Interesting read...

[MultiplexMan]

After the Toyota fiasco, you would think that every car manufacturer would have lifted their game to avoid the same happening to them... VWA appear to be slow learners.

I have had VW from my first car - almost three decades! But gees VW is making it very hard to maintain the love

Customer service is everything. If you run your own business you'd understand this fundamental fact. How often do we see major brands forget this?

[wai]

Unfortunately PR agencies believe that they can calm any situation without having to spend anything (other than their fee). The argument goes:

"So you lose 1% of your customers. Just think how much you will save by letting them go and doing nothing".

I had something similar when I was setting up a drawing office for a client to get QA accreditation. The company had an excellent reputation in electrical switchgear. Basically, they had a 100% check system, and their reputation was such that any item purchased from them would be known to work. The QA consultant convinced the company to do sample checks only. This would mean that there would be an allowance for something like 10% failures/returns/refunds. The "savings" were significant.

The problem was that there was now something like a 10% chance of the item being faulty. No problem a free replacement was offered, only that replacement also had a 10% chance of being faulty. That company almost closed its doors. They went back to the way they did things before they got their QA accreditation and managed to survive.

[Rebuild]

Unfortunately PR agencies believe that they can calm any situation without having to spend anything (other than their fee). The argument goes:

"So you lose 1% of your customers. Just think how much you will save by letting them go and doing nothing".

That may have been ok years ago, before the www
Now, it only takes a few typed words to reach thousands and ruin a good reputation.
Any business needs to be careful how they handle unhappy customers.

[Rebuild]

26000 vehicle recall
Safety concerns spark Volkswagen recall

[Sunny43.5]

Its a pity they don't address other issues with failures before this one hit the media .