Hey all,
The regional service rep form VWoA gave me a call today to set up the
heat exchanger replacement.

His name is Ron Lipke, and he's an engineer with VW now, he says.

We set up a date and I informed him of a VW dealer that he has no record
of (Bill Britt Mazda/VW, here in Fredericksburg) so I don't know if
that's a good sign for Bill Britt or not :-)

He went ahead and scheduled the job for the 18th in the morning, and if
Bill Britt doesn't want it then he'll try a dealer in Woodbridge, right
up the road.

He mentioned that he's got one in Tysons Corner on the 17th, anyone we
know?

Apparently he's coming up here from Atlanta.  He says he supervises the
job.

He mentioned that it's a 2-hour job if all goes well, and we got on the
subject of stripped studs and exhaust leaks.  I told him that I had
heard from some people that they did excellent work and then others
reported shoddy work, exhaust leaks, etc.

At this point he said how he supervises the job and how he won't let the
car out of there with an exhaust leak or stripped studs, etc.  He said
something along the lines of "I've been with the company for 25 years,
and that's just not what we do."

He did acknowledge that dealer knowledge and skill is not always
adequate, which is primarily (I think) why they are sending special
personnel around to do this job.  He sounded very sincere and I think
took it kinda personally when I described some reports of shoddy work,
which is good, because I want him to be offended by shoddy work so that
shoddy work won't be done on my van.  He sounds like a good guy so I'm
looking forward to having the work done with him supervising.

He said he's got the parts in hand so all we need is a dealer, which
he's going to find out about and call me back.

He also asked if I was aware that they are not doing any more
replacements, and I said "I heard that, yeah."  Apparently I got in just
under the wire, I called Le Coz a day or two before someone posted that
the offer has been terminated.

He said it's about a 2 hour job "if all goes well" -- he said it may
take longer if they run into problems, at which point I said "no
problem, I'd rather wait for quality work than rush bad work."

He sounds like a good guy, so we'll see how it turns out.

Sean

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