Leaving Reviews for a Dodgy Car Dealership

I bought my first used VW from Ringwood VW (Vic) and have been regularly servicing my car there ever since. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about “New Car Sales”. In fact, it has been a horrible experience overall. VW Australia was of no help whatsoever in this matter.

Here’s what happened:

Deposit:
Upon finalising the paperwork and my own finance, I did request over the phone that I get my deposit back and have the full amount financed on the final invoice. The Business Manager casually said that he’d know what to do when he got a request for an invoice from the finance provider. I soon get an approval email from the finance provider with the deposit amount already taken off i.e. I would not be getting that deposit back. While not a huge issue, it did set me back in terms of available cash on hand for bills and other expenses.

Also, just to be clear, in terms of the price of the car, there were no discounts or favours done. The tag price was what was paid.

Car Delivery:
It took about 4 working days for the car to be ready for pickup. Apparently, new cars are kept in another facility/warehouse. It would have been nice to be told beforehand that it would take that long to have the car ready.

The car was obviously polished. Upon pickup, I saw dried compound on the rear spoiler which was wiped off with no problems. The next day, with a bit of dampness in the air, it was quite obvious that the polishing compound was not buffed out on the roof and the hood. I really did not expect such a lack of attention from the dealership.

Floor Mats:
I had requested a full set of front and rear rubber floor mats and paid for them in full on the day I was picking the car up. I was told the mats were in the boot. Upon checking, only the rear set was there. It was only then that I was told that the front set was on back-order. So, they took the money and incorrectly advised that the mats were in the boot. Moreover, they expected me to pick them up whenever they make their way to the dealership (which could be 2-3 weeks). A quick calculation in my head: if I take time off work again and spend money on gas (that apparently is an issue for VW), I might as well ask for a cheap accessory to be installed for me to make up for the inconvenience and costs I would have to incur (lost income and gas). The Sales Manager was not there (again) for approval of such a request. The mats made their way to the dealership the very next day and, instead of a meaningful apology, the Sales Manager was rude and would not admit any wrongdoing and did not approve the cheap accessory (which is fine). However, he refused to deliver the mats and would not even issue a refund. Effectively, they were too eager to take the money and then the customer can get stuffed. Hollow apologies mean nothing – not to mention the attitude and tone used. In fact, the Sales Manager got offended when I mentioned the fact that they were only too happy to take the money and not deliver, the response to which was that I was told to watch my tone!!! Seriously?!

Gas:
Apparently, it is VW policy (according to Ringwood VW) to hand over a new vehicle (that costs about $43.5k) to the customer with about half a tank of gas!!! Seriously?! The $50 to fill up the car properly would have broken VW’s bank?! Mind you, the car had a bit less than half a tank – so, it wasn’t even at the half mark!

Conclusion:

Customer service / after sales service at Ringwood VW really can do with some major reform as the way I was dealt with was absolutely appalling.

BEWARE of Ringwood VW. Any money you pay is gone. Do not pay for anything (not even a deposit) until you have everything you want right in front of you.

The complaint I made to VW Australia was met with ignorance and only focussed on the mats, to which they said: “your only option is to pick up the mats from the dealership”. None of the other issues were even touched upon. The only action they took was contact the dealership, only to re-iterate what the dealership was saying (mind you they took ages to respond). It’s as if I needed VW Australia to deliver a (slow) message to the dealership on my behalf! What a joke!!

Funny how Ringwood VW missed out on the sale of another new car for my wife and the regular servicing over the next 5 years of at least 2 cars. All of that for what would have added up to no more than $100-$150, not to mention actually providing the customer with a good experience. I always receive emails requesting feedback about the “Customer Experience” after a service, but I never received a feedback request after the sale.

The mats have been picked up and that concludes my dealings with that dealership for good despite having had no issues with the service department over the last 5 years. That is something the “New Car Sales” department can be thanked for.

While the cars themselves are alright, customer service plays a big role in buying a car. I cannot begin to image what I would have to go through for a warranty repair for example down the track!

The questions would be:
How would you suggest I proceed now that I have no pending business with them?
Any wording I should change before leaving a review on Google and Facebook?
In fact, should I post the above as a review to begin with?

Comments

  • I bought a second hand car from VW Ringwood last year (only 6,000km, so still newish). It was a pretty average experience.. not terrible or amazing. They did give me a full tank though.. and slimline plates.

    Wouldn't get the car serviced from them though (or from any dealership). I have an independent that I'll go to for that sort of thing.

  • I'm curious if OP is from the US

    • Nah, he's just here for a gas

      • methane?

  • +2

    For what it's worth, I had a crappy experience looking at VWs as well (SE suburbs though). I was looking at the Polo GTI and the salesman basically laughed me out of the store even without knowing how much I had to spend. He begrudgingly asked to see my current car to value it for trade in but I drove off before he could do that.

    Also sucks for him because I ended up buying a more expensive car anyway. Tobias, I hope you don't still work there because you are a pathetic specimen of a salesperson.

  • The only thing in that list that'd pissed me off is the mat. Full tank of fuel could/should have been in the contact FWIW.
    I had a VW, not from this same dealer but had been happy with both the car and the dealer throughout ownership.

  • +3

    Hand in your ozb licence.

    Paid sticker price for a new car that's not in high demand, didn't even attempt to negotiate.
    &
    Paid full amount on finance even to the point of wanting your deposit financed, costing more in interest in the long run.

    If the deposit was such an issue to your finances and cash flow one should reconsider their decision to throw over $42k on a depreciating asset.

    • +1

      That got me too, deposit must've been 1k? and if that amount causes cashflow problems… a $42k car really?

