I'm looking for anyone else who may have experienced substantial delays with ordering a new SEAT in the past 6 months & were not informed about it when they purchased.
Having spoken to others it would appear a pattern of new buyers build dates being pushed back in order to allow scrapage scheme purchases through is beginning to immerge. I'd like to bring this to the attention of the motor press & consumer rights groups so any similar stories you may have would be of great help
Below is an out line of the current debacle my wife & I are experiencing at the hands of both SEAT & the dealer.
On September 13th of 2009 my wife put down a deposit with a dealer for a brand new Seat Altea 1.9 DSG with a number of extras. We were informed at this time that in all likely hood the delivery date would be approximately 12 weeks however it was not possible to confirm it at this as Seat were installing a new tracking system & so exact dates for the car?s manufacture could not be given as it was not yet possible to view them on the their systems. We were told that as soon as this system became live we would be informed of a date.
Several times through out September & early October my wife called the dealers to be informed that the systems were still not live & so the car could not be tracked. During this time we were led to believe by the dealer that in all likelihood the car was in fact being manufactured & that the fact it was not visible on the systems did not mean it would not be delivered on or around the anticipated date at the end of November.
The middle of November arrived & despite several phone calls from us about the status of our car we were still no closer to having a delivery date. I must point out that during this time any contact with the dealer was made by our selves & not once did they call to update us, or inform us out of courtesy that there was still no news.
By this time we had also spoken to friends of our who were also looking in to purchasing a Seat, but had been put off when their local dealer informed them of issues with the delivery times due to scapage scheme purchases being pushed through first in order to meet the deadline for the scheme. On one call to delaers my wife enquired as to this being the problem & was told unequivocally that dealer had no such knowledge of these issues & to their mind this was not the case.
With mid November arriving & still no news, I decided to take a more direct approach, contacted Seat UK directly & spoke to a customer service agent there. I pointed out that whilst I understood our contract was principally with the dealers who are a Seat franchised dealership, I felt this was now reflecting on Seat?s brand & image as we still had no build or delivery date.
Again I was informed of the situation with the live tracking system by Seats customer service agent & informed that the car still could be on its way or in the process of being built. As the system was due to go live in the next few days the agent promised to contact the dealers to find out the situation & up date me regularly over the next few days.
Over the next few days true to their word I was contacted by Seat & informed that the car was not visible on the system however could have been built & might be part of a two deliveries expected at the dealers over the coming days. Unfortunately the car was not part of either of these & so we were left back at the start with still no build date or delivery date & that in all likelihood it would now be mid December that the car would be with us.
On hearing this I expressed my dismay & asked that it be found out what was happening with the car & when it would be with us.
Seat again came back to me to inform me this time that the car had yet to be built & that it?s anticipated build date & delivery would likely be February.
I am sure you can now imagine my dismay at this. For all of this time my wife & I have been with out a car as it was ordered to replay another car that was written off in an accident. I expressed my dismay again to Seat over this & ask that it be escalated. When pushed for a reason as to why this was happening the agent admitted that this was due to demand with the scrapage scheme & that this was an issue that both the dealer & Seat were aware of when our car was ordered.
When asked what compensation my Wife & I would be provided with for our problems I have been met with platitudes & repeatedly told that Seat will not talk about this until such time as we have received the car. I get the impression that they want our money first & then will give us a set of free interior mats or service for our troubles.
My last contact with Seat before the Christmas period was that we would speak closer to the delivery date & that Seat would at least pay the increased VAT now due owing to the car being late, although I have yet to receive any such confirmation in writing.
Following the Christmas break in early to mid January my wife received a phone call from the dealer saying that our build date had been pushed back again & that the expected delivery date was now early March. Again I called Seat to express my dismay yet again at this & again asked what compensation would be given & what could be done to ensure that the car was delivered on this date. Seat again returned my after call after investigating, feeding me the same platitudes regarding compensation & confirming the new estimated delivery date but with no explanation as to why.
Finally yesterday my wife received another phone call from the dealer (one of only to made by them in this whole debacle I hasten to add) to inform us that there is in fact still no build date for the car on the system, the car has yet to be built & no one can inform them when this will be. As the car takes an estimated twelve weeks to build & deliver it seem highly unlikely that we will now receive our car for the start of March & in fact our looking most likely at the end of April or beginning of May, a total of nearly eight months & nearly three times that of their estimated delivery date.
Through out all of this my wife & I have been left with out a car since the initial estimated delivery date. This is now starting to cause us financial implications.
We in fact chose to stay with Seat as the performance of the safety equipment in the car during our accident was 1st rate & having a young child this is of paramount importance to us.
However we now feel almost as if Seat is pushing us to cancel the order so they will not have to fulfil their obligations as the customer service we have received to date is as I am sure you can agree appalling.
Sorry for the length of the post guys but thanks in advance for reading & any of you own experiences you can add.
Numerous references to the dealers removed in accordance with our small print
Edited by Pugugly on 02/02/2010 at 12:26
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I don't think you're supposed to name the dealers....
However I'd cancel the order and get something else, there are plenty of Tourans available to quite high specs if you can be flexible about the options. We were recently faced with playing the 'build date game' with VW on a Golf TSi 122 and decided to compromise on options and get one which was in the dealer network - a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush as the saying goes.
Personally I wouldn't go for anything with the (now ancient) 1.9PD engine with a DPF in it, VAG do a much more refined 1.6CR elsewhere in their range.
