Absolute nightmare Volvo assistance experience

[safrane]

I'm in the process of using the Small Claims Courts against Volvo Assist as they failed to deliver their obligations and after a whole month of chasing have yet to even reply to the initial complaint!.

Sad thing is that VOLVO wont get involved as the service is contracted out.

[piorunz]

Originally Posted by safrane

I'm in the process of using the Small Claims Courts against Volvo Assist as they failed to deliver their obligations and after a whole month of chasing have yet to even reply to the initial complaint!.

Sad thing is that VOLVO wont get involved as the service is contracted out.

Can you tell more about your case? What happened? I noticed you did not wrote previously in this thread, so details are unknown to forum members. I am especially interested as I am from Bristol too, driving XC60 under Volvo Selekt 2/60K until next year, and various other insurances and protections, not sure if I should expect a lot if car breaks down.

[Ulrikas PA]

Originally Posted by safrane

I'm in the process of using the Small Claims Courts against Volvo Assist as they failed to deliver their obligations and after a whole month of chasing have yet to even reply to the initial complaint!.

Sad thing is that VOLVO wont get involved as the service is contracted out.

I don't know the nature of your complaint, but I'd actually complain about the person in VOLVO who told you it was nothing to do with them !

I've managed Roadside Assistance at brand head office level, and I was regularly involved in escalation and complaint liaison between customers and 'our' service providers.

This meant I got involved in hire car provision, roadside recovery Operation and what the dealers should and often didn't do. Apart from the dealers, we outsourced it all...

Not sure I can help, but more info would help?

[Philip Fisher]

I have discovered - through bitter experience - how bad Volvo Assistance is.

They come with a van and inevitably say "this is a bit complex, we can't fix it at the roadside" - which was what you told them on the phone 2 hours ago.

So then they send a truck (which in my case arrived quite quickly).

Then they have your car and you are on your own and at the hands of "Enterprise Rent a Car we haven't got" - who simply do not have any cars. Then after another 6 hours they finally ring you and say "we haven't got any cars, please get a taxi".

As it was I was in work, so simply stole the pool car and was already at home when I got the "get a taxi" phone call.

But if I had been 300 miles from home with a loaded car this would have been a real disaster.

When 22 hours later they finally sent a car (after I had been super difficult on the phone) it was a DS3. Again if you were on a journey with a fully loaded car.....

I have now invested in a basic 2 star recovery policy with Start rescue. I have done this because they will recover me home and Volvo Assistance won't (If you read the terms, they only recover to a local dealer and then provide assistance [in the loosest possible use of the word] to get home).

If I break down 300 miles from home I want a truck to take me, the family, the car and the contents home. Once everything is on the drive I will deal with breakdown.

[EssexExile]

Originally Posted by Philip Fisher

I have discovered - through bitter experience - how bad Volvo Assistance is.

On the other hand, I discovered how great they are when they came and fixed mine pretty quick. Like all these things I suspect it depends on who you get.

[techwatcher]

Originally Posted by Philip Fisher

I have discovered - through bitter experience - how bad Volvo Assistance is.

Or how bad it can be.

Used Volvo Assistance a few times but only when the car has been on the drive. Each time service has been fine. When my car needed to be recovered an equivalent Volvo appeared from Enterprise within an hour.

I guess people will have different experiences partially depending on circumstances.

[piorunz]

Originally Posted by EssexExile

On the other hand, I discovered how great they are when they came and fixed mine pretty quick. Like all these things I suspect it depends on who you get.

You said "fixed" yours. So your problem was fixable and did not require hauling your car, family, and belongings as Philip have suggested that worse case scenario would be, and I agree with him on that

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by techwatcher

Or how bad it can be.

Used Volvo Assistance a few times but only when the car has been on the drive. Each time service has been fine. When my car needed to be recovered an equivalent Volvo appeared from Enterprise within an hour.

I guess people will have different experiences partially depending on circumstances.

To be honest if enterprise had any cars it would have worked fine I am sure. The major problem is they don't have any cars spare as they can't buy them in this market. So the whole way it works just falls apart.

Accept the comment "how bad it can be'.

[Philip Fisher]

Just another thought. It is really important to realise that Volvo Assistance don't recover you to home.

If you drive longer distances and break down a long way away then you might get a courtesy car more easily than me, but your car will be repaired by a dealer a long way away, with whom you do not necessarily have a relationship. Remember not all dealers are created equal.

Also as your car ages you might opt to have some repairs done with either secondhand or non Volvo parts.
In this case that option is not really open to you. It will be full dealer labour and parts.

So for me, based on doing some longer journeys, having an older out of warranty car and some bitter experience I decided that it was worth 70 quid for another breakdown policy.

[kdst5]

This is quite an interesting discussion. In general from my reading on here was Volvo Assistance was generally quite good and much better than a lot of providers, excepting that nothing is perfect and some people did have problems. Also excepting that what was true a few years ago might not be the same today.

I am interested because I tend to drive in Europe for a summer holiday. So I have stuck with having the yearly service with Volvo to get the Volvo Assistance, although I do other maintenance myself with Volvo parts. It has always been my belief that should I have a breakdown in Europe where I don't really speak the language and don't know where to take a car for repair that Volvo Assistance would sort it all out for me by speaking to one person. Although I have never yet had to put that to the test. I also except that it might end up costing quite a bit in repairs should this happen, but I would trade that off against the almost impossible task of sorting it all out myself in a foreign country. Also some counties in Europe don't have many Volvo dealers because there are not many Volvo cars in that country, and going to a non Volvo garage they may not know what they are doing with my car.

So what are peoples experiences or views on this? Am I mistaken and would I be better finding a different provider of breakdown cover?