I have been in to Berge Volkswagen for service on four occasions. I will never use them again.
My first trip in was to replace a dead battery. I used Berge because they were the closest and I didn't want to stop the car once it had been jumped. Berge replaced the battery and attempted to charge me for the replacement. I reported that it was under warranty, but they told me that I had broken the battery case and that caused the battery to die prematurely. My response was that the only people who had ever touched the car were VW technicians. They reluctantly covered the replacement under warranty.
The second was to get a factory recall fixed on my parent's VW Toureg. I called to make the appointment and the service writer assured me that they could get the vehicle in, get the part replaced and have it ready to pick up by later that afternoon. I asked specifically about the part being in stock and ready to be replaced and he assured me that it was. We dropped off the car and jammed three adults into my Jetta for the day. The service writer promised a call with status by 1 PM. At 2:30 PM we called to find the status. The part was not in stock, they couldn't replace it and they didn't bother reporting it to us. We returned and picked up the vehicle. It hadn't been moved from where we left it.
I returned in my Jetta for a scheduled maintenance. The service writer attempted to pressure-sell me into over 300.00 in maintenance that was not needed and was not recommended by VW. When I brought this to his attention, he told me that VW had recently change the recommendations and this would all be needed. The final bill for the oil change was 115.00. My previous oil changes were never more than 80.00 using a different dealership.
The fourth and last time I used Berge VW I brought my Jetta in for several problems, including another oil change. One of the problems was a repeat report. This was the fourth report of the same problem. Again, I got the pressure sell for the additional services. I specified that I required a call once the diagnostic was made before I would authorize any work. The service writer promised a call before noon. I called after 1:00 PM to find out what was happening. The technician was able to find and had already fixed all but two problems. One was covered under warranty, the other I had to pay for. Berge asked to keep the car two additional days to further diagnose the main problem, a fluctuation in the fuel gauge. I authorized the additional work and they kept the car for two additional days. At the end of the additional diagnostics, the technicians were still unable to replicate the problem. They charged me 49.00 per problem that they couldn't find and for parts and the oil change. The bill came to almost 300.00 before I protested several of the charges. We talked the bill down to about 250.00. When I brought up the unsolved fuel gauge problem, the service writer got nasty. I had supplied a sheaf of pictures documenting the problem. The service writer told me that they didn't mean anything, they were just pictures. When I told him that other service shops had acknowledged the problem, he told me that they "just threw parts at the problem" and that the problem was in my head, that the only reason I said it was a problem and insisted on it being fixed is because the other shop had said it might be. He was extremely arrogant and rude about the whole thing.
I will never use Berge again if I have a choice. There are two other shops in the area that I will go to. The shop I use never charges a diagnostic fee, has all the prices for the services clearly listed and never pressure sells additional services. They are also cheaper by at least 20% than Berge.in my opinion, this is the type of service I am happy to pay more for.
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