Vauxhall Meriva meriva panoramic roof breakage

I would like to share my recent experience with the Lifetime Warranty issue that was hyped up on launch of the new model Meriva that i purchased brand new. If anyone has got one of these with the panoramic roof, please check as my roof has just cracked and i have been totally fobbed off by the so called customer services at Vauxhall, so much so that i tried to contact the MD of Vauxhall, Mr Duncan Aldred to complain. I got to his office but then they would not let me talk to the man himself. When i was looking at the car, i had concerns over the Glass roof having a young family myself and potential safety issues associated with glass as opposed to a steel roof. I was assured by the salesman “ Its bullet proof mate, your could roll this car and the roof won’t break”. Well i haven’t rolled the car, but my roof has broke. I took my vehicle to the Vauxhall bodyshop, who took photos and then said they would send these to the warranty people. A couple of hours later, they called me stating that they have reviewed my complaint and decided that as they had not experienced any previous complaints that my roof had impact damage and was therefore not covered by warranty. The roof on my car has a small channel running the full length of the roof. The is a gap on one side of the roof between the glass edge and the trim. My belief is that this gap is acting as a trap that is allowing a build up of dirt and grime, grit etc that is allowing a gradual build up of dirt and road grime, so much so that this is getting trapped and causing a pressure build up which then by compression splintered the edge of the glass, which in turn crack the roof. I suspect that the glass was fitted slightly out of line allowing this fault to materialise. The "Not So Helpful Helpdesk" have no customer service skills what so ever and treated my complaint with sheer contempt. I am now going to share my experience with you and also post this on as many websites as i can find to try and establish how many more customers have had this problem and if you do get this problem, you know you are not the first to have it so you can tell to Vauxhall when you complain so hopefully they will honour their lifetime warranty pledge. My lifetime warranty has been in place for approx 14 months as i purchased the car brand new and I change my car every 3 years and this is the first and last time that i will be buying a Vauxhall and i will also ensure that all of my friends/colleagues are thinking of buying a Vauxhall , should be aware of the total lack of empathy they have if they ever unfortunate enough to have something go wrong with their car. Please also read the link from Duncan Aldred on the 3 pillars that he is quoting in his effort to win new and retain customers. Pillar 2 refers to the lifetime warranty which clearly is the total opposite of what i experienced.

http://www.just-auto.com/interview/vauxhall-md-duncan-aldred_id117856.aspx