JCB Group / Eurovans - Terrible Customer Service

Niborn

Niborn

VIP Member
Messages
508
Location
South London
Vehicle
T6 Ocean 204 4Motion
Hi everyone ,
I want you to know been very patient before making this post , I don’t believe in slagging companies off before giving lots of chances to make things right and in the real world things do go wrong but perhaps then judgement about fair and reasonable customer service can made on how a problem gets sorted .
I have a legitimate and agreed guarantee claim at this moment which , true to form from JCB , isn’t getting sorted and VW isn’t able to date to get them to resolve It , ie pay me the money owed . This Issue is the straw which has broken my camels back and caused me to write about the disaster JCB EuroVans In Crawley has been and is now. You’d be well advised never to buy anything from them . Given VWs HQs inability, even though they agree with the claim , to get EuroVans to respond I’d seriously think twice before buying another VW too, with my previous vehicle , a Mercedes , the service was nothing short of fabulous and I felt valued too.
The present issue relates to a very simple claim .
Last February and I think I posted about it at the time , my Gas regulator packed up . I was in Spain . In the end I got it changed by a very helpful VW garage in Ales France. They agreed it was faulty and did the video of it etc etc . The bill wasn’t outrageous, 50 odd euro for the part and about the same for labour, so 100 euro . I needed two trips there one to let them identify the problem, then they ordered the part and one a week later to get it changed .
The Cali being under its 3 year warranty I was advised to send the bill to the Uk garage which sold me the Cali , Eurovans . This I did . I also called to make sure they got it . I didn’t hear anything so after about a month I called again, they told me to resend it, which I did . I didn’t hear anything again so I repeated to process. This went on and on several more times . Eventually in July , some 5 months later I tried to track down who was really responsible in EuroVans and was told there is a new service manager , Gavin Hornby. I sent it to him , with the back up emails of the previous months . I had no response.
Really I couldn’t go on , especially as I’ve had a terrible set of previous service experiences at EuroVans , which I will highlight later . so I called VW commercial customer service and since about the beginning of August I’ve been talking regularly with Laura . In the beginning they too were unable to get in contact with anyone at EuroVans . They have recently managed to speak with someone, who promised to contact me , but I’ve had no contact. I’ve given it more time . But now it’s almost September. This fiasco , a simple agreed and valid claim , just has come to an end sometime. I’ve spent a huge amount of time politely following up and it’s got no where EuroVans and JCB over all the months haven’t once contacted me and even with VW on them they haven’t .
All this comes on top of a catastrophe catalogue of problems for me at EuroVans. All of which in the interest of being nice and patient and trusting I’ve kept silent on , but now I can’t any longer .
Here is my actual experiences at EuroVans over the last few years .
When I bought the van they got a number of things wrong. I bought a high spec 4wd 204 with around 10k of extras. They attempted to charge for extras which were included in various upgrades , I only found out by chance or I would of paid , lucky I was reading this club site for info . To get them to change to the right pricing I had to get VW to call , the salesman said they didn’t know. Make of that what you will remembering Eurovans have been there a long time.
When the van came bits I had ordered and confirmed in writing to be absolutely sure, these were not added, so I had to go back several times to get them sorted .
Then about a year in the water tap sensor stopped working a common problem for that model / year. I drove back again , having booked it in , the 90 min trip so they could look at it to order it as they wouldn’t believe me on the phone, the technical guy at the time , called Robin someone, he connected it up to the VW computer and said many things were wrong with the van and I’d have to leave it with them . That was ridiculous for me as everything else as far as I knew worked fine . I said how long he said it could be weeks, so I refused . I spoke with the then service manager and told him it was , like so many other VW vans had , a sensor problem, they don’t need to take apart the van , just order the sensor . He agreed to do it if I agreed to pay for it if it wasn’t that problem , as they couldn’t return it to VW if the old one wasn’t faulty . I said ok , I waited for it to come in and drove back again to have it changed. However I was told the part wasn’t there when I came back for the agreed appointment to have it fixed , 90 mins each way trip, day off again . So I went home , made a new date. Drove back again 90 return trip , waited and they simply changed it and everything worked, so it was just the tap sensor.
At the end of 2018 I booked the van in for its first service. I confirmed it many times, also on the list a few niggles to be looked at , like the trim coming off the sliding door, another common problem.
I rang again before taking it there and to be sure that they had time and confirmed again , this time agreed to leave it 48 hours , so they could get it all done with no issues and come back and pick it up , unfortunately I got a puncture going there and the AA changed the wheel for me , it was a different tread because the spare was a summer tyre and I had winter tyres fitted . I asked VW to fix that puncture during the two days they had the Cali .
When I came to collect the Cali, two days later , they said the service was done and they couldn’t find a puncture, so they had just reinflated the tyre and it was fine . They had put the tyre onto the spare wheel hold and left me with 3 winter tyres and one summer tyre to drive on . I said this was unacceptable and asked them to put back the winter tyre, so I had a matching set. Whilst doing this to check again for a slow puncture, like we did the old fashioned way , soap and water in the tyre. They did this and sure enough there were the bubbles . So they looked more closely and found a broken nail deep in the tread . So they repaired it and changed it over, so I had a proper set.
I thought that was the end of that and as I had booked an afternoon crossing to France I was ready to go ...Van was taken to front of garage ... my wife and I were just about to get in and the service manager came running out to tell me in fact NONE of the service had been done in the 48 hours . Just the niggle items. So we had to make an on the spot decision to rebook another time for services and be late with the service or ask for it to be done then and cancel our crossing that afternoon to France . We had the service done there and then.

