Reason for Visit: Service
I recommend this dealer: No
My Review of Haltermans Auto Ranch:
I am writing to let you know about the service I did not receive from your VW dealership when it was needed the most.
It was June 30 and my family and I were on a trip from Canada to New Jersey. One hour south of Courtland, NY I noticed the battery light go on and pulled into a rest stop. I found that my alternator belt had prematurely split and I did not have spare part to fix the problems. I called AAA to find the closest VW dealership and repair center for. The closest dealership Halterman’s East Stroudsburg, PA , 30 km from where we were.
Running on only battery power to keep the engine functioning we made it to Halterman’s. I dropped of the car and took the family to lunch. An alternator belt job is simple and easy to do. To my surprise I received a phone call within the hour and was told they were not able to do the repair on the split alternator belt. The reason was the technician was afraid of breaking “something” as “something” was too tight. The “something” that were too tight were never clarified to me. I tried to get clarification but was not allowed to speak to the technician by the customer service representative. I did tell to the service representative to do whatever they could do to fix the situation, even if meant risking causing some damage but to no avail.
Stuck in the middle of nowhere, 100km (60 miles) away from our destination and more than 700km from home, we were not given any other alternative except to drive as far as you can and hope for the best. That was not an answer I was expecting from a VW repair facility and especially given to someone who is a complete stranger to the area and country and traveling with young children. The customer service representative was fully informed of our situation (the family was there with me). We were given no other alternatives, no help in calling for a tow to our destination and no suggestion of a rental car.
My car plate is from Ontario, Canada. I stopped at Halterman’s around 12h50 (according to my GPS) and the paper tag that I saw on the paper work was 160 or some combination of those three numbers. With this information you can verify that I was there at the Halterman VW Service Center on June 30, 2006.
We moved the car from Halterman’s running on only battery power and stopped at the closest shopping center, 200 yards away where we just had our pizza lunch. In that parking lot with the hood up, I tried to figure out what do while waiting for AAA, when an absolute stranger approached us. He mentioned that an auto parts store was around the corner in what looked to me to be a dead end. If I went to get the belt he would help me attached a new alternator belt after he had gone for lunch. In less than two hours, under the hot sun and with a rudimentary metric tool kit we were able to accomplish what Halterman’s VW Service center refused to do. We removed the alternator completely, loosened up the compressor mount, slipped on the new alternator belt, tightened up the compressor, returned the alternator and tightened up that belt. Amazing and this was done without any power tools.
If it were not for the kindness of the stranger (who has only ever worked on domestic cars when he had to repair his car) our entire trip to the United States would have ended before it started. I have a fantastic picture of the two of us with are arms black to the elbows working on my VW car. Being from north of the border I have little experience with Americans. What this guy did was beyond my wildest dreams and totally renewed my view of decent Americans that the Halterman VW Service Center had just destroyed.
I have lost faith in VW as there is no repair support for them. After having owned three, the next one will not be another VW as VW cannot even fix a simple alternator belt.
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