Volkswagen’s “2.0L TDI Customer Goodwill Package”, expected to be announced sometime today, will include three years of 24-hour Roadside Assistance in addition to two prepaid cards. Those cards will be valued at $500 each — one that can be spent anywhere and the other that can only be used at a Volkswagen dealer.
Whether you must waive certain rights or not as part of signing up to receive the package is still unknown. Volkswagen has not yet posted additional program details.
Signups for TDI customers were open for some time yesterday, though other TDI owners were unable to see the goodwill package offer prompts on the VW Diesel Info website.
Until the program details are known, we suggest not signing up to receive the package.
Once registered online, affected TDI owners should receive their package within four weeks. Owners are then asked to bring their Goodwill Package to a participating dealer, along with the affected vehicle, their driver’s licence and proof of vehicle ownership. After confirming the information is correct, the dealer will activate the two $500 prepaid cards and the 24-hour Roadside Assistance coverage,
Prepaid cards are nontransferable and can not be sold, stated Volkswagen.
The fact that you can’t see Terms & Conditions should be a huge red flag. I wonder when the various law firms representing all the TDI owners will start running banner ads warning people to not take the bait?
Dollars to doughnuts says this $500 comes with a catch that you can’t participate in any class action lawsuit.
Of course, such a class action suit will make the lawyers rich but probably result in, at best, an extra $500 to the poor sods who bought these “clean” diesels and watched their value just depreciate $5000…
“All set!” Bwa-ha!
I’m thinking most TDI owners are smarter than the average binge-drinker with an 8-pound key ring. That should somewhat immunize them from falling for this nefarious ploy.
What if we don’t own a Volkswagen but still partake in breathing, can the rest of us maybe qualify for a cool VW keychain?
Well isn’t this just a lovely consolation prize to having no resale/trade-in value… I’ll take the $500 GC but I couldn’t care less about the $500 dealer card or the roadside assistance. My car will never see a dealer again unless it’s a warranty issue and my car insurance and credit cards provide roadside assistance. VW can officially catch a boat to fsck-offity land in my opinion.
I looked at the site and the PDF specifically states that there’s a binding arbitration clause:
VOLKSWAGEN PREPAID VISA
®
LOYALTY
CARD
CARDHOLDER AGREEMENT
IMPORTANT
–
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. THIS AGREEMENT CONTAINS AN
ARBITRATION PROVISION REQUIRING ALL CLAIMS TO BE RESOLVED BY
WAY OF BINDING ARBITRATION