Mod Friendly VW Dealers

[Tuna]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't the service advisors paid less commission and the techs book rate is decreased when warrantying? So I'm not sure why companies (or at least the employees that work for them) would necessarily WANT to do warranty work as POPP said.

Kudos to 100%VAGitarian for trying to get it warrantied and I'm sure there are a ton of techs that would do that, but I don't really think it's in their best interest as there is more chance for them to be over on time (again, word of mouth thing aside).

I've only had a newish VW recently but I purchased and have been getting it maintained at 5th ave and have no complaints. They fixed something under warranty that they could have tried to charge me for.

[resolute]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

Well, best wishes to all of you working to turn Northland around. Unfortunately, I haven't experienced it because I resolved some years ago never to go back. This after purchasing three new cars and one used one there over the years, mainly because I live close by. It was the service department that gradually turned me off with ridiculous appointment wait times and poor quality. But the last straw was in 2008 when I was in the market for a new MkV, but the sales dept was full of clowns and I was treated like dirt. I ended up purchasing a used car there, because it was something I wanted, but even the used car salesman earned the reputation those guys get. I wanted them to change the oil before delivery of my used car, because I found out it had been sitting on the lot for a year, but was told by service "we don't do just oil changes" and I had to get the manager (another sleazy experience I won't go into) to intervene. I bought my new MkV from 5th Ave and have never looked back, taking all three VWs there since. 5th Ave were excellent with CPO warranty work on the used VW I got from Northland.

I must admit, when I need an oil filter I run over to NL because I am not going to cross town to save $1 on a $12 part. But even then, its a joke. They can't take your payment at the parts counter. You have to go find the receptionist behind you, who inevitably is away from her desk or on the phone or can't make change. And by the way, I always comparison shop the dealers when I need a part, and NL has consistently higher prices for parts.

Wow, I'm all worked up. I'd better stop this rant now.

[Stonewall]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

I always comparison shop the dealers when I need a part, and NL has consistently higher prices for parts.

I have heard that Calgary has some of the highest VW parts costs (from dealers) and that Northlands is one of the highest in the country. I guess each dealership can add their own markup to parts costs. I had the glowplug recall done on my golf a while back and they ended up doing a bunch of other recalls that was a nice plus. The service guy didn't dick me around since after a short conversation I believe he figured I knew a lot about VW's. As for buying a car there..... lol haha never ever ever go there again. The wife stood around the show room for an hour wanting to look at the new van and not one person approached her. When I finally got there we left in disgust.

[popp]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't the service advisors paid less commission and the techs book rate is decreased when warrantying? So I'm not sure why companies (or at least the employees that work for them) would necessarily WANT to do warranty work as POPP said.

80% of something is better then 100% of nothing.......
-Advisors typically get paid on all of service (warranty, customer pay, internal etc) plus most dealerships have a "quota" if you will for warranty work and get a kick back so at the end of the day the service dept still gets paid for warranty work in one way or another.
- techs do of course get screwed on warranty times like you said however it all evens out. For example: a warranty front break job pays a tech 1.2hrs and customer pay is 1.5hrs. So yes the tech gets .3hrs less on a warranty job, but it typically takes a good tech .5-.8 to do a front break job, so he's still up. Also it's the dispatchers job to make sure a tech doesn't pull back to back warranty jobs and in a typical week, a tech will do far more customer pay jobs then warranty jobs so its really not a big deal.

Popp, I commend you for changing that place around. Perhaps you should check this thread out and mention your work at hand:

http://forums.beyond.ca/st2/northlan...48#post3404848

Thanks, but no thanks. That was in 2010. I'm not to concerned about the damage that was done 3 years ago. New staff, better customer service from now on. 5 months ago our customer survey reports were in the 56% range which is unexceptable! Today we were sitting at 93.4%! I'm not a rocket scientist, but I'd say the customer reviews as of late are pretty damn good which proves that we are doing something right.

They haven't done anything to bring my business back. Best of luck northland but someone cant just walk in flip a switch and 2 weeks later service is better. Sales are great but service sucks plain and simple

I flipped a switch on your mom, and boy does she like her service. Everyone, like your mom is entitled to their opinion, but its pretty ignorant to say that nothing in changed without trying it out.

Let me break it down for you:

In the past 5 months, we've replaced the Service manger who actually cares about customers, 5 out of 6 service advisors, 8 out of the 15 techs, cashier, receptionist, and appointment co-ordinater. That's well over 70% of the service department! So your statement is both ignorant and assanine saying that nothing has changed or can change. "They have done nothing to bring your business back"...... Did they service your car via the Interweb for you to magically know what they are capable of today?


