Just had a flick through this thread, and I'm going to shed a bit of light on a few things.
Roadside assistance firstly. For VWG, this is solely managed by the AA. They will tend to send out the closest patrol to assist you, but if that's not a VWG patrol, then it'll be the normal AA. The VWG guys are alright, but the majority of repairs these days are unfeasible/impractical by the roadside. If the vehicle is deemed as unroadworthy (red warning light, safety issue {a main light not working, for example}, not driveable) they can recover the vehicle and arrange for a hire car (which can take up to three days, is usually supplied by a rental company or the dealer) but you have to bear in mind that dealer courtesy cars are usually all booked out weeks in advance.
If you're in a motability car then it'll be the RAC who attend. They can also recover you and arrange a hire car, the process can take just as long.
When the vehicle is marked as an inbound recovery through VWG assist, we get an email. Once the vehicle has landed it has to be triaged within a certain amount of time, if it's an RAC recovery for motability then there is no time limit on investigating the concern, that time frame is to be discussed with the customer once the vehicle is received.
These vehicles that are recovered can be jumping a 6-8 week queue for a diagnostic appointment, so it takes quite a lot of work to squeeze them into the diary. People don't understand that dealerships are busy, diagnosing complex faults can be tough (no diagnostic machine on planet earth tells you exactly what's wrong with a car), the skill levels are very limited these days and people just don't want to do these jobs. That's where these big delays and extended waiting periods come from. If a dealer could book you in the next day and guarantee they had the right staff, parts and time to investigate your issue , then they generally would.
Warranty
There's a lot of information about warranty on the Internet, not all of it is correct.
When your vehicle is under the factory warranty from new (usually 3 years/60k miles or now on Cupra 5 years/80/100k miles), only under certain extreme circumstances does the dealer have to ask for permission or consultation before a repair is carried out. They can carry out practically any repair from start to finish without the need to involve the brand, and the only time VWG will be made aware is when the claim is submitted post-repair.
The exception to the above is when the vehicle has been sold as a used car, is out of factory warranty and has a "used approved" policy. The used approved, named/all component cover or all-in warranty works differently. It runs for the purchased duration of the policy, usually 12/24 months, with few mileage restrictions. These policies DO require diagnosis then approval before the repair as the claims are not managed by VWG UK, it tends to be whoever the policy is held with, Opteven or VWFS for example. Once the repair is approved then the work can be completed, approval can take 24-48 hours depending on the complexity of the claim.
If a fault is genuine, the diagnosis correct and the repair justifiable, then VWG will ALWAYS pay out. Warranty is a win-win for the dealer network, so why people are under the impression that dealers are reluctant to carry out warranty work for one reason or another is beyond me, if they are then I dare say it might be because they don't have staff skilled or experienced enough? Who knows?
Seat/Cupra customer care
Used to be based at Capita contact centre in Leeds, they were a great bunch of people. Now it seems split around. We deal with them all the time, they act as a mediator between dealer and customer, more often than not it's because a customer has been told something they don't like or agree with so they contact customer care to vent, then customer care call us and we present them with our side of the story and we come to a mutual resolution that makes everyone happy. VWG customer services (nor the VWG brands for that matter) tell their franchise dealerships what to do in that type of manner. There is always a diplomatic process in place and everyone (customer, dealer, brand) is included in the final outcome. Sometimes it doesn't go the way people want, sometimes it goes above and beyond all expectations, but believe me, there's no one waving a big stick and shouting at anyone, stuff like that is a thing of the past, and let's not forget - the dealer is fixing the brand's problems for them.
The relationship has to be symbiotic or it doesn't work.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed reading, and I hope the OP gets their new car sorted in good time
