The official I have ordered/received my new MKVI thread

**sek** · 31-01-2011, 04:09 PM

So I called the Manager for the dealship i placed my Golf GTI order at the other day to see what's going on with my order as I haven't heard anything. Story of events leading up to this call is as follows:

1 - Placed order with dealer late October and was told i'd get monthly updates from my salesperson
2 - After several emails from myself (and no replies) to the saleperson and over a month later i received a call saying there are delays and i should expect my GTI in June/July 2011 rather than February
3 - Just after the new year i receive an email from my salesperson that he will be moving to another dealership and that person X will be my new salesperson and that i will receive an email from him in the next few weeks
4 - After a couple weeks of not hearing from the new salesperson i send them an email asking for any updates
5 - couple weeks later i come back from an overseas holiday and have still yet to hear back from the new salesperson, so i try and contact them directly (in the morning). Receptionist advised that that salesperson no longer works there. I leave my mobile and await a call back
6 - The next day i receive a missed call on my mobile but no voicemail (i dont like calling back unless i know who the person is so i leave it)
7 - The day after i call the Manager of the dealership directly and explain the above series of events, he advises he will look into this and call me back
8 - An hour or so later the Manager calls me back and said he actually tried calling me the other day (which was the missed call) and that he left a message (he didn't). He mentioned that the ETA in which my car should be docking in Australia is the 4th May adding on top of that 3 or so weeks before i can actually take delivery.

If my order is in the system and the Manager has advised an ETA for docking of the ship, does that mean that i should have a build date/week or VIN (sorry i'm not too familiar with the process)? Cause by the sounds of it it still sounds like the information hes given me are just estimates and nothing firm.

**markwid** · 31-01-2011, 04:50 PM

Hi sek. Firstly, suggest you be more proactive in this matter if you are anxious. Go in person to the dealer. Ask to see the ETA screen for your order. That will give you all the dates planned.

A few days after it is to be built, you should be able to get VIN. What this means is that you would not know VIN now if the build date is in future. Once you have VIN, you can check up yourself in the next few days what ship it will/is on.

Upshot is that if ETA for dock arrival is 04/05, your build date is still a few weeks in the future, and you can't get VIN yet.

Hope that helps.

**Corey_R** · 31-01-2011, 05:10 PM

Hey sek.

It sounds as though you have fallen victim to a dealer who is either ignorant of the supply issues, or lied to you about the delivery date to secure a sale. There is no way you were going to recieve a factory order in February when ordering in October - not unless the car was already in the system (which is a situation VGA are stopping to help relieve the pressure on legitimate orders).

Beyond that, ETA means Estimated Time of Arrival. So by definition, yes, an estimate is a guess (hopefully based on recent experience). NO ONE can tell you for certain when your car will arrive, because once it's been built and delivered to the dock in Germany, the rest is really not up to Volkswagen - the dealer can influence the result by a few days by pushing the car through dealer delivery quicker, but that's nothing compared to the rest of the delays which can occur from that time.

There are multiple ETA's which people quote around here. The ETA that is in their NADCON system is when the car will dock in Australia. Note that I don't believe that ETA actually matches up with the actual shipping companies (as there are multiple routes), but I could be wrong.

If the car has an arrival in Australia ETA of May 4, it probably hasn't been built yet, so they won't have a VIN. They might have a build week though. If they don't, maybe they've only got an ETA for production...

The system VW use is called NADCON.
This system has multiple screens. But the "Production ID" information (including build week, day, number, factory, VIN, engine number etc) is on the "Extended Information" table of the "Order / Order Details / Car Configurator" screen.
There is also a "Order / ETA Data" screen which has a whole heap of checkpoints with estimates. The dates are added in automatically by "the system" as the car progresses through the process. Even on that, the "Arrival at final destination" and "Arrival at dealer" rows are not populated initially.
You could ask for a screen capture of the "ETA Data" from NADCON.

Hope that helps (sorry if any of it is "short", I need to get home!)

