Hereford Van Centre

Excellent Service when buying vehicle and excellent service when having the Cali's first service and driver's mirror replacement under warranty.

But more importantly... nice coffee and free muffins while you wait, you can not want for anything more!

Another vote for South Hereford VW. Had some minor stuff done under Warrenty today. Very helpful. Coffee, biscuits & wifi appreciated!

Took my Cali to South Hereford VW this week for it's first service -2yrs old - after a forum recommendation by 'Welshgas'. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! Cardiff VW, where I bought the Cali, hadn't even bothered contacting me to tell my service was due - maybe they don't need/want the business or perhaps they'd read my previous post on the quality of their service & customer care!
Anyway, back to the point, South Hereford were very helpful from initial phone call to paying the bill - They offered me practically any date I wanted for service, including Saturdays, asked if I wanted a courtesy car (Cardiff needed 3 weeks notice for this) or if I'd like a lift into Hereford to shop/sightsee etc and they'd ring when the van was ready and pick me up.
When I arrived at the dealership I was greeted by very pleasant staff, in nice surroundings where they had a Cali on display amongst their car stock - not shoved in a corner of the commercial centre, as in Cardiff. I was offered coffee, cakes & biscuits plus a variety of newspapers to read. Service Advisor, Les Waghorne dealt with my service - knowledgeable guy and had time to sit down with me to check details etc & run through my requirements and had a chat about warranty issues and paint etc.
As promised, I was dropped off into the town centre (well worth a visit - Cathedral, river, shops etc) and was picked up again in under 4 hours. They'd carried out my service and completed a software update after I'd reported a heater fault - something that seemed to have Cardiff stumped - plus they advised me I'd need brake fluid change next year, advised on air con service and discussed my MOT next year - to cap it off - my Cali had been washed & hoovered - again something missing, of late, from the customer care provided by Cardiff VW!
All of this came in at a very reasonable £153 - Bargain.
I had to travel approx 75 miles for this service, but I made it a day out and enjoyed myself, more importantly - was impressed and more than satisfied with South Hereford VW. I only live 20 miles from Cardiff VW but I'll happily travel the extra miles once a year or more as needed for all of the above reasons!
Thanks for the tip Welshgas

What a nice result!

I'm off there on the 8am train from Cardiff on Monday to pick up my new California. The start, hopefully, of a long and happy relationship. :goodone

Excellent service, well worth mentioning. What a difference in attitude between different dealerships, it's not rocket science or great cost to offer these little touches that mean "we care". :clap

Exactly Larrylamb - costs little to make customers feel valued.
Lucky you Welshgas, something nice to look forward to - enjoy!

I too have had good experiences with South Hereford VW and especially Les Waghorne. Nice man, takes interest, knows his stuff and listens. It is worth the trek from South Wales - make a day of it! Welshgas - very envious of your new Cali - is it gracing the streets of Cardiff yet?

Tomorrow. :smile :smile :smile :smile

I live not far from this dealer and use them for my VW servicing. Very helpful. The courtesy bus they have is a very good idea for dropping people off in town.

Spoke to these guys about an ex-demo Cali, they promised to call me back or email regarding further details.

They never bothered

I to have dealt with Les Waghorne and he was superb.

After a poor experience with our local dealer in Bristol I now order any parts I need from VW Hereford and they post them to me. Efficient. Helpful. Knowledgeable.

Everything the Bristol dealer were not.

Hannick said:

After a poor experience with our local dealer in Bristol I now order any parts I need from VW Hereford and they post them to me. Efficient. Helpful. Knowledgeable.

Everything the Bristol dealer were not.

Click to expand...

Why not use SMG and get 10% off

Bought mine from South Hereford, ex demo, around 5 years ago, I almost look forward to my services because I get a couple of hours peace and quiet sitting drinking coffee and eating biscuits, looking at the new Cali's to see what has changed, browsing the brochures and catching up on the news papers. Also get free Wifi. Always had a great service from them, wouldn't go anywhere else.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Torques said:

I to have dealt with Les Waghorne and he was superb.

