Heating doesn't work at low revs

[Carl Sberglager]

Mrs S has been to the dealer today, heating will only kick in when engine revved up. Dealer can't fix, seen it on another car and contacting Volvo for guidance.

[Dutchbird]

We wish you all the luck waiting for guidance from Volvo UK .

As they say we are still waiting for "guidance" since we first reported our tyre noise and other various problems in August 2015.

Volvo UK's attitude is dismissive towards the customers .

When your car goes for warranty work to the Volvo garage (again) ,you should receive a payment say of £ 50 for your time wasted, the extra mileage on the car and a general punitive inconvenience payment. This might wake them up to supply a satisfactory product.

MY16 XC90 D5 P* Inscription & MY15 S60 D4 P* SE Lux Geartronic

[cheshired5]

If both heater pipes in the bay are too hot to hold, sounds like a circulation problem.

Surely not the water pump on such a new car?
How is your coolant? Crystal clear and clean?

[Dutchbird]

When your car goes for warranty work to the Volvo garage (again) ,you should receive a payment say of £ 50 for your time wasted, the extra mileage on the car and a general punitive inconvenience payment. This might wake them up to supply a satisfactory product. -quote-

As Volvo cars would like to be premium brand they have a lot to learn from other companies who are "premium" such as the John Lewis / Waitrose brand. Although they are both excellent with their products ,their customer service is an example for other companies to envey . Their price matching is unparalleled and they are never undersold on price. But should their service fall down for any reason ,even if it is beyond their control ,they will give their valued customer a money voucher for the inconvenience it has caused.

The car manufactures and dealers can learn from the JL group ethos. Why should you when you buy a new "premium" Volvo and you have to go ping ponging back and forth to the dealer for warranty be out of pocket. The faults with the car are soley caused by the manufacture and/ or by the dealer, not my problem , engines Chief!! so why should the customer have to pay the price to correct the problems, very one sided deal.

You have normally take time off from work , drive to the garage and put extra miles on the car and fuel wasted etc..... Therefore why should the customer pay for this as you have already paid for the car. The car customer has too long been steamrolled by the motor industry and they have made the rules up as they went along, the customer has minimum rights when you have problems with the car. It is normally hidden in the small print anyway.

My bug bear is ,that your contract is with the dealer and not with Volvo UK who then basically have minimum responsability towards the car. The stock answer from Volvo customer service is " speak to the dealer" When you go to the dealer with a quiry he then has to contact customer service , who then go back to the dealer ,who if you are lucky will contact you.

When you buy a premium ,say a German Gutersloh made washing machine ,and once again from the JL group and something unfortunatly goes wrong ( which is seldom) you contact the UK based washing machine company who will sort out your problem. You do not go back where you purchased from.

The days of buying cars from the dealer are coming to an end, you will buy your car on the internet direct from the factory . All payments can also be handeld this way. In todays age of technologie why still have a dealer, who takes his/her cut of the profits , most people have done their homework before they go to the dealer and know exactly what they want as specifications for their car. In most cases all the dealer actually does is fill in the binding contract with you , easy work if you can get it. The dealers will be downgraded to car servicing and warranty work.
The one sided binding contract goes as far as that the manufacture can legaly change your spec colour and other options and you will have a difficult case to right as it is in small print once again. The VW scandal has shown how powerfull the manufactures are , if they can ride shot gun over goverments what chance does the car owner stand !,

Any opinions on the subject , please do discuss !


MY16 XC90 D5 P* Inscription & MY15 S60 D4 P* SE Lux Geartronic[/QUOTE]

[Walter Eagle]

Hi Dutchbird

I think some of the relationship with a dealer can be manipulated using a carrot rather than stick.

With respect to sourcing of vehicles I'm in what you might consider an even worse situation. I'm about to take delivery this week of an XC90 and my contract is neither with a dealer nor with Volvo UK, but with a lease company. The lease company have chosen to funnel all their Volvo procurement through one dealer who is about 200 miles from my local dealer. So, if something goes wrong, what do I do? Approach the lease company? They'll say contact your local dealer etc. But my local dealer has no previous knowledge of me and has earned nothing from the transaction so far. Where's the incentive for him to make any effort? OK, that's all my responsibility for going via that line of acquiring the vehicle.

However that's exactly the same approach I took with my current, soon-to-be-replaced, Audi. And I got excellent service out of the Audi dealer. It's all to do with psychology and building a relationship.

First of all, don't blame the dealer for what are clearly design faults. He didn't design the car and probably hates it when supposedly competent automotive design engineers at Audi/Volvo/BMW etc get things quite so wrong.

Second, make sure you're round on the same side of the table as your dealer and apply lots of "we's" and "us" - not "you". "OK, so we can both see this is an issue. How do you think we should best resolve it? What's the most effective way for us to get a satisfactory result here?" Yes, it sounds fake when you read it here but, believe me, it works. You need to have him on your side in any battle, not to be another enemy to be conquered.

I also make a real point of praising the dealer for every little good thing they do. Pat them on the head and say "Good boy". Yes, I wrote emails to the Audi service manager about how prompt their booking system was, how nice their receptionist was, how tasty the cup of coffee was, how well cleaned my car was after a service. I want him to think of me as a nice desirable customer. At one point he even asked if he could quote some of my words in an Audi staff journal! Of course you can. Once my name's in there, you daren't ever treat me as less than a God among your service team.

I'm not defending the customer service standards of all car dealers. But one can either take the approach that good customer service is entirely the dealer's responsibility, or that the customer themselves can do something to push the performance slightly higher along the distribution curve.

Be nice to your local dealer in 2016 - there's a challenging New Year Resolution!