Volvo may not want to replace the car for the guy...but from a marketing standpoint, they truly picked the wrong hill.
The site is very nice and pretty thorough.
Makes me not want to get this car or any Volvo!
The site is very nice and pretty thorough.
Makes me not want to get this car or any Volvo!
“Analysis of Volvo's Final Response: This response … confirms Volvo's complete abandonment of customer responsibility…This is Volvo's definition of ‘customer care’ in 2025.”
“Center Display Failure - Critical Interface Blackout: Main Controls Inaccessible”
“Climate Control Malfunction - Climate System Override: Controls Unresponsive Despite Interface Status”
“Complete Center Screen Malfunction - Total System Breakdown: Hard Reset Failed to Restore Screen”
I know little about Volvo or this case; I’m choosing to offer them some benefits of doubt. Comms and decision making are prone to break down on the corporate ladder. Volvo had no doubt fumbled his case badly but I’m not convinced it is indicative of the company’s overall customer support policy. Sure, the main touchscreen had failed. But how is this an “override” of HVAC or a “total system breakdown”? And what’s the “system” anyways? On top of all that, these subtitle summaries smell like AI.
I don’t deny that Volvo has a lot to answer for. Though the choice of these instigating descriptions might not be the best one giving the author is actively pursuing litigation.
> But how is this an “override” of HVAC or a “total system breakdown”?
Complete failure of the throttle would fall within total system breakdown to me.
> Comms and decision making are prone to break down on the corporate ladder.
Businesses do not deserve the benefit of the doubt, they aren't human. If their support ladder broke down to this point that it is fair game to name and shame and up to them to do a PR push and fix their support.
Idk why you're pulling this non sequitur and then discussing with it?
Who is “they”?
It's just an order mess-up, but opening with stuff like: "Sent a formal complaint to Volvo Canada on January 16, requesting escalation to Managing Director Matt Girgis. Volvo Canada never confirmed this escalation." is a vibe.
What would be a "better" vibe than requesting an escalation? if you buy something and you don't get something you've bought? Just say "oh well, it is what it is"?
That's for basically what amounts to supercars. I imagine a normal luxury car for the "mass market" like the EX90 is going to get even less attention.
For someone not used to it, I can see it being quite frustrating if their dealer is not totally up-front about what an allocation and build timeframe actually means.
A deposit is really not anything more than giving the dealer a bit of assurance that you will actually buy the car they burned their allocation slot on when it arrives - vs. them using it for a more standard common build that has a wider market for it. You are under no obligation to buy the hot pink on light blue custom color options you ordered should it arrive and you decide it looks horrible, for example.
It's a strange weird scene. I followed this on various car forums when I was planning on ordering a custom spec for my "dream car" a while back, but decided to just get something not quite optioned how I'd like it off the lot instead.
This sort of thinking about the internals of the business isn't necessary. They're paid to be there; they need to manage their suppliers, internal or external.
I'm quite mystified how systemic failures like the throttle response and ESC failures can occur.
I don't think we should blame the customer.
Part of it is that he clearly used ChatGPT or Claude to write the prose. (I really should not have to explain how, despite not reading the OP at all, your example quote alone establishes that. You see this kind of hyperbolic unordered list/checklist all the time now. This seems like more of a Claude tic, but could also be ChatGPT due to sheer base rates.)
Being sycophantic and ordered to write polemic, a LLM'll go overboard.
It seem they are the exact opposite of what I thought.
Anyone with any training in crisis management would immediately refund the purchase price, apologize and offer a discount on a replacement.
The negative publicity of this post alone has cost the company millions in customer goodwill.
Hey Volvo, I’ll now never buy a Volvo. I always thought they were meant to be safe?
Only recently sold my 850 because we're expecting a kid and wanted to mount the car seat correctly.
Just use the seatbelt?
It’s a mass market luxury vehicle and the brand is still considered about the safest you can buy today.
It’s certainly not known for quality or reliability though. You buy them if your sole focus is on crash safety it seems.
Pretending “unable to drive” is a safety issue is silly. People don’t buy these cars for reliability or quality.
I have zero interest in a Volvo but have a few friends who are Volvo fans. They only really talk about crash survivability and crash test results - any other metric really is irrelevant to them, or at least seen as a trade off worth it to them.