So this is a taste of my experience of VW and JCB Eurovans Crawley , it’s doesn’t include the loads of calls etc to sort things there but gives the bones of my terrible VW customer experience , which hasn’t changed over the last three years , whilst I’ve tried to be understanding and have patience this time I’ve lost it now . Don’t let’s think Covid is responsible for this latest fiasco too , nearly 6 months trying to get a simple bit of admin sorted , it’s just more of the same at JCB EuroVans . In my own business we’ve had the phones and emails manned 100% of the time , so our clients don’t suffer. I’ve to date still not had one response from JCB EuroVans.

I come from a corporate management background and have deep and wide experience in both large and small businesses , Ive also been a senior lecturer in business strategy and marketing and finance for major universities . So I think I’m qualified to say my VW customer experience is a genuine customer catastrophe, I say that as the person at the receiving end and standing back as a business man and someone whose taught business at MBA level .

In my opinion and based on my real experiences JCB group and EuroVans should be avoided , you’d be wise not to buy anything there , clearly there is a serious problem and it’s no good blaming individuals, this normally is a culture problem coming from the top . Indeed VW must carry some blame here , from again personal experience the service is wholly lacking compared to Mercedes ...../VW just don’t seem to appreciate whilst they do update me to tell me that JCB EuroVans is difficult for them to sort out , that’s it’s me , a VW customer , suffering because I have a VW guarantee on a VW product and they should take care of me first , especially as they agree with me this claim is legitimate, they should sort out their problem with their dealership and not use me as the pawn in between.

I just had to vent all this , hope it does some good somewhere ?? Certainly feels better to share it with friends , although I don’t know where it will all go now, maybe next time I’d better buy another make of camper ? Mercedes?

Best Wishes
 
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Given that they have a couple of the best VW dealerships (Breeze and SMG) as local competition you‘d expect them to make an effort! Maybe they can’t be bothered with California’?
 
Yes I wish I hadn’t bought there , I know a lot of people bought at Eurovans but get it serviced at SMG, I was just trying to be loyal I guess and with this claim I have to go though them, EuroVans ... what wrote is entirely genuine ... it’s just unbelievable really on any product, especially on a £70K Vehicle...
 
So sorry to read this tragic tale.
Yes, it is so tragic that an essentially very decent product can be so ruined because of customer service and VWs almost hands off attitude. Whilst there’s a lot of things to wonder about in USA at the moment one thing is for certain customer experiences like this wouldn’t be acceptable , we are a tolerant lot in UK .
I was wondering next year to buy another but this long experience and in particular the last episode is taking me away from VW . That said the French VW garages service department are well organised.
 
Very sad story. JCB Eurovans and VWCVCS should be ashamed.
Thanks Jabberwocky for your solidarity and taking the time to read that ... They should be ashamed and try and improve from the feedback , I doubt it , the salesman asked me to rate them 5 stars even after the bad initial problems ... I amlooking forward to see if anything happens by way of a response as I continue to post articles Via Facebook Etc and press now about the truth of what’s happened to me . It should be illegal to get treated so badly having paid so much and waited so long to get things resolved .
 
