Martens Volkswagen

Rude, non-responsive front desk agents. Would never recommend. Very poor service department. Repairs not completed. Agents do not answer messages left by phone and email....just one example: Would never recommend. Very poor service department. Repairs not completed. Agents do not answer messages left by phone and email....just one example: have taken car in 2 times to get sunroof leaks fixed. Entire inside of car wet with condensation, floor mats soaked in water. After 2 days and $800+ paid, leaks/water recurred. On 11/11 tried to make appt. via internet but site broken. Sent emails to Brian, service agent and Bob Schrader, Gen. manager to set appt. On 11/12, called, spoke to Leo, Service mgr. Said he would have my car picked up TODAY, would let me know time. Never heard frrom Leo. By 2pm, called Leo, Brian, left messages. Still no responses. Finally got Brian on phone at 4:30. He thought Leo made plans for pickup. Did not say why never answered voice mail messages. Said he would have car picked up tomorrow. FINALLY heard from Leo at 5pm, said he "got busy and forgot". Great service!!??,eh?I Am NOT associated with VW dealership or service. center. More

Used this service center before, nothing you can do about extraordinary dealer prices -- and sometimes they did a good job, sometimes not. However, this summer I had a purse stolen that contained both my ca extraordinary dealer prices -- and sometimes they did a good job, sometimes not. However, this summer I had a purse stolen that contained both my car keys. I towed my VW to Martens, Bethesda to have new keys cut and programmed, a $350 process just to for a key. After 2 days, the wrong type of key cut (I asked for the regular key which is cheaper, not the key with the FOB), and follow up phone calls, I was told that the keys were cut but that the immobilizer was broken and wouldn't hold the program so the car wasn't drivable. In other words the car recognized the new key for only a short while before it would 'lose' its programming and the car would cut-off. I would now need a new instrument cluster (the dash electronics that include the speedometer) for $600 + $200 to install. I let them know that I had driven the car that morning with the original keys without issue then towed the car to the dealer, nothing should have broken in that short time, but they insisted these things just happen without warning. We're now talking over $1,100 for keys! I called VW USA customer service upon recommendation of my regular mechanic for guidance as I believed they simply did not know how to program the new keys, a problem with dealers that is well documented in online reviews. It turned out to be quite useless, the rep. only regurgitated messages back and forth between me and the dealer and seemed to advocate for the dealer. I was constantly told, 'we can't make the dealer do anything' and would answer all my questions with, 'the dealer said....'. My regular mechanic, who has worked for Volvo for years, was surprised to find how unhelpful VW was compared to Volvo. However, maybe because of the VW customer service rep, the dealer charged me the price of the regular key when they gave me the key with the FOB -- I suppose it's kind of them to not charge me for their mistake. Because of my interactions, I did not believe they were competent for this job and decided to have the car towed out of there. VW makes it so you can ONLY deal with the dealer for this purpose so I will only be able to get this fixed by another VW dealer so I'l be buying the part and towing it to another dealer --which I expect will tell me the original part was fine or tell me something else is broken. Either way, my plan to gift my VW to my older daughter, buy another VW to give to my second daughter, then buy a convertible VW for myself has been changed, I will no longer buy any VW's. A note about VW's that I've learned from this: The immobilizer chip is a ubiquitous RFID chip that has been immbedded in the instrument panel in a way that you need to replace the entire part, which is design flaw in my opinion. Additionally, VW discontinued the instrument panel so you can only buy them used and possibly have to replace the entire panel again if the replacement chip goes bad. The instrument panels will run you about $500+ -- IF you can find them. More

