A tale of woe.

**Albervin** · 02-06-2013, 12:12 PM

The left hand tail light cluster on my Superb wagon was showing signs of moisture so I took it into Southern Classic Cars in Wollongong. A quick inspection by the service manager (Sebastian) and it was confirmed I would be getting a new tail light under warranty. A week later I took the car in and they fitted a new cluster and also replaced the front and rear badges under their service scheme. I said the front badge was fine but the rear was a bit ordinary but they insisted on replacing both. Got home and noticed the new tail light was not sitting correctly. I took the plastic caps off to find the tabs were broken and they were stuck down with some revolting goop! Anyway, it took 3-4 minutes to loosen the fasteners and hit the cluster with the heel of my hand to get it fitting perfectly. I then decided to wash the car to test the waterproofness of the tail light. I noticed 2 small scratches in the paint around the rear badge. Not superficial scratches but more like chips you could get your fingernail into. I rushed around to the front and the front badge was not stuck down very well AND 2 ugly scratches on the chrome trim. An angry phone call followed by an e-mail with photos and they agreed to fix it. Well what choice did they have? I had to wait 3 weeks before they could get the parts and organise the painter. They need the car for 3-4 days so gave me an Audi A1 as a loan car. The paint job and, chrome trim and badges are now perfect. It doesn't stop there though. I asked Southern Classic to rotate the tyres no charge for messing me about and also to replace my DRLs with some LED globes I had in the glovebox. When I went to pick up the car they had done the rotation but not replaced the globes because they didn't know which globes were the DRLs!!!!! WTF!! I then went home and checked the tyre pressures. Sure enough the tyre pressures had NOT been adjusted after the rotation! A monumental fail on all counts. This exercise cost Southern Classic over $800 and for me I had to make 4 trips into the dealership. The LEDs are still in my glovebox and will stay there until I find someone who can either do it for me or show me how to do it. End of rant!

**Antiplastix** · 02-06-2013, 12:22 PM

Exactly why I wont let them touch my vRS. It was probably a 17 y.o. 1st year apprentice that done the work.

**PassatB6** · 02-06-2013, 01:58 PM

Originally Posted by Albervin

The left hand tail light cluster on my Superb wagon was showing signs of moisture so I took it into Southern Classic Cars in Wollongong. A quick inspection by the service manager (Sebastian) and it was confirmed I would be getting a new tail light under warranty. A week later I took the car in and they fitted a new cluster and also replaced the front and rear badges under their service scheme. I said the front badge was fine but the rear was a bit ordinary but they insisted on replacing both. Got home and noticed the new tail light was not sitting correctly. I took the plastic caps off to find the tabs were broken and they were stuck down with some revolting goop! Anyway, it took 3-4 minutes to loosen the fasteners and hit the cluster with the heel of my hand to get it fitting perfectly. I then decided to wash the car to test the waterproofness of the tail light. I noticed 2 small scratches in the paint around the rear badge. Not superficial scratches but more like chips you could get your fingernail into. I rushed around to the front and the front badge was not stuck down very well AND 2 ugly scratches on the chrome trim. An angry phone call followed by an e-mail with photos and they agreed to fix it. Well what choice did they have? I had to wait 3 weeks before they could get the parts and organise the painter. They need the car for 3-4 days so gave me an Audi A1 as a loan car. The paint job and, chrome trim and badges are now perfect. It doesn't stop there though. I asked Southern Classic to rotate the tyres no charge for messing me about and also to replace my DRLs with some LED globes I had in the glovebox. When I went to pick up the car they had done the rotation but not replaced the globes because they didn't know which globes were the DRLs!!!!! WTF!! I then went home and checked the tyre pressures. Sure enough the tyre pressures had NOT been adjusted after the rotation! A monumental fail on all counts. This exercise cost Southern Classic over $800 and for me I had to make 4 trips into the dealership. The LEDs are still in my glovebox and will stay there until I find someone who can either do it for me or show me how to do it. End of rant!

Same people who sold me a car with a major part of the underbody missing. Were reluctant to actually replace it too. Only came good after they were contacted by another dealer who discovered the part as not there.

**2009fsi** · 03-06-2013, 02:58 AM

Originally Posted by PassatB6

Same people who sold me a car with a major part of the underbody missing. Were reluctant to actually replace it too. Only came good after they were contacted by another dealer who discovered the part as not there.