At the end of the day it is ultimately your chioce as the consumer to take your business where your confortable, but please don't judge any business from an experience you might have had 5 years ago. I know I'm not the same person in my business experience and in my personal life as I was 5 years ago, and neither are any of you. Same goes for any business. They are always trying to better themselves to gain more clients and add to the bottom line. It is bad business practice to have bad customer service in a customer service driven business and this is why change is needed. I will not kid myself in thinking that NLVW is perfect in any way and like any business, there will always be mistakes made, and lessons learned, but I can also tell you horror stories about every dealership in Calgary, including the ones you believe can't do any wrong......

P.S. we installed H&R coilovers on a mk4 Jetta today and a wheel alignment. So we are not afraid of aftermarket parts nor will we turn it away. Sorry, had to throw a plug in my rant haha.

[Canadian_R]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

Popp, what's your position at Northland? Advisor? Tech? Manager?

Glad to hear there's been changes to the service dept. at Northland; changes were desperately needed...

All the dealerships get paid for warranty work by VW Canada, so the 'mod friendly' factor is not really up to the individual delearships. If a delaership is too liberal with warranty work, I'm sure VW Canada will straighten them out (ie. not pay them).

The only 'mod friendly dealerships' I know of are Toyota dealerships, but that's only because Toyota sells warranty friendly mods (ie. TRD superchargers).

[Kg810]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

Thanks, but no thanks. That was in 2010. I'm not to concerned about the damage that was done 3 years ago. New staff, better customer service from now on. 5 months ago our customer survey reports were in the 56% range which is unexceptable! Today we were sitting at 93.4%! I'm not a rocket scientist, but I'd say the customer reviews as of late are pretty damn good which proves that we are doing something right.

Um wat?

He wasn't questioning whether or not you guys are doing something right, he believes in what you've said and suggested you mention it to people on Beyond. If you take a second look at this thread you'd notice that no one was recommending Northland until you chimed in informing us that things have changed. How are people supposed to know that things have changed or that you guys are now sitting at a 93.4% customer satisfaction rate? If you hadn't said anything, none of us would have known that and continued to tell people to stay away from Northland.

You have the ability to spread the word about the new staff and changes, but you refuse to do so because you don't care what was done 3 years ago? So are people supposed to magically find out that Northland is worthy of bringing their cars to now?

[flipstah]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

Um wat?

He wasn't questioning whether or not you guys are doing something right, he believes in what you've said and suggested you mention it to people on Beyond. If you take a second look at this thread you'd notice that no one was recommending Northland until you chimed in informing us that things have changed. How are people supposed to know that things have changed or that you guys are now sitting at a 93.4% customer satisfaction rate? If you hadn't said anything, none of us would have known that and continued to tell people to stay away from Northland.

You have the ability to spread the word about the new staff and changes, but you refuse to do so because you don't care what was done 3 years ago? So are people supposed to magically find out that Northland is worthy of bringing their cars to now?

QFT. I applauded your work and wanted to give you an opportunity to defend your work and how you're turning things around.

I hope this was a misunderstanding because apathy won't help people bring your reputation back, even up to status quo.

[Hardy_Boy]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

For example: a warranty front break job pays a tech 1.2hrs and customer pay is 1.5hrs. So yes the tech gets .3hrs less on a warranty job, but it typically takes a good tech .5-.8 to do a front break job, so he's still up.

and people wonder why its referred to as a stealership.

[GINCH]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

Why? Because people that are good at their jobs get rewarded for it? God I hate that word!!! If there is something you cannot fix yourself you pay people to do it. Thats business and thats how people make money. Having said that, there are also jobs that the tech gets paid say 2 hours for but takes him/her 2 1/2 or 3 hours to do. Obviously really good techs make more money, which is of course how it should be!

Isn't that how things work in any industry?

[Hardy_Boy]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

Why? Because people that are good at their jobs get rewarded for it? God I hate that word!!! If there is something you cannot fix yourself you pay people to do it. Thats business and thats how people make money. Having said that, there are also jobs that the tech gets paid say 2 hours for but takes him/her 2 1/2 or 3 hours to do. Obviously really good techs make more money, which is of course how it should be!

Isn't that how things work in any industry?

absolutely! I'm not disagreeing with that. There isn't much that I fix on my car myself, therefor I take it to a dealership. How ever if your charging me 1.5hrs to do a job that takes you .5hr how is that fair? It's also unfair to pay a tech 2hrs for a job that takes 3hrs. If I choose to get a brake job that takes .5hrs to complete and am charged for 1.5hrs, why should I be subsidizing another job that takes an extra .5 or 1hr to complete? why not charge me an extra .5 or 1hr on that job if that's what it takes to complete it. Perhaps the timeframes VW uses to complete a job should be recalculated.

