Re EuroVans ....
I want you to know been very patient before making this post , I don’t believe in slagging companies off before giving lots of chances to make things right and in the real world things do go wrong but perhaps then judgement about fair and reasonable customer service can made made on how a problem gets sorted .
I have a legitimate and agreed guarantee claim at this moment which , true to form from JCB , isn’t getting sorted and VW isn’t able to date to get them to resolve It , ie pay me the money owed . This Issue is the straw which has broken my camels back and caused me to write about the disaster JCB EuroVans In Crawley has been and is now. You’d be well advised never to buy anything from them . Given VWs HQs inability, even though they agree with the claim , to get EuroVans to respond I’d seriously think twice before buying another VW too, with my previous vehicle , a Mercedes , the service was nothing short of fabulous and I felt valued too.
The present issue relates to a very simple claim .
Last February and I think I posted about it at the time , my Gas regulator packed up . I was in Spain . In the end I got it changed by a very helpful VW garage in Ales France. They agreed it was faulty and did the video of it etc etc . The bill wasn’t outrageous, 50 odd euro for the part and about the same for labour, so 100 euro . I needed two trips there one to let them identify the problem, then they ordered the part and one a week later to get it changed .
The Cali being under its 3 year warranty I was advised to send the bill to the Uk garage which sold me the Cali , Eurovans . This I did . I also called to make sure they got it . I didn’t hear anything so after about a month I called again, they told me to resend it, which I did . I didn’t hear anything again so I repeated to process. This went on and on several more times . Eventually in July , some 5 months later I tried to track down who was really responsible in EuroVans and was told there is a new service manager , Gavin Hornby. I sent it to him , with the back up emails of the previous months . I had no response.
Really I couldn’t go on , especially as I’ve had a terrible set of previous service experiences at EuroVans , which I will highlight later . so I called VW commercial customer service and since about the beginning of August I’ve been talking regularly with Laura . In the beginning they too were unable to get in contact with anyone at EuroVans . They have recently managed to speak with someone, who promised to contact me , but I’ve had no contact. I’ve given it more time . But now it’s almost September. This fiasco , a simple agreed and valid claim , just has come to an end sometime. I’ve spent a huge amount of time politely following up and it’s got no where EuroVans and JCB over all the months haven’t once contacted me and even with VW on them them haven’t .
All this comes on top of a catastrophe catalogue of problems for me at EuroVans. All of which in the interest of being nice and patient and trusting I’ve kept silent on , but now I can’t any longer .
Here is my actual experiences at EuroVans over the last few years .
When I bought the van they got a number of things wrong. I bought a high spec 4wd 204 with around 10k of extras. They attempted to charge for extras which were included in various upgrades , I only found out by chance or I would of paid , lucky I was reading this club site for info . To get them to change to the right pricing I had to get VW to call , the salesman said they didn’t know. Make of that what you will remembering Eurovans have been there a long time.
When the van came bits I had ordered and confirmed in writing to be absolutely sure, these were not added, so I had to go back several times to get them sorted .
Then about a year in the water tap sensor stopped working a common problem for that model / year. I drove back again , having booked it in , the 90 min trip so they could look at it to order it as they wouldn’t believe me on the phone, the technical guy at the time , called Robin someone, he connected it up to the VW computer and said many things were wrong with the van and I’d have to leave it with them . That was ridiculous for me as everything else as far as I knew worked fine . I said how long he said it could be weeks, so I refused . I spoke with the then service manager and told him it was , like so many other VW vans had , a sensor problem, they don’t need to take apart the van , just order the sensor . He agreed to do it if I agreed to pay for it if it wasn’t that problem , as they couldn’t return it to VW if the old one wasn’t faulty . I said ok , I waited for it to come in and drove back again to have it changed. However I was told the part wasn’t there when I came back for the agreed appointment to have it fixed , 90 mins each way trip, day off again . So I went home , made a new date. Drove back again 90 return trip , waited and they simply changed it and everything worked, so it was just the tap sensor.
At the end of 2018 I booked the van in for its first service. I confirmed it many times, also on the list a few niggles to be looked at , like the trim coming off the sliding door, another common problem.
I rang again before taking it there and to be sure that they had time and confirmed again , this time agreed to leave it 48 hours , so they could get it all done with no issues and come back and pick it up , unfortunately I got a puncture going there and the AA changed the wheel for me , it was a different tread because the spare was a summer tyre and I had winter tyres fitted . I asked VW to fix that puncture during the two days they had the Cali .
When I came to collect the Cali, two days later , they said the service was done and they couldn’t find a puncture, so they had just reinflated the tyre and it was fine . They had put the tyre onto the spare wheel hold and left me with 3 winter tyres and one summer tyre to drive on . I said this was unacceptable and asked them to put back the winter tyre, so I had a matching set. Whilst doing this to check again for a slow puncture, like we did the old fashioned way , soap and water in the tyre. They did this and sure enough there were the bubbles . So they looked more closely and found a broken nail deep in the tread . So they repaired it and changed it over, so I had a proper set.
I thought that was the end of that and as I had booked an afternoon crossing to France I was ready to go ...Van was taken to front of garage ... my wife and I were just about to get in and the service manager came running out to tell me in fact NONE of the service had been done in the 48 hours . Just the niggle items. So we had to make an on the spot decision to rebook another time for services and be late with the service or ask for it to be done then and cancel our crossing that afternoon to France . We had the service done there and then.
So this is a taste of my experience of VW and JCB Eurovans Crawley , it’s doesn’t include the loads of calls etc to sort things there but gives the bones of my terrible VW customer experience , which hasn’t changed over the last three years , whilst I’ve tried to be understanding and have patience this time I’ve lost it now . Don’t let’s think Covid is responsible for this latest fiasco too , nearly 6 months trying to get a simple bit of admin sorted , it’s just more of the same at JCB EuroVans . In my own business we’ve had the phones and emails manned 100% of the time , so our clients don’t suffer. I’ve to date still not had one response from JCB EuroVans.
I come from a corporate management background and have deep and wide experience in both large and small businesses , Ive also been a senior lecturer in business strategy and marketing and finance for major universities . So I think I’m qualified to say my VW customer experience is a genuine customer catastrophe, I say that as the person at the receiving end and standing back as a business man and someone whose taught business at MBA level .
In my opinion and based on my real experiences JCB group and EuroVans should be avoided , you’d be wise not to buy anything there , clearly there is a serious problem and it’s no good blaming individuals, this normally is a culture problem coming from the top . Indeed VW must carry some blame here , from again personal experience the service is wholly lacking compared to Mercedes ...../VW just don’t seem to appreciate whilst they do update me to tell me that JCB EuroVans is difficult for them to sort out , that’s it’s me , a VW customer , suffering because I have a VW guarantee on a VW product and they should take care of me first , especially as they agree with me this claim is legitimate, they should sort out their problem with their dealership and not use me as the pawn in between.
I just had to vent all this , hope it does some good somewhere ?? Certainly feels better to share it with friends , although I don’t know where it will all go now, maybe next time I’d better buy another make of camper ? Mercedes?
