Volkswagen representatives demanded a $150 fee before using GPS to locate the vehicle and child.


A family is suing VW after the company refused to help them locate their carjacked vehicle with their toddler son inside unless the parents or police paid a $150 subscription fee.

Everything started if February of this year when Taylor Shepherd, after pulling into her driveway in her 2021 VW Atlas, was carjacked by two masked men. Worse yet, her two-year-old son was in the backseat when it happened. She tried stopping them but they literally ran over her with the Atlas; breaking her pelvis and putting her six month pregnancy at risk. “They ran over the entire left side of my body. There were tire tracks all over the left side of my stomach,” Shepherd told Fox32.

Shepherd called 911 thinking that she would be able to get GPS info through VW’s vehicle control and tracking Car-Net app. The app turned out to be useless though unless you paid, which is a wild thing to ask in an emergency like this. However that’s exactly what VW did when Lake County Sheriff’s contacted the company for the GPS Data.

read more: https://jalopnik.com/parents-of-baby-in-carjacked-vehicle-are-suing-vw-for-r-1851025357

  • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
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    1 year ago

    In a normal business that is not a mega corporation you would just do it. You can just activate it for a limited period if you really feel suspicious, after two or three tries you will quickly spot the people trying to abuse the system.

    Even if people could abuse the system for free aubsceiptions, I don’t agree with the fact that preventing people from getting free subscription is a higher priority than helping a mother getting her 2 years old back.

    • 4am@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Ask for name and department of calling officer. Disconnect call. Call department’s non-emergency number, ask to be connected to said officer.

      Boom, verified. Standard operating procedure for any sane company that might get a request like this.

    • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Meanwhile you’re on the hook personally for what they do with the car in those 3 days.

      Do u guys not understand simple liability laws in the USA???