VW California T5 ONLY Roof Corrosion - General Discussion

[Meoncoast]

Think when mine goes in I will be very tempted to go to the body shop prior to accepting it back and not accept it back witout inspecting it and happy with the repair .
The whole process is becoming a real joke. Come on VW (we know you read this forum) Get your act together. Most of us respect the way we use and treat our California's it is about time you did the same.

 

[MLADEY]

Oh dear!
I will give it a go. I understand there was a draft letter to VW that we are advised to send - can anyone give me the link to the details please - Ive waded through this discussion but cant find it anywhere.

Mine is a 2007 and last year was put on a repair list for this year.

Because the corrosion on my roof is not visible unless standing
on a step ladder whilst the roof is up, there can be no certainty
when the problem started, I would not have known about it
were it not for this forum.

 

[jts46]

Mine is a 2007 and last year was put on a repair list for this year.

Because the corrosion on my roof is not visible unless standing
on a step ladder whilst the roof is up, there can be no certainty
when the problem started, I would not have known about it
were it not for this forum.

You are very lucky VW, with there vast wealth and profits have refused to repair mine although the front panel of the roof was repaired under warranty from blistering, the way they are behaving reminds me of the old time car trader. "yes it will be guaranteed until you leave the premises sir"

John

 

[marshian70]

POLL: Roof Paintwork Issues ( Blistering )

Consider it done Hubert

Due to the amount of people reporting this issue with bubbling/blisters appearing on the front panel of the roof section we have now set up a poll to see how severe this is.

You can also change your vote at any time.

All, sorry if being a bit lazy but could anyone advise the best number for VW Customer Services? I've been through several pages of the thread without luck. I recently purchased a 2010 Cali with roof corrosion and whilst the previous owner did raise it with his local dealer, I need to find out whether it is actually on the list or not!
Thanks All

 

[shambly]

Hi Shambly

Sorry to hear of your troubles.

I would suggest giving Daren at Heritage a call. I found him to be extremely helpful and keen to put right any issues and there was absolutely no need to read him the riot act. Clearly they are not the type of issues you expect to get but if my experience is anything to go by they will be dealt with without question.

Best of luck!

It's now back at Heritage and we're back in the loaner. Daren was on the phone first thing this morning...

Crazy thing is it ended up sat idle over there for two days prior to being returned and the simplest of QA inspections would have caught most if not all of the issues....

 

[janet]

Janet, I wouldn't get too excited about that letter, it doesn't really say much!

No its not what I was expecting. I thought there was a standard letter for us to send to VW to get the ball rolling for them to consider a repair.

 

[WelshGas]

It is classed as a Warranty Repair. So first port of call is your local Dealership. They, if they don't refuse as it is over 6 yrs old, will do a report and take photographs and put in a Warranty Claim to VW. VW may or may not accept the claim, due to the 6 yr limit they have instituted, ( NB: originally warranty period was 3 yrs and perforating corrosion 12 yrs, but the roof, both parts are due to a defect in the alloy for front section and bi-metallic corrosion on the elevating section and so VW have instituted a 6 yr warranty period for these items )
If the Dealership refuse to make a claim on your behalf or VW refuse a claim then you will have to appeal to VW Customer Service or take personal legal action.
Best of Luck.

 

[eanni]

After making a bit of a song and dance with Customer Services - they don't know the information their staff have sent out and I was being spun a story! I had kept all my correspondence and dates of photos being taken etc. today I received this rather worrying email, which may have a knock on effect on lots of the folk on here.

"Following my previous email dated 29 January 2015, I have been informed the California repair distribution list is currently in review therefore, I am unable to confirm your position.
However, I can confirm that the date in which your concerns were logged and reported on our internal technical system was 18
July 2013.
Once I have received further information in relation to your confirmed position within the repair distribution list, I will be
in further contact to inform you of this.
I would like to thank you for your patience in this matter and please accept my apologies for any distress and inconvenience
this may be causing.
Thank you for contacting Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Customer Care."

Not looking good - again!

 

[marshian70]

After making a bit of a song and dance with Customer Services - they don't know the information their staff have sent out and I was being spun a story! I had kept all my correspondence and dates of photos being taken etc. today I received this rather worrying email, which may have a knock on effect on lots of the folk on here.

"Following my previous email dated 29 January 2015, I have been informed the California repair distribution list is currently in review therefore, I am unable to confirm your position.
However, I can confirm that the date in which your concerns were logged and reported on our internal technical system was 18
July 2013.
Once I have received further information in relation to your confirmed position within the repair distribution list, I will be
in further contact to inform you of this.
I would like to thank you for your patience in this matter and please accept my apologies for any distress and inconvenience
this may be causing.
Thank you for contacting Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Customer Care."

Not looking good - again!

When I spoke to VWCS the other day they said they were centralising the repair list rather than each authorised repairer having their own. This is intended to speed up the process and repairs would be handled based on the date the issue was logged.

 

[Meoncoast]

My understanding was the same VW to hold central list rather that as you report the issue added to one of the centres lists, VW coment was it doest matter where you go as your van is taken there no milage to owner whether 10 miles away from you or 400

 

[robo]

I am getting a similar runaround.

