*******************Long Overdue Update*******************

To make a long story short, my car was never repaired even after going back to the dealer a couple of times. They eventually admitted that they made a mistake when they sold me the car and agreed to fix what's broken under warranty. However, they amazingly never found anything wrong with the car when I clearly demonstrated that there were issues with the front suspension and THEY did in fact break the airbag cover. Sadly, and I told them this, they just didn't want to absorb any repair costs that Jaguar might not agree to pay for because the dealer made the mistake on the warranty start and end date. To make matters worse, when I attempted to take my car to another Jaguar dealership, they told me I couldn't because only they knew of my situation, translating to "you're screwed and stuck with us".

I gave up once my REAL warranty end date came and sent a very professional letter to Jaguar to detail my experience and my disappointment with it's dealership network. Sadly, I never heard back from Jaguar even though I praised the company and its cars and kept my comments toward the dealership. When the car was under warranty, Jaguar was quick to respond even though they still weren't helpful. However, I assume once the warranty was up and they had no real need to assist me, they never contacted me back.

So this was all back in December and you're asking yourself why am I bringing it up now?

Easy. My other car is a Mercedes ML350 and just last week I took it in for a small repair under the Merc certified warranty. For some reason, the warranty didn't show up in the system. The dealership was amazingly professional and apologetic even though it wasn't their fault. They asked me to contact Merc and provide my certified warranty information. Unfortunately, I had it locked up at the bank's safe deposit box and they were closed by then. The service rep, wanting to spare me a drive back told me to leave my car over the weekend and gave me an E350 to drive home for 3 days. When I contacted Merc, they were even more apologetic and once everything was cleared up, a manager from Mercedes called me back to check on my car.

This experience highlighted the difference between Jaguar and Mercedes (and their dealerships) and how they treat and respect their customers. I genuinely love my X-Type but I've lost all respect for Jaguar, their brand, and their dealerships (obviously).

While writing this post, I remembered that I never contact BBB or my state's consumer protection agency. I'll be doing that next. All I care about is to have my car fixed. If there is still a chance that it could happen, it's my right for crying out loud.





*******************ORIGINAL*******************

OK, need to vent some steam. For the time being, I won't mention the "dealer" in question.

Took my car in last Friday for some issues to the dealer where I had originally purchased it and where I always get it serviced. Easy enough. They set me up with a rental (cheap Hyundai) and off I went. I called back that evening to know whether it would be ready before I leave work or not. I got no answer to my VM.

Got a call Saturday afternoon from the service rep detailing all the work that needs to be done. I said fine, please perform all the work since it should all be covered by the warranty. The rep paused for a second and continued to inform that I had no warranty, all repairs was to be handled by me. I said, no, if I'm not mistaken the warranty is for 4 years and I bought my car in Nov. The rep then told me the system shows the car was bought in July. I told the rep I purchased the car new, in Nov, and from your dealership. It's your problem, not mine. The rep then asked how much millage I had on the car when I bought it, maybe I thought it was new but was used or a demo. I continued to inform the rep that, no, no, and no, the car was new with only 8 miles on it. At that point I asked for an email or fax number to send over copies of all the purchase paperwork which clearly shows the car is new and purchased in Nov. This is really pi--ing me off because I really feel I'm being robbed of 4 months of warranty.

I got a call yesterday evening from the rep that the manager is still looking into it to see who's going to pay for this. At that point, now 4 days without my car, I decided to call Jaguar and have them deal with this. So I called, explained the issue, and was told by the Jaguar customer service that it shows the dealer listed the car in service in July, but based on my documentation, it clearly states otherwise. They said that they'll be in touch with the dealer today to discuss this.

I'm giving them until noon to hear back before calling in and checking on what's going.

K spielnicht - vent away.
However, in the meantime I have altered the title of your thread to somethingh possibly more suitable? There does eeem to be a lot of Ifs, Ands and Maybe's in there? Sounds more like poor service / disorganised chaos but nothing more....
Either way I really do hope it gets resolved!
JimC

 

Sounds less like thieving than a honest typo

 

I hope so. I gave them the benefit if the doubt, but 2-3 days to figure it out and keep me waiting, really?

 

Yea Might just be wrong info added, and hey its 4 years, should they still cover it?

 

Well warranties are paid for then somehow paper work dissappears and the finance dept in the dealership is on the hook for ext warranty repairs. And as long as you have you paperwork for when you bought and mileage it should be clear the in service date was entered incorrectly. And for taking awhile, this is a mistake the dealer or someone is going to have to document and explain to jaguar and probobly to to an area manager etc... It probobly would not have been as big an issue if it was found out and corrected before your warranty expired

 

If you don't get a satisfactory answer soon from dealership or Jaguar, and I really think you've waited long enough already, then I would contact your state attorney general's office for consumer complaints and get them involved. I had to do this on a dispute with the vehicle that I traded on the Jag. A letter from your attorney general usually gets these peoples attention.

