DSG woes in The Age

[THE_EGG]

So impressed to see you still hanging out here, Egg!

Just goes to show how much you would love that car back! But I fully understand your concerns.

If only VW would address the issue properly, I bet they would have at least one return customer!

What a shame their handling of all this is so immature.

More that I want my money back tbh haha. Or at least the drop in value going from $30k to $19k in 4 months - I'm pretty sure the salesman who was looking after the trade at Citroen new there was something up hence the low trade value.

[Transporter]

Please tell us how you would have handled it. Bear in mind, I'd already politely asked the dealer to ask VAG for a replacement, given the intractable and seemingly insoluble problems with what was an almost-new car that were putting me and my loved ones in mortal danger.



Difficult, in these circumstances? You betcha! Threaten legal action? Where did you get that from?

You don't have the right to get the replacement, we don't have the lemon law in AU.

[Transporter]

I always start off by complaining politely, as I did in this case. Did not work for me.

I don't believe you did.

[THE_EGG]

You don't have the right to get the replacement, we don't have the lemon law in AU.

I thought we did have the lemon law here in Australia?

[THE_EGG]

Yes, but anything (not just cars) purchased after January 1, 2011, is covered under Australian Consumer Law "Consumer Guarantees".

If this scenario had happened with the client purchasing the car in 2011 and getting to say, next year with similar problems, VW would have to abide by the law and meet the customer's request – for a major failure, the client chooses whether to keep the car and be compensated, have it replaced with a similar product (if available), or receive a full refund.

+1 correct

[wai]

You don't have the right to get the replacement, we don't have the lemon law in AU.

I'm pretty sure there is one in NSW. but the issue is enforcing it.

The fact that VW have resorted to lawyers means it is biting. After all, to get a legal team together will cost around $10,000 per day. I know. A client of mine is fighting a cast that will go on for years, and when the lawyers are in it is $10,000 per day.

[nyc863]

Please tell us how you would have handled it. Bear in mind, I'd already politely asked the dealer to ask VAG for a replacement, given the intractable and seemingly insoluble problems with what was an almost-new car that were putting me and my loved ones in mortal danger.

Difficult, in these circumstances? You betcha! Threaten legal action? Where did you get that from?

I'm just saying the "type" of customer that threatens to fill search engines and message boards with their story is often the "type" that threatens legal action right off the bat.

what would I have done? I'd have escalated the and documented and escalated and documented until I had the makings of a case that they'd lose in front of the ombudsman, and/or a court. I'd also post here and ask for the opinion of others. It costs nothing now to video every second of ones driving experience, there are so many resources online you can educate and represent yourself for free if you have the time to do so. Do you think you're the first customer to disagree about whether a car is a lemon? there are consumer protection mechanisms you should exhaust. Did you?

If you don't have any time to do that, perhaps you had to take a financial hit and move on, but you seem to have a lot of time to build sites and tell your story so it sounds like you had the time to get what you wanted without threatening asymmetric online warfare.

[RoknRob]

I'm not surprised with that attitude that you ceased to get any help, and got the finger.

Companies act quite pragmatically in general, I suppose you thought they'd rather bend over for you than risk losing more business from your online droppings, however they are also comprised of individuals and if I was the case manager who got such a threat letter I'd react with as much of a big FU as the rules of my job allowed.

At least as you describe things (which undoubtably are tilted to make you look good), it is clear that you brought your situation on yourself by being one of those difficult customers that call centre staff are trained to deal with by hanging up on.

You got a car, it had a difficult to diagnose issue, you spat the dummy and issued threats and SURPRISE you didn't get very good service.

How is your hit-job website going? got much traffic? or do you find it easier to repeat yourself endlessly on established sites and make VWA look sensible.

Really?

I would have thought any company with an ounce of confidence in their product would never have taken a rant like that so seriously...

The customer (who is always right?) is clearly distressed. Managing that with a lawyer letter is the wrong approach, IMHO.

Especially if there were already civil attempts at restitution.

[brad]

You don't have the right to get the replacement, we don't have the lemon law in AU.

That explains why a mate on my other forum was given a replacement Volvo after 11 months when the dealership failed to repair his vehicle (they made it worse actually). Then he got his money back after 4 weeks with the new vehicle because it had issues as well.

[muli]

So the simple solution is to buy from states that have lemon laws and boycott local dealers in ones state?