Wow and I thought that Sinclairs in Cardiff was bad...This puts it on a whole new level..But you probably quite rightly from your experience praise Mercedes, I had a very bad experience with a new SLK and that was from Mercedes themselves..Some dealerships will bend over backwards to help while others don’t give a stuff...
 
Thanks Jabberwocky for your solidarity and taking the time to read that ... They should be ashamed and try and improve from the feedback , I doubt it , the salesman asked me to rate them 5 stars even after the bad initial problems ... I amlooking forward to see if anything happens by way of a response as I continue to post articles Via Facebook Etc and press now about the truth of what’s happened to me . It should be illegal to get treated so badly having paid so much and waited so long to get things resolved .
Hope you get it sorted and that should take The nasty taste from your mouth..
 
Wow and I thought that Sinclairs in Cardiff was bad...This puts it on a whole new level..But you probably quite rightly from your experience praise Mercedes, I had a very bad experience with a new SLK and that was from Mercedes themselves..Some dealerships will bend over backwards to help while others don’t give a stuff...
Yes Peter , totally agree that so much of the brand experience rests with the dealer , that’s particularly why I am totally amazed that VW dont intervene and pull Eurovans up ... they have told me on the phone I’m not the first to complain about Eurovans...still I’m left with the problem.
Sorry to hear about your SLK experience, I just can’t understand why passionate or even normal good service is so hard for some companies .
I now think I’ve made two mistakes , one is getting any servicing done at a EuroVans , maybe I should not of bought there too , the other is not exposing them sooner . Clearly being nice doesn’t pay off.
 
Yes Peter , totally agree that so much of the brand experience rests with the dealer , that’s particularly why I am totally amazed that VW dont intervene and pull Eurovans up ... they have told me on the phone I’m not the first to complain about Eurovans...still I’m left with the problem.
Sorry to hear about your SLK experience, I just can’t understand why passionate or even normal good service is so hard for some companies .
I now think I’ve made two mistakes , one is getting any servicing done at a EuroVans , maybe I should not of bought there too , the other is not exposing them sooner . Clearly being nice doesn’t pay off.
When we bought our van from Sinclairs In Cardiff we negotiated a deal and a price and we were going on holiday the following day so couldn’t do anything until we got back and they said they would hold it for us. When we got home I emailed them and asked when we could come down and pick it up..They never got back so I phoned them and they told me that even though we had agreed on a price they couldn’t give me the discount they had already agreed blaming the salesman..I was hopping mad and then wrote a letter to the managing Director ..Within a few days they were in touch and then actually got the van for LESS than the price we agreed..The sales team there were absolutely useless and knew absolutely nothing about the California in fact I was having to tell them all about it..They didn’t even know the roof was Aluminium....Luckily we have a Sinclairs VW van centre in Gorseinon Swansea which we took it too for any warranty work..Like chalk and cheese....They were brilliant...
 
Thanks Jabberwocky for your solidarity and taking the time to read that ... They should be ashamed and try and improve from the feedback , I doubt it , the salesman asked me to rate them 5 stars even after the bad initial problems ... I amlooking forward to see if anything happens by way of a response as I continue to post articles Via Facebook Etc and press now about the truth of what’s happened to me . It should be illegal to get treated so badly having paid so much and waited so long to get things resolved .

You have had a terrible experience.

I bought my first van from them. After the first contact with the service department I went to SMG just down the road at Cowfold.

4 years later when I was trading in my first van I asked them about a trade in. They offered me a joke value, something that was so way out it was laughable. Other VW dealers offered 50% more than their quote and I essentially sold it privately for £14,000 more than they offered, which to me was an indication of their level of understanding of the difference between a California and a fleet van.
 
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Absolutely shocking customer service for any vehicle never mind
a 70k one, how much do you need to spend to get treated well?

The Cali must be the most expensive Vw model, it seems the people
you dealt with haven't realised it yet.
You have every right to have a rant.
 
You have had a terrible experience.

I bought my first can from them. After the first contact with the service department I went to SMG just down the road at Cowfold.

