Volkswagen announces further aftersales improvement plans
Volkswagen’s after sales service has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent times. Since taking charge of the company, new Volkswagen Group Malaysia Managing Director Mr Christoph Aringer has made improving aftersales a key agenda of his tenure.
The Malaysian motoring media first met Aringer at the Volkswagen Polo 1.6 CKD media drive at Sepang last month, and we were struck by his candour and honesty in admitting the aftersales issues that currently plague the VW brand in Malaysia. Just last week, Aringer had met a group of 50 disgruntled VW owners who staged a protest at VGM’s headquarters highlighting their problems and dissatisfactions toward their vehicles.
A day prior to the organized protest, VGM had announced that 20 of its service centres around Peninsula Malaysia will open from 9:00am to 5:00pm every Sunday to better cope with the high volume of customers. In the same statement, VGM also confirmed that additional training will be provided to sales and after-sales staff of its dealer network to improve overall service at all levels.
A follow-up statement issued today has announced further steps taken to improve after-sales, starting with the establishment of centrally-managed claims processing for its Extended Warranty Programme. This step is taken in cooperation with Volkswagen’s insurance partner for the EWP and authorized dealer network that enables claims processing time to be sped up.
Aringer said of the move that, “This optimization of our Extended Warranty Programme process is the next step that we are embarking on in order to ensure the vehicle maintenance process at our authorized service centre network is tailored according to our customers’ needs.”
All Volkswagen cars sold in Malaysia come with a five-year unlimited mileage warranty; out of those five years, the first two are factory-backed whilst the remaining three is undertaken by an insurance partner. When a Volkswagen vehicle crosses into the third year of ownership, its warranty claims require the approval of the said insurance partner. By taking an active role in the claims approval process in collaboration with its insurance partner, VGM hopes to ensure speedier processing time.
As with all warranties, Volkswagen’s warranty validity are dependent on several terms and conditions, one of them being the owner’s discipline in meeting the vehicle’s prescribed service intervals. Volkswagen recommends a service interval of 1-year / 15,000km for all its vehicles in Malaysia, and if that interval is exceeded, the vehicle’s warranty becomes null and void.
Beginning today, however, VGM will apply a 1,500km grace period on the service interval mileage, which means if you stretch your servicing to 16,480km for example, your warranty remains valid. It is worth noting that one of the demands made by the 50 disgruntled owners was that VGM give a 3,000km grace period – not entirely realistic in our opinion.
These moves demonstrate a renewed commitment by Volkswagen Group Malaysia and their dealer network’s to rebuild customer satisfaction, a long enough road even in the best of circumstances. The company has setup a Volkswagen Hotline to handle all enquiries on Volkswagen’s Extended Warranty Programme (EWP).
In addition to the extension of opening hours undertaken by 20 services centres around the Peninsula, selected service centres in Klang Valley will open from 8am to 8pm and the with their technical teams operating in double shifts on weekdays to minimize waiting time.
