Yooooo this might be the reality after all
Unfortunately true. You may to play your "let me borrow your desk phone to call VW corporate. Let's see what they say" card.
But you'd be surprised at how little some customers will accept.
In the early 80's I was managing an electronics store (PX in Germany). Some idiot blew up his TV by plugging it into the wrong voltage and was pissed that we wouldn't fix it for free. He went storming off to the General Manager's office to complain.
There was steam coming out of the guys head when he blew into the office. He walked out a few minutes later and I thought to myself "crap, we'll end up eating that repair" - but no, the GM backed us up and said "I explained the same thing you told him, but I handed him a handful of Burger King coupons (BK was just starting on base) and told him to take his wife and kids out to dinner on the Exchange the first night it opened" That probably cost $10 and the guy's TV repair was about $150.
Those were crazy times. My store was doing $1M a month in sales (audio/TV/Cameras) and the BK was averaging $375k a month - today, the average BK has $120k in sales.