Main dealer caused a new problem with my car during service - how best to proceed?

Hi all,

Just back from my routine service appointment with a main dealer for VW. I drive a VW T-Cross (2019). Based in England.

When picking it up, I immediately noticed it had developed something new: When I put it into reverse gear to pull away from the parking space, the gear box crunched with audible and tactile feedback. It has never done this before, it usually goes smoothly into reverse first time.

I didn’t move the car from the dealer car park and went back in to raise the issue. They then asked me to replicate, and upon observation said this was normal for VW cars as they don’t have synchronisation for reverse. They advised I could wait a few seconds after depressing the clutch and then move into reverse gear.

I escalated to the service manager and left the situation with the following:

1. Written confirmation from them that this was reported as a new issue immediately upon collection
2. They’ve agreed I can bring the car back for investigation

I’m really, really annoyed about this! I wouldn’t expect to leave a service with a main dealer and my car be in a worse state.

Would really appreciate the wisdom of this community. Am I being fobbed off with the explanation that ‘VW gear boxes just do this’? Logically, something has happened to cause the change… I just want to identify what that change was so that we can potentially rectify to how the car performed before they did the service.

TIA.