments is "transparency" the way i have been treated is far from transparent.
yesterday the dealer was very reluctant to tell me what was wrong with the hinge when i asked , but explained it when pushed , why?

the whole saga has been a massive effort on all fronts just to get things looked at properly , the problem now is i am an awkward customer to them and will be treated like one at arms length , i will update to the response i receive from SEAT uk , i am still ing angry and will be so until its sorted , trouble is you know the stress is still going to be there having to check the paintwork and door alignment ect.