4 years later when I was trading in my first van I asked them about a trade in. They offered me a joke value, something that was so way out it was laughable. Other VW dealers offered 50% more than their quote and I essentially sold it privately for £14,000 more than they offered, which to me was an indication of their level of understanding of the difference between a California and a fleet van.
3 years ago when my van was 2 years old I was thinking about changing it as California prices hadn’t gone through the roof then. I asked Sinclairs how much they would give me against a new van...OMG. They offered me 28k for a trade in...I said are you sure that you got it right and he told me he was being generous...Needless to say I kept it and 3 years later it’s still worth £10k more than he offered..They are just used car conmen...
 
Although it wouldn't be fair, as you have every right to have your bill refunded, if I were you I'd look at it this way: for a 100€ you buy yourself out of having to deal with such horrible dealer. You buy yourself out of the problem and the stress related with it. You won't have to chase them anymore, or wait for them to never get back. You will never be treated so badly by them. You won't have to spend any more time writing or calling them or VW.
For just 100€ is a bargain. If they are so stupid to lose a customer for just 100€ , why on earth would you want to trust them with your expensive California?
Forget about them and the 100€. The Cali is a wonderful vehicle and to be associated with positive experiences and memories. For 100€ don't let them ruin it for you.
 
Good afternoon,

I am sorry to read about your bad experience with the VW dealer. I can imagine how it is to be treated like this.

Before the California I had a VW Tiguan bough by one VW dealer. As it turns out the sales and administration part was ok, but certainly not the technical service part.

I only had a few problems with the Tiguan, last one with the alloy rims, and of course after warranty. I started communications with VW Ireland and we came to some agreement. Dealer as such was not very helpful.

Because of this I changed to a different VW dealer, which actually is closer to me (they moved from kind of inner city Dublin closer to me).

The new VW dealer was (and is) on a different level. He looked after the Tiguan (and me) for another 2x years before we changed to the California. The customer service experience was very good.

I traded in the Tiguan and got the California from that dealer. After almost 3x years experience with them I can say that they understood that a California is not a vehicle like others (as well as their owners). They accept they need to spend more time and effort.

What I am trying to say is 1.) if you have no luck with the VW dealer continue to contact VW UK directly. I am sure there is in England such a thing as "small claims court". Using this might help to increase the pressure on VW (it helped with me). 2.) if the VW dealer does not look after you well, go to somebody else. Somebody who understands that a California is different.

I dare to say that VW is not much better or worse than other brands of cars, but it all depends on service. And customer / technical service is driven by the VW dealer management. As you said at the beginning things can go wrong, but it all depends how it is handled. Even a Rolls Royce can brake down...

I wish you the best of luck that your issue gets sorted soon and without further frustration.

Happy California
Eberhard
 
Good afternoon,

I am sorry to read about your bad experience with the VW dealer. I can imagine how it is to be treated like this.

Before the California I had a VW Tiguan bough by one VW dealer. As it turns out the sales and administration part was ok, but certainly not the technical service part.

I only had a few problems with the Tiguan, last one with the alloy rims, and of course after warranty. I started communications with VW Ireland and we came to some agreement. Dealer as such was not very helpful.

Because of this I changed to a different VW dealer, which actually is closer to me (they moved from kind of inner city Dublin closer to me).

The new VW dealer was (and is) on a different level. He looked after the Tiguan (and me) for another 2x years before we changed to the California. The customer service experience was very good.

I traded in the Tiguan and got the California from that dealer. After almost 3x years experience with them I can say that they understood that a California is not a vehicle like others (as well as their owners). They accept they need to spend more time and effort.

What I am trying to say is 1.) if you have no luck with the VW dealer continue to contact VW UK directly. I am sure there is in England such a thing as "small claims court". Using this might help to increase the pressure on VW (it helped with me). 2.) if the VW dealer does not look after you well, go to somebody else. Somebody who understands that a California is different.

I dare to say that VW is not much better or worse than other brands of cars, but it all depends on service. And customer / technical service is driven by the VW dealer management. As you said at the beginning things can go wrong, but it all depends how it is handled. Even a Rolls Royce can brake down...

I wish you the best of luck that your issue gets sorted soon and without further frustration.

Happy California
Eberhard
Hi Eberhard ,
I agree with what you say . I’ve found a good dealer in France where I spend a lot of time , it’s just the guarantee, I paid VW £800 to extend It too , I think 150,000 miles, so If I need to use it It’s my right , although the previous problem was under the first three years cover.
Thank you for your thoughts and wishes, I’m certainly going to use the Cali for one more year before I sell and buy in France.
 
