Customer Service isn't dead.

Bridgehouse

So I have a new Volvo XC60. Volvos don't break down, right? 

Well, they do if you hit a foot deep pothole on the road into a garage in the dark. In fact, they have the tyre ripped open.

And that's a bit of a git, especially when it's 12.15 on a Wednesday morning, and you are in the forecourt of a petrol station in North Wales about 250 miles from home. Even worse, when you planned to stop over the night after having had a day of business meetings and you have to be back in another meeting in North Wales the day after. 

And that's where I found myself tonight. In a garage forecourt miles from home with a ripped front tyre, about 30 miles from my hotel, wondering how to a) get to my hotel, b) get to my meeting tomorrow, and c) then how to get 250 miles home tomorrow. 

Then I noticed the "SOS" button above the rear view mirror. I pressed it. About 10 secs later a nice guy answers the phone. "Volvo Assist.. How can I help?"

And then the magic happened. 

I explain the full situation carefully. 

"Here's what I'm going to do for you.. I'm booking the recovery truck now. It'll come and get the car, load it up and take it to the nearest Volvo dealer. I'll then book you a taxi to get you from where you are now to the hotel."

"Wow, OK" I say.. "What do I do tomorrow?"

"No problem at all - what time do you want the taxi to pick you up from the Hotel to get you to your meeting?"

"Er, 9.30?"

"Booked. Now, I'll get a hire car dropped off for you at 12.00 tomorrow at your meeting destination. You can then drive that home and you can keep that till Tuesday next week. Once your car is fixed it will be delivered to your home address and then we will come pick the hire car up."

"This all sounds a bit expensive" I say..

"No, sir, It's all free. It's part of the assist contract you get with your car. The garage will ring you tomorrow morning to let you know how much the replacement tyre will be, but I'll get them to ring me too so I can contact the garage you are currently at and start a claim for the cost of repairs as it's their pothole that has caused the problem. We will be claiming the full costs for the taxis and hire car/recovery from them anyway."

"Er, ok.. how will you claim those costs then?"

"I've got your current location on GPS from the car - we had a similar incident 4 days ago and we advised them that they had to take immediate action to resolve the fault... they clearly haven't."

"You GPS what the who what now?"

"Don't worry sir, we will handle it."

15 mins later the breakdown truck turns up. A nice bloke loads it up and gives me all the paperwork. 5 mins after my taxi turns up and parks next to the breakdown truck.. About 45 mins after the tyre goes pop I'm at the hotel getting my key card... 

Apparently I'll get a few calls from them tomorrow as they liaise with the garage to see if I need to get the car tomorrow if they have a tyre, or if it will be delivered to my home and I drive the hire car home... To say I'm impressed would be an understatement. I didn't even realise I had the Volvo assist package but apparently you just get it. Maybe all posh new cars do, I have no idea. Similarly, I have no idea if you get the sort of service I have tonight - 2 taxis, a recovery, a hire car, and absolutely zero hassle for what was effectively a nightmare situation. 

Buy a Volvo. They might be a bit boring, but bugger me they dig you out the shit when you need it!

stimpsonslostson

What the what now? 
The best customer service I've had recently was when the supermarket till attendant noticed I'd dropped my card & followed me out in the rain to return it to me. 

By the way. Volvo are STILL boring.
"And that's a bit of a git, especially when it's 12.15 on a Wednesday morning, and you are in the forecourt of a petrol station in North Wales about 250 miles from home. Even worse, when you planned to stop over the night after having had a day of business meetings and you have to be back in another meeting in North Wales the day after."

That's shaping up to be the start of "An American Werewolf on Anglesey". Much more exciting than what happened... Although you do get disemboweled by hairy locals who warned you to "Stay off the beaches" ... I'll try to work in a scene with Jenny Agutter to make it more enjoyable for you. 

Glad it turned out well. 

Iamnobody

Great customer service but is this all as a result of the car not carrying a spare wheel or was there some additional damage?

The SOS button seems a great idea. 

I’ve had a similarly good experience recently. We’ve got Skoda assist and something went tits up with our car last week. My wife was driving at the time so I don’t know what the problem was and don’t really care as it’s a lease vehicle - basically some warning lights and limp mode.

She did manage to get home though and within a couple of hours there was a replacement car on the drive and ours was collected on a recovery truck the following morning. Had the replacement vehicle for a week while ours was sorted and all’s good.

As our car doesn’t have a spare wheel when I did get a puncture that couldn’t be fixed with the repair kit the AA had to attend and repair. That’s annoying and if we owned the car I’d buy a spare but I’m loathed to spend the cash for a lease vehicle.

I’d love a Volvo! They may be boring but I’m at the right time of life for boring. I think the XC90 can also boast the stat nobody has died in one in a collision.

breakstuff

That's brilliant @Bridgehouse ;

I'm thinking of getting a Volvo as my next car sometime this year, and this has definitely gone some way towards me doing just that.
 

Snags

The take away from this is that Volvo know where you are, and what you're doing ...

boogieman

Excellent stuff. We have a similar deal with the Audi we just started leasing. The sales guy explained the SOS button and also said if the airbags are ever triggered then Audi are sent an automatic help message. I hope if anything does happen then we get a similar scenario to your Volvo @Bridgehouse ;

GuyR

I have had Excellent service from BMW assist, in less demanding circumstances, but also very efficiently dealt with. Shame the same could not be said of my local BMW approved service centre.