 

I agree....If you're not getting the goods / service you expected / paid for, of course you should escalate the issue upwards and involve anyone necessary to get the problem resolved.
I don't know about the laws in the US, but green machine sounds on the ball.

 

I'd give the dealer a few more days to iron it out. 4 days isn't going to kill you - some of it was a weekend eh? You still have a means of transportation, even though it's not a Jag (i now get Toyotas from the Jag/LR dealer - yuck).....things have to work through the management chain.

Take a deep breath, try to keep it friendly/cordial as it sounds like you are doing, until you absolutely have to freak out on somebody. Sugar usually works better than salt.

I had a similar issue with my warranty - the salesman made a clerical error on my coverage (this was and extended warranty) - I protested nicely and the next thing I know the dealer refunded the entire cost of the extended warranty and covered the repairs. They value a good customer (yours should too).

So, let them tell you no (if that's the answer, it might be "yes"). Then go for the jugular.

 

Provided some update above to this old story.

 

Thats very unfortunate and very low class of the dealer to do that to you. Hope you get this settled somehow even if its been a while.

 

You can also check with the DMV to see if the car was registered before November. If it was registered then your fight gets much tougher and points directly to the dealership who sold you a demo or used car. If it wasn't registered before then anyone could believe it's a typo on the warranty form and perform the warranty work. Personally, I think under the circumstances Jaguar should have decided from the beginning to make a call to the dealer and cover you this one time regardless. I don't know what the total cost of your repairs would be but it could easily cost them more in rep.

BBB? Forget the BBB, it's a scam organization with absolutely no authority to do anything. They are amateur mediators who prey on businesses with poor customer service. Once they receive a complaint they hit the business up to buy a membership. Oh, they might attempt to help people out but they won't put any real effort into it unless that business "joined". Whenever you see a business "bragging" it's a member of the BBB, it's your first sign they've had trouble in the past and NEED that membership. A business with good customer relations will NEVER waste money to join the BBB, and the BBB will not waste time approaching them to sell their "product".

Attorney General? Absolutely a good idea once you're sure the dealer has stopped working with you. Normally an AG must investigate a complaint within a certain amount of time and will followup until resolved. A dealer will not want a problem with the AG office if they can help it.

Good luck.

 

Funny I had huge problems with Mercedes and their dealer network, both were awful and it is why I drive the two brands I do today. That being said you did get screwed by the dealer and Jaguar! BBB is a waste of time. AG might be a waste of time depending on where you live. When I lived in Arizona for a few years the AG was pro corporation and Arizona has few laws protecting consumers. Back here in my native New York if you even mention that you will file a complaint with the attorney general they freak out and do whatever you want! I wish you the best of luck. Keep us updated.

 

In PA, the AG's office is pretty effective. I've had a few complaints that they resolved rather quickly.

Looks like he is in DC.... does DC even have an AG office since it's not a State?

 

Quite the blanket statement, MB did this, Jaguar didn't do that. The difference was clearly the Merc was under warranty. The Jaguar wasn't, regardless of what the original paperwork said typo or not. Your issue is with the dealership (a franchise type arrangement, not actually owned by Jaguar) that sold you the car. For some reason (probably financial) the dealership listed the car as sold in July, maybe it was a sale that went south. I've worked in a car dealership years ago and you don't just list a car as sold months before it actually was unless your capped at the amount of cars allocated to your dealership or there was some incentive or promo going on whereas you sell this many cars during this period and you get X amount of rebate. So you can go after the dealership for fraud, you can take them to court to cover the cost of the repairs. You don't need a lawyer you can file a claim and start proceedings yourself. You have clearly demonstrated the dealership is crooked.

 

Got a lawyer friend? If so have him or her make a call to the WOEFULLY INEPT DEALERSHIP for ya. This will at the very least get you talking to the owner or business manager not just the service manager.

 

Jaguar is still responsible for the actions of dealerships. I have seen Mercedes pull a dealership from a company that cheated lot's of people in Tucson Arizona.

 

I'm actually in VA (DC Metro Area) and Virginia does indeed have a consumer protection agency. I've actually just completed the form and faxed it this morning, hope it gets me something.

I realize the dealer is at fault, but Jaguar is the one held liable by law to honor its warranty. I don't care if the dealer, Jaguar or some balding slimy looking salesperson made the mistake, it's not my problem. I bought the car and signed a contract on DD/MM/YYYY with Jaguar, so it's their responsibility to deal with their dealership. If I did have a lawyer friend or some extra $$ to waste on paying a lawyer, I guarantee you Jaguar would be addressing this without hesitation. But because I went about in a nice professional manner on my own, they took advantage of the situation. This is why I have zero respect for Jaguar.

@sidewalkman my X-Type was under warranty when this happened, so it was no different than my experience with my MB.

I'll post back when I have an update.