Although it wouldn't be fair, as you have every right to have your bill refunded, if I were you I'd look at it this way: for a 100€ you buy yourself out of having to deal with such horrible dealer. You buy yourself out of the problem and the stress related with it. You won't have to chase them anymore, or wait for them to never get back. You will never be treated so badly by them. You won't have to spend any more time writing or calling them or VW.
For just 100€ is a bargain. If they are so stupid to lose a customer for just 100€ , why on earth would you want to trust them with your expensive California?
Forget about them and the 100€. The Cali is a wonderful vehicle and to be associated with positive experiences and memories. For 100€ don't let them ruin it for you.
Hi Calimili , it’s one way to look at it , although for me it’s not acceptable to allow. I agree of course I would never ever give them any more business and I urge all potential buyers to be well warned about JCB EuroVans
 
Absolutely shocking customer service for any vehicle never mind
a 70k one, how much do you need to spend to get treated well?

The Cali must be the most expensive Vw model, it seems the people
you dealt with haven't realised it yet.
You have every right to have a rant.
Thank you Westfalia for your support ..it’s with a lot of regret that I feel I have to rant , also now to make it a mission to warn others to make sure they don’t just get a good price but buy from a company whose service is known to be good . I’m going to continue to pursue this course of action and next week I continue by going on social media and also contacting various to follow my legal options up .
 
Thank you Westfalia for your support ..it’s with a lot of regret that I feel I have to rant , also now to make it a mission to warn others to make sure they don’t just get a good price but buy from a company whose service is known to be good . I’m going to continue to pursue this course of action and next week I continue by going on social media and also contacting various to follow my legal options up .
Do they have a Facebook presence? Post on there, repeatedly. They may try to delete so just repost. It can work, especially if you post in the evening when they are not reviewing their Facebook page.
 
Do they have a Facebook presence? Post on there, repeatedly. They may try to delete so just repost. It can work, especially if you post in the evening when they are not reviewing their Facebook page.
Hi Welsh Gas, Great tip thanks I will , I’m getting ready next week for a social media session .. also I’m going to post it on the VW Site . Although I totally think EuroVans is useless at customer service and obviously also with their organisation and even repairs like a puncture , I’ve gone through that loop now , over the last three years, and do accept it as just the reality . What I’m finding hard to understand is that VW agree my claim, agree that EuroVans are not responding , yet leave me as a VW customer in this predicament. I’m going to move up the ladder next week and try and find another solution , perhaps after I’ve posted on watchdog and the like they might stop saying there is nothing they can do EuroVans doesn’t respond to them either . It would be hard to make this up , if it was a customer service training course , used as an exercise on what to do , people would I think say it isn’t realistic .
 
Hi Welsh Gas, Great tip thanks I will , I’m getting ready next week for a social media session .. also I’m going to post it on the VW Site . Although I totally think EuroVans is useless at customer service and obviously also with their organisation and even repairs like a puncture , I’ve gone through that loop now , over the last three years, and do accept it as just the reality . What I’m finding hard to understand is that VW agree my claim, agree that EuroVans are not responding , yet leave me as a VW customer in this predicament. I’m going to move up the ladder next week and try and find another solution , perhaps after I’ve posted on watchdog and the like they might stop saying there is nothing they can do EuroVans doesn’t respond to them either . It would be hard to make this up , if it was a customer service training course , used as an exercise on what to do , people would I think say it isn’t realistic .

Very worthwhile posting on VW commercial FB site.

When I had a long drawn out problem going nowhere I posted on there and was supported by a few members of this forum (thank you @WelshGas ) and we managed to rattle the cage a little.

Do let us know when you are posting. I'm sure keeping it bumped up to the top may help focus minds.
 
Very worthwhile posting on VW commercial FB site.

When I had a long drawn out problem going nowhere I posted on there and was supported by a few members of this forum (thank you @WelshGas ) and we managed to rattle the cage a little.

Do let us know when you are posting. I'm sure keeping it bumped up to the top may help focus minds.
I also posted on my local dealers fb page when I had had poor experience. Next day the manager called me, followed up and since then we’ve had a much better relationship.
 
