Dealer service stories
 

As Volvo sells more and more cars so their dealers service quality drops.
Let’s share some franchises dealer horror stories here.

Their experience has always been average in my experience it's not peaked or dipped, just as expected. What do you expect from a dealer?

Here is mine.
Dirty hand prints on interior and key leather and grease on carpets, occasional paint chip is something I kind of accepted as price of owning a Volvo but they really got to me this time.
My car came from service yesterday. Everything done, everything fine according to them.
Not quite - didn’t bother with broken vent that I asked to fix and is listed on job list - oh yes we had to order that. No need to tell me.
The software that I double checked with you, you would upgrade was not done. Ironically I did get a little brochure with my invoice showing how much gets updated with volvo software update. Are you sure we did do it. Yes - no stopstart icon on dash. After 10min - Oh yes your car doesn’t talk to computer, most likely has a faulty ODB unit. It’s out of warranty isn’t it? (Waiting... will the customer change his mind and move on) No, it’s extended so you can go and fix it but you didn’t think telling me was important? You think a main dealer service without checking for error codes is ok? Mumble, apology, mumble.
I told them I think mechanic is making an excuse as I had the same experience last year but I wouldn’t put it past them to replace some unit just to save their face though not checking error codes is precious.
Makes you wonder what else they claim to do but don’t bother with. Filters, oil?

Presumably you'll also be happy to hear about good experiences on this same post to give a balanced view, rather than just the negatives?....

Find another dealer. I have had some shocking ones in the past. My current dealer is great and always happy to work with me in an honest way.

Indeed. My positive goes to Riverside Doncaster and their master tech Mick.

I suspect that there are good dealers and not-so-good dealers out there.

Other than one or two minor errors - not stamping the service book on one occasion, TPMS not being reset, again on one occasion, I can honestly say I have nothing but good and sometimes excellent service experience from my dealer whom has had my custom for the past 20+ years.

Deman77, if I had your recent experience i would be sitting down with the dealer service manager to discuss the problems and my expectations. If service didn't improve after that I would find another dealer - they aren't all bad.

Can't fault Ray Chapman in York, best car dealership I have ever encountered, a far more personable service than I've ever had from previous Audi and BMW dealerships. They have really looked after me.

:wq

Since Volvo started to use a 3rd part company to gather feedback after customers had their car serviced I find the whole service experience has vastly improved from what it used to be.
My dealer now send out their own feedback survey before the Volvo one gets to you and then acts on anything you are not happy with very promptly.

One bad service I received years ago on my V90 (the original V90 real estate car) and although I booking my car in two weeks in advance, it was a service that required the aux drive belt replaced, when I picked my car up they told me "all done But we did not change the belt as we did not have one in stock" "we will knock £30 off the price (the cost of the belt).
I told them it is a requirement of the service interval and they had two weeks notice to get parts in and I wanted it replaced, it required me to rebook the car in at a later date to get the belt fitted and and after they fitted it the car was making a grinding noise, which required me to take it back again, they told me they could not find anything wrong with it, I took it straight to an indipendant Volvo garage and they told me the alternator bearing was making the noise and was due to too much tension on the drive belt, they adjusted the belt and the noise stopped.
Onother time I booked in for a service before taking it for the MOT, it failed the MOT on suspension mounting rubbers, the service paperwork had a tick in the box to say suspension checked and ok. When questioned the service manager just shrugged and said it was ok when we carried out the service, (the day before). When I picked the car up from the MOT centre they had left it on the ramp, the tech said we have left it on the ramp to show you the mountings, they need attension asap, they were bad.
Then my dealership had the worst customer service I have ever experience, at the time.
Totally different now though. They replaced the whole crew. But now the dealership has just been taken over but happy to say so far the new head tech, and staff have been great.

That is really shocking to hear . Volvo dealers are heavily monitored for service quality and you should get a customer quality/satisfaction survey and a call to make you sure you are happy with your experience . Volvo have dealer regional and national league tables too so they are well aware of how their dealers are doing .. and who is at the top and who is at the bottom . It isn't the dealer , what you have is one person who has failed in his duties , is he a new employee or an inexperienced one ? , It is the one that actually looked after your car , who has done a very poor job and it needs sorting out . ok one error can be forgivable but not multiple ones .. It would be interesting to find out who actually did the job .. they are probably in the job only for the money and are taking the shortest time to earn the highest amount of money . some must be down to volvo too for cutting the time for a service on some models down to less than an hour , It's impossible ...
There is also another weakness , Communication between technician and the front desk who are not technical at all ! ask to speak to the person who did your job it might enlighten the situation . I have faith that you oil and filter was changed properly however ...:teeth_smile: