At 11:15 AM 9/13/1999 -0700, you wrote:
The saga continues.....
On Friday, I contacted VW's Customer Relations Dept. about the fire in my
EV and that I found a number of consumer complaints on the NHTSA/DOT
website. I was told that VW was not aware of any problem with Eurovan fuel
systems, and the conversation ended.
Armed with the information from the Canadian recall I called this morning.
The first person I spoke with asked if I had a case number, to which I
responded I wasn't assigned one. After checking her computer, she said, you
have one, here it is...
From there I was transferred to another individual who stated the gentleman
who was assigned my case was not in, but that she would handle it. I
explained about the Canadian recall, and was gruffly dismissed. I was told
that Canadian and US models are vastly different. To which I countered that
the parts numbers for the fuel lines are the same.
She then said, but your's is a '93 model. I responded by telling her that
the Canadian recall didn't occur until 1994, and secondly my EV was built
in the first 10 days of August 1992, so there would have been no time to
correct a problem which didn't manifest itself until a year or so later.
At that point her attitude changed, and she said, "Well its an insurance
company matter and if the insurance company decides to contact us, its up
to them"
Detecting a little hostility in her attitude, I said that I've been a loyal
customer and since 1986 have purchased 4 new VW...one every three years or
so, all I am looking for is to be put in the position I was in two weeks
ago, a working van and no out of pocket ($500 deductable on policy). She
said, "That's nice, but we will let our attornies handle it from here on
out, deal with your insurance company."
So I then said, now that you have brought up attornies, I want to inform
you that I am an attorney....
At which point I received a gruff "good day", and that was the end of the
conversation.
I am really getting pissed here...I've been a loyal, card carying VW
owner/buyer/fan for almost 30 years. It may be time to buy some other type
of car.
Thanks for putting up with the rant....
Ric
Dear Ric,
The rant is worth it. You encountered the same loving attitude with VW
that I encountered when I enquired about older Eurovans with VW in the
spring of 1999. They didn't understand I was a potential 1999 customer.
Instead of buying a 1999 I decided to buy an older one. It was hard
justifying 55 grand Canadian on vehicle which dealers here kept saying was
about to orphaned and abandoned.
Now that I am VW owner I can say their attitude is the same. Maybe the
American owners need to get together and file a class action suit.
Certainly taking on VW over leaking fuel lines is a good cause. Automakers
never learn whether it is Pintos, GMs with side saddle tanks, or under hood
leaking hoses, leaking fuel and customers add up to big bucks.
Reg
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