Ok then list of faults on new motor

Are you sitting comfortably?
Then I shall begin … I have a feeling this most be a long post

1, WATER IN FUEL WARNING LIGHT

From the time I picked the vehicle up this warning light flashes up intermitantly

2 , FIFTH WHEEL

When I was sent the photos of the truck (April 02) I noticed that the fifth wheel had been greased, This should not have happened as it was supposed to be fitted with a Teflon turntable.
I rang the salesman to point it out & he said he would get it sorted before I pick it up.
I arrive to pick it up on April 28 to find the Teflon turntable hasn’t been fitted to truck

3 , SCRATCHES

On arrival at dealers I was shown to tacho bay (where sat nav from old truck was due to be transferred and the first thing I saw were 3 scratch marks on the cowling just above the o/s head light which then led me to find the marks where the lacquer had been allowed to form a glob and dry.

Oh and some kind chap on the grids in Tilbury managed to spot the dent in the passenger door I hadn’t noticed. Ta mate

4 , C.B

I left my cb in the cab of the vehicle when the tanks were being fitted so it could be fitted before I pick up the motor.
When I arrive to pick up truck they have left it 'til then to fit cb but half way through fitting it they give up because they don’t have an aerial lead in stock to reach from the roof to the dash.
I also left a Stat Plus tv aerial to be fitted by the firm who did the roof lights.The aerial was fitted ok but when I asked where the end of the lead was I was told in one of the cupboards So after much searching around and scratching & cutting my hands and arms I couldn’t find it I asked the salesman to ring them and ask specifically where it was.
The firm rang and told me it’s in the roof lining behind the sunroof cowling
So I had to drop the plastic surround for the sunroof before I could get at it

5 , CD MULTI CHANGER

Simply just didn’t turn up with truck

6 , TRAILER COMPATIBILITY

Bearing in mind I had been at the dealers all day (with my trailer parked outside the workshop shutters) you would think that somebody may have mentioned the fact that the series 2 FH has a software problem with hooking up to trailers with led lights but this was a problem I came across at 19.00 when I wanted to be leaving & having hooked up I had no lights on the trailer.
This was overcome (eventually) by turning off some of the software in the dash but still has to be rectified was an upgrade which is apparently a chargeable job

7 , CRUISE CONTROL

When I picked it up and eventually left the dealers the cruise worked ok for the first 2 times then it many attempts(the record was 35) to get it to engage and when it did engage if I put my indicators on or flashed my lights it would turn itself off again ,by Tuesday of this week it packed up altogether.

8 , BUILT IN PHONE

I have paid for the phone that is built into the dash & seat which when it is working is very good but the reception can be very weak in places that were strong previously (ie M11,M25,M4 etc) also somebody rang me the other day and when I pressed the receive button it carried on ringing my end but had actually answered their end & they could actually hear the phone ringing & my cursing.

I have also noticed that there is no longer a permanent live accessory outlet so have asked for one to be fitted when the above jobs are done.

Now Volvo’s response.

The salesman arranges for the workshop manager to ring me to arrange an appointment to come in.

conversation 1(slightly edited but carries the main jist)

workshop manager (wm)

“We can fit you in for a mid-week quite easily”

Me

“Midweek’s not very good for me re arranging work around getting in there”

wm

“When’s the best time for you?”

me

“Fridays are best for me as it’s easier to work around the end of the week rather than the beginning”

wm

“Oh that’s going to be a bit difficult for us as its our busiest day for servicing!”

me

“Well to be honest its about the only day I can do it on really”

wm

“oh ok I’ll see if we can pencil you in for Friday 13th but we will need the truck for 2 days”

me

“how am I going to get home?”

wm

“we can arrange a courtesy car for you”

me

“ok I’ll drop it off as early as I can on Friday & pick it back up Saturday then”

wm

“ok”

conversation 2 (again slightly edited but main jist covered) about 2 days later

wm

“just so I can confirm we said you would drop the lorry in on Friday & pick it back up on Tuesday”

me

" No we said I’d drop it Friday & pick up Saturday"

wm

“oh I think we will need it for more than 2 days to get all these jobs done”

me

“well are you going to provide me with a loan vehicle while mine is off the road?”

wm

“I’m sorry we cant provide that service”

me

“Well to be honest I’ve tried not to be ■■■■■■ about this but to best honest with you I literally cant afford to be off the road for 3 days I’ll be losing at least £300 a day while I’m off the road & I’m only going to be off the road because of faults on a motor you should have rectified before I even picked the truck up!”

wm

“I can understand what you are saying what I’ll do is put one fitter on it all Friday and get as many jobs done on it then as I can”

(note the lack of an offer of compensation for the lost earnings)

me

“well if it helps you can leave some of the minor jobs to be done on the first service”

(but they are not happy about that either as I’m going to be getting it serviced by a different branch so they will have to pay the other dealer for doing the work for them)

please note names have been withheld to protect the guilty

p.s

I was right about the length of post wasn’t I

In reply to

Gurner:
Passed you today, you were parked up in a layby on the 303 just after the wincanton turn off about 13.00 with the curtains round Shocked
Nice looking truck Cool

By the time I left the dealers I was now running late for an 08.00 Exeter but after 18.00 I have no way of contacting my traffic desk.

