£5,800 fault - just out of warranty wwyd

[Ting Tong]

By way of an update, I have complained to VWCS who are waiting for input from the dealer before they respond. Meanwhile our Cali is stuck at the dealer awaiting repair.

I have started another thread asking whether anyone has a copy of the terms and conditions / policy wording from about 2018 governing the 24 month / 80k mile factory warranty that you can purchase when a vehicle is less than 3 months old.

I’m just trying to get my ducks in a row for when I have to take Court action, so would like to see the wording (which was never given to me and I seemed to know more about it than the dealer) and in fact I now note that I was invoiced for 24 Months MB Approved Warranty £329+vat. As far as I know, I purchased a VW not an MB!

Anyhow, I seem to have complied with the general warranty wording on the VW commercial website: “Any defect must be reported to a Van Centre as soon as it is discovered. This must of course be within the warranty period”.

 

[andyinluton]

I’m just trying to get my ducks in a row for when I have to take Court action,

Rereading your first post carefully, you had a flashing warning light sometimes which was reported & investigated within the Warranty period.
You then had a further problem outside the warranty period which resulted in reduced performance.
Before you go legal, how are you going to prove that the reduced performance is the result of something failing during the warranty period? You didn’t report it or ask them to investigate the reduced performance.

As far as I know there is no additional wording for the VW “bought within 3 months of registration” additional warranty as it’s not an addition, it’s an extension of factory 3 year warranty so the only thing that changes from the T&Cs is the end date & mileage limits. That’s why you wouldn’t get a further warranty booklet.

However again you need to ascertain what you have actually bought! Is it really a MB warranty or a VW one, no point trying to go legal with vw if you can’t even prove you have a vw warranty you would be laughed out of court!

If you ever had vw finance any warranty info should be available in your online account.
I recently provided the details for one of my old vans when I saw a subsequent owner was selling it - he was unaware that it still had a valid extended warranty.

 

[Ting Tong]

Rereading your first post carefully, you had a flashing warning light sometimes which was reported & investigated within the Warranty period.
You then had a further problem outside the warranty period which resulted in reduced performance.
Before you go legal, how are you going to prove that the reduced performance is the result of something failing during the warranty period? You didn’t report it or ask them to investigate the reduced performance.

As far as I know there is no additional wording for the VW “bought within 3 months of registration” additional warranty as it’s not an addition, it’s an extension of factory 3 year warranty so the only thing that changes from the T&Cs is the end date & mileage limits. That’s why you wouldn’t get a further warranty booklet.

However again you need to ascertain what you have actually bought! Is it really a MB warranty or a VW one, no point trying to go legal with vw if you can’t even prove you have a vw warranty you would be laughed out of court!

If you ever had vw finance any warranty info should be available in your online account.
I recently provided the details for one of my old vans when I saw a subsequent owner was selling it - he was unaware that it still had a valid extended warranty.

It has been confirmed that I have the extended VW warranty as other work was done a while ago. In my meeting they said that the reduced top end performance was normal when the coil light was on and I just hadn’t noticed it. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the fault now is the one that existed in April. I shall however be prepared for that defence if they run it. Thanks for the confirmation about the warranty extension.

 

[Perfectos]

See post 4 - not trying to be obtuse
but you reported the issue whilst in warranty?

if VW / the franchised dealer failed to recognise / diagnose / acknowledge the fault / issue correctly from the issue reported by the third Party user , at the time , that is for VW to deal with.
The issue existed prior and within the warranty period .

 

[Perfectos]

It has been confirmed that I have the extended VW warranty as other work was done a while ago. In my meeting they said that the reduced top end performance was normal when the coil light was on and I just hadn’t noticed it. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the fault now is the one that existed in April. I shall however be prepared for that defence if they run it. Thanks for the confirmation about the warranty extension.

PM Sent

 

[soulstyledevon]

You’ve mentioned to the dealer about rodent damage and storms.
If these have contributed to the fault/possible cause. Will the warranty cover issues potentially caused by let’s say rodent damage…?

They’ve offered a good will gesture. Personally, I would take it and move on. I’m not sure court action is going to do anything for you, other than add further stress.

