[Zappa]

The situation is actually going from bad to slightly worse.

Ahhh man the amount of money they must be spending to try and sort this surely outweighs the cost of the car.

if I may ask, you seem very hesitant to get angry and demand a replacement vehicle, any reason why your been so nice?

 

[DreamensioN]

if I may ask, you seem very hesitant to get angry and demand a replacement vehicle, any reason why your been so nice?

You are correct.

I used to work in customer service so I realise it's not the fault of the other person on the end of the phone. I don't blame the dealership, the service center, the tech, or the person at Volvo Customer Care. I blame Volvo Australia for this situation. It's their product and they haven't been able to figure out what's wrong with it. This isn't a problem related to an individual, but a failure in the overall support of the vehicle whether that's related to documentation, error logging, training, poor escalation/priority or whatever.

I'm hesitant to really push for a replacement vehicle because I know getting one would mean I have to wait even longer. The MY23 is hitting the end of the production run (dealers have stopped taking orders), and the factory will be getting ready for MY24 production. This means at the very best, I would have to wait for someone to cancel their MY23 order, or at the very worst I need to wait for MY24 deliveries which won't be till until much later this year.

If I push for a refund (which I am almost incline to do once I get better situational awareness of other manufacturers), it actually causes a bit more hassle for me. I would need to join the back of the queue with someone else (at this point my shortlist would be a Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Model Y), and until that car arrives I would either need to try to do without or buy a temporary ICE car.

Getting a refund does have one very good benefit is that I would be able to get a lease through work and make use of the new FBT tax ruling about on low emissions vehicles. This would actually be very beneficial to me.

The Model Y would probably be my best option, because the way Hyundai release the Ioniq 5 in Australia is by that lottery type system. I also recently discovered that Tesla now sell the tow bar option for the Model Y in Australia. This was the #1 thing holding me back previously as I need a tow bar.

Also an issue with the refund is that in the 3 months my car was working, I paid for top-of-the-line window tinting and ceramic quartz paint protection. I would need to look into the consumer law as to where I stand on getting reimbursed on that.

I'm trying to give Volvo every opportunity to make this right and come good, but if they keep dicking me around then the gloves come off and the claws come out.

 

[DreamensioN]

I got a call from Avis Rentals today that Volvo have stopped paying for my current loan vehicle on March 8th, and that's why I got a huge bill on my Amex card from them. Once Volvo stopped paying then the bill just goes to the credit card on file, which is mine for the road tolls. So I called Volvo Customer Care today to see if I could get that sorted out. They said they would call me back by close of business today. Once that's sorted I then need to figure out if Avis will just refund me or if Volvo reimburse me.

The situation is actually going from bad to slightly worse.

So just an update on this... it's 4:51pm here in Brisbane on Friday 17th March. Basically the end of the business day. This issue hasn't been sorted out and now it won't be until Monday. I called Avis this afternoon to see if there was any change and I had a great chat to the person on the other end. They advised they had to take the money from my credit card otherwise their process deems the car must be reported stolen. So by billing me, it means I won't get arrested. yay!

Volvo (or more likely Assist Australia who acts on Volvo's behalf) better sort this out Monday.

 

[Greg S]

So just an update on this... it's 4:51pm here in Brisbane on Friday 17th March. Basically the end of the business day. This issue hasn't been sorted out and now it won't be until Monday. I called Avis this afternoon to see if there was any change and I had a great chat to the person on the other end. They advised they had to take the money from my credit card otherwise their process deems the car must be reported stolen. So by billing me, it means I won't get arrested. yay!

Volvo (or more likely Assist Australia who acts on Volvo's behalf) better sort this out Monday.

I think we all feel your pain. You would think Volvo Australia could get you a replacement car within a matter of weeks - surely they have dealer demos coming in that they could get, or some car(s) allocated for senior managers that they could grab? I don't know for sure...they sure as h**l better compensate you as well for you hassle.

 

[realizt]

You are correct.

I used to work in customer service so I realise it's not the fault of the other person on the end of the phone. I don't blame the dealership, the service center, the tech, or the person at Volvo Customer Care. I blame Volvo Australia for this situation. It's their product and they haven't been able to figure out what's wrong with it. This isn't a problem related to an individual, but a failure in the overall support of the vehicle whether that's related to documentation, error logging, training, poor escalation/priority or whatever.

You sir are too much of a saint. I too worked in customer service and she your appreciation for the person on the other side but these failures and lack of communication now have you in a position where not only is it costing you loss of interest and time, but now also additional in the form of paying for the rental car.