So I ran down to Tilbury sat on the grid for 2 hours with only about 5 other motors in there then ran through the night to tip the Exeter.

I then ran part way home on the A303 & had nine hours off int the layby.

It was a good moment to try out the M.O.P.A.C.C as it was quite hot that day and very sunny.

So I pulled both sets of curtains (doors & screen as well as bunk curtains)
put the aircon on full & fell into a coma straight away (I was slightly tired)

after about half an hour I woke up and had to turn down the aircon as I was freezing & all me bits were shrinking

Hoorahh I found somthing on the motor that works

Sounds like a nightmare Sean.

On the subject of the phone, I’ve never had a problem with the one in mine but Paul, another OD at our place, had the same sort of faults you describe and after they messed around with it for a while it was only solved by changing the phone unit.

Sean (& Neil),

Would you say this is mainly a ‘dealer’ problem, ‘Volvo’ problem or both?

I can see there’s is a combination of both but should prospective OD’s be looking at this thread and thinking “I’ll avoid Volvo trucks” or “I’ll avoid that Volvo dealer”?

I think there is a general attitude towards O/D’s I came across some very negative resoponses when I was first looking at buying a new truck.

I dont mind so much there are problems what is starting to wind me up is that they had the motor “in country” since 28 Feb
Why is it these faults were not spotted and rectified before I picked it up.
Now I’ve got to lose out on work for it to be brought up to the condition it should have been in when I picked it up.

They managed to cover over 500 miles in it before I got my hands on the keys so there’s no excuse really.

That is just simply unbelievable.

My opinion of Volvo has just gone through the floor after reading that. I certainly wouldn’t have been so amicable about it that’s for sure. I would have taken it back with the list of faults on Friday, told them to fix by Monday morning when you’d be picking it up again. If they couldn’t do fix them all and sort the paint work out then they would provide me with a hire unit at their expense until they were all fixed and if they couldn’t do that then there’s your motor, now give me money back, with interest, and get the out of my face

Okay, idealistic world, we all know it’s never quite that simple, but you want to give them as much bad publicity as you possibly can do and CM is as good a place as any to start off.

I think my signature says it all

I would say more the dealer; a lot of those things could have been sorted before Sean went to collect the vehicle. As far as things like the phone goes, new things don’t always work and it is how the dealer responds to that which counts.

I’m on my third Volvo and have dealt with two dealers in that time and I only have good things to say about both, I only changed to the second dealer because the first closed.

I also can’t fault the product either. Of the three I’ve had; the first made two unscheduled visits to the workshop in the three years I had it, both times because of leaking hydraulic pipes to the clutch. The second made one in three years when the alternator failed and my current one has only ever been in the workshop for routine maintenance.

Sorry to hear about your problems Sean.

I hope they get them sorted very soon, It is depressing to spend a lot of money and get a poor service

Its very important to have a good relationship with a dealer, and I was spoilt with mine. The staff from the MD to the cleaning lady would jump through hoops for customers, It didnt matter whether you owned 300 trucks or 1 second hand truck, they were amazing

The difference was it was a DAF, and Volvo had the same attitude to my boss when he ran 3 Volvos. after that he bought all DAF until the dealer lost the franchise, then he changed most of the fleet to Renault.

Can I mention Thompson Commercials here

It’s no wonder you forgot ‘you know what’ with all that going on, why did they not offer you your old truck as replacement/loan vehicle they haven’t sold it yet?

The truck i was going to buy from them was sold to someone else the night before i was due to go up there and pay for it

richiessex:
It’s no wonder you forgot ‘you know what’ with all that going on, why did they not offer you your old truck as replacement/loan vehicle they haven’t sold it yet?

They dont provide a loan service.

Oh I just remembered I also left my Tacho card,Tax disc & “O” licence disc in the old one

Richie:
The truck i was going to buy from them was sold to someone else the night before i was due to go up there and pay for it

Had you already agreed to buy it ?
If you had how can they do that, did they let you know before you left to go up there?

