Damage marks to vehicle during servicing.

I have dealt with Leicester Volkswagen for over 20 years without any problems - that is until a Caravelle (used) in 2018, and my first vehicle from their Commercial side of the business.
During the 2021 service, a small cut happened in the interior trim of the driver’s door - near to the open edge of the door, and appears to be due to the door being pushed open whilst holding a sharp tool of some kind.
Just recovering from vascular surgery on my leg, I did not bother to pursue the matter.

On 30 May 2022, I spent the day polishing the Caravelle prior to taking it in for service on June 1st. Collecting it at the end of the day, my wife noticed a small chip on the driver’s door edge. A later inspection showed to small exterior scratches roughly central to the driver’s door.
Having spent a long time cleaning and polishing only two days previous, I am fully confident that these marks did not exist before I took the car in for its service.

Today I spotted an email asking for a survey of my “recent experience”, so I have sent in a reply which gave reduced number of stars, and explanation of my reason for this.
I have been searching for a reliable independent garage - finding two for which I have had good reports from contacts who I know - but looking at on line reviews these varied from 5 stars down to 2 stars. This causes further worry, and "trusting the Devil you know” comes to mind.

Have you given direct feedback to the dealership (part of the Parkway Group as I understand)? Personally I’d go back and show them the damage. I’d be interested to hear the reaction. We had a similar issue when buying a used car from the Derby branch of Parkway - one of their staff had badly scratched a panel just before collection. They were very upfront about the issue, the sales lady was particularly upset, and held onto the car until they’d rectified it.

As it happens, we are thinking about where we will be taking our Cali for servicing. We are equi- distanced between Leicester and Sheffield in terms of van centres that service California’s. I do have a warranty booking for Sheffield later in June, and once hired a Cali from Sheffield, but otherwise have no experience of their commercial vehicle operations. I’d be interested in feedback. We bought our van from the Liverpool van centre, but that’s quite a journey - although if it’s a guarantee of good service we’d do it!

Haven”t yet taken it up with the service manager. Did have one issue previously - collected my vehicle to find front passenger seat raked back, and inner armrests in ‘down’ position. Typical of a feet up on the dashboard action.
My complaint to service manager were refuted, and I was close to being called a liar. Not a nice experience.
Our son has a Passat which is serviced by same garage. He had an issue which caused him to downgrade the number of stars awarded.
When he did speak with the manager, he was told that this downgrade reflected on the reception staff, and that 5 sitars were expected. So, it appears that the mechanics are protected from criticism in favour of the reception staff carrying any blame. Strange, to say the least.
He also learned that a servicing mechanic does not have historical information about previous service findings. This resulted in him strongly criticizing the review system.
If I do go back and complain, I would fully expect to be told that I must have caused the damage, or it being by a third party not connected to the VW franchise.
Looking around for an alternative garage is difficult, because any good reviews always seem to have their share of horror stories - the problem being, of course, deciding which reviews are worthy of belief and which should be dismissed.

I took my van to VW for a service.

I often photo my car from all sides when leaving it with garages - but hadn't this time.

When I picked it up the next day I checked the van over and immediately noticed two huge scratches.

Went straight back inside and got the receptionist to come and look at the van and also asked for the guy that does the cleaning - as he had cleaned it as requested but I suspect he did the damage by spraying the van with pressure washer as the scratches were circular.

They immediately admittted fault (I was expecting denial and a long argument) - got it resprayed the next day and gave it back the day after, looking completely perfect.

Can't complain at all, apart from the inconvenience but mistakes happen.

Really impressed with VWs response though.

Mr B said:

I took my van to VW for a service.

I often photo my car from all sides when leaving it with garages - but hadn't this time.

When I picked it up the next day I checked the van over and immediately noticed two huge scratches.

Went straight back inside and got the receptionist to come and look at the van and also asked for the guy that does the cleaning - as he had cleaned it as requested but I suspect he did the damage by spraying the van with pressure washer as the scratches were circular.

They immediately admittted fault (I was expecting denial and a long argument) - got it resprayed the next day and gave it back the day after, looking completely perfect.

Can't complain at all, apart from the inconvenience but mistakes happen.

Really impressed with VWs response though.

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I agree that accidents do happen but, my gripe is that any damage/issues should be picked up by them prior to handing back to the customer.
I‘ve had mine handed back with gaffer tape used to hold a window in place still in situ and blue paper towels left screwed up on the dash. Small beer but an indication of lack of attention to detail.

ArunAlec said:

I agree that accidents do happen but, my gripe is that any damage/issues should be picked up by them prior to handing back to the customer.
I‘ve had mine handed back with gaffer tape used to hold a window in place still in situ and blue paper towels left screwed up on the dash. Small beer but an indication of lack of attention to detail.

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Yeah, I mean that's just rubbish and shoddy.

I'm lucky that my nearest VW garage is actually ok. Not the case for a lot of people.

Another one I went to when I had my Caravelle was terrible, and caused loads of damage to my van, leaving radiator fans unplugged - filling the power steering pump with the wrong type of fluid causing it to fail (which they denied), leaving unplugged cables and hoses in the engine bay to the turbo, speedo and god knows what else.

I'd never go there again.

Absolutely useless.

This is all very difficult to understand. We recently took our car into FRF Swansea to have some repairs from storm damage in February. Every single time the car went in it was fully inspected and videoed all over inside and out. Why doesn’t this happen when a vehicle is taken in for a service. Only takes a few minutes and elevates any potential problems later on.

When I take my Mercedes in to the dealers initially the car was photographed videoed. Now the car is driven through an automatic system which videos the outside of the car.
When I have my Caravelle serviced they always came out and had a look round the car with me even checking the spare wheel was still under the car.
If a garage does not video the car then I would video it on there forecourt ensuring that the video captured some of the forecourt so at least you can prove the damage was not there at the drop off.
I also when I hire a car I do a before and after video. Using this method I did managed to get damage caused after handing a hire car back over turned.