Hello

[Tollerk]

Hello I've been a member for a couple weeks and thought it about time I posted (thank you to my daughter for arranging VIP membership as my birthday present).
I'm not a Cali owner at the moment but it's very much in plan. I've spent a lot of time researching the Web and more recently this site. The key leason learnt from the Cali site is I must be patient from placing an order though to delivery.
So to start things in motion I had 2 priorities today
The first to set my leave date - done I retire in December and as I've decided on the Cali I want I need to arrange a test drive and then place an order. So I find the letter that came with the Cali brochure and ring the number for book a test drive. The response from the other end was why are you ring this number? Me - because your letter said so. After a short conversation it was decided the call would be transfered to the Southampton van centre. The respose from the Soton van centre - don't do California mate you need to ring Poole. The man at Poole was help and test drive arranged for next week but 15 mins later I get a call - sorry will have to cancel the test drive as I've just found out we've sold our demonstrator but we will be ordering another one if you would like to wait (my mind immediately went to weeks if not months). So I think ring the Guilford van centre who tell me the salesman is busy could he ring you back ....... still waiting for the call.
I'm getting an early lesson on being patient ...... Oh well a new day tomorrow and I'll try again. (Sorry for rambling on but got it off my chest )

 

[T6 CFO]

Hopefully you will have a bit more joy tomorrow. Your resolve is just being tested....... And welcome to the board.


Mike

 

[LowMan]

First things first. Hello, welcome to the forum and an early congratulations on your retirement

Certainly there does appear to be a variation in the Pre-Sales service from van centre to van centre. We made the decision to buy and went along to Leicester Van centre. They allowed us to test drive an ex-demo there and then. We decided to buy it off them the following day

I guess you just need to shop around. I'm sure others will tell you of good experiences they've had at their respective dealerships.

Good luck.

 

[Hotel California]

Welcome!

 

[Verity]

Hello I've been a member for a couple weeks and thought it about time I posted (thank you to my daughter for arranging VIP membership as my birthday present).
I'm not a Cali owner at the moment but it's very much in plan. I've spent a lot of time researching the Web and more recently this site. The key leason learnt from the Cali site is I must be patient from placing an order though to delivery.
So to start things in motion I had 2 priorities today
The first to set my leave date - done I retire in December and as I've decided on the Cali I want I need to arrange a test drive and then place an order. So I find the letter that came with the Cali brochure and ring the number for book a test drive. The response from the other end was why are you ring this number? Me - because your letter said so. After a short conversation it was decided the call would be transfered to the Southampton van centre. The respose from the Soton van centre - don't do California mate you need to ring Poole. The man at Poole was help and test drive arranged for next week but 15 mins later I get a call - sorry will have to cancel the test drive as I've just found out we've sold our demonstrator but we will be ordering another one if you would like to wait (my mind immediately went to weeks if not months). So I think ring the Guilford van centre who tell me the salesman is busy could he ring you back ....... still waiting for the call.
I'm getting an early lesson on being patient ...... Oh well a new day tomorrow and I'll try again. (Sorry for rambling on but got it off my chest )

If you can be bothered to drive up, we had a fantastic sales service from Northampton and have our Cali on order now. They let us borrow a demonstrator Ocean for a whole day, which was great.

 

[Amarillo]

The respose from the Soton van centre - don't do California mate you need to ring Poole. The man at Poole was help and test drive arranged for next week but 15 mins later I get a call - sorry will have to cancel the test drive as I've just found out we've sold our demonstrator but we will be ordering another one if you would like to wait

That's crap service.

VW should insist that their franchisees have at least one Beach and at least two Oceans (each with a different engine and one 4 motion) ready as a road demonstrator at all times.

We had terrible service from Dartford Beadles which left us looking around for Jeremy. Our experience at SMG Tonbridge was fantastic. It is such a big purchase, it is worth taking a trip to Tonbridge if you can afford the time.

 

[Amarillo]

SMG Tonbridge

SMG Tonbridge will let you hire a van from Camper Vantastic (one word - the complete name is censored in this group) for a weekend and refund the hire charge at the point when you pay a deposit.

 

[Lost Boy]

Hello I've been a member for a couple weeks and thought it about time I posted (thank you to my daughter for arranging VIP membership as my birthday present).
I'm not a Cali owner at the moment but it's very much in plan. I've spent a lot of time researching the Web and more recently this site. The key leason learnt from the Cali site is I must be patient from placing an order though to delivery.
So to start things in motion I had 2 priorities today
The first to set my leave date - done I retire in December and as I've decided on the Cali I want I need to arrange a test drive and then place an order. So I find the letter that came with the Cali brochure and ring the number for book a test drive. The response from the other end was why are you ring this number? Me - because your letter said so. After a short conversation it was decided the call would be transfered to the Southampton van centre. The respose from the Soton van centre - don't do California mate you need to ring Poole. The man at Poole was help and test drive arranged for next week but 15 mins later I get a call - sorry will have to cancel the test drive as I've just found out we've sold our demonstrator but we will be ordering another one if you would like to wait (my mind immediately went to weeks if not months). So I think ring the Guilford van centre who tell me the salesman is busy could he ring you back ....... still waiting for the call.
I'm getting an early lesson on being patient ...... Oh well a new day tomorrow and I'll try again. (Sorry for rambling on but got it off my chest )

Trust me, avoid Guildford, I'd be surprised if they ever return your call!!!!

 

[Wind Witch]

SMG Tonbridge will let you hire a van from Camper Vantastic (one word - the complete name is censored in this group) for a weekend and refund the hire charge at the point when you pay a deposit.

I would definitely recommend trying to "hire before you buy". It gave us a chance to see if driving the van over a few days was a good experience for my husband, and if the beds were comfy enough for my poor back - YES on both counts so we ordered a Cali at the fist opportunity.
r
We have found that our dealership (up North) is good at responding to emails (or we ambush him by popping by) but not so good at answering/returning phone calls - though he and his colleagues always seem to be outrageously busy every time we go in. However, there is much discussion about this on other threads and this isn't the them of this thread...