Edited by idle_chatterer on 02/02/2010 at 12:04
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i_c I specifically bought an Octavia with the 1.9PD engine, the main reason being no DPF on this engine for the UK. It's also proven as a robust unit, as proven by numerous taxi use. As for noise I was expecting a rattly bag of nails, but it's not that noisy, and has plenty of grunt, with the possibility of a remap for more power if I decide. probably won't bother it's fast enough. The CR engine is probably a bit quieter but I don't think it's as economical in real world driving, and not high mileage proven yet.
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when I first ordered my Altea in April 07 I was told there would be a 12 week delay for standard new cars, or 16 weeks for cars with special options. My standard car arrived in September. Your problem is that you ordered a car with non standard options, and the fact they are not building many cars for the UK due to poor exchange rates.
Belive me, the altea is nothing special when it comes to safety, any modern car would perform as well (some in fact better) in accidents.. For example I wrote off a Laguna that performed extremely well in the safety department, but that wasnt enough to make me take another.
Just take your money back and go and buy some other car a dealer has in stock.
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AE is right, it's not scrappage that is delaying your car, but orders from Europe, which SEAT can fulfill at a better profit margin than your order, due to the decline in value of sterling.
Get your money back and go elsewhere. Surely there are nearly-new Alteas that will fit your demands (at a lower price)? Or look at other cars.
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Seat have admitted the delays have been because of the scapage scheme. If what you say is also true then, taking my money elsewhere plays in to Seat's hands meaning they won't have to supply the car at a price that is un/less profitable now that they will have to cover the increase in VAT.
They have a legal oblligation to supply the vehicle at the price I paid for it & within a time that's a reasonable expectation. Both form part of a legal contract & an offer to treat. Therefore they should be taken to task over this & their appaling lack of communication over the delays which they were well aware of when the order was placed.
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Fine, that still leaves you with no car and no timescale when you are getting one.
Stick to your legal guns by all means, take them to task, you can do it from home cos you aint going anywhere.
Take a dose of common sense, get a different car elsewhere.
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Are you sure their T&C's oblige them to supply at the price as ordered? Some manufactuers do, other don't. One of those who don't (i.e. customer is liable for any price increase between order and delivery) is Audi, which was the main reason I decided to take a car from built RHD stock rather than place a factory order last year.
Certainly, it seems that the cost of the depreciation of sterling is not yet fully reflected in prices, and instead manufacturers are only supplying the UK market as a lowest priority. With this uncertainty, there's no question I would have my deposit back and buy from built stock.
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"there is in fact still no build date for the car on the system, the car has yet to be built & no one can inform them when this will be. As the car takes an estimated twelve weeks to build & deliver it seem highly unlikely that we will now receive our car for the start of March "
If you have no build date there is no certainty as to when your car will be made. There could be economic reasons for Seat delaying, there could be issues over particular parts for the car (VAG have had problems with DSG gearboxes and certain engines in the past) you have ordered not being available. No build date will be given until the factory know that all the parts for your car will be available at the time the car starts its way down the line.
The 12 weeks is an estimate of the time taken from you placing an order to the car being delivered, it does not take 12 weeks to actually build and deliver the car. In my experience of new Audi's the first 9-10 weeks are lead up to the build week. After ordering my Audis I heard nothing for about 6 weeks, it took this long to confirm the build week which was about 4 weeks later. The car only takes about a day to build then a couple of weeks to deliver.
If you aren't happy your only options are cancelling or buying something else and suing for your losses - neither of which will get you a brand new Seat to your specification in your driveway.
Edited by daveyjp on 02/02/2010 at 13:12
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As others have hinted above you need to pull out of this now... in fact you should have done so before Christmas as the writing was on the wall well before then.
There is nothing that special about the car you'd ordered over and above other models/makes that makes it worth allowing the dealer to take the mick like this.
Again as others have said the legal route is a waste of time... it is extremely unlikely to get you a car.
In Dec we changed both family cars. The one we had brand new took 17 days to arrive from first contact with the dealers re colour choices... and that included lost days of the Christmas break. The other one was a used 3yr old ex-Motability car with low miles that you couldn't tell from new.
There is no need to wait for a car in the UK as the alternatives are there but it is a weird human thing, demonstarted by stories on this forum time and again, that the more obstacles and delays put up by the dealer the more folks cling on to waiting for the order.
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SEAT clearly don't want your money, so take your business elsewhere. I'm sure you'll feel that you've "won" the argument when you walk out of their showroom with your returned deposit (plus interest?!) and sign-up for a C-Max, Touran, etc. in the garage around the corner.
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I cannot say you have had poor customer service from Seat because you have had NO customer service from Seat.Take your money elsewhere.
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I had cause to have contact with SEAT UK about issues with my daughter's car and, despite several determined approaches, I never got beyond being fobbed off by the call centre people.
It seems impossible to get beyond them (I wrote and emailed various management level people to no avail) so all you get is stupid answers and no impression that they take your complaints at all seriously.
Edited by Bill Payer on 03/02/2010 at 09:09
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Jason, I would echo the comments above, take your business elsewhere.
Yes you feel security with SEAT due to your accident, but many other cars will perform just as well, this is what the NCAP rating is all about.
A couple of summers ago, friends of mine rolled their Scenic down a French autoroute at 70mph, ended up upside down on an embankment, and all survived with not a single broken bone. Contrary to your outlook, they choose not to get another Scenic as it would remind them of the accident.
I can understand why you want to dig your heels in, but it really looks like you will only be inconveniencing yourself, Seat don't care about you, you are not even "just a number" to them at this stage!
How much have you put down in deposit? Is this part of an insurance payout that you must replace with identical car? If you are adamant this is the one you want, is there none in the dealer network that ticks most of your boxes?
Last time I looked, there were hundreds of Alteas, mostly pre-regs available.
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