I hesitated to send this post as until recently I was a loyal Volvo champion, having owned 3 in the past ten years, a XC60, a C70 and currently an S60 - but that has all changed. I will not bore you with all the details, but suffice it to say that Volvo corporate was unresponsive and indeed dishonest. They demonstrated an arrogance, that they really did not care about an individual customer - even if the customer had been loyal and bought 3 of their vehicles in the last decade. This was reinforced with me when they did not even take a second to talk with me, but rather sent form emails. What closed it for me was when they said in an email that they would be speaking with the dealership to see what if anything they could do to help with the situation. Hours later, I got another form email saying it was unfortunate, but they could do nothing. Based upon my conversations with the dealership, the timing, and everything else, I know they never even called and talked with the dealership.
In short, my 2014 XC60 was off warranty at 130,000 miles but had been serviced by Volvo and - in their words - was in pristine condition. The engine started running roughly and the Volvo Service told me I needed a new engine at a cost of $15,000.00 dollars but they could not tell me what the issue was without a 3-4 thousand-dollar diagnostic. The dealer agreed that this was odd, and that Volvo Corporate would probably want to help figure out why I would need a new engine under normal use. So, I contacted Volvo Corporate and the results are described above. I clearly realize it was off warranty but given that I was not asking for them to cover everything, but rather help and to try to figure out why this happened, it confirmed Volvo corporate could care less. That also confirmed to me that being a return customer meant nothing to Volvo. Maybe I just had a bad Customer Service representative, but it doesn't matter since they represent Volvo.
I have not written off Volvo totally, but from here on out, I am not factoring in any Volvo loyalty in our next car purchase which will probably be next year.
If you are considering buying a Volvo, just realize they are no longer the corporation, that cared about their customers - and you should explore other models that may care.
I hesitated to send this post as until recently I was a loyal Volvo champion, having owned 3 in the past ten years, a XC60, a C70 and currently an S60 - but that has all changed. I will not bore you with all the details, but suffice it to say that Volvo corporate was unresponsive and indeed dishonest. They demonstrated an arrogance, that they really did not care about an individual customer - even if the customer had been loyal and bought 3 of their vehicles in the last decade. This was reinforced with me when they did not even take a second to talk with me, but rather sent form emails. What closed it for me was when they said in an email that they would be speaking with the dealership to see what if anything they could do to help with the situation. Hours later, I got another form email saying it was unfortunate, but they could do nothing. Based upon my conversations with the dealership, the timing, and everything else, I know they never even called and talked with the dealership.
In short, my 2014 XC60 was off warranty at 130,000 miles but had been serviced by Volvo and - in their words - was in pristine condition. The engine started running roughly and the Volvo Service told me I needed a new engine at a cost of $15,000.00 dollars but they could not tell me what the issue was without a 3-4 thousand-dollar diagnostic. The dealer agreed that this was odd, and that Volvo Corporate would probably want to help figure out why I would need a new engine under normal use. So, I contacted Volvo Corporate and the results are described above. I clearly realize it was off warranty but given that I was not asking for them to cover everything, but rather help and to try to figure out why this happened, it confirmed Volvo corporate could care less. That also confirmed to me that being a return customer meant nothing to Volvo. Maybe I just had a bad Customer Service representative, but it doesn't matter since they represent Volvo.
I have not written off Volvo totally, but from here on out, I am not factoring in any Volvo loyalty in our next car purchase which will probably be next year.
If you are considering buying a Volvo, just realize they are no longer the corporation, that cared about their customers - and you should explore other models that may care.
- Michael F., State College, US