 

[Ting Tong]

You’ve mentioned to the dealer about rodent damage and storms.
If these have contributed to the fault/possible cause. Will the warranty cover issues potentially caused by let’s say rodent damage…?

They’ve offered a good will gesture. Personally, I would take it and move on. I’m not sure court action is going to do anything for you, other than add further stress.

They have since said it’s not rodent damage and it needs a new turbo. If that’s the case then it should be a warranty fix. I’ll await VWCS response before deciding how to take it further. A lot will depend on the warranty wording. Hopefully there will be a better resolution than the current good will.

 

[Ting Tong]

UPDATE: We have at last got our Cali back after it languished for nearly 2 months at the local VW Van Centre. I shall leave my lengthy tirade about the dealer for another day but they were truly awful.

We paid £3,303.74 inc vat for replacement of the bi turbo but have been running a complaint in parallel to VWCS and told them that we would pay but would seek to recover the costs if a satisfactory settlement was not reached beforehand. The initial response from VWCS in early December was surprisingly prompt and encouraging but then went silent, which was apparently due to our correspondent there going on sick leave for a month. We have since been bumped up the hierarchal ladder twice.

Meanwhile, I note that the warranty information on the VW Commercial website says "Any defect must be reported to a Van Centre as soon as it is discovered. This of course must be within the warranty period". I clearly complied with this by taking it on 13 April 2023 and the Van Centre couldn't find a fault but could find it 400 miles later on 28 November 2023 after we returned from an extended period in China.

I don't see why I should roll over and swallow the cost of repair. I am therefore preparing to recover the cost in full from Volkswagen Group United Kingdom Limited (the supplier of the warranty). I have sent VWCS an invoice for £3,303.74 with a request for payment within 14 days. If this is not paid, I have told them that I shall issue a letter before claim within the meaning of Paragraph 6(a) of the Practice Direction prior to issuing County Court proceedings against them to recover the cost in full as a small claim.

It seems that VW's defence in this is that the Van Centre are saying to them that the 13 April 2023 fault is a different one from that of 28 November 2023. As far as I am concerned, it was the same fault. The sole original fault (a coil-shaped warning light on start) never went away after the Van Centre failed to diagnose it and it went back to them for exactly the same fault to be investigated. In hindsight, I wish I'd taken it somewhere else. I think they'll have a hard job to persuade a judge that the original fault went away and new contiguous one with the same symptoms materialised. I also have a recording of the service manager admitting that they couldn't absolutely guarantee that it was a different fault. We all know reliable computers can be: apparently, the van's computer had no permanent logged fault codes on 13 April 2023 but did on 28 November 2023. I can't see why this would lead to a firm conclusion that the fault is different one and therefore not covered under warranty. I'm not giving in.

VWCS have phoned this morning with a derisory offer of a £400 voucher to spend at the dealer: I have told them that I don't want to go anywhere near the dealer again and that their offer is unacceptable given my compliance with the terms of the warranty. Watch this space...............

 

[lohr500]

Thanks for the update and good luck with your ongoing discussions.

 

[andyinluton]

VWCS have phoned this morning with a derisory offer of a £400 voucher to spend at the dealer: I have told them that I don't want to go anywhere near the dealer again and that their offer is unacceptable given my compliance with the terms of the warranty. Watch this space...............

Good luck.

Is there any reason you decided not to extend the warranty with say the All-in scheme? It would have been my nr1 priority if I even suspected that there was a hint of a problem.

 

[Ting Tong]

Good luck.

Is there any reason you decided not to extend the warranty with say the All-in scheme? It would have been my nr1 priority if I even suspected that there was a hint of a problem.

Yes I would have done that if I’d known about it: the dealer didn’t mention it!

 

[WelshGas]

Yes I would have done that if I’d known about it: the dealer didn’t mention it!

Sinclair?

 

[Ting Tong]

Sinclair?

Yes: they have a terrible reputation but I hadn't experienced any issues until now (apart from a rude service receptionist who seems to have left). However, their service was just appalling beyond belief.

 

[WelshGas]

Yes: they have a terrible reputation but I hadn't experienced any issues until now (apart from a rude service receptionist who seems to have left). However, their service was just appalling beyond belief.

So they haven’t changed over the past 9 yrs.