3 weeks off the road for want of a £20.00 part.

[54 Jazz owner]

In the frost, the arm that goes from the windscreen wiper motor to the wiper drive mechanism popped off. After 120, 000miles and starting the blades moving when they are frozen, I guess it has done its job and protected the mechanism and motor from damage. Unfortunately the arm is now too worn to stay on. Lots of Jazz's must have suffered the same problem as there are no replacement arms available.
The Jazz has now been off the road for 16 days.
After too many calls to Honda Customer Services and no calls back as promised, Frances at the HQ in Langley has managed to get me an answer. The part should be with the dealers 19 days after being ordered. Thank you Frances, I now have a proper answer, why could your colleges not do this?
But why has it taken so long to get a part which is in demand in cold weather?
Does anyone else have this problem?

[chrisc]

Not with Honda, but my friend with a 2010 VW Toureg has been waiting since mid-December for a grid for the oil pump.  For some reason, the grid (about 40mm x 140mm) with the same style as a kitchen sieve, disintegrated and the oil light came on.  He gets the brush-off from the dealer and VWSA.  I told him to source the part in Germany and have it sent out, it only weighs 300 grammes.  A different excuse every time he phones them.

[54 Jazz owner]

When I spoke to Customer Services I did say I might be forced to park the Jazz on the road with posters in the windows highlighting the problem.
I think the threat of bad marketing might have concentrated their mind on the problem.
Try the threat, it might help.

[chrisc]

This part is available over the counter for €9.25 and my friend found a rather obscure link on VW's Stuttgart website where you can complain about your VW product.

So last Thursday he wrote a strongly worded complaint, in German and posted it.  This afternoon someone from VWSA calls him and asks what the problem is (as if they did not know).  Anyway, the part in VWSA's computer was shown as being out of stock, meantime the part number listed was incorrect and it has been there all the time.

So the car will be ready on Thursday.  Fortunately it is on motor plan so won't cost anything.   The consumer advice column in Cape Town's newspaper will feature this on their Saturday edition where they air poor customer service.  It is just incompetence and laziness on the part of the dealer.  The VW stock computer shows a sketch of the component and one glance will tell anyone who can see that this is the incorrect part, so then you search for it using an exploded diagram. but they are too lazy to do this.

[madasafish]

For the wiper arm bit, I would have tried ebay..

but then I am a mean exiled scot....

[54 Jazz owner]

Part arrived today, fitted and MOT passed. No need to run to work any more.