Alan Day Volkswagen

Booked in for service and cambelt replacement - very nice and friendly.

I bought a brand new vehicle from this Volkswagen main dealer and I use this term loosely in August 2012. A few months after this, someone reversed in to my bumper. I insisted that Alan Day repair this. This was my biggest mistake. It took them months to deal with this repair satisfactory. The repair was so bad, that water was leaking in to my spare tyre well. Unfortunately, it took me months to realise this and by this time, the cotton bag I kept in my vehicle had turned mouldy. When I complained, it took them many visits to sort out. In fact, they caused more damage than the vehicle originally had. During this period, my vehicle started to have further issues. I kept taking the vehicle back to them, but they could never find the issue. They are totally incompetent. As a main dealer, they are meant to know how to fix Volkswagen vehicles. The very basics they might, but anything difficult and they have no clue. Their customer service leaves a lot to be desired and they pushed me from pillar to post, but many people suspect this is because I am a female. It took them months to acknowledge the creaking/crunching noise which they attempted to fix, but they had no idea. I am now fighting with Volkswagen Finance to reject this vehicle and get a full refund. This car has a suspension problem and Alan Day could not find it. Every problem my vehicle went in for I was told that this was a difficult problem to find and resolve. I had to resort to getting an independent expert to carry out a full inspection of my vehicle. This man, who carries out work for Watchdog immediately found what the issue was. This does not make Alan Day look good. Absolutely dreadful! They have no idea about customer service or how to repair Volkswagen vehicles. They are all smiles and can't do enough before buying the vehicle, but after you buy it, you are on your own. It would be best to take to an independent garage, but you will then invalidate your warranty. Keep away from them at all costs. Your life will be much easier as they have no clue on repairing vehicles. I am still fighting with Volkswagen Finance to reject my vehicle. Who wants a brand new vehicle with suspension problems? Plus, my vehicle is now having brake and sound issues to. The defects on this brand new vehicle are mounting! If I could give them a minus star, I would do this.

I saw the Alan Day Volkswagen had good reviews on their website and also took part in their fixed price servicing so I decided to have my car serviced there. Firstly if you don't live in Central London, you'll need to pay the Congestion Charge - that I don't mind doing but what annoyed me was their service! Also, they're quite awkwardly located and there's only about six parking spaces yet they have more cars to service than spaces so you just have to leave your car anywhere near the others and I don't really like that. The guy who dealt with my car, the receptionist said he'd call me once my car has had it's work done on it. He called alot later than he had stated and went through what I needed to change. When I asked him questions about things he wasn't always sure and wasn't able to provide direct answers. Also, they DON'T participate in fixed price servicing even though the VW website says so. They told me I need to get my cambelt changed and quoted me £579!!!!! The fixed price servicing was at £319 so that's a hell of a lot of a difference. Of course, I didn't take them up on their offer. From the service there were a few good things they mentioned like my tyres, v-belt etc which i had done but they were seriously overpriced (as oppposed to other VW centres). However, what really pissed me off was I took my car to another VW about two weeks later who told me my front shock absorbers need replacing and also my console bushes. Surely, during a 2 year full service the technician from Alan Day should have noticed that and advised me of this??? It wasn't written anywhere on the report and the only reason I knew was because the other centre did a free visual check on it. Instead, Alan Day VW were busy advising me that my horn is slightly weak and needs changing. Sorry but I think my shock absorbers and console bushes needing replacing is a far more important matter than a stupid car horn. Other things that bugged me was that the receptionist. They closed at 6pm and if you haven't got your car back by then you'd need to pay for a second day of congestion charge as you can only pick it up the next day. The receptionist phoned me at 2pm and then I authorised him to carry out certain tasks. He said he'd phone me back once completed and my car is ready to collect. At 5.45pm, I still had no call from him and so made my own way there. I called his direct line several times and he wouldn't answer. Eventually I just went straight in and he was "oh it's you." I said "is my car ready?" He replied, "yes it's been ready for ages." I was absolutely livid. If it's been ready for this long then why did you not call? At this point, he also said, "oh by the way, you rear brakes are making noises." So I asked, "what's the problem? And why didn't you tell me on the phone" Response: "We don't know. Oh, the issue came after I got off the phone from you." "So if it's the case, did you not think to call me and tell me instead of chucking it into my service." He was also reluctant to stamp my service book which I found rather irritating. If I didn't want the VW stamp, I'd take it to a local independent. In total the service plus replacements cost me about £650 and personally I don't think it was worth it. I won't be going back there any time soon. Over priced is one reason but I find the fact that essential items that need sorting were not noticed or advised on whereas other non-essential items were being quoted instead.