Yep told alex i was going up there on Friday to hand over the deposit and VAT and was then just waiting for bank to get back to me for finance, bank phones me first thing Friday morning so i phone them to tell them i will be paying the whole amount when i get there and Alex tells me that he went home early Thursday afternoon and another salesman sold it to a ‘walk in’

When i first spoke to Sean he made it sound like you was one of his best mates given the fact the amount of money you spent and the spec of your truck, but i guess once they had your money the usual attitude clicked in, still can’t believe they didn’t offer you your old truck though…really bad that.

Chin up mate

richiessex:
Yep told alex i was going up there on Friday to hand over the deposit and VAT and was then just waiting for bank to get back to me for finance, bank phones me first thing Friday morning so i phone them to tell them i will be paying the whole amount when i get there and Alex tells me that he went home early Thursday afternoon and another salesman sold it to a ‘walk in’

When i first spoke to Sean he made it sound like you was one of his best mates given the fact the amount of money you spent and the spec of your truck, but i guess once they had your money the usual attitude clicked in, still can’t believe they didn’t offer you your old truck though…really bad that.

Chin up mate

You can’t really blame them for selling the truck if you hadn’t put a deposit down. I’ve done some work in the vehicle trade industry and if I got a quid for everytime someone said to ‘I’ll be back on x day with the deposit’ and then never see them again I wouldn’t need to work now, quite simply. How was he to know you were going to come back? Say you hadn’t come back as promised but he said he’d hold it for you, that’s a sale he’s lost from you and the sale from the other guy who he’s turned away and probably bought elsewhere.

sorry to read about your problems sean i hope they all get sorted

thanks for the support all

It has kinda took the shine off getting the new motor somewhat

Couldn’t you bring up the Sale Of Goods Act with them, might make them get there arses into gear a bit. I dont know a great deal about the SOG but I’m sure that it would cover this, items in an Vehicle not working as described on delivery.

Technically I believe you could take it back them demanding your money back, but you wont make money if you do that though

I personally would not of taken delivery of the vehicle, Although some of the faults would not be noticed until driven,

Unless you have editied it a lot you seem to be a very calm person, I would of hit the roof, especially at the scratches and fifth wheel liner,

This is basic stuff, You should have driven off in your old one and said you would be back tomorrow to pick it up fully prepared, or Volvo would have a very expensive paperweight for there cancelled orders tray

Being serious though, I really hope it is sorted to your satisfaction,

It is dealerships like this that give us all a bad name, And thats not right.

And as for they don’t provide a loan service what utter drivel,
What about using a demonstrator, Use your old motor, or if a customer at our place needs a loan truck we go to the likes of TLS and rent one,

Post some pictures of the finished item when its all sorted won’t you?

The whole thing stinks fella and am gutted for you! You have spent a small fortune and it should be perfect!! I bet if you went and spent £80 Grand on a Car, they would be falling over you and everything would be perfect. Its the dealership that lets the product down, not the product itself. Ive had bad dealings with a dealership in the North West.

The thing they dont seem to understand is that your downtime is your loss of revenue! The vehicle should have been in A1 condition , no probs on collection , they are there to rectify anything before releasing the keys ESPECIALLY if its been there since the 28th Feb.

Take it back on a Friday, tell them if its not returned to you by the Monday Morning with all the jobs done, tell them you will bill them for loss of earnings. Oh ,make sure you record the conversation ( you can get a small digital dictaphone thats the size of a pen and place it in your top pocket. That way you have a copy of the conversation should you need to hit them with legal action!
Something I didnt do when I had a problem, with a Scania dealer who denied ever agreeing to my requests! I then had to complain to Scania GB in
Milton Keynes, the Customer Relations Director to get action done! It got sorted!

Good luck

Hope you get sorted soon Sean, couple of comments:

1. If everything you said is true, you should publish the dealer’s name on here and elsewhere (CM for instance), if it’s true they can’t touch you for it. But make sure they know you are doing it.

2. Go right to the top. I’m talking the MD of Volvo in Sweden. You can’t go too high, I’ve proved it, the smaller you are the less they want to be bothered by you and they tell minions to do extraordinary things to get you off their backs. As an O/D you have real power, they can afford to put things right far cheaper than with a big customer. But you must go to the top. Nobody else has the absolute power to make things happen.

Salut, David.

Go right to the top. I’m talking the MD of Volvo in Sweden. You can’t go too high, I’ve proved it, the smaller you are the less they want to be bothered by you and they tell minions to do extraordinary things to get you off their backs. As an O/D you have real power, they can afford to put things right far cheaper than with a big customer. But you must go to the top. Nobody else has the absolute power to make things happen.

He’s right this is what you need to do!! It does WORK. YOU ALSO NEED TO NAME AND SHAME THE DEALER!
The manager of the dealership with whom I had the problems with (which were rectified immediately by Scania GB) was removed from his position!
We are all interested here to see how you get on!

Good Luck