Roof Repair Groundhog Day

[Shaun]

Well , I have taken yet another morning off work to take my van to the (not so) local dealership in order to register my roof repair and get paint depths checked and photos taken etc.
I seem to remember doing exactly the same thing 2 years ago , surely VW could not make a bigger hash of this situation if they made a special effort!.
Or could they ?
To make matters worse it was only by chance that after a two year wait for a repair I read a post on here regarding the re-registering situation. I still haven't received any communication from VW informing me that things have changed.

 

[johnyboy]

Same here, although I got a Saturday slot

 

[Shaun]

Same here, although I got a Saturday slot

Saturdays are strictly for camping

 

[Meoncoast]

Does make you wonder why these re check, ? checking how much worse over the 2 years you have waited. Our roof (now repaired showed marked worsening over last winter on the front panel but not much change on the main roof).

 

[teeboy]

Just for a sense of balance, but not all VW dealers are treating their customers the same.

• We took ours in to get assessed in September 2015.
• Waited for just short of a year and got to the front of the Shorade queue and booked in for early September
• Then the "New Fix" was released and our authorisation needed to be re-requested
• However we did not need to revist - they just resubmitted the previous paperwork.
• They are waiting for approval, but are hopeful that we will still get booked in in September or early October.

So a little delay, but not the end of the world - we have had visible roof bubbling for a year, but has not really impacted my life.

I will keep the forum updated, but so far good service from Northampton - must be a PITA for the dealer having to resubmit all the paperwork. Also credit to Shorade - they have been very helpful and have kept us in the loop.

Lets see if it gets sorted.

 

[Ajspicer]

We have been waiting for 2 years for our repair to our 2010 California, having read about the new fix method and reregister info, I returned to VW Heritage in Bristol to be told that I do not need to reregister, they are just resubmitting all the claims and do not have to get involved.

I also found out that Westbury VW are no longer doing the repair.

Has anyone else had exactly the same answer from Heritage or elsewhere?

 

[johnyboy]

Definitely been told by Basingstoke that Westbury are no longer doing the new repair - Twickenham for me I believe, however I DO have to go back in

 

[Shaun]

We have been waiting for 2 years for our repair to our 2010 California, having read about the new fix method and reregister info, I returned to VW Heritage in Bristol to be told that I do not need to reregister, they are just resubmitting all the claims and do not have to get involved.

I was also told the same thing when I first contacted my local dealer JCT600 VW , then when I rang again to find out why they had not contacted me they told me VWCS had " lost everyones details" regarding the claims and we should go back to re-submitt.

 

[Victor]

We were not even aware that all the work had been cancelled until I read it on this forum, the dealer did not even inform us!!! We phoned them up as soon as we read it here and was told to go down to them so they could start the claim again ( 2 hour round trip)

 

[Richard Teale]

2 years! Wow that really is pants isn't it!

You might want to think about the cost of your own time (and trouble) versus the likely cost of the repair. When I picked up my van from the dealer that sold it to me (actually a Peugeot dealer, van just taken as a part-ex!) the dealer thought that the front roof panel was a mess and we agreed to split the cost of having it resprayed. Net result, fixed in 2 days and cost me £125. Looks as good as new and the repair was guaranteed by the dealer. Admittedly at this time I didn't know this was a systemic problem with the California, but even knowing that I'd still have had it repaired myself.

If it was a more substantive issue with the paintwork (or I owned a newer van perhaps - mine's a 2011 SE) I'd be the first in the queue at the nearest VW Van Centre demanding redress under the 12 year anti corrosion warranty! But for this I'd rather just save myself the time and trouble, get it fixed and move on.

I'm not judging others for wanting to pursue this with VW, but you just might want to consider relatively low-cost alternatives (like getting a local paint-shop to respray the panel) that at the end of the day will allow you to move on and enjoy your van.

This is of course what VW is probably hoping you will do anyway by dragging the process out over 2 years ;-)

 

[X28art]

Ours was resprayed by a body shop at a cost of £250+VAT however it only lasted for six months and it is starting to bubble up again, bit of a false economy doing this twice per year. Also our main pop up roof is now starting to bubble up as well.

 

[Richard Teale]

Blimey, what are these roofs made of, cheese? That sounds like really bad luck @X28art - hope my respray lasts longer than that!! :-0

 

[snowy55]

Blimey, what are these roofs made of, cheese? That sounds like really bad luck @X28art - hope my respray lasts longer than that!! :-0

Not made of cheese but aluminium.
I think a decent mature Chedder would be better then what Vw fit at the moment!

 

[Shaun]

In fairness the problem with my front panel is barely noticeable , just 3 tiny bubbles along the edge which meets the raising roof after over 4 years.
But as its obviously a design fault i think it only fair that VW honour their warranty and get it sorted for me.
I had the raising roof done at the local dealers last year under warranty.

 

[Judyl]

Resubmitted mine last week after seeing the post. I have been on the list since July 2015. My local VW van dealer is fine for base vehicle service but they don't know much about the cali and I use the forum as my main source of information re anything California related and then take the info into the dealer, they do then go and find out what they need to do.