And now, a HUUUUUGE UPDATE
After forcing the issue quite a bit about a buyback, my car was finally transferred to another dealer on Jan 20th. By the 22nd, this new service department had discovered an intercooler hose that wasn't even close to properly connected. After attempting to do it right, they found an o ring had been damaged. Ordered the part, properly installed the pipe, all issues FIXED within like 3 days. The service manager was in contact with me personally, there wasn't even a service advisor involved. This service manager is a SUPER awesome guy, big time VW guy like us, and so are most of his techs. He drove it for another 2 days to make sure I didn't end up half way home and have another issue. He checked with me about exactly how to recreate the issue, ran it thru those real world tests, and made sure everything was good. This service manager took it upon himself to ask VW to give me a full detail and a full tank of diesel, nothing I asked for, just being an awesome guy after seeing the history of what's happened. I picked up yesterday morning, Feb 1st. Fantastic people, 100% recommend them, Royal VW in Vestavia Hills on the Southside of Birmingham, AL.
But that's not the end. This morning, Feb 2nd, I went to install my kid's car seat. When I tossed it up onto the seat something didn't feel right. As I reached my hand between the back and bottom of the seat to feel for the car seat anchor, the seat bottom moved. Hm... I gave it a little nudge and the whole seat bottom slid out. I lifted the seat bottom up and not a single bolt was in it. Nuts and bolts littered all over the floor under the seat, the in tank fuel pump cover was laying under there with the pump electricals exposed. I felt the rage rising, obviously. My immediate thought was those ****ing *******s just threw everything back in the car when they found out it was being transferred, to hell with it.
The more I thought, the more I realized, since I picked up my vehicle on September 14th, nothing back there has been done. Theyve replaced a DPF, turbo, glow plugs, MAF, things like that. No one has been under that seat since Sept 10th when my car was called "finished". This wasn't a case of "to hell with this guy and his car", this was absolute incompetence. Ban me, lock this thread, *** ever, but here it is:
Stay the hell away from SERRA VOLKSWAGEN in Birmingham, AL. They had my car for 5 months, five freaking months. They lied to me multiple times, the service "manager" is not qualified to service bicycles, and clearly his bosses don't even care. I felt bad for him because he was clearly in over his head with his responsibilities but that doesn't excuse his attitude about the whole thing and his absolute lack of trying to get something done. The leadership of that store has clearly set an example that this **** is okay with them. I wasn't upset at the mechanical issues, I wasn't upset at the length of time, I was upset at being told multiple different stories if I was ever told anything. A complete lack of communication from a complete lack of give a ****. Never in my life have I ever asked to speak to a manager or taken the time to post a negative review of something, but this is so absurd.
**** SERRA VOLKSWAGEN