**Angryman** · 31-01-2011, 06:26 PM

I don't think that delivery time is a stretch, I ordered mine in August and would've received it in mid December if it hadn't been for those inconvenient floods. Prob more along the lines of the salesman just didn't bother keeping upto date with supply issues which later impacted on the wait time

I had a great sales experience but I will be the first to point out the monkeys in the car sales industry

**SilvrFoxX** · 31-01-2011, 06:37 PM

Originally Posted by sek

So I called the Manager for the dealship i placed my Golf GTI order at the other day to see what's going on with my order as I haven't heard anything. Story of events leading up to this call is as follows:

1 - Placed order with dealer late October and was told i'd get monthly updates from my salesperson
2 - After several emails from myself (and no replies) to the saleperson and over a month later i received a call saying there are delays and i should expect my GTI in June/July 2011 rather than February
3 - Just after the new year i receive an email from my salesperson that he will be moving to another dealership and that person X will be my new salesperson and that i will receive an email from him in the next few weeks
4 - After a couple weeks of not hearing from the new salesperson i send them an email asking for any updates
5 - couple weeks later i come back from an overseas holiday and have still yet to hear back from the new salesperson, so i try and contact them directly (in the morning). Receptionist advised that that salesperson no longer works there. I leave my mobile and await a call back
6 - The next day i receive a missed call on my mobile but no voicemail (i dont like calling back unless i know who the person is so i leave it)
7 - The day after i call the Manager of the dealership directly and explain the above series of events, he advises he will look into this and call me back
8 - An hour or so later the Manager calls me back and said he actually tried calling me the other day (which was the missed call) and that he left a message (he didn't). He mentioned that the ETA in which my car should be docking in Australia is the 4th May adding on top of that 3 or so weeks before i can actually take delivery.

If my order is in the system and the Manager has advised an ETA for docking of the ship, does that mean that i should have a build date/week or VIN (sorry i'm not too familiar with the process)? Cause by the sounds of it it still sounds like the information hes given me are just estimates and nothing firm.

Mate if it makes you feel any better your story is identical to mine.. I would even hazard a guess it is Denlo at Parramatta.. they really don't know and I found you do have to chase them. It is dissapointing that the promise of monthly updates isn't met but I am sure your order is in the system and you just have to wait. I ordered in September last year and had a delivery date of March 1.. they "think" it could be May /June now..

**G TEE I** · 31-01-2011, 08:10 PM

Well the news I have been waiting for since July. My car will be ready for pickup on Thursday. Car ordered July; late December find out the car sent did not have all my options; chose another option which got me a free sunroof, but vehicle had already left Perth for Melbourne, car sent over from Melbourne, and finally, I get my hands on my new baby Thursday arvo.

GTI, CSG, 18" Detroits, Bi-Xenon, Park Assist, MDI, Bluetooth, Sunroof, Leather seats. Bring on Thursday.

**sek** · 31-01-2011, 09:21 PM

markwid, Corey_R, thanks for the advice

Originally Posted by SilvrFoxX

Mate if it makes you feel any better your story is identical to mine.. I would even hazard a guess it is Denlo at Parramatta.. they really don't know and I found you do have to chase them. It is dissapointing that the promise of monthly updates isn't met but I am sure your order is in the system and you just have to wait. I ordered in September last year and had a delivery date of March 1.. they "think" it could be May /June now..

You are spot on with the dealership. Yeah i don't mind the waiting part it just the communication or lack thereof. Where i work setting expectations and meeting them is a big thing so i guess i'm expecting the same level of communication that i provide to my customers.

**Corey_R** · 31-01-2011, 09:50 PM

Seriously... Denlo is where I bought my car, and they were spot on (within a day) of their initial 6 month estimate for me. As they have been for many of us guys. However, it seems that all the great sales people from Denlo are now over at their sister dealership of Chatswood Classic Cars. Which is funny, because when I bought my car, CCC were crap. REXman can atest to that. He left CCC disgusted and came over to Denlo to buy his car too - even though CCC is his "local". Now his sales guy is at CCC too!

Oh well. If you find a good sales guy, keep in touch with them! In my case, Mathew Gazzard looked after me whilst he was at Denlo. He then looked after several forum members who went to him on my suggestion at Denlo. And since moving to CCC he has looked after several more forum members. He's now in the process of looking after my mother (hahaha, keep it clean guys!) with a Polo.

Mathew said straight up for me to not expect any "real" update for about 2 months, and then expect updates every month from that. He met and even exceeded this expectation, not only answering my questions, but also answering several of the forum member questions here by proxy of me!

There are also the several forum member dealers here - Dermot, PhillipVWDealer, and Serge - who all deserve your consideration, even if they're interstate to you. If Mathew left VW tomorrow, I wouldn't hestitate to call any one of them and do a deal via the phone, and then fly to them and drive the car back. (ok... so I'm in Sydney, so I'd probably get Dermot to put the car on a train from WA to NSW, but you get my point!).

**markwid** · 31-01-2011, 09:59 PM

Hi sek. The way I look at it, buying a car (especially with VW and the long wait) is not a simple, quick, one touch transaction. It may last for months with frequent interactions.

As such, I invest some of my time and effort. Build some rapport with your salesperson; be friendly. It will payoff; things just flow more smoothly.