[stefan]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

absolutely! I'm not disagreeing with that. There isn't much that I fix on my car myself, therefor I take it to a dealership. How ever if your charging me 1.5hrs to do a job that takes you .5hr how is that fair? It's also unfair to pay a tech 2hrs for a job that takes 3hrs. If I choose to get a brake job that takes .5hrs to complete and am charged for 1.5hrs, why should I be subsidizing another job that takes an extra .5 or 1hr to complete? why not charge me an extra .5 or 1hr on that job if that's what it takes to complete it. Perhaps the timeframes VW uses to complete a job should be recalculated.

There are some big discrepancies for sure. Parts bugs me more than labour. I can get parts from other OEM suppliers, even dealerships in other cities (say east coast) for a lot less. The parts have a list, or MSRP. At that, money should be made, but there are a lot of markups on that, especially in Alberta. I get great service at a VW dealer in town, for example, but for any significant parts, I can't justify buying the stuff from there regardless of service quality. My BSM replacement parts were nearly 1000$ cheaper elsewhere. Nobody other than VW makes the BSM parts - VW dealers should be able to be competitive. It's a goofy system.

[96vwVR6]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

absolutely! I'm not disagreeing with that. There isn't much that I fix on my car myself, therefor I take it to a dealership. How ever if your charging me 1.5hrs to do a job that takes you .5hr how is that fair? It's also unfair to pay a tech 2hrs for a job that takes 3hrs. If I choose to get a brake job that takes .5hrs to complete and am charged for 1.5hrs, why should I be subsidizing another job that takes an extra .5 or 1hr to complete? why not charge me an extra .5 or 1hr on that job if that's what it takes to complete it. Perhaps the timeframes VW uses to complete a job should be recalculated.

that is the way the service industry is, i work for a tireshop in Red Deer, we bill out book time for how long the job is expected to do, some jobs can be done quicker, but some can take alot longer, we still charge what we tell the customer we were going to charge when the quote was done up, lots of time we have multiple mechanics working on the same vehicle so the job can be done quicker (reducing down time for the customer which saves them money, a truck not working is a truck losing money).

[Errol.]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

absolutely! I'm not disagreeing with that. There isn't much that I fix on my car myself, therefor I take it to a dealership. How ever if your charging me 1.5hrs to do a job that takes you .5hr how is that fair? It's also unfair to pay a tech 2hrs for a job that takes 3hrs. If I choose to get a brake job that takes .5hrs to complete and am charged for 1.5hrs, why should I be subsidizing another job that takes an extra .5 or 1hr to complete? why not charge me an extra .5 or 1hr on that job if that's what it takes to complete it. Perhaps the timeframes VW uses to complete a job should be recalculated.

Because it should take that amount of time. People work their ass of to make time on their work. You can't work at 110% all day long. You might also need to do other things during that job that takes away from their time. Thats how it works. If everything was straight time people would be complaining about that too.

[100%VAGitarian]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

people who call them stealerships and that have no idea how the flat rate system of pay works, really have no business criticizing it.

how about your engineering firm wants to charge $1000 for plans to build something with a 3 week timeline. you finish the job in 2 weeks. are you going to give them $333 back cause it took you less time? hell no.

an architecture firm gives you a quote. you agree and write a contract. they come in late, and over budget by a bit. tough love. you have a contract. you win.

it might only take .5hrs to replace your brakes, but i had to get the work order, find the keys, find it in the lot, can't use the FOB cause your battery is dead, (oops, forgot to mention that didn't you) get the car in, set the hoist, perform work, have it washed and parked again, write up a nice story for your work order and clean up. it's a real bummer that you didn't reply to the voice mail about your battery. i waited around with my hoist tied up for a few hours hoping to sell you that battery and make another half an hour. thank you, come again.

[Lars]

Re: Mod Friendly VW Dealers

Worked at a dealership for 10 yrs ( 2 tons, semi, oil field, cement trucks etc.) not flat rate but still kinda same.. truck comes in for no headlight one side, it can be as simple as a bad headlight all the way up to a ECM output fried , and aftermarket or extras added to unit with no schematics = nightmare, all depends. Winter time sucks cause diesel and cold don't mix either. Customer doesn't plug in unit when they dropped it off and it's -25, guess who eats cost.... dealer.. Can't get unit running needs towed in by a wrecker .. Dealer expense again. There's lots of expenses that customers dont see. I ALWAYS get a quote if its not warranty on my own vehicle and I can't or don't have time to fix it.