 

[Martin]

Official Update from VW Head Office that came through today:

The approved repairs are now managed centrally, this is to allow us to constantly review and assign the vehicles to the body shop who can next complete the repair meaning the process is a lot quicker.

Customers may have previously been assigned a “number” by their repairing body shop, whilst this may no longer be valid, we are confident that customers will benefit form the change and the repairs will be completed quicker than initially planned.

 

[Raggedroy]

Official Update from VW Head Office that came through today:

The approved repairs are now managed centrally, this is to allow us to constantly review and assign the vehicles to the body shop who can next complete the repair meaning the process is a lot quicker.

Customers may have previously been assigned a “number” by their repairing body shop, whilst this may no longer be valid, we are confident that customers will benefit form the change and the repairs will be completed quicker than initially planned.

I have spoken to customer services today and they told me that this has been the case since November. After that I called Shorade, Shorade have no knowledge of a centralised list and still insist there are another five vehicles in front of me on their list.

 

[Andy]

I have spoken to customer services today and they told me that this has been the case since November. After that I called Shorade, Shorade have no knowledge of a centralised list and still insist there are another five vehicles in front of me on their list.

Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence in the whole procedure !

 

[mario+jill]

We got our Cali back yesterday from Shorade. We have had the bubbling roof panel and the roof itself repaired together under warranty and some additional minor work done which we paid for. The whole job took 9 days and we had a courtesy Cali for the duration. I went over our Cali with a fine tooth comb on its return and can say that the work carried out and the service we received from Shorade was excellent. We can confirm that we were the 10th Cali to be done by them.

 

[sue.h]

We too are all the list at shorade, around August was our estimate. They told us that they hadn't heard of the new vw administered list!

So, does anyone know how we find out when and where we will be 'done' please

 

[Martin]

From what we have heard there are no longer any actual list positions, the best thing to do is call VWCS


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Ricotansky]

I think others have already said this, if you can manage without a replacement van you might be able to get the work done sooner.

 

[AlanC]

Having not heard a thing since July last year, I phoned Heritage at Westbury this afternoon, as I wanted to know where in the repair list we were.

82nd apparently!

I then asked, if I didn't need to have a loan vehicle, when could they do it?

Will need to check with Breeze Poole, but can arrange collection for tomorrow and get it back to you in about 10 days if that is convenient, was the answer from Darren! I have just got off the phone with the AA and the van in being collect at 0900 tomorrow. All parts are available and I am having a small parking ding pulled out of the door as well.

Perfect!

Alan

 

[Tom]

My 08 Cali with 20,000 miles, dealer service history and garaged has just been rejected for a roof paint repair because is it 'outside the good will perimeters' and my claim is rejected. According to VW Customer Service (relayed via my local dealer) my Cali's problem is not body corrosion but a paint problem and 6 year old paint is not covered by goodwill! My local dealer were very good and quite apologetic and it seems that any Cali over 6 years old will not be repaired.

Too bad really because we were just about to change my daughters VW Up and my wife's Polo for new models. Not surprisingly we are now not buying 2 new VW's so its their loss. I like my Cali and intend keeping it and will have my local body shop do the paint job to stop the corrosion. When it comes to replacing it I will not buy VW again. After months of discussions I just can't be bothered to take it further.

Tom
Northern Ireland

 

[jts46]

I'm like you Tom, we also are not updating our polo we will buy other manufacturers products, also when Cali needs replacing i will look elsewhere.
When you consider that in 2013 VW commercial vehicles made an operating profit of 448,000,000 euros (figure from VW 2013 accounts) they could have repaired every california that was produced, but no they choose to ignore their customers. I shall keep putting comments and photos of the roof corrosion problem, (that is a manufacturing fault) on there Facebook page.

John

 

[sue.h]

We too are all the list at shorade, around August was our estimate. They told us that they hadn't heard of the new vw administered list!

So, does anyone know how we find out when and where we will be 'done' please

hi (replying to myself!) called shorade and we are still on their list , so i will leave well enough alone and wait and see

 

[David Eccles]

We added the roof corrosion under the seal issue to the front panel one last Dec when I asked dealer to inspect it as I could not be hassled with pulling it myself!
Checked why no confirmation received on Monday dealer forgot to action it with VW grrr well did not say that blamed some kind of admin cock up...assured it would be on system in 24 hours...straightfwd.
Today they phoned to say VWCS want "better" photos b4 approving!!!!!!! so I have hassle and time driving it over to be done again (OK only a morning wasted but still....)
Do VWCS think dealer and I are making up a fault ... are they STILL trying to make life difficult with owning up to this fault?
Luckily I know twill all be sorted and repairs will all be done
just need to be patient...breathe....sing that Frozen song....
get out and enoy the cali
rant over

 

[sue.h]

Before driving miles, why not check if they will accept your photos. We complained as it was a here hour round trip and they accepted out emailed photos. They wanted a photo of the dash to show the mileage for some reason.

We were happy as it saved a long journey and the accepted our photos and authorised the work.

Give it a try. Sue

 

[David Eccles]

good idea
the dealer is paying my fuel
and I don't fancy doing pics myself and pulling that seal
take my laptop do some work drink free coffee....