Volvo Oncall "roadside assistance" - what a joke

[jonnyu]

I have a new XC60 from dec 2019 and yesterday while my car was parked on the building's garage, it was affected by the smoke and heat from a fire that broke out on other 5 cars, 15m away from my car.
So I called the roadside assistance to have the car towed to a Volvo center since I cannot start my car due to the debris of the fumes inside the ventilation system and I also don't know if there are damages due to the heat to any rubbers or electronic systems.

So I contacted the Volvo Oncall roadside assistance. They accepted the service and were supposed to tow my car the morning after.
The police did not allow us to access our cars in the morning so I called to postpone the service.
To my surprise, they said on this second call that they couldn't do the service due to the origin of the accident: a fire.
So why did they accept it in the first place? If they made a mistake, they should have own it and offer the service to the customer.
I'm a bit disappointed with this low-end service from Volvo. This does not happen on other premium brands.

Each time I contacted the Volvo assistance, they put me on hold to check with their supervisor and after 2h spent on several calls, I was told I had no right to a replacement car neither a towing service.
It seems they are on a tight budget and need to save all the pennies.

To be very honest this makes me look again to the brand with some skepticism and after seeing some negative reviews due to lack of reliability of XC90 SUVs, I'm not sure if I will be a returning customer.

[The Thong]

Is the car actually damaged therefore becomes the ward of the insurance?

[Austin160]

I would guess that Volvo on Call are acting on your plea for assistance in a manner which protects this services’ employees.- which they would have a duty to do, particularly in view of the Police restricting access to the vehicle - probably due to unknown effects on certain materials used in the car’s construction.
I’m not sure what you will be expecting V on C to do in this case, where the vehicle is not affected by any manufacturing issues.
To me, I’m with Thong, and would have thought that this really comes under the heading of a potential insurance claim, and it’s recovery (to where?) becomes their responsibility. Of course, adopting this route could lead to an increase in premium even if you don’t actually claim eventually - you will still have notified them of an ‘incident/ potential claim’.
I guess you reserve the option to pay to have this recovered by an independent transporter of your choice and claiming off the originators of the fire - but again that would be a claim.
Volvo on Call behavior unjustified and unreasonable?

[Welton]

Totally unfair to criticise Volvo on Call in these circumstances.

You can't send a recovery man into what could be a crime scene and expose him to harmful substances.

The car will be moved/recovered as and when the Police say so - and then either by them or your insurance company - you didn't 'break down' and need their assistance.

If they did 'accept' the job in the first instance this was probably a misunderstanding due to the unusual nature of your request.

I wouldn't be surprised if they wrote the car off having been exposed to heat/smoke etc. you never know - you might do quite well out of the claim.

[jonnyu]

Originally Posted by Welton

Totally unfair to criticise Volvo on Call in these circumstances.

You can't send a recovery man into what could be a crime scene and expose him to harmful substances.

The car will be moved/recovered as and when the Police say so - and then either by them or your insurance company - you didn't 'break down' and need their assistance.

If they did 'accept' the job in the first instance this was probably a misunderstanding due to the unusual nature of your request.

I wouldn't be surprised if they wrote the car off having been exposed to heat/smoke etc. you never know - you might do quite well out of the claim.

I totally disagree with all of this statement.

First of all it was clear what happened in the first place. Not only the Roadside assistance was contacted by my insurance and had the context of the incident but also I had to again explain what happened. Not sure what is the part of "there was a fire in my garage and the car needs to be towed to a Volvo center" is not clear, which was what I explained in the first place.
For me, you cannot accept a service and deny it later. It just bad customer practice. If they made a mistake, they should own it.

Second regarding the harmful substances that would mean that all the cars involved in the incident would remain there forever which is basically stupid. To have the car towed in the same day or 2 or 3 days later for me it didn't matter.
The blockage from the police was something that I was notified after I requested the service. When I called the service the second time was to say please do not come because the area was still restricted by the police. It was on this second call that the service was withdrawn.

