My car is leaking, and I'm a bit upset because frankly 'keeping water out' is one of my most basic expectations of any car, let alone a new-ish (2001) one that cost over £20,000.
The water is coming into the passenger footwell through the heating system, somewhow. The folks over at
alfa156.net are being very helpful, but as yet I haven't cured it.
This photo shows the water coming in.
I went to my local Alfa Romeo dealer to ask some advice but they steadfastly refused to give me any. I understand that they make their money by charging people to service their cars, but they also make money from selling them, and I certianly won't be buying my next car from
Autoworld in Sheffield because the service staff are breathtakingly rude. I thought perhaps I was winding them up, so I called again with my girlfriend to check it wasn't just me, and she agreed that they are appalling.
I have also phone Alfa Romeo UK about this problem. In fact I rang them on the 1st August, and was told to expect them to get back to me in 5 to 10 days. I had heard nothing by 20th August, so I rang them back. I was then told that it would be longer than 10 days before I was called, and the best thing was to keep calling. After a bit of pressure I managed to get from the person at the call centre that the only way to get through to a person who can actually help you is to have at least five prompts on the call log saying you have called and asked to speak to someone.
Armed with this information I rang four more times in an hour, and was finally put through to someone. However, by then they had all gone home.
If you too need to speak to a real person at Alfa, the head of Customer Care is called Lauren Bell. You can't phone her using any of the numbers on the alfaromeo.co.uk website, but her office is at Alfa UK Ltd, Fiat House, 240 Bath Road, Slough, SL1 4DX. The phone number is 01753 518 727, and the receptionist is more than happy to put you through if you ask for Lauren. I haven't spoken to her yet becuase she has no voice mail. The alfa customer care people won't give you Lauren's email address either, because 'as far as they know she doesn't have one' - she does though, it is
Lauren.Bell@fiat.com.
I am waiting for someone at Alfa Romeo customer care to contact me still. I raised my call on 1st August and have called 5 times since I think. It might be 4 or 6, to be honest I can't remember. I also sent an email on 21st August that no-one has replied to.
If anyone from Alfa Romeo is reading this, I would like to know:-
If you consider it normal for an Alfa Romeo 156 to leak after 5 years - there seem to be a lot out there that do leak. Look at the links in the next post for more examples.
If you accept that the fact that there is an 'upgraded part' for the the air conditioning of the Alfa 156 to stop the condensed water going inside the car implies that you know there is a fault with the original parts
If you do accept the implication from the 'upgraded' part, if you will supply and fit one to my car free of charge, or if not, why not.
How long it normally takes to reply to calls to the customer service line
Is it true that you respond to calls based on how often people call in?
Please
send an e-mail to Lauren Bell if you've read this - perhaps if enough people do she might even call me back. Go on, I've even filled in the subject line for you, so you don't have to write anything.
Ta.
