Ok, Here goes....

The cars an 1999 audi s3. On my way up to Uni in Coventry from Essex last tuesday night/wednesday. I suddenly got really bad wobbling under highish speed breaking and the car was really unbalanced. Brakes have been going for a while but i hadn't got round to putting on new discs and pads. Anyway i had arranged a weekend in Bournemouth with some friends to leave Thursday evening. Took it too a local garage, they said new pads and discs etc.. but couldn't get them in and done in time. So i rung up Audi, knowing it would be expensive but didn't really have a choice if i wanted to get down to Bournemouth.
Anyway they do the work, rear calliper had jammed as well. They also then want to charge me £50 just to bleed the brakes and put new brake fluid in but as i was having a new calliper and discs/pads i didn't think i really had a choice.

So i go on Thursday to pick up the car. Firstly the bill comes out, they try to charge me £250 to much. Card was in the machine when i noticed, they had fiddled around sneakily with the figures. I said no this is this much etc.. etc...
Anyway he tells me to sit down, comes back 40minutes later with the new bill. So i pay it and go out to get my car.
Drive around the block and immediately notice that the brakes are worst than they were before. They definitely hadn't been bled, 50% of the pedal did nothing, 20% was a squishy air/fluid bit of braking, then the last bit did a bit. So i go back in complain, they say a mechanic will be out to speak to you.

So the mechanic takes me out, tells me a lot of bullshitting saying they will be spongey when new and saying that he doesn't remember the old s3's, but didn't think they were ever any good. I turn round and say well it was better when i came in and they needed bleeding etc... He then said oh it might be the servo needing adjusting.

As i get out of the car, i say well i've got a motorsport business, i race cars and i know when something isn't right. He says is there any rush. I said yes i've got a ferry at 6pm to go to Le mans.

Suddenly he runs off, i suddenly see lots of people running around and the keys are returned to me through someone else quickly.

The cars fine, and i wasn't going to le mans but it worked. But this was a main dealer Audi in Coventry. Id expect it from some dodgy little place but the brakes were blatantly not bled and i definitely wont be using them again.

Anyway Rant over!!!! Sorry for the essay

Unfortunately they're all pretty much the same...don't know anyone with a good experience of any VW/Audi dealers....

edd, you do seem to have great luck with audi garages.

glad it is all sorted

I wonder if they thought you were one of Audi's official drivers at Le Mans...

Two days later in a Audi office in Coventry, a reverse charge call to Germany....
*No mine furher, we were just trying to scam another punter as usual, how were we supposed to know. he would be driving an Audi???*

All dealers are the same. Volvo tried to sting me £250 for rear (!) pads after 40k. "They are 80% worn" they said. After a quick look I pointed out that if they were 80% worn, then they were originally 70mm thick!! I now go to a 'proper' garage that charge me half and do a proper job! Sod the warranty.

I have heard similar of Audi and VW. More to do with them not selling enough cars and needing to make money somewhere.

Good call on the Le Mans comment

my mate had a similar problem at Toyota the other day. they said his front pads on his 35k mile corolla verso were 80% worn and needed replacing at £200.

not wanting to pay £200 for a pair of front pads we went to uni part at lunch time and got new pads for £16!

took a wheel off whipped a pad out only to see that it was about 40% worn!

my signum is going into vauxhall for a recall tomorrow. i plan on asking them for a list of things that need attention. I know the car is neigh on perfect so im looking forward to seeing the print out

My local Audi dealer could not do more for me, collect car, do everything they say they will, full valet, return and collect courtesy car. I get phone calls to update me through out the day. Nothing but a pleasure to deal with. Also the receptionist is well fit..........

After all this time I would have thoght dealers would have got the message that in order to retain and bring in new business you have to treat people honestly and fairly. I have always stuck to this ethic in my business and have a loyal client base.
You only rip somebody off once and the word goes out to avoid your business. When will they learn.

Can I just make a little comment here, If you have a bad experience at a main dealer why rant on here about it and then do nothing else. If you dont make an official complaint to the manufacturer what will ever change. Will the alleged rip off's ever stop? At least if you make an official complaint something may eventially happen and could stop some one else being ripped off. Or is it a case of Im all right........

I don't think it's just Audi dealers! Every garage has to earn a crust but far too many want the rest of the pie and the dish to go with it.
I started my working life as an apprentice at a Rover dealer. The problem there was the pillocks in the workshops. Lazy blokes who would book out a service kit but just wipe the oil filter to make it look new. Have a quick look to see if there was any meat left on the pads rather than take off the wheel, remove the pads, clean, inspect etc.. If challenged, the gaffers would stand by the mechanics but give them a good rollocking behind closed doors!!
Recently I used a garage recommended to me to service my Rangey. They ripped me off good and proper so I told my recommendee and he said, "that's odd. They've just overcharged me for work I've had done....!" I'm back to trusting myself to do the work.....

A guy I work with had simillar promlems with his 98 a3.

Alot of garages are like that, they either assume you know nothing or they know nothing, and often both. As soon as they realise your not buying there BS they usually lay of but not always. My dad has had all kinds of dealer nonsense including one main dealer that said he needed a new clutch, in an automatic. He also once failed an MOT on something the garage would fix for £50, said he'd go some where else, check it and it was fine, went back having done nothing and they passed the car.

In my experience brands with less badge appeal seem to do this less. I get on very well with my Fiat dealer, though my cousin did work there, had the car service last week and they couldn't have been nicer. And my parents always say they got better service from Kia than any other company, and are always going on about how inadequate Mercedes are (Who parked there car in a stupid place on there own lot when it was in for repairs and crashed into it themselves).

