Waking the dead

Last night while I was driving home from bowling the 'door ajar' light in my Golf starting blinking off and on. I checked that every door including the hatch was shut but it still continued to blink on and off. I figured it was no big deal and I probably had a bit of an electrical gremlin somewhere. Then once I got home and locked my car I realized what a huge problem the 'door ajar' light causes with your alarm system.

No sooner than I had walked in the house the alarm started going off. I figured I accidentally bumped the panic button on my keyless remote so I unlocked and relocked the car. Then the alarm started again. I unlocked and relocked. Well, you get the idea....lather, rinse, repeat. Of course it was around 10:30pm and the neighbors were delighted.

Just as I was contemplating disconnecting the battery the alarm ran its course for the 6th time and quit. I'm a heavy sleeper so who knows if it went off through the night, but I do know it woke me up at about 7 this morning. I then realized the whole absurdity of the situation. Ok, I can't lock my car because the alarm won't stop going off so I can't lock my car? WTF!?

I called University VW and after being put on hold 5 times for over 5 minutes I decided to just drive up there. I explained the situation to the service attendant, who then tells me there is nothing she can do as they are swamped because of the bad weather and have no loaner cars. Apparently everyone's sunroofs are leaking from the massive rain and they're booked. WTF!?

At this point I'm getting irate as I completely understand they are busy but I have a rather serious issue with my car in that I can't lock it without the alarm going off sporadically. I don't need the car fixed right away, I just need to be able to leave it and arrange other transportation. They don't really seem to care much.

Luckily, the lady next to me graciously offered me her loaner car since her car was going to be serviced in about an hour. What an awesome gesture! Now I'm driving a cute little Beetle until the VW dealership can take a look at my car, which likely will take a few days. This is the second time I've had a similar experience with University VW so I'm not certain I would consider buying another car from them.

Ahh, gotta love electronics!