Great Car - Pity about the after sales service, or should I say lack of service

[afterdarker]

And the 3rd wrong is "lawyering Up" the moment you feel a bit threatened rather than trying to resolve the situation.

You keep saying "filming" (images) but I think you'll find the OP has a sound recording made on a filming device.

As mentioned previously (I'm sure you didn't read what I wrote because I actually commented that the legality of taping their conversations may have been outside the letter of the law), I suggest you read the Privacy Act (unfortunately, each state is slightly different for all the acts), the Surveillance Devices Act, Invasion of Privacy Act & the Listening & Surveillance Devices Act.

Keep in mind you need to be aware of the correct definition of "a public place" and the correct definition of "a private act or conversation".

Reasonable comment. Personally I dislike the intrusion of recording devices, whether film or sound, and the proliferation of all sorts of data capture including so called meta data that is collected, sifted and analysed by Telcos, Google and the Federal Govt without our express permission. This Big Brother aspect of society irks me, it is an infringement of our freedom and liberty, and it irks me more when individuals start adopting the same sort of deliberate entrapment measures that say Highway Patrol Police are routinely criticised for, like when I have had the bastards jump out from behind a tree like ninjas with their radar guns - I despise these practices. It is not East Germany with the Stasi, we are a better society than that, and these sort of **** practices should be stamped out.

Even in this case where the OP Paris has a legitimate complaint, I don't at all disagree with the legitimacy of his complaint, just the means by which he was seeking to resolve it. I don't think a secret dash cam was the right approach.

Opinions obviously differ, I respect your right to a different opinion, but as you can see I vehemently disagree with the secret recording approach. I'll go further - what if it was a secret police plant in your garage filming you going about modifications? - that then formed the basis of a prosecution against you? - not far removed from what you suggest is acceptable here. Well it is not acceptable, and we should all fight it.

[parisfrance]

I have sat back with interest and followed the various comments to my original post. I have also remained mute when one or two uninformed people have impugned my response to what I consider to be unacceptable service. As a public forum I fully respect that everyone is entitled to their opinion and I do not consider it the best use of my time to justify or explain the lawfulness of my actions.

However, when a person starts making Orwellian references and citing liberty and freedom and making suggestion such as deliberate entrapment, I have to offer a rebuttal.

I begin by suggesting people should attempt to inform themselves of the particular circumstances and applicable law before criticising the actions of others.

Secondly, I agree that people's freedoms and liberty are paramount. However, I would assert that with freedom and liberty there should be personal responsibility and mutual respect.

If every citizen was law abiding and respected the rights of others, rather than being overly consumed with their own interests and rights, we would not need devices such as dash cams, CCTV cameras or even locks on our doors. Alas this is not the case.

Unfortunately, we live in a society where a minority of people feel they can do whatever they like irrespective of the detrimental consequences it has upon their fellow citizen. Unchecked this leads to a thing called anarchy!

I am interested to know afterdarker whether you would also criticise my actions in forwarding to the Police footage of a vehicle that overtook my vehicle on a bend, across a double White line and with a B-double road-train heading towards us? Is this an infringement of that driver's freedom and liberty?

How dare I have the temerity to impede that other driver's right to speed and overtake us while we were driving at the maximum permitted speed (confirmed by our GPS enabled dash cam), even if it risked the life of my wife, myself and the driver of the oncoming road-train.

I can advise that the WA State Traffic Dept. was happy to receive the footage and duly issued an infringement to the driver of the overtaking vehicle. Maybe this is only further evidence of my 'Stasi' like tendencies and my collusion with those "bastards...with their radar guns".

I am not arrogant enough to consider that I have the right to judge or comment upon your values and opinions, as you feel the right to do of me.

All I ask is that before expressing your opinion and passing judgement upon the actions of someone else, as is your right under freedom of speech, you pause to ask yourself whether you have all the necessary information to make an informed judgement. This is why our adversarial based legal system provides each party the opportunity to present evidence before judgement is cast.

The defence rests.

[woofy]

I think in a nutshell.

It sucks what happened with your car. Hopefully they fix it although if they see this here they might not want to help you any further.

You can record what you like on the roads. Recording service techs whether on purpose or by accident probably wasn't a good thing to mention on a public forum. I'd say it violated workshop/trade secrets and could land you in hot water if the dealer/VW found out.

[Snail Style]

Majority of workshops/technicians do not care if you are recording. I do not have an issue with it as such, but i do find it somewhat disrespecting that a person would assume i need to be monitored to do my work correctly. Also on road tests i grandma the car even more than usual to ensure there is nothing that can be looked upon as "reckless", however because of that the vehicle doesn't get tested under all conditions.