Click to expand...

Just had my 1st service done including removing all wheels and lubricating with copperslip. Pleasant to deal with, efficient service, excellent shuttle to town. Altogether worth the 150 mile round trip compared to previous experiences with other more local dealers with my 1st van.

Surely smg cowfold not tonbridge ?

Finally made up my mind about having sidebars fitted and opted to drive the 150 miles round trip to South Hereford in view of the positive comments and my bad experience with our more local dealer. What a difference. Good greeting, plentiful supply of coffee and a free bus into the city centre. When I went to pay I reminded them what they had quoted and yet received a discount. Worth getting up before the dawn chorus and I shall be going back when the service is due.

Another vote for South Hereford. Called to see a demonstrator in early August. We were taken out in it and the salesman spent a couple of hours with us going over it explaining everything. Decided we liked it and paid the deposit. They have regularly kept us up to date. The 5 days free insurance and road tax has been arranged for us.
We collect it on Friday. They will pick us up from the station & give us as much time as we need for the handover. Very friendly & helpful staff.

Booked in for my 1st Service on 1st Dec. The Van will be exactly 12 months old and will have done just over 20,000 miles. I hope the Service will go as well as the purchase from them.

WelshGas said:

Booked in for my 1st Service on 1st Dec. The Van will be exactly 12 months old and will have done just over 20,000 miles. I hope the Service will go as well as the purchase from them.

Click to expand...

Check the headlining for greasy mechanics hair and interior for oily fingerprints ! Unfortunately that was my personal experience of South Hereford when I took the van there a year ago for some minor warranty work. It was a 200 mile return journey for me.

I hope it is fine for you (I probably was just unfortunate) and they do a good thorough job. I would like to watch it being done ( and learn ) but I doubt many mechanics would allow / like that !

Had my faulty EGR valve replaced after 2 weeks and 900 miles. Vehicle was pristine on hand over, well inside as I asked them not to wash it.

I have been to South Hereford VW and came away very impressd but for no other reason than pure chance we eventually bought our Cali from SMG VW at Tonbridge.
Right from the day that we first visited to talk about Calis through to the day we picked up our new Cali they were quite simply superb. Always helpful, attentive and always able to answer all of my questions. The sales manager Laine Watts was very knowledgable and admitted that he was a Cali enthusiast himself. He made the whole process very enjoyable and I thoroughly recommend him.
If you are thinking of buying a Cali you could do an awful lot worse than checking out SMG.

We picked up our ex-demo Cali on Friday from South Hereford Garage. We had seen the vehicle about 2 weeks after it was offered as a demo so have been patiently waiting for 2½ months until we could take delivery. A 180 DGS in Pearl Black. Reading the advice and information on the forum and occasionally asking questions if something wasn't clear. The responses were all very positive and a great help for planning our own ideas.
We had a nice ride up on the train from Bristol and were collected from the station by the mini bus from South Hereford Garage. Paper work and payment all sorted out, then the handover. The vehicle was spotless and looked really great in the car park outside. We went through the checklists lists downloaded from the Forum, being again shown all the parts of the vehicle and how they worked. The salesman helped me put the bellows bungee on as it is a two person job, (it also meant that I felt confident demonstrating the roof operation to neighbours when we got home). I went out for a test drive so that I could familiarise myself with the DSG operation. It was a very good & informative handover. We were not rushed at any time. All of our questions were carefully answered by our extremely helpful and well informed salesman, who wanted to make sure we had understood everything about the Cali that we needed to know.
From the very first contact we had with the garage, through the visits, phone calls and emails we have been extremely well looked after. I would have no hesitation in recommending them.

Excellent service from South Hereford VW , especially their California Service Manager Les Waghorne. See here for full story.
http://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/control-panel-vw-repair-kit-available.12332/#post-121956