Hi everyone ,
I want you to know been very patient before making this post , I don’t believe in slagging companies off before giving lots of chances to make things right and in the real world things do go wrong but perhaps then judgement about fair and reasonable customer service can made on how a problem gets sorted .
I have a legitimate and agreed guarantee claim at this moment which , true to form from JCB , isn’t getting sorted and VW isn’t able to date to get them to resolve It , ie pay me the money owed . This Issue is the straw which has broken my camels back and caused me to write about the disaster JCB EuroVans In Crawley has been and is now. You’d be well advised never to buy anything from them . Given VWs HQs inability, even though they agree with the claim , to get EuroVans to respond I’d seriously think twice before buying another VW too, with my previous vehicle , a Mercedes , the service was nothing short of fabulous and I felt valued too.
The present issue relates to a very simple claim .
Last February and I think I posted about it at the time , my Gas regulator packed up . I was in Spain . In the end I got it changed by a very helpful VW garage in Ales France. They agreed it was faulty and did the video of it etc etc . The bill wasn’t outrageous, 50 odd euro for the part and about the same for labour, so 100 euro . I needed two trips there one to let them identify the problem, then they ordered the part and one a week later to get it changed .
The Cali being under its 3 year warranty I was advised to send the bill to the Uk garage which sold me the Cali , Eurovans . This I did . I also called to make sure they got it . I didn’t hear anything so after about a month I called again, they told me to resend it, which I did . I didn’t hear anything again so I repeated to process. This went on and on several more times . Eventually in July , some 5 months later I tried to track down who was really responsible in EuroVans and was told there is a new service manager , Gavin Hornby. I sent it to him , with the back up emails of the previous months . I had no response.
Really I couldn’t go on , especially as I’ve had a terrible set of previous service experiences at EuroVans , which I will highlight later . so I called VW commercial customer service and since about the beginning of August I’ve been talking regularly with Laura . In the beginning they too were unable to get in contact with anyone at EuroVans . They have recently managed to speak with someone, who promised to contact me , but I’ve had no contact. I’ve given it more time . But now it’s almost September. This fiasco , a simple agreed and valid claim , just has come to an end sometime. I’ve spent a huge amount of time politely following up and it’s got no where EuroVans and JCB over all the months haven’t once contacted me and even with VW on them they haven’t .
All this comes on top of a catastrophe catalogue of problems for me at EuroVans. All of which in the interest of being nice and patient and trusting I’ve kept silent on , but now I can’t any longer .
Here is my actual experiences at EuroVans over the last few years .
When I bought the van they got a number of things wrong. I bought a high spec 4wd 204 with around 10k of extras. They attempted to charge for extras which were included in various upgrades , I only found out by chance or I would of paid , lucky I was reading this club site for info . To get them to change to the right pricing I had to get VW to call , the salesman said they didn’t know. Make of that what you will remembering Eurovans have been there a long time.
When the van came bits I had ordered and confirmed in writing to be absolutely sure, these were not added, so I had to go back several times to get them sorted .
Then about a year in the water tap sensor stopped working a common problem for that model / year. I drove back again , having booked it in , the 90 min trip so they could look at it to order it as they wouldn’t believe me on the phone, the technical guy at the time , called Robin someone, he connected it up to the VW computer and said many things were wrong with the van and I’d have to leave it with them . That was ridiculous for me as everything else as far as I knew worked fine . I said how long he said it could be weeks, so I refused . I spoke with the then service manager and told him it was , like so many other VW vans had , a sensor problem, they don’t need to take apart the van , just order the sensor . He agreed to do it if I agreed to pay for it if it wasn’t that problem , as they couldn’t return it to VW if the old one wasn’t faulty . I said ok , I waited for it to come in and drove back again to have it changed. However I was told the part wasn’t there when I came back for the agreed appointment to have it fixed , 90 mins each way trip, day off again . So I went home , made a new date. Drove back again 90 return trip , waited and they simply changed it and everything worked, so it was just the tap sensor.
At the end of 2018 I booked the van in for its first service. I confirmed it many times, also on the list a few niggles to be looked at , like the trim coming off the sliding door, another common problem.
I rang again before taking it there and to be sure that they had time and confirmed again , this time agreed to leave it 48 hours , so they could get it all done with no issues and come back and pick it up , unfortunately I got a puncture going there and the AA changed the wheel for me , it was a different tread because the spare was a summer tyre and I had winter tyres fitted . I asked VW to fix that puncture during the two days they had the Cali .
When I came to collect the Cali, two days later , they said the service was done and they couldn’t find a puncture, so they had just reinflated the tyre and it was fine . They had put the tyre onto the spare wheel hold and left me with 3 winter tyres and one summer tyre to drive on . I said this was unacceptable and asked them to put back the winter tyre, so I had a matching set. Whilst doing this to check again for a slow puncture, like we did the old fashioned way , soap and water in the tyre. They did this and sure enough there were the bubbles . So they looked more closely and found a broken nail deep in the tread . So they repaired it and changed it over, so I had a proper set.
I thought that was the end of that and as I had booked an afternoon crossing to France I was ready to go ...Van was taken to front of garage ... my wife and I were just about to get in and the service manager came running out to tell me in fact NONE of the service had been done in the 48 hours . Just the niggle items. So we had to make an on the spot decision to rebook another time for services and be late with the service or ask for it to be done then and cancel our crossing that afternoon to France . We had the service done there and then.