I would highly recommend pushing for the refund option. My concern here is your particular vehicle clearly has some form of quality control failure and I fear even if the issue is resolved, you will be plagued for years to come. Better off bailing and starting again in my opinion.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong for your sake but I fear your hope for resolution might ultimately only result in further inconvenience to you.

On a separate note my twin MY23 is due in Perth in the next couple weeks and reading through this trend has me terrified it could happen to me...

 

[Welland canada recharge]

Urgh.... not good.

The "CMS" (whatever that is) on my main high voltage battery was replaced but the vehicle still has no drive. That's what they're trying to work out now. I've been told that people are working on the car remotely (via a computer that is hooked up to it). I take that as they've had to pull in assistance from overseas to help run tests/diagnostics on it. They've been trying to work out why the repair didn't fix it for more than a week now - which really indicates to me they have NFI. And this exposes a bigger issue of the lack of knowledge about the car.

I did ask (again) if the problem is with the high voltage battery, that they just replaced the ENTIRE battery unit. They can then take my dead one and use it for however long they want in their "lessons learnt" debrief. But no word on that yet.

I don't have any more information about my ask for compensation about the 7 months of downtime my car has experienced. Apparently there's a conversation taking place at the moment, but keep in mind I sent that email on January 20th and it's now March 17th and there's still no word if any compensation will be given. That's one long conversation.

I did ask for a bigger loan car as the Kona I have at the moment is really too small for what I need to do (eg. get my mountain bike to places), so I "think" they might be upgrading my loan vehicle but that was 2 days ago and I haven't heard anything since.

BUT.....

I got a call from Avis Rentals today that Volvo have stopped paying for my current loan vehicle on March 8th, and that's why I got a huge bill on my Amex card from them. Once Volvo stopped paying then the bill just goes to the credit card on file, which is mine for the road tolls. So I called Volvo Customer Care today to see if I could get that sorted out. They said they would call me back by close of business today. Once that's sorted I then need to figure out if Avis will just refund me or if Volvo reimburse me.

The situation is actually going from bad to slightly worse.

Maybe time to get a little more aggressive by suggesting you are getting legal advise on the situation.

 

[Br53]

You are correct.

I used to work in customer service so I realise it's not the fault of the other person on the end of the phone. I don't blame the dealership, the service center, the tech, or the person at Volvo Customer Care. I blame Volvo Australia for this situation. It's their product and they haven't been able to figure out what's wrong with it. This isn't a problem related to an individual, but a failure in the overall support of the vehicle whether that's related to documentation, error logging, training, poor escalation/priority or whatever.

I'm hesitant to really push for a replacement vehicle because I know getting one would mean I have to wait even longer. The MY23 is hitting the end of the production run (dealers have stopped taking orders), and the factory will be getting ready for MY24 production. This means at the very best, I would have to wait for someone to cancel their MY23 order, or at the very worst I need to wait for MY24 deliveries which won't be till until much later this year.

If I push for a refund (which I am almost incline to do once I get better situational awareness of other manufacturers), it actually causes a bit more hassle for me. I would need to join the back of the queue with someone else (at this point my shortlist would be a Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Model Y), and until that car arrives I would either need to try to do without or buy a temporary ICE car.

Getting a refund does have one very good benefit is that I would be able to get a lease through work and make use of the new FBT tax ruling about on low emissions vehicles. This would actually be very beneficial to me.

The Model Y would probably be my best option, because the way Hyundai release the Ioniq 5 in Australia is by that lottery type system. I also recently discovered that Tesla now sell the tow bar option for the Model Y in Australia. This was the #1 thing holding me back previously as I need a tow bar.

Also an issue with the refund is that in the 3 months my car was working, I paid for top-of-the-line window tinting and ceramic quartz paint protection. I would need to look into the consumer law as to where I stand on getting reimbursed on that.

I'm trying to give Volvo every opportunity to make this right and come good, but if they keep dicking me around then the gloves come off and the claws come out.

Yep, I see where you’re coming from. A few variables involved.

It’s no excuse for a manufacturer, but I think here in Australia your situation has been exacerbated by:

• supply chain of the car
• supply chain of parts for the car
• local dealers having untrained technicians

If they launch a car in a country, they should have been prepared to be able to fix problems timely.

Admittedly I didn’t consider the consequences properly of being an early adopter when I purchased the car. Fingers crossed that they can still fix your car and for the rest of us, I hope this is a rare anomaly.