Dealer buying experience

[irossiter]

Whether I get in trouble with the forum regulators I dont really care but people PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM CAMBERWELL VW in Victoria.
I think people need to know who does a good job and who stinks.
I bought my first Mk 5 GTI from them in 2006, great salesman, great service, no problem. First service, they couldn't fit me in for 6 weeks! Not good enough. I live in Geelong so they serviced my car until I sold it.
Dad was looking at trading his WRX very soon after I bought my first GTI (before the service rubbish). He loved the GTI so I took him to Camberwell to order a GTI. My salesman had left but we did, what appeared, to be a great deal at the time with another dude. He located a GTI at another dealer (with the options that dad wanted ie leather and DSG only). He promised dad would have the car within 1-2 weeks! Amazing at the time when demand was going crazy for GTI's. No phone call for 2 weeks. I called the dealer who said "sorry we lost that car but I was going to call you or your dad." Really! Ok what are you going to do? "Would you believe I've found you another car with those options and it will be here in 1 week!" Really! Yes demand was crazy back then so I cut him some slack, but don't bullsh*t us again I thought. No phone call from him after 2 weeks. This time he said sorry lost that car as well. I just said if you can't find a car immediately please just say so. Would you believe he found another car but a month away (in Western Aust apparently). No phone call. This time when I called he said "sorry lost that one as well.' Now over a month down the track. That's OK to wait for a GTI. He proceded to tell me that he found another car in South Australia. I'll believe it when I see it. I told him that dad and I were not impressed but we understood how hard it was to locate GTI's. Again, no phone call! Went in to the dealer and he had no idea who we were, even when we showed him the receipt with his name on it. Oh sorry, we will have to order that car from Germany and it will be 9 months. Um, excuse me, why weren't you just honest in the first place. It would now be about 14 months to deliver the car. I was not particularly impressed and wanted to cancel the order after he told us that dad's trade in would be revalued when his GTI arrived. He refused to return our deposit or cancel the order.
I took dad away to have a think. I called another dealer out of Melbourne who had a car in stock, unregistered, in the right colour and right options and they said it could be registered and in dad's hands within a few days.
Returned to Camberwell and demanded the deposit back only to be met with utter contempt. He told us to go away and stop bothering him. By this stage I thought we should have known better dealing with an 18 year old in a cheap Roger David suit!
We then demanded to speak to the dealer principle (who had never returned our calls over the last few months). He claimed to know nothing about what had happened and was very apologetic (didn't believe a word out of his mouth). After a rather heated debate he said that the deal would be cancelled and deposit returned (but in a cheque that took a month to arrive!!!)
We bought the car from the other dealer and dad had his car in 3 days!
Over this time my mate had bought an EOS from Camberwell, only to be told at the first service (only done 4,000Km's) that all of his tyres needed to be replaced (at his expense) due to uneven wear!!!!!!!!Luckily he called me because he smelt a rat. By the time we turned up at the dealer they had already put on new Michelins (despite him saying NO!). They also told him they had done a carbon clean at another $200 on top of his regular service cost!! I told them to put the tyres back on and said if the wheels were out of balance or alignment it was a factory problem that should have been found at the delivery inspection. They did what we asked and we refused to pay for the "carbon clean." We went straight to a tyre dealer who could not find ANYTHING wrong with the tyres or the alignment. He said that Camberwell often tried that and often got away with it. They wanted $2000 for new tyres before they were taken off.
I was absolutely floored when dad told me he took his car to Camberwell for his first service because it was around the corner. He was charged almost exactly TWICE what Geelong charged me for my GTI. And they told him it had required a "carbon clean." Fu&k%ng what!
The service manager refused to speak with me when I wanted an explanation. Dad "didn't want to make a fuss."
To my absolute disbelief dad had taken his car back to them for another service 12 months later "because it's just around the corner" again!! Yes it very nearly cost twice the same as my equivalent service from Geelong!
If any Geelong people are reading this, I bought my new GTI from Wayne Lee at Rex Gorrell and dad traded his GTI for a Golf R a few months later. I highly recommend Geelong service department (and I've never had or been offered a carbon clean or whatever they try to bul%s&it other people with).
If I can stop even one person being ripped off by Camberwell then this rant will have been worth it

[hooba]

^^ For those of you who are time poor or who are scared off by big blocks of words, irossiter is saying don't go to Camberwell.

[kai_h]

I've had nothing but bad experiences with the service department at Camberwell too.

Seriously people, find a good, independent mechanic and work on developing a good relationship with them - it'll be so much better for everyone involved in the long run...