So this is a taste of my experience of VW and JCB Eurovans Crawley , it’s doesn’t include the loads of calls etc to sort things there but gives the bones of my terrible VW customer experience , which hasn’t changed over the last three years , whilst I’ve tried to be understanding and have patience this time I’ve lost it now . Don’t let’s think Covid is responsible for this latest fiasco too , nearly 6 months trying to get a simple bit of admin sorted , it’s just more of the same at JCB EuroVans . In my own business we’ve had the phones and emails manned 100% of the time , so our clients don’t suffer. I’ve to date still not had one response from JCB EuroVans.

I come from a corporate management background and have deep and wide experience in both large and small businesses , Ive also been a senior lecturer in business strategy and marketing and finance for major universities . So I think I’m qualified to say my VW customer experience is a genuine customer catastrophe, I say that as the person at the receiving end and standing back as a business man and someone whose taught business at MBA level .

In my opinion and based on my real experiences JCB group and EuroVans should be avoided , you’d be wise not to buy anything there , clearly there is a serious problem and it’s no good blaming individuals, this normally is a culture problem coming from the top . Indeed VW must carry some blame here , from again personal experience the service is wholly lacking compared to Mercedes ...../VW just don’t seem to appreciate whilst they do update me to tell me that JCB EuroVans is difficult for them to sort out , that’s it’s me , a VW customer , suffering because I have a VW guarantee on a VW product and they should take care of me first , especially as they agree with me this claim is legitimate, they should sort out their problem with their dealership and not use me as the pawn in between.

I just had to vent all this , hope it does some good somewhere ?? Certainly feels better to share it with friends , although I don’t know where it will all go now, maybe next time I’d better buy another make of camper ? Mercedes?

Best Wishes

I think this is standard with Vw dealerships. I have used SMG OF Cowfold not very good complete lack of interest. Recently I had to write a long email of complaint. Eventually they responded and dealt with the matter. I have been back two weeks from France. On the way home a deer threw itself at the van. The van was taken to Brive we sat in the van 40deg my wife is disabled plus German Shepherd. Don’t give a monkeys. ten days to get parts and repair, Also tyre punctured getting onto the tow truck they tried to get me buy two tyre which which they would fit next day. Then told me to get money from the insurance because I’d have to stay. So that’s the edited version problem not unique to Uk. I am about post the rest of the problem relating to the insurance company
 
I think this is standard with Vw dealerships. I have used SMG OF Cowfold not very good complete lack of interest. Recently I had to write a long email of complaint. Eventually they responded and dealt with the matter. I have been back two weeks from France. On the way home a deer threw itself at the van. The van was taken to Brive we sat in the van 40deg my wife is disabled plus German Shepherd. Don’t give a monkeys. ten days to get parts and repair, Also tyre punctured getting onto the tow truck they tried to get me buy two tyre which which they would fit next day. Then told me to get money from the insurance because I’d have to stay. So that’s the edited version problem not unique to Uk. I am about post the rest of the problem relating to the insurance company
Hi @Skyflier, very sorry to hear of your experience. From the above I’m not sure how much is related to the dealer and how much due to recovery or insurance.
Pleased to hear you are also posting in the relevant threads as well.
 

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