kotik

I bought a new C7 (2015) and got orders to Germany. Naturally I took the car with me, after verifying with GM that the warranty still applies in Europe.

On Saturday, I had to move my 6 month old car out of my driveway to clear way for the garage. When I went to park the car back, it wouldn't go in gear (7spd). I made a post about this. It seems that something is wrong with clutch engagement (pedal feels normal, fluid level is normal, but when the car is on it won't go into any gear, as if the clutch isn't engaged). Car has 6k miles on it, no burnouts or clutch abuse whatsoever.

Saturday the dealer was already closed, Sunday they are closed, so Monday early morning I started my quest to get my beloved car towed. The dealer told me to call Cadillac of Europe to arrange for transport. After spending time on the phone with them, they said that they can't pull up my car by the vin, and there is nothing they can do for me (I gave them the vin, lady said it's not in the system, call dealer. I tried to reason with her, her answer was all and the same). I called back to the dealer, told him the scoop, he said he'll call me back. At the end of the day, I got a call that he is inquiring with the GM and will call me back tomorrow. Ok, at this point, i'm a bit upset, for one my brand new $70k car is broken, and for second it's been sitting parked on the side of the road since Saturday (by my house, but i'd feel more comfortable if the car was in my driveway), and finally I didn't get to enjoy the car on a sunny weekend. I'm upset, but understanding, hey stuff happens, no biggie, they'll take care of me... well, here is where i'm upset: After again getting in touch with the dealer this morning, I was told that GM won't pay for towing, and that i'll have to make a claim with them (which takes months), and that claim may or may not be approved. For now I have to pay almost $300 to get the car towed. Dealer is about 60km/45min away from me.

In the US towing is covered, in Europe towing is covered, how am I slipping through the cracks? I hate to use my military affiliation, but come on, how is there no military support for the very few of us that have these cars here in Europe?

I do great promotion to Chevy by going to ton of car shows, driving all across Europe (back when I was stationed here before and had my JSB c6z06, I did a whole journal of my euro travels and sent it up to GM HQ, which they were very fond of). i'm also president of a mini corvette club we have here for American corvette owners.

So am I wrong to be upset here? Should there be someone that I can contact? Contacting someone here in Europe is almost useless, customer service in Germany is none existent. I tried to use chat with a tech function on the GM's website and didn't get anywhere. Does anyone know of anyone that could help resolve this?

L8ter

Tadge, can you help this man in uniform out?
GM, don't don't leave our men out in the field and unsupported. Not cool!
Their sacrifice is the reason we're able to have cushy jobs back home.

mikez06

(Repost by nmvettec7, hope you don't mind, sir), if this helps:
Originally Posted by nmvettec7:
Go to the top, don't quit until you get there:

Mary Barra...GM CEO...706-834-1148....email: mbarra@gm.com

Dan Ammann..President of GM..352-443-6549..email:dammann@gm.com

Tony Cervone...Sr. VP Communications..752-598-4800...email: tcervone@gm.com

Alan Batey...Executive President & VP GM North America...email: abatey@gm.com

Companies to contact in the media:

Fox News......Paul Delagato....730-195-4620.....Pdelagato@foxnews.com
CNN News.....Anderson Cooper....652-810-3824.....Acooper@cnnnews.com
New York Times......Jason Willis......691-578-3002.....jwillis@nyt.com

boraxman

Not surprised...Lots of folks are not happy with GM support in the US/

jw38

You should also make an appointment with your base legal office. They'll give you good advice. You should also try talking to the gM car sales people at the Ramstein AB BX. They might be able to help you.

Good luck with your car than thank you for your service!

kotik

Those phone numbers are not valid im gonna try to send out an email.

kotik

Thank you for advice, u fortunately my job precludes me from going to ramstein pegal (im at a smaller base in the area). I have high ops tempo.

I dont believe GM is reprise ted anymore here overseas, its all the other major car brands except gm (jeep, ford, dodge, chrysler, bmw, mb, vw, audi, toyota, all american spec, all with full warranties and full service).