[afterdarker]

Paris fair comments you make and again, I respect you have a different point of view than me.

So I will preface my comments by saying I am also a motorbike rider and you see car drivers do such dangerous things from a motorcyclists perspective. But then bike riders do plenty of stupid stuff themselves too and yes it is better that some of this stuff is filmed.

BUT as pointed out by Woofy and others above there is rather a big difference between a public road and a private workshop. I know they were working on your car and I know the work was sub-standard, but I don't think the end you reasonably wanted to achieve was justified by the means you chose to try and get there.

[deeps]

Any word on if there are any new Skoda dealers opening in Perth?

Dad booked in his Octavia for a warranty fix on his DSG and commented how rude and unhelpful the person on the phone was at Barbagello Osborne Park.

I then went to Mandurah Barbagello in early December, looking to purchase a new Octavia and they weren't very welcoming, and weren't interested in any form of bargaining. Was pretty much told that if I didn't want to pay the ticket price, then don't bother.

I really want a new Octavia, and would be happy to buy from interstate, but the thought of having to give my car in at Barbagello for any warranty issues is worrying and putting me off.

Both mine and parents Octavia's were previously purchased from Myaree, and everything there was great. Purchasing through to servicing/warranty issues etc. Was very disappointed that they closed.

[harlie]

There was a thread not long ago on watercooled about a member that had his month old Golf 7 R damaged by the service guys - trashed wheels and front bumper (pretty sure it was in QLD). When reporting it to the dealer he was fobbed off, then when he presented the dashcam footage of two guys speeding through stop signs and sliding sideways into the curb laughing, the dealer fixed it and apologised. Without the footage he would have been many $?000 out of pocket to repair is new 65k car.

My old Golf was picked with gutter rash after a service some 6-7yrs ago, no way of proving it.

IMO, if there is a case to answer, no one in their right mind would try the "I didn't give you permission to film" argument. The publicity that comes when you lodge a claim of this nature against your client would be huge - then everyone would want to see the film, and the case would be reported nightly on the national news...

As someone who had my rental property arsoned twice in 10 days I can report that the police love photos or video footage. Without it they often have nothing, they knew exactly who set fire to my house based on neighbours descriptions, but because they had a mate who just said "he was with me" it becomes he said v he said - and without something concrete no charges were laid. That then gave the insurance co a reason to delay, which they did for 7 months, eventually settling but what a ride. For the record a 24ton excavator was brought in to demolish what was left. Yes it was eventually covered, but now all my home related insurance policies have now increase by over 30% due to a claim that I had no control over, about $2k/year for the next 5 years.

I used to belong to the don't film side of the debate, however, after my 2015 year, I have cameras every where, all around my home, both cars and my boat. Unfortunately we now have a society that has the attitude that says "**** you". As mentioned above, if we were all behaving like civilised humans, we would not need to lock our front door.

[mazstar1980]

Any word on if there are any new Skoda dealers opening in Perth?

Dad booked in his Octavia for a warranty fix on his DSG and commented how rude and unhelpful the person on the phone was at Barbagello Osborne Park.

I then went to Mandurah Barbagello in early December, looking to purchase a new Octavia and they weren't very welcoming, and weren't interested in any form of bargaining. Was pretty much told that if I didn't want to pay the ticket price, then don't bother.

I really want a new Octavia, and would be happy to buy from interstate, but the thought of having to give my car in at Barbagello for any warranty issues is worrying and putting me off.

Both mine and parents Octavia's were previously purchased from Myaree, and everything there was great. Purchasing through to servicing/warranty issues etc. Was very disappointed that they closed.

I totally agree on the lack of competition in Perth, it is literally a monopoly arrangement for Skoda owners when it comes to warranty repairs.

I remember wanting to buy an RS in 2011 and walked out of Barbagallo showroom due to crap service and then tried again in 2014 only to hang up on the same person who was the worst example of salesperson I have encountered. I bought it from DVG instead but they have since stopped being official dealer.

I got my service at Wangara VW which gets decent reviews and I found them to do good job but like every Skoda owner in WA will need to take it back to Barbagallo if warranty issues arise.

I asked Skoda on Facebook last year they said they had plans to expand but that was in July and nothing has happened since so don't hold your breath. Reinforces the idea that it's a decent product with abysmal customer care and service network - I won't buy another Skoda for his reason alone.