Thirdly, I have insurance that covers any situation like this, however I need to have a replacement car to go to work, something that my insurance didn't cover and therefore I contacted Volvo Oncall.

I wouldn't mind to have clearly stated on the first call that the service was not included. To have it accepted and then have it refused it's simply incompetence and reflects a bad customer service.

[roundyuk]

Did the car actually not start? Or did you phone them to say "I think there will be a problem due to possible crap in the intake system"?

In my mind I am wondering if even having a car 15m away from a fire is going to cause that much of an issue to it? I mean, fumes and debris are going to find it quite hard to get up under the bonnet, into the air intake and then into the engine - that's kind of why they have air filters.

If you can't actually start it, then yeah VoC should come collect. If you're worried to start her up because of potential issues then that isn't their remit.

[Craigtange]

Originally Posted by jonnyu

I have a new XC60 from dec 2019 and yesterday while my car was parked on the building's garage, it was affected by the smoke and heat from a fire that broke out on other 5 cars, 15m away from my car.
So I called the roadside assistance to have the car towed to a Volvo center since I cannot start my car due to the debris of the fumes inside the ventilation system and I also don't know if there are damages due to the heat to any rubbers or electronic systems.

So I contacted the Volvo Oncall roadside assistance. They accepted the service and were supposed to tow my car to Roadside assistance the morning after.
The police did not allow us to access our cars in the morning so I called to postpone the service.
To my surprise, they said on this second call that they couldn't do the service due to the origin of the accident: a fire.
So why did they accept it in the first place? If they made a mistake, they should have own it and offer the service to the customer.
I'm a bit disappointed with this low-end service from Volvo. This does not happen on other premium brands.

Each time I contacted the Volvo assistance, they put me on hold to check with their supervisor and after 2h spent on several calls, I was told I had no right to a replacement car neither a towing service.
It seems they are on a tight budget and need to save all the pennies.

To be very honest this makes me look again to the brand with some skepticism and after seeing some negative reviews due to lack of reliability of XC90 SUVs, I'm not sure if I will be a returning customer.

I cannot start up my car and it's in my parking lot in Espoo now. I need to take it to a nearby workshop, but the prices of towing service are ridiculous. Alppilan Autokuljetus wants 120e and Falck 160e. Anyone knows a cheaper option than that? It's a 6km ride... (none of my friends is available for manual towing at the moment). Thanks everyone.

[Tannaton]

I used VOC once on a XC60 when the clutch salve cylinder went. They were there in 40 mins, diagnosed in 5 mins, local dealer collected it 20 mins later, but 1.5 hr wait whilst the hire company sorted a car.

[george57l]

Just to note that whatever the rights and wrongs of this case, Volvo Assistance in the UK, at least, is a standard roadside assistance insurance policy, underwritten and administered by Allianz UK - an insurance company.
It may have Volvo's brand on it, and Volvo may have some moral responsibility as to the service and coverage, but at the end of the day if you have UK Volvo Assistance it's because you took out an insurance contract with Allianz UK.

[Forg]

Originally Posted by george57l

Just to note that whatever the rights and wrongs of this case, Volvo Assistance in the UK, at least, is a standard roadside assistance insurance policy, underwritten and administered by Allianz UK - an insurance company.
It may have Volvo's brand on it, and Volvo may have some moral responsibility as to the service and coverage, but at the end of the day if you have UK Volvo Assistance it's because you took out an insurance contract with Allianz UK.

It's the same deal with an extended warranty.

Volvo's only real interest is in "looking bad" if you have a valid reason for claiming on whatever-service-it-is, and it's denied. But in real terms, they're just selling you that subscription/policy/service and it's the service-provider who has all the responsibility for it.

They can't deny you something you're entitled to, unless there's some fine-print that says they can ... if the fine-print exists then that's kinda the buyer's fault for not checking the fine-print with the full knowledge that any extras attached to the purchase of a car are most-likely a scam & have been for decades, if there is no such fine-print then you've got good reason to take them to whatever ombudsman is relevant in the situation.