And the same place my Superb sedan came from. The Skoda fleet manager at the time, Alex, was a straight up & down gentleman, but when he left shortly after, it became very clear there was absolutely no backup or back office support at that dealership. My sister was set to buy a new Octavia there, on the basis of my experience dealing with Alex, but he left on extended leave only days later & nobody seemed to be interested in selling her a car she wanted, only the one Diamond Jim or Oil Can Harry clone wanted to offload off the lot. None of the back office work associated with transfer of warranty or registration or anything else was done, which caused me plenty of trouble with the RTA. I even had to register the warranty with Skoda myself. I was contacted by someone purporting to be the principal of the dealership after I had contacted Skoda. If he was indeed the principal, then I'm not surprised at the attitude that appears to prevail there.
I went there just after I got the car to have a warranty problem with the central display analysed & fixed, but didn't like the dirty, rough as guts approach of the workshop rep, so I took it to Peter Warren at Liverpool & had the unit replaced with no problems at all. My sister bought her Octavia at PW Skoda too.
I will never go back to Southern Classic.

**Albervin** · 04-06-2013, 09:32 AM

Nice to know I am not alone. I actually bought my car in Canberra because Alex seemed to know very little about the cars he was selling. This was in January 2012. When I was discussing KESSY he seemed to think it included stop/start technology as well which of course it did not. I use Volksworx for servicing and only contact Southern Classic for warranty work, it seems that I may need to go elsewhere for that too.

**Shakey** · 06-06-2013, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by Albervin

The left hand tail light cluster on my Superb wagon was showing signs of moisture so I took it into Southern Classic Cars in Wollongong. A quick inspection by the service manager (Sebastian) and it was confirmed I would be getting a new tail light under warranty. A week later I took the car in and they fitted a new cluster and also replaced the front and rear badges under their service scheme. I said the front badge was fine but the rear was a bit ordinary but they insisted on replacing both. Got home and noticed the new tail light was not sitting correctly. I took the plastic caps off to find the tabs were broken and they were stuck down with some revolting goop! Anyway, it took 3-4 minutes to loosen the fasteners and hit the cluster with the heel of my hand to get it fitting perfectly. I then decided to wash the car to test the waterproofness of the tail light. I noticed 2 small scratches in the paint around the rear badge. Not superficial scratches but more like chips you could get your fingernail into. I rushed around to the front and the front badge was not stuck down very well AND 2 ugly scratches on the chrome trim. An angry phone call followed by an e-mail with photos and they agreed to fix it. Well what choice did they have? I had to wait 3 weeks before they could get the parts and organise the painter. They need the car for 3-4 days so gave me an Audi A1 as a loan car. The paint job and, chrome trim and badges are now perfect. It doesn't stop there though. I asked Southern Classic to rotate the tyres no charge for messing me about and also to replace my DRLs with some LED globes I had in the glovebox. When I went to pick up the car they had done the rotation but not replaced the globes because they didn't know which globes were the DRLs!!!!! WTF!! I then went home and checked the tyre pressures. Sure enough the tyre pressures had NOT been adjusted after the rotation! A monumental fail on all counts. This exercise cost Southern Classic over $800 and for me I had to make 4 trips into the dealership. The LEDs are still in my glovebox and will stay there until I find someone who can either do it for me or show me how to do it. End of rant!

Im not surprised you were treated this way by the dealer. I actually believe that Skoda dealers are ill trained, poorly equipped and not given the correct tools. When I was test driving my Skoda the salesman tried to tell me that the puddle lights were specially ordered by the sales manager who drove the car normally. The same salesman also informed me that the indicator courtesy lights on the side mirrors were not standard. I think Skoda sales and service suffer with lack of common knowledge about the product they sell.

**PassatB6** · 07-06-2013, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by Shakey

Im not surprised you were treated this way by the dealer. I actually believe that Skoda dealers are ill trained, poorly equipped and not given the correct tools. When I was test driving my Skoda the salesman tried to tell me that the puddle lights were specially ordered by the sales manager who drove the car normally. The same salesman also informed me that the indicator courtesy lights on the side mirrors were not standard. I think Skoda sales and service suffer with lack of common knowledge about the product they sell.

I have to say that the Skoda service in Newcastle is absolutely brilliant.