Here’s the story version of what happened:

June 27th

This was the day our car jolted and stalled on me as a stubborn form of telling me it needed some TLC if it was going to keep getting us from point As to point Bs. I immediately called Volkswagen and once again jolted and idled my way there after work. Volkswagen now has a drop off service to accommodate life’s happenings, which made me happy. I felt good about this new relationship so far.

They tell me the car won’t be able to be looked at until the shop opens the next day. No problems here. I dropped the car off.

June 28th

12pm – I was addressed by my service advisor about what was wrong with the car over the phone. He told me it would be over $2,000 worth of work in repairs, needing to replace a Cam Shift Light as well as an oil leak, more specifically a rear valve leak. All of this to be covered by the extended warranty — however — I needed some ware and tare repair, which isn’t covered. The total ware and tare costs are roughly $2,100 …

When I told my partner this, she said dealerships do that. They need to rack up ware and tare charges to make money off of what they lose in costs covered by insurance companies. I also confirmed this with my trusted mechanic.

Representative said he would call me back with details about his phone conversation with the extended warranty to see what is covered.

2:50pm – No phone call. I give the advisor a ring.

(Get break down of repair order to state what he said I needed beyond the covered repairs)

I asked him his opinion about how long to reserve a rental car for and he said he would get back to me. He said to get a rental car until Friday, July 1.

The game plan was to not worry about the “ware and tare” repairs and let Volkswagen take care of what was covered first.

He said that an inspector from the insurance company needed to come down and that sometimes that takes up to 2 days, but hopefully it wouldn’t. He said that it may take the authorization for parts 2 days to go through and then the repairs would be two days of work. This now puts us at having a rental car for 5 days.

He also told me that in the time that the inspector comes, I get courtesy days for the rental car, covered by my extended warranty. I thought this was great! I wouldn’t have to pay anything for the two days the inspector may take, plus I get the 10 days of $35/day coverage included in my extended warranty. This leaves us at 5 out of 10 days used for the rental car, minus the two courtesy days. WOO!

June 29th

Nothing.

June 30th

The advisor called to tell me that he is waiting for the inspector to call to see what is covered. I told him I was under the impression that everything was covered. “I think everything should be covered, but what I say and what the inspector says may be different,” he says. I told him that is not what he said prior and that he needed to be clear.

Heard nothing further.

July 1

I reached out to Volkswagen for details. They told me that $761.91 is covered under the warranty and we just have to pay a $100 deductible.

Ok, fine. Let’s go for the repairs.

The rental car obviously needs to be extended.

July 4th

I followed up with the service advisor because I haven’t heard from him. When I finally got in touch with him, he told me that the inspector came and that he authorized the parts and everything would be covered under the warranty.

With needing to get all of the parts in and doing the repairs, it would be done Thursday, July 7th.

July 7th

The car was supposed to be done today.

I reached out to the service advisor, because again, he didn’t and I was about to leave work to pick up the car at Volkswagen. He tells me that the car won’t be ready until Monday. There were three leaks. The inspector from the extended warranty didn’t authorize a part for the main oil leak. The representative claimed that he told the inspector everything that the repair guys needed, but the inspector refused. “I got so frustrated that I had to walk away from the inspector when he refused to get the parts we told him to get,” says my service advisor.

Your job as my advisor is to get everything that I need for the car when it is needed. This is my time and my money that you are playing with because I now have to extend the rental car past the time the extended warranty is covering me.

The total rental car bill: $1,108.87. This means $630 is coming out of our pocket because the cheapest rental car was $65/day.

I call Fidelity, the extended warranty. I expect that from Thursday until Monday will be covered due to the lack of their inspector getting the parts needed for the car. This should be separate from the 10 days included in my extended warranty plan.

Fidelity first of all tells me that there is no such thing as courtesy days for when the inspector — inspects your car. So, I now owe more money than I thought. (Now $758).

They then proceed to tell me that the 10 days at $35/day is something you need to qualify for, you don’t just get those days. I told him that his inspector stalled Volkswagen from being able to repair the car because he didn’t authorize all of the parts that were needed the first time. The insurance agent told me that he wasn’t sure why it took 2 days for Volkswagen to do a 4 hour repair. I told him that it wasn’t my responsibility to be mediating between the two of them and that he needed to call my advisor. My calling at all should have never been the case.

The insurance agent eventually calls me back and tells me that he will give me the full 10 days as if it was some sort of favor to me. I was confused, but took it and thought I should address my service advisor. This was my next call.

I get on the phone with the advisor and I tell him directly that they told me it was a 4 hour repair and that I did understand that my car was not the only one in the shop, but that was a little too extensive and at the cost of my money. I directly asked him what he was going to do for me because all of the complications needed to be made right because I was now spending more money.

He told me that he could get me the discounted rate that their dealership has with Enterprise.

I think to myself YOUR TELLING ME THIS NOW?!?!

I tell him that isn’t an accommodation since it is policy that if a car is in the shop and you need a rental car, that $35/day is standard rate.

I obviously take the discount and call Enterprise to make sure they have that noted on our account. (Another mistake I made was not having Volkswagen call on my behalf, which is something Volkswagen should have known to do.)

I call Enterprise to put in the discount and they tell me that they can’t backdate the discount to June 27th and that I would have to pay the $65/day for those 4 days. I leave it alone because at this point I am frustrated and have plans to talk to the manager in person on the day I pay and get him to change it in the system manually.

July 11th

The car is supposed to be done today.

12:30pm I didn’t hear from said advisor. I call.

The service advisor said that the jack that separates the transmission is broken and they are trying to fix it. He is hoping that at the end of the day (5:30pm, when the garage closes) it will be done. He told me to call him at 3:15pm to see where they were at.

What are you going to do about the rental car fees. This is obviously another error on your part and I am not paying for more days.

He finally tells me that he will call Enterprise directly. When he calls back, he says Volkswagen is picking up the bill. I am not sure what this means, but when someone says that they are picking up the bill it usually means they are paying for the whole thing. However, I knew this was too good to be true. They are setting up a direct billing and we got it for $35 a day for all 15 days! They told me that Volkswagen is paying the bill because it is covered under the warranty. All we have to do is pay the bill at enterprise and take it to Volkswagen who will reimburse us the money.

Oh, and the car has to stay one more day.

So, I call Enterprise directly to stay on top of the trail.

Enterprise tells me that they don’t do direct pay with Volkswagen because Volkswagen owes them a lot of money and that I had to fax over the receipt to Fidelity who will reimburse me with a check by mail.

SMH. Of course I called the service advisor to let him know that I know his error.

July 12th

Pick-up day. Hopefully.

I called Volkswagen to double and triple check that I will be getting the car today.

Yes! Come pick it up. It is all ready.

Come pick up time, we look through paperwork, sign some papers … hop in the car.

I see the service advisor running toward the car. “Wait!!,” he shouts.

“We used a part from your trunk in another vehicle that was having an issue. The car will be back in an hour. Can you wait around for it or just go home and I will call you and you can come back for it?”

Oh, the things we were thinking …

“NOO!,” I said. “I don’t have time. We have football, we have to pack, these kids need to eat and you’ve had this car for over two weeks!!”

He didn’t know what to say. It was by some stroke of luck that the car they used our part in had already been back and one of the mechanics ran the part out to us and put it in the car.

He apologized and then said to me, “Make sure to fill out the survey and give me all 10s!”

MIND BLOWN.