The Basement

Ooops. I missed this email form VW when it came it on 9/22. Here's what they said...

From: VIC Web Responses 
To: "'matt@thebasement.com'" 
Subject: RE: Marketing / Public Relations / Sponsorship 09/22 lp
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 13:59:57 -0400

Matt,

Thank you for making contact with us through the Volkswagen
website.  We regret to learn you were displeased with the 
service you received.

In order to give you the fastest assistance, we encourage 
you to call the Customer Care Center at 1-800-822-8987.  
You may reach them Monday through Friday, 8:00a.m. to 5:00p.m.  
A representative will document your concerns and assist you 
further in this matter.

However, we do offer an area on our site in which you can 
contact the Customer Care Center directly if you have your VIN
(vehicle identification number).  Click on Contact Us and scroll
down to VW Customer Care. 

We appreciate you sharing your comments with us.  Please visit 
our website again.

Ivan
Volktalk

-----Original Message-----
From: matt@thebasement.com [mailto:matt@thebasement.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 2:43 AM
To: volktalk@vw.com
Subject: Marketing / Public Relations / Sponsorship

Name : Matt Galloway.

Comments : 

I recently spent over 2 hours on your website and was ready to buy a car.  I
went to the dealer and after 4 minutes I had decided to never buy a VW
unless I move more than 100 miles.

I've blogged the experience and I thought you might want to know.

http://www.thebasement.com/blojsom/blog/thebasement/WOM/2005/09/13/How_Brad_
Noe_Volkswagon_Pissed_Away_2_Hours_of_My_Attention.html

This is a shame - your website is awesome.

-Matt

---------------------------------------------

Hmmmm. Where to start? It took them 9 days - from September 13 to September 22 to send me a form letter that asked for my VIN and tells me to call their Customer Care Center?

A couple of points...

1.) My email made it clear that I don't own a VW so where would I get a VIN?

2.) Perhaps they didn't read the blog I provided the URL for. Later on Sept. 13th (around 11:30 Central time) I called the Customer Care Center and spoke with a representative for about 45 minutes. I also blogged about this. During the call I gave them my physical address, phone number, email address and blog URL. I also menitoned that I had sent an email though their web site.

3.) What with the subject line and from address. In the age of SPAM, who would every open an email with a title of " RE: Marketing / Public Relations / Sponsorship 09/22 lp" from "VIC Web Response" - especially when I never sent an email with that title? This is why I missed it in the first place.

4.) Why are you telling me that you appreciate my comments while simultaneously illustrating that you haven't listened to a single one of them? Do you think I'm stupid?

5.) I have been back to your web site - many times in fact. It hasn't changed at all.

Would someone at VW please tell me why the heck this took you 9 days? What were you doing? And, perhaps more importantly, why did you send an email that is completely irrelovent?

Let's forget for a moment that I've spent hours writing about you - read my original email, then imagine waiting for NINE days, then read your response. If you were the customer, how would you feel?

Don't get me wrong, I'm no longer upset. I've already ordered my Scion xB. I'm just really curious how a company like Volkswagen can be so completely and utterly clueless.

Such great cars, such lousy marketing, PR and customer relations.

Lesson for marketers: It doesn't matter how good your product is if you suck at everything else. This is the corollary to the first step of WOMM - start with a great product.

Hey Volkswagen guys, my mobile phone number is 918-808-3072, in case you would like to explain any of this to me. It's the same number I gave you Customer Care Center two weeks ago.