My boss got an Audi mostly because of his dealer experience, he had a short list and the other two dealers BMW and MB just weren't intrested, as soon as they found out it was a company car they couldn't be bothered.

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Originally posted by AndyW
Can I just make a little comment here, If you have a bad experience at a main dealer why rant on here about it and then do nothing else. If you dont make an official complaint to the manufacturer what will ever change. Will the alleged rip off's ever stop? At least if you make an official complaint something may eventially happen and could stop some one else being ripped off. Or is it a case of Im all right........

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VW main dealer managed to fail to replace a brake light bulb on a (company) Passat once.

They are dual filament stop / tail lights. They managed to force it in the wrong way so one of the four lights at the back looked like you were braking all the time?

I didn't realise and I admit I didn't check their work when I picked it up (the bulb failure warning light was out).

Mrs Guiness got stopped by the plod one night "ello, ello, ello, why are you proceeding with the fog lights on?" When shown the fog light switch was off, and that more lights lit up when it was switched on, she got let off the ticket.

That was the end of using main dealers for me.

most manufactures have a customer service bonus scheme running

if you have a complaint then you should put it too head office of the audi dealers or direct to audi themselfs who i turn will put a call into the dealer in question

quote:

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Originally posted by AndyW
Can I just make a little comment here, If you have a bad experience at a main dealer why rant on here about it and then do nothing else. If you dont make an official complaint to the manufacturer what will ever change. Will the alleged rip off's ever stop? At least if you make an official complaint something may eventially happen and could stop some one else being ripped off. Or is it a case of Im all right........

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mate, just ring audi customer service, complain through your ar$e and get your money back, say that they threatened your life by not bleeding the breaks properly and that you are going to sue them or some B0ll0cks! just try it on!

Don't bother ringing audi/seat/skoda/vw customer service, unless you want to get a stomach ulcer through the stress of it all. If you have to complain try to keep it in writing thus distancing you from the ineptitude of the telephone operator.

There's only 1 person that cares less than the Audi dealer who tried to rip you off and that's the Audi customer service dept, you've bought the car, it's old as fork (to them) who cares eh!

my dad had similar issues with landrover when the warrnty was in its last couple of months
in the end he called landrover care (landrovers own customer service, not the dealers) and they very quickly pulled the dealer into line


[Edited on 13/6/2011 by mcerd1]

" But this was a main dealer Audi in Coventry. Id expect it from some dodgy little place but the brakes were blatantly not bled and i definitely wont be using them again"

I'd expect this much more from a main dealer or other well advertised tyre type places than most small back st outfits that actually know anything about cars and dont bite the hand that feeds them

Audi in Camberley tried to charge me for 8 litres of oil when they did an oil change on my old A4 (when it was newish), many years ago.

They even had the cheek to dispute it when I questioned it.

Honest mistake or fraud?

you'd be wasting your time complaining in that situation, if the car was under warranty it might be of use but on a car that old they're not going to care. As you said to begin with, you wouldn't normally go there anyway so what do they care that your never coming back, I've had people tell me at work that they're never coming back and thats fine by me because I don't want them back if they feel that way. From Audi HQ's perspective, imagine how many complaints they get and how many of them are or seem to be Bogus? There is nothing worse than having to put up with people who are only complaining to try and con you and after a while it hardens you against people complaining to the point that you just don't care, factor in that very few people will write in and say they had a good experience.

If you do complain officially, do it in writing, it will help you to vent and you can at least imagine something is being done. Send out copies to every adress Audi have, send it directly to Wolfsburg to Ferdinand Pierch himself, it might make you feel better.

My experience has been exactly the opposite when using Audi main dealers.
Derby Audi, needed a couple of parts, I broke one of the front wiper clips changing them over, ordered a replacement and asked if the parts guy could fit it as I was in my suit and it was snowing, he was happy to FOC.
Free MOT... used it 3 times now and they've not tried to charge me for anything, car has passed all 3 times. The last one (Saturday morning at Cheltenham Audi) someone reversed into my car Friday evening and cracked the number plate - instant failure. I called them, they said they'd get one ordered for the morning. Got there, the car failed on 2 things, the plate and a rear brake light. They put the new plate on and replaced the bulb, again all FOC.

I'm happy with their service and honesty... maybe I've just been lucky with the 2 I've used.
Yes their parts are a little more expensive, but just get the part numbers for service items and order them from VW, same parts, lower prices

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Originally posted by BigLee
All dealers are the same. Volvo tried to sting me £250 for rear (!) pads after 40k. "They are 80% worn" they said. After a quick look I pointed out that if they were 80% worn, then they were originally 70mm thick!!

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just got the car back from vauxhall Crawley the handbrake mechanism has been replaced foc and feels a lot better now, they put the new software on the ecu foc and gave me a report saying the car is all fine other than it will need new front tyres soon and a pair of rear pads that i knew about already. pretty good service and they done all of that in 2 hours.

edit.

glad i didn't sell it and buy an audi or bmw now

[Edited on 14/6/2011 by ashg]

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Originally posted by ashg

glad i didn't sell it and buy an audi or bmw now

[Edited on 14/6/2011 by ashg]

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quote:

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Originally posted by thefreak
I'm happy with their service and honesty... maybe I've just been lucky with the 2 I've used.

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on a 1979 fiesta!