  • This is OzB, you lost me at 'there were no discounts'…

  • +1

    Re: the deposit not being included in the finance - I work in finance and see a lot of the auto finance deals. We send a lot of invoices back to dealers to have the deposit removed, as we are financing the entire purchase price, based on information provided by the customer / broker. If you told your finance company of your arrangement, they should have sent the invoice back for correction if it still showed the deposit. But that one's definitely not on the dealership. It's on you (if you didn't tell your financier, and borrowed less than the full purchase price) or your financier (if they overlooked your request). All the same, once the loan settles, too late to do anything about it.

    As for the rest of your experience, definitely the whole here is larger than the sum of the parts. Took the gloss off the entire experience for you. But try to ask yourself if each individual event would have been enough to provoke you? Mats delayed, meaning you needed to collect them… would that have been a biggie by itself? Full tank of petrol, if it was stated on the contract, fair enough I'd be annoyed. If it wasn't on the contract, well more fool me. A bit of polish left on the car… separately they're all just little things. Let it go….

    • Paragraph one - also helps the comms to finance it 😉

  • +1

    Standard industry service

  • You should have lowered your expectations to start with. Car dealers are the scums of the earth.

  • +3

    This is very normal OP

    I have probably picked up 20 Volkswagons in my life through work. It is always the same, if not very consistent. The dealerships are set to do volume and just normal service, the sales people are just 'standard' grade if there is such a thing.

    They make good cars, just enjoy it, don't let little things ruin your experience. I cannot see anything wrong with what you have mentioned btw.

    That said picking up a Mercedes is invariably a different experience +20-35% on the price tag.

    I understand getting this car was meant to be special to you, but consider VW in Europe is like a Toyota here.

    It's just an average brand car.

    You are not picking up a BMW/Mercedes/luxury vehicle.

    Expectation is the root of all misery

    PS

    What also stands out is 'Ringwood' and sub $80k car

  • +1

    Except for the deposit being not issued back to you the way you wanted, the rest is all just you being a bit of a whinger.

  • I didnt get past the didnt get a discount off window price comment… this is ozBargain…

  • We had the opposite to your experience at the VW dealer in Darwin. Sales was great, no issues, some minor scratches at handover but they were taken care of free of charge, full tank of petrol and was even offered another full tank once the initial tank was done, just had to drop in and ask.

    The service department though is the absolute worst place I ever dealt with when it came to car servicing. There are regularly posts about how bad the service department is on the local Facebook groups, a lot of the reviews are bad on Google and every time I have gone to pick up our car (it's within warranty so i stayed with them) there was always someone making a complaint about something.

    We had to get a door handle fixed because it was catching on something - it took 3 visits to get it fixed under warranty. First time was inspection and it was "fixed" but as soon as I picked it up I tested the door handle and it was still catching. Even the sales guy I dealt with was like I'm gonna come have a look cause I reckon they didn't fix anything. So the service department said sorry we're closing now so you have to re-book it in again for us to check. So we re-booked it in and then took it back the second time and this time they said oh yeah it's broken we need to order parts so come pick it up and then we'll tell you when parts arrive. So we pick up the car, then bring it back for the 3rd time for the replacement part to be installed. Thankfully it was fixed the 3rd time but they could have saved me one trip if they had just looked at it properly the first time.

  • +5

    Taking bets on when "Kazamani" will turn into "DisabledUser"…

    • -1

      Signed up 3 days ago and only comments/post is complaining they didn't do their own due diligence on buying a car that it sounds like they can't afford.

    • -1

      Be interesting for Ringwood VW to join up and have their say… or their lawyers.

      • If they did, then OP is confirmed.

  • If you really motivated, happy to collaborate to build a car dealership review site. Not a difficult problem. I've had need in the past as well. However, i need someone to do the marketing and business development. I can look after the tech. DM me

  • +2

    Why are you running your car on "gas"?

    Doesn't it run on petrol, made from petroleum?

    Of have we been so yankified by all that US garbage on the idiot box, that along with "take out" (no longer take away), we're now calling petrol "gas"?

  • You asked about them putting "gas" in the car so half a tank of petrol ensured there was "gas" within the tank instead of being full of liquid.

  • Jesus christ, it's called fuel. Petrol. Diesel. Stop calling it gas ffs, we're not Americans, gas is literally what LPG is called.

  • Was this for the 110 or 140tsi, by the way?

    If you paid 43k+ for the 110, I've seen them for 39,990 drive away at a bunch of VW dealers in Melbourne (Check Carsales are an initial indicator)

    How long ago was this? I'd personally be more pissed that I paid RRP when VW has thousands of cars from 2023 still sitting there.

    Generally, if you mention at VW that you are driving one, I've got a discount of $700-1k for my partner and sister in the last 12 months; they also gave us almost private retail for our 2004 Golf trade-in. (Including my sister's Golf GTI @ Ringwood VW)

    The last Tiguan 162TSI R we got in late April was almost $4000 off RRP. It had a paint option, a pano sunroof, and a vision pack delivered to our door. It also had a full tank, all-weather mats, a car cover, and an umbrella/merch from the dealer.

    I called three to four dealers and just talked to them like a person. I got it from the second cheapest dealer without ordering from Interstate.

  • Why would anyone pay retail for a VW?

    My dad got 5% off during the height of Covid19 pandemic. I'm sure you can get more discount today.

  • I remember helping buy a used car for a friend and it only just had enough fuel to get to the fuel station 5 minutes away!! still a $20k car with the low fuel light on. I would always get that added to the contract in the future if I ever brought a fuel car.

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