Kings Volkswagen

Met salesman at noon n a Tuesday. We were looking for a car for my daughters 16th birthday. Started to work a deal through email and phone calls because I had to get back to work. Woke up Wed morning wit car for my daughters 16th birthday. Started to work a deal through email and phone calls because I had to get back to work. Woke up Wed morning with a few additional questions and by noon the car was sold out from underneath us. No warning, no call, no offer to put a deposit on the vehicle.....nothing. Never again! More

UPDATE, 6/6: Scott Stockwell, the dealership manager, took the time to reach out to me through this service. He took the time to listen to and understand the problem I had. While he was unable to do anyt took the time to reach out to me through this service. He took the time to listen to and understand the problem I had. While he was unable to do anything with regard to the battery, he is attempting to make it right by offering 2 free oil changes at the dealership. In my opinion, this shows great character and a measure of pride in how his dealership is perceived. I still cannot speak to the level of service just yet, but I can pretty confidently change my Customer Service rating from 'Bad' to 'Good'. It's nice when someone genuinely takes the interest and follows through with fixing a problem. Even if the results are not exactly what you might expect, there is a lot to be said about the effort being put forth ___ In the interest of being completely fair and transparent, I did not buy my vehicle from this dealership. I simply went to them because I've recently moved and figured they would handle any warranty work I might need to have done. The saga starts with my battery being discharged in the lot at work about a month ago. Flash forward 3 jump starts and a mechanic's diagnostic later, I call the Kings VW dealership to see if they would handle doing the work to change the battery. After all, my car has 26K miles on it; it's a fair assumption this should be covered under warranty. I explain to the girl what happened and she says at two different times...one of them being after checking with her manager..that this work 'should' be covered. When I get there, they begin getting me checked in and and proceed to tell me it's going to be $322.64 because the battery is only covered up to 24K miles. They give me the number to VW Customer Care and I call, explaining my case. They say they are going to look into it and get back to me. A day later, both they and the dealer called me. I called the service dept manager (Gary) first and that's when he proceeds to tell me they've checked everything and found "the dome light switch was on and that's probably what did it because everything else checks out fine." He says (paraphrasing) that it wouldn't be covered under warranty because it's basically my fault, so a 'goodwill gesture' is not in order for VW. There are three problems with this. 1. If you are familiar with a Golf, both dome lights are pretty fairly bright. In fact, I'd posit that it's near impossible for one to drive as it's getting dark with the dome light on and not notice it. 2. This was the back dome light. It takes a little bit of effort to actually flip that switch. You'd have to be sitting in the back seat to do so. And I have no passengers, neither during the day nor the evening when it would make sense to have to turn it on. 3. I've had the car jumped three times. And out of those three times, one of the guys came from an auto repair shop. He offered to test the battery and do a diagnostic for free. I took him up on that before I went to the King's (and frankly would have kept my car there had the girl I spoke with in the service department not said the battery "should" be covered under warranty). At some point, between those three different people and the guy who initially checked, you would think at least one of them would have been able to tell me that the dome light was on. It is not my intent to say that Gary was lying. I'm sure he simply reported back to me what he saw and drew a conclusion from that. This is fine. But I'm confident that this was not the cause of the problem. Adding insult to injury, Gary told me it would cost $323.64 to have the battery replaced. I am not a mechanic by any means, but I am also not completely unknowledgable about cars. I have changed a battery in a car before. I have also had a battery changed out through service on a previous vehicle and the cost was nowhere near that amount. Further, when I expressed I did not feel this was right and was going to take the vehicle elsewhere to have this service completed, Gary proceeded to say the following exact words: "Oh wow...." When I questioned why he said that, he stated he didn't think it was right I do this, that his service department took the time to do the diagnostic, that they were the ones who found the problem, and he felt they should be allowed to do the work. While I am sure he meant nothing by it, it came off in a very unprofessional way. If he was disappointed, he shouldn't have said anything at all. As a professional, as a person, it's shameful to expect someone to pay such an exorbitant amount for such a trivial service. Again, my car is still under warranty with 26K miles on it. Diagnostics like this should easily be covered and expected. As it were, I took it back to the place that did the initial check....the place that did not have a problem checking my car for free...and they completed the exact same work King's would have done for a grand total of $146.00. In the end, I lost almost 3 days without my car. I had to pay for a rental car. And I paid for something I can almost guarantee was a simple battery failure. I could have avoided this if the girl at King's wouldn't have told me the work 'should' be covered under warranty. I have my car back and it is running fine. But I am left with a bad taste in my mouth, and I most certainly would not recommend having my car serviced at King's. More

This Routan has been a lemon since we purchased - would not recommend the car or this dealership . . . avoid at all cost . . . going to Honda as soon as possible . . . not recommend the car or this dealership . . . avoid at all cost . . . going to Honda as soon as possible . . . More