Im just not sure what legal could tell me

mikez06

Sorry about that. Have you reached out to Chevrolet Customer Service for overseas contacts?
(Don't have their number, but I'd PM them)
Best of luck.

kotik

Thank you for kind words. It would be great if we had someone on the forum who had a far reach in gm and were able to help.

kotik

Minor update:

After spending 3 hours on the phone (literally), i have some progress. First i called gm customer service in US and spoke to an agent for about 40 minutes. After going back and fourth with his supervisor and looking into their guidance, i was told that in the end the gm of europe should pay for towing. Then i called gm of germany (again) and this time i was given more information (that actually wasnt wishy washy info that i got from all else before that). Per gm europe: the country that u bought the car from is responsible for towing. So if i bought the car in germany and broke down in france, id call german gm and they would pay for it, since the car is american, us roadside assistance should pay for this. So i called us road side and hey quickly told me to pay for it and file a claim (by sending letters to someone in detroit). At this point im getting a bit irritated on the phone and request to speak to the supervisor to square this thing away(its a painfull, time consuming process to file a claim, and i dont have time for it since im constantly tdy...), well supervisor told me same thing and then said customer service should be able to help me (back to square one). So then i spoke to someone else for another 15 minutes (mind u, with each person i have to fully explain my situation to get accurate information from them). So this person asks me why i havent called US roadside in the first place... :| i politely explained that it didnt make sense to me to do so at the time (logic dictated to call my dealer) and that even the first customer service person i spoke to today recommended that i contact gm of europe to get towed. So finally she said she will forward my case to someone in exec department.

Sooooo here i am, still hanging on, hoping ill get some good answer. In the end, it seems that german system is better: u brake down in different country, call them, they take care of the bill, no inconvinience to the customer.... But at the same time, its still all gm, shouldnt the ones to whom its more convenient to solve the issue that should solve it...

kotik

Car has been at the dealer for almost two weeks now, they still havent figured out whats wrong

Rooster OG

That sucks. It's too bad you've had to go through all this crap to get your ride fixed under warranty. I hope they get it running for you soon.

rcooper

O P, first of all, thank you for your service. Second, I am sorry to hear of your problems. Unfortunately I am not in a position to help you, other than wishing you good luck.
I have a cousin who works for Chevy, or used to. Maybe retired, I will try to get in touch with him and see if there is any help from his side...doubtful, but worth a try.
I'll post later in the day,

MostlyHarmless

kotik

Sorry I missed your initial post on this.

In no way to defend GM but I think the problem here is that technically towing is not part of your warranty. It is something you get as part of your new GM vehicle, but it is contracted on separate paperwork.

The Warranty is absolutely International, but the Towing and Roadside rescue will be outsourced to a local vendor (like AAA in the US, RAC in UK and Ireland for example)

As you bought your car in the US then your Towing contract is effectively a third party contract with an independent vendor paid for by GM. The actual warranty doesn't cover Towing, it just covers the repair of the vehicle anywhere in the World once you get it to a GM dealer.

That explains why it happened, but in reality the true measure of a great company is how they deal with unhappy customers. If Nordstrom was a car company, your experience would have been very different :-)

In the meantime, go and sink a couple of pints at Moloneys Bar in Kaiserslautern and have some fun :-)

Thank you for your service and I hope GM pulls their finger out soon and get you Corvette back to you

rmorin1249

I feel your pain. During my first tour in Germany in the late '70s and early 80's I shipped a brand new Dodge Full Size Van over so my family could use it for touring and camping while stationed in Europe. As luck would have it, I had problems almost from the first month in Germany. Chrysler was no better than GM, maybe worse, in helping me out. Van was out of service for many weeks. Ended up finding some other soldiers who had mechanical ability and they were able to fix it in the Auto Shop at Ramstein AB, I was stationed across the autobahn at Landstuhl Medical Center. I sure hope you can get this straightened out. Based on all the negative feedback on this forum I am not surprised at GM's lack of response. Is there an Opel dealer nearby? Maybe their service manager could try and pull some some strings for you? Good luck and thanks for your service.

rcooper

O P, my cousin is no longer available to be of service in your quest to cover the towing or any other items involving Chevy/GM warranty items. I'm sorry that I could not be of help.

kotik

Once again, not happy with this support:
My car got vandalized and tires got slashed (along with bumper damage).

I called US roadside assistance and this time im told i have to pay out of pocket and then apply for reimbursement. They keep changing their minds on this. I have to pay $2k for new tires (since european insurance doesnt cover it), and now i have pay another $300 for towing... Thanks a lot for support gm.

fugly1

Sorry to hear about the vandalism (not to mention the GM "support"). Totally sucks. I hope you get this unfortunate episode behind you soon.

Zymurgy

If my tires got slashed here in the states, I would not expect GM to cover towing. After all, this is not a warranty situation. Sucks that your car was vandalized, but I don't see why you would expect GM to pay.

kp

Vandalism has nothing to do with GM, thats between you and your insurance company. I'm sure GM would arrange a tow truck if you had no one else to call but you are going to have to pay for it.

Sorry to hear about your car, jealous/hateful people have no borders.