So I received a call from Seat UK after having a lead time of week 50.
The guy that called me has taken over my case as the previous agent has left the company.
I was told that the build would now commence at week 2, which would mean it would be delivered in February around week 5 (a delay of 2 months)
The agent then went on to say that the 'lead time' refers to when Seat builds the car and not at completion. I then read him the definition of 'lead' from google and was told it doesn't matter what the word means, it's what SEAT uses it for.
Has anyone else heard such nonsense from their head office?
He said he couldn't do anything about it and either I wait or just cancel the order. Such appalling service
Are you dealing with Raheel by any chance?
A few of us on here have been dealing with him.
When I ordered my car, the dealership gave me an estimate of 23-25 weeks and this is what I consider to be the time between me placing the order and the car being delivered. The estimate should take into account any known delays, including part availability and - as I think this applies to you as well - the 4-week summer shutdown of the factory in August.
I ordered in Week 30 (end of July) so my estimate was Week 3 at the latest for delivery. My unconfirmed build week was initially 49 but then slipped to confirmed Week 2, meaning the car is definitely going to arrive late.
When I initially spoke to SEAT UK, they tried to tell me that the lead time starts from when the factory accepts the order which for me was in September because of the summer shutdown, so actually the vehicle was on time.
This is corporate bull. If you’ve been given a timeframe by your dealer, that’s the timeframe they should be sticking to. I argued with Raheel at SEAT UK about this and eventually after he spoke to my dealer he got back to me and confirmed that the vehicle should be with me at the latest week 3.
Now that I have a confirmed build week, Raheel has acknowledged that the vehicle will in fact be late for delivery. Despite my persistent efforts SEAT UK will refuse to discuss the details of any goodwill gesture until you have taken delivery of the car. They’ll tell you that they can definitely offer you something, but won’t tell you what exactly they can offer. Not exactly a good way of convincing you to keep your order.
Unfortunately I don’t think you’ll get anywhere by threatening to cancel your order. They have so many outstanding orders that I think all they will do is apologise for the inconvenience, but tell you that this is your choice to make and you can either deal with the delay or cancel it.
In my frustration I started weighing up my options and even went and test drove a couple of other cars that were in stock on fairly competitive lease deals. In the end I’ve decided to stick with it - the awful 03 Yaris I’m driving in the meantime doesn’t need an MOT until April, and the PCP deal I got for this new Leon was incredibly good. I’ve already waited for months, how bad can it be waiting another two and a bit (or three as I want an 18 plate!)