On 26March2024 I received an e-mail from “Your Friends at Yorkdale VW” showing how much they appreciated me being part of the VW family. Golly as Sally Field once said at the Oscars, “You really love me!” So nice to be loved by a large German corporation!
I was so loved an offer was made to enjoy food on 27March2024 at a Donut Emporium loved by many Canadians known as Tim Hortons. Volkswagen Canada would pay my bill at two participating Tim Hortons locations up to $30 and “To claim, simply drive your Volkswagen through the drive through or show your VW keys at the counter.”
How nice of Volkswagen Canada! “We hope this small token of appreciation will help brighten your day!” So I planned a special trip to the participating Tim Horton’s location and was crestfallen and more than a bit aggravated to see a sign on the front door, “Volkswagen event has ended.” Upon a query I was told by the exasperated store manager they had “run out” in 40 minutes. Someone from Volkswagen had put $500 on their credit card in favor of the Tim Hortons store to pay for the promotion. That would pay for 16 customers. As I was discussing this state of affairs a crowd arrived waving their phones and printed copies of the e-mail and expressed their dissatisfaction with as one customer said was a “misrepresentation”. One disgruntled and donut deprived was on her phone arguing with Yorkdale Volkswagen which refused to compensate the irate VW customers who did not feel appreciated about being in the Volkswagen family! Anger and frustration was mushrooming and to avoid a barrage of tear gas from the guys who were not defunded I made a hasty escape. Being close to Yorkdale Volkswagen I dropped in to have some bolts tightened and ran into my service contact and told him the story joined by another disaffected customer. Instead of a $30 gift certificate I was given a $10 one by a manager who was running a handful of $10 Tim Hortons gift certificates to he swelling mob.
There was a disclaimer that the “activation” (whatever that means) was subject to available quantities per restaurant. My goodness there were vast quantities of donuts available! As someone in the unhappy crowd at Tim Hortons said the offer was too good to be true.
No I have no plans to launch a class action lawsuit. A poorly planned goodwill scheme obviously backfired. My next car will be a Bentley! Now if this event shows the appreciation of Volkswagen of its customers in their family I fear what happens if they don’t appreciate me being in the family!
Set the Bar 