Always good to hear about excellent customer service. Well done Volvo

mrkb

Snags said:

The take away from this is that Volvo know where you are, and what you're doing ...

At least they can recover him from the dogging woods after it’s all gone wrong. I suspect they can remotely flash the headlights if needed.

hywelg

Surprised they didn't offer to assist in your 'difficult' business meetings. 

Dominic

stimpsonslostson said:

What the what now? 
The best customer service I've had recently was when the supermarket till attendant noticed I'd dropped my card & followed me out in the rain to return it to me. 

By the way. Volvo are STILL boring.
"And that's a bit of a git, especially when it's 12.15 on a Wednesday morning, and you are in the forecourt of a petrol station in North Wales about 250 miles from home. Even worse, when you planned to stop over the night after having had a day of business meetings and you have to be back in another meeting in North Wales the day after."

That's shaping up to be the start of "An American Werewolf on Anglesey". Much more exciting than what happened... Although you do get disemboweled by hairy locals who warned you to "Stay off the beaches" ... I'll try to work in a scene with Jenny Agutter to make it more enjoyable for you. 

Glad it turned out well. 

Volvo stopped being boring about 20 years ago with the T5 and T5R
- the XC90 in top spec is a better vehicle than most of it's class contemporaries

Bridgehouse

Dominic said:

stimpsonslostson said:

What the what now? 
The best customer service I've had recently was when the supermarket till attendant noticed I'd dropped my card & followed me out in the rain to return it to me. 

By the way. Volvo are STILL boring.
"And that's a bit of a git, especially when it's 12.15 on a Wednesday morning, and you are in the forecourt of a petrol station in North Wales about 250 miles from home. Even worse, when you planned to stop over the night after having had a day of business meetings and you have to be back in another meeting in North Wales the day after."

That's shaping up to be the start of "An American Werewolf on Anglesey". Much more exciting than what happened... Although you do get disemboweled by hairy locals who warned you to "Stay off the beaches" ... I'll try to work in a scene with Jenny Agutter to make it more enjoyable for you. 

Glad it turned out well. 

Volvo stopped being boring about 20 years ago with the T5 and T5R
- the XC90 in top spec is a better vehicle than most of it's class contemporaries

Steady on, you’ll ruin my reputation of having a dull, boring and staid old man car.,

Bridgehouse

mrkb said:

Snags said:

The take away from this is that Volvo know where you are, and what you're doing ...

At least they can recover him from the dogging woods after it’s all gone wrong. I suspect they can remotely flash the headlights if needed.

They can remotely turn me on as well. 

TheMarlin

I’ve found Ford customer service to be mostly very crap. 

Bridgehouse

Taxi rang me at 9.25 to tell me he was sitting outside the hotel and to take my time. Now being ferried to my meeting. 

Got it a call from the hire car company confirming the booking, delivery address and time.. seems to be going as it should do at the moment...

MattBanshee

I had a similar recovery experience with Mercedes after the brakes completely failed within 3 days and 325 miles from brand new; although I won't say I'm impressed as it was such a catastrophic fuck-up from Mercedes, it'd have needed the CEO to give me piggyback rides everywhere for the week for me to be impressed.

Bridgehouse

MattBanshee said:

I had a similar recovery experience with Mercedes after the brakes completely failed within 3 days and 325 miles from brand new; although I won't say I'm impressed as it was such a catastrophic fuck-up from Mercedes, it'd have needed the CEO to give me piggyback rides everywhere for the week for me to be impressed.

I think my shock at the level of service is mostly because it’s not Volvo’s problem in the slightest - it was due to a pothole and they still reacted as they did

stimpsonslostson

Dominic said:

stimpsonslostson said:

What the what now? 
The best customer service I've had recently was when the supermarket till attendant noticed I'd dropped my card & followed me out in the rain to return it to me. 

By the way. Volvo are STILL boring.
"And that's a bit of a git, especially when it's 12.15 on a Wednesday morning, and you are in the forecourt of a petrol station in North Wales about 250 miles from home. Even worse, when you planned to stop over the night after having had a day of business meetings and you have to be back in another meeting in North Wales the day after."

That's shaping up to be the start of "An American Werewolf on Anglesey". Much more exciting than what happened... Although you do get disemboweled by hairy locals who warned you to "Stay off the beaches" ... I'll try to work in a scene with Jenny Agutter to make it more enjoyable for you. 

Glad it turned out well. 

Volvo stopped being boring about 20 years ago with the T5 and T5R
- the XC90 in top spec is a better vehicle than most of it's class contemporaries

I know, I was an attempt to be funny...

my dad had a T5. Terrifying car! The acceleration was ridiculous (though it ran on special soft tyres & needed a new set on a regular basis). 
My dad's favourite thing about it was that the police used them so folk would get out of his way assuming his was an unmarked police car. 
He sold it as despite never getting a ticket he felt like he was always one lapse in concentration from losing his licence for speeding. 

sev112

Presumably these sos buttons only work if you’ve got a phone connected to the, via Bluetooth and you’ve got a signal?

Bridgehouse

sev112 said:

Presumably these sos buttons only work if you’ve got a phone connected to the, via Bluetooth and you’ve got a signal?

No, the car has a built in sim card

LuttiS

Where is North Wales were/are you? Potholing is a bit of a pastime here

Bridgehouse

LuttiS said:

Where is North Wales were/are you? Potholing is a bit of a pastime here

A55 Bangor