Service date/time: November 11 at 7am Service team Service date/time: November 11 at 7am Service team leader: Mario On November 10, 2011 I made an appointment over the phone for 7am the following Service date/time: November 11 at 7am Service team leader: Mario On November 10, 2011 I made an appointment over the phone for 7am the following day. On November 11 I took my Passat in and was the first person in the service lane at 6:45am so I assumed the service team would get me in and out quickly. This is considering that I had an appointment. I walk into the service department and was not greeted by any of the team leaders. It was if I didn't exist until I stepped up to speak to one of the team leaders and opened my mouth. I tell Mario I simply need my tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) system reset. He asked when the last time I had tires put on the car. I told him about 4 months prior. He says that it's possible that someone broke a sensor. I said that the car was serviced a week ago when I got an oil change but that they were unable to reset the warning system and I needed to bring it to a VW dealership. Then the guy told me it would be no charge if it was just a matter of resetting the system but a $110 diagnostic fee if resetting the system was not the fix. I told him that I would rather not authorize that diagnostic fee at that time but would gladly discuss it with a technician if they encountered a problem. I even mentioned that I preferred to have someone give me a phone call if there was an issue. Apparently he didn't like that answer. I work for NHTSA in vehicle safety and am well aware that this can happen to vehicles during times of climate change. I also work with vehicle manufacturers and dealer associations on a regular basis I simply did not want to have to pay to have the service center to hook up their system to my car's computer when the TPMS sensors had been checked the week before and were in tact, working properly. After some back and forth I gave Mario my car key and authorized him to do only the work I asked for. I left and walked up to Starbucks which was a couple blocks around the corner. I looked at my watch an hour and a half later and figured it would be a good time to check in considering it doesn't take long to reset a TPMS system and I hadn't received a phone call. I came back to the service department at about 8:45am and when my service manager saw me walk in the door he asked me if I was actually waiting for my car. I said yes, that I had been waiting. He said that he didn't know that I was waiting because I hadn't indicated so. My car had been parked in a lot and the technicians weren't going to work on it until later in the day. He said they had taken in a number of cars before me and it would be at least another hour before they could look at my car. Mario asked me when I brought my vehicle in if I needed shuttle service to the metro before I left. At that time I declined. I was never asked whether I would be waiting around or coming back later in the day. Just because I did not wait in the waiting room does not mean I am not going to wait around for my vehicle. I am entitled to walk outside. I told my service team leader that I made an appointment for 7am the day before. He said that a scheduled appointment is only to speak to a service advisor and does not guarantee when your car will be serviced. Mind you, I was the first person at the place before they even opened! I also indicated to the person I spoke to on the phone making my appointment that I didn't need shuttle service and would wait around. My service advisor said that this information had not been recorded on the service/appointment order. At this point I was very frustrated but remained calm. I would assume Mario would do whatever possible to expedite my service and rectify the situation. He did nothing. He made it seem as if it was my fault for not clearly telling him I was waiting around. Mind you, he never asked me. A good advisor would have gone out of his way to make sure his customer was happy. Remember, this is a customer service position. This guy shrugged. I demanded to get my key back immediately. I didn't even want to talk to the manager because I didn't even trust the guys to do work on my car after the way they handled this situation. They clearly knew they messed up. Never again. I will continue driving out of my way to Fairfax, VA to get supreme service even it it is WELL out of the way. I wasted 2+ hours at this place. More

Absolutely appalling. Drove my car in running fine, Absolutely appalling. Drove my car in running fine, with just a clicking noise in engine. Had to tow it home. After checking the car out, they s Absolutely appalling. Drove my car in running fine, with just a clicking noise in engine. Had to tow it home. After checking the car out, they said timing belt needed to be replaced. I opted to not replace timing belt, but to sell car instead, so went to pick it up and didn't get more than 100 feet off lot when it started jerking violently and stalled. Then stalled twice on busy road. Had never done this before. Took it back, jerking all the way, and they wouldn't even get in it to drive it. Mechanic opened hood and said it was ignition coil and needed to be replaced. Mario actually said that when they gave it a complimentary car wash, the water must've "sparked the coil". The mechanic standing there nodded. They wanted me to pay to have it fixed. I called the tow truck. Never once did anyone get in the car to try to drive it. Instead, Sue, who claims she's in charge, said she'd heard all about this from Mario, and the car was fine and ran, etc etc. They would not do a thing to help. Now that I see wolson's review on here about how he wrote a letter to the owner, Harry Martens, and Harry wrote him back chastising him for complaining, it's clear that it's rotten from the top. There is something unholy going on there - they should not be in business. More

Unprofessional, rude, condesending and not able to help. Unprofessional, rude, condesending and not able to help. Refused to give me their names---? how strange is that... Also refused to give me a manager Unprofessional, rude, condesending and not able to help. Refused to give me their names---? how strange is that... Also refused to give me a manager's contact information, reufsed to give me corporate office. HORRIBLE, DO NOT GO THERE! Not only can they not provide the service needed they had no interest in helping to determine how to solve the problem. Complete rip off. More

I had a failed water pump covered under warranty. Mileage at failure = 44K. For those of you who are not gear heads, this part is typically replaced during the timing belt service, not due until 80K Mileage at failure = 44K. For those of you who are not gear heads, this part is typically replaced during the timing belt service, not due until 80K on this car according to the manual. When I pointed this out to them and suggested they buy me a new timing belt as part of the service, the refused. Consequently, I agreed to pay for parts. However, they insisted on a $150 labor charge to replace the tensioners that are part of the service, a complete rip off IMHO. As stated above, getting to the water pump on this rig required removal of the timing belt anyway. Is it really necessary to charge me for 1.5 hours of labor to remove two glorified pullys as this service department was already getting reimbursed by VW of America for all the labor associated with the water pump repair? Remember, everything except the removal of these tensioners would have been accomplished for this job. We're talking about loosening a few screws for $150. A complete ripoff in my opinion--smells like double dipping to me. We also had the car detailed there. I had never had a dealer detailing done and thought they would do a better job than an independent. What a joke! They quoted me a price of about $170 for a complete inside and outside cleaning, then called back to say that there would be a $25 dollar surcharge for sand in the car (post beach vacation cleanup). How absurd! I mean why have fixed prices at all. There was no mention of this until the car was already in their hands. After this I was half expecting: "Oh, sorry sir, if you wanted your car washed with water, that'll be an extra $50 dollars!" On top of it all, they still didn't get all the sand out anyway and broke a knob off the radio doing the work. Very shoddy! More