Thread: When is a warranty not a warranty.

Originally Posted by jon3950

Wonder why they wrote such a long reply, when all they had to say was

Dear Mr ######,

**** off.

Love,
Land Rover Australia

Cheers,
Jon

Gold.

My brand new HX/Z Holden V8 had an ongoing problem with the brakes... super- sensitive pedal, after a few months. So bad that I'd drive bare-foot and use my left big toe to do all the work. Coming up to traffic I'd ride the brakes to make them fade... gave me some level of safe control.

No joy from the dealer despite numerous complaints. They insisted that the behaviour was within specs, quite normal and the inference was me being an idiot, young, inexperienced and ungrateful... But I persisted and after major grizzles to GMH (WA) we ended up with the dealership Big Chief and Service manager in the back seat, Service (?) Advisor in the front and a quick drive to PBR's Perth branch. This was to "prove" once and for all that the problem was me.

All the way I was giving them heaps, repeating such gems as 'My mate's FALCON has the same PBR system but it is as perfect as this is rubbish, other holdens I've driven don't feel anything like this, etc etc.
Said Service advisor was close to tears, no doubt from the effort in not strangling me. BigWigs sat in an intimidating, stoney silence.

The PBR rep could'nt have been better if I'd bribed him... hopped in, drove it forward...touched the brake and we all bounced off the windscreen. Drove it out the gate and straight back in again.

NO problem at all, an issue PBR was well aware of...and so were the Dealers, easily fixed ...NO cost, OUR warranty, should have been picked up at First Service, very apologetic and understanding, and yes,... - bring it around anytime and we'll do it whilst you wait. (They did.)

Only questions were....how the heck did the client drive it? and why did YOU wait so long, seeing as all the State dealers have been advised of it...

Persistance and a bit of thick-skinned rudeness worked that time.

Oh, and making sure that 3 all of them understood I worked at "WA Newspapers Ltd" may have helped.....

Originally Posted by superquag

Oh, and making sure that 3 all of them understood I worked at "WA Newspapers Ltd" may have helped.....

Good one mate and if your paper wants a motoring nightmare story, they can publish mine any time they like.

Originally Posted by superquag

My brand new HX/Z Holden V8 had an ongoing problem with the brakes... super- sensitive pedal, after a few months. So bad that I'd drive bare-foot and use my left big toe to do all the work. Coming up to traffic I'd ride the brakes to make them fade... gave me some level of safe control.

No joy from the dealer despite numerous complaints. They insisted that the behaviour was within specs, quite normal and the inference was me being an idiot, young, inexperienced and ungrateful... But I persisted and after major grizzles to GMH (WA) we ended up with the dealership Big Chief and Service manager in the back seat, Service (?) Advisor in the front and a quick drive to PBR's Perth branch. This was to "prove" once and for all that the problem was me.

All the way I was giving them heaps, repeating such gems as 'My mate's FALCON has the same PBR system but it is as perfect as this is rubbish, other holdens I've driven don't feel anything like this, etc etc.
Said Service advisor was close to tears, no doubt from the effort in not strangling me. BigWigs sat in an intimidating, stoney silence.

The PBR rep could'nt have been better if I'd bribed him... hopped in, drove it forward...touched the brake and we all bounced off the windscreen. Drove it out the gate and straight back in again.

NO problem at all, an issue PBR was well aware of...and so were the Dealers, easily fixed ...NO cost, OUR warranty, should have been picked up at First Service, very apologetic and understanding, and yes,... - bring it around anytime and we'll do it whilst you wait. (They did.)

Only questions were....how the heck did the client drive it? and why did YOU wait so long, seeing as all the State dealers have been advised of it...

Persistance and a bit of thick-skinned rudeness worked that time.

Oh, and making sure that 3 all of them understood I worked at "WA Newspapers Ltd" may have helped.....

Caused by a missing rubber pad about 5 mm thick that lives between the rod that is connected to the brake pedal and the output rod that goes into the master cyl. Have struck it a few times.

When changing the master cyl if the rod sticks in the master as it is removed the rubber pad can drop down into the booster causing exactly what you describe.

... In my case (last century) it must have been mis-placed on original assembly. - No wonder the 'fix' was so easy and relatively quick. And cheap.

I later took a big loss and traded it in on a s/h VW Passat. Did around 1M km in it. Much better seats than the Holden...

WOW, im so unimpressed with Land Rover dealers for treating you this way....but rest assured this is nothing new to me.

I had a company car (hyundai getz) for work and o boy what a crapbox in every way although yeh what can one expect.....had the following issues:
1. Randomly the car would unlock (which was great considering i live in a crappy suburb of melbourne and regularly carry large dollar value parts and park car out the front of house as all the room for it i have.....and yes got parts stolen twice).......their responce was "nope computer says all good and we need to replicate problem to fix" .........oh and the greatest part "never heard of this problem before" even though my manager had his coil replaced with nearly same problem few weeks earlier ........I GAVE UP ON THIS AS HATED THE CAR MORE THEN ANYTHING WITH ITS UN-USABLE ROUGH RIDE and a crook back.
2. Disgusting fuel economy (9 litres/100km).............for a 1.6 crapbox really? when i had a 2 litre camry that did the same or a corolla that did less......they said no issues found....i must drive it hard hahahaha
3. 3 out of 4 cars taking 1/2 litre/mth of oil with just over 120,000 km........they said "wear and tear" hahahahaha funny as mine was fine with maybe 1/2 litre per 6 mths (but i thrashed it from day one where others babied theirs so to all those that say this doesnt work)
4. Stability control would get stuck in on or off position..........they didnt bother with it.....just said cant replicate

On top of that charging $460 for a minor service hahahaha like wtf

Anyway i work in a warranty department of one of (if not the) largest computer vendor worldwide (not apple as i hate them) and in all honesty if i treated customers like that i would be fired within 10 seconds!!! Mate this behaviour is not on..... If a unit has a weak point and we have multiple failures of that unit we as techs fight for you the customer and we win as to sell in Australia you are bound by Australian law and must adhere to that law and anybody that doesnt is opening themselves up to loosing coupious amounts of $$$ though getting fined/sued.

I hope it goes well for you, i have never dealt with Land Rover in australia besides calling them for part prices to have a laugh (as i get genuine parts in melbourne for between 1/2 and 1/3 the price LR charge hahaha and with quicker delivery). And im from a different way of thinking as i will NEVER buy a new car and least of all one for over 100k plus my disco 1 is more then capable enough for me and anything newer seems like a downgrade in reliablity.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

... if your paper wants a motoring nightmare story, they can publish mine any time they like.

The SMH wants to hear from you: 2013 Worst Customer Service Awards

Originally Posted by Ferret

The SMH wants to hear from you: 2013 Worst Customer Service Awards

Off topic,but i recon Telstra would take this out easily

Don't ever call their customer service line,you end up talking to someone in the Phillipines that you cannot understand and they cannot understand you,that is if you don't get cut off after you have waited 20 minutes to talk to someone.