VERY Long story. sorry about this but if you want to do business with this dealership.. please think again, there are far better dealers around this DMV area..

STAY AWAY FROM THIS DEALER!!!


I went in for 25000 scheduled maintenance for my AUDI Q5 covered by AudiCare. Once the service was completed, they give you free car wash..

Guess what? They washed my car with panorama sunroof open. Leather seats soaked, and carpets soaked, and future potential electrical problems / mold / mildew problems..etc.. dealers not really doing anything to do anything right...

it gets worse....please read on.

Did dealership tell me about carwash incident before I pick up the car? NO
Here's how I found out. When I got in the car, back window was fogged up, I thought it was due to result of carwash and humidity level in VA. So I ignored that and was on my way home, while on the way home, my shirt right arm was getting wet from the arm rest, so I looked around and there was about 2 inches of water in the cup holder, back leather seats were very damp, and carpets in the rear seats were soaked.
I immediately called the dealership, tried to speak to manager, and left a voicemail.

Very next morning, service department manager called 8am in the morning, told me to come in so they can assess the damage and dry it out for me. My concern wasn't the drying it out part. Car should not be washed with sunroof open. Whoever made the mistake should have came forward and taken the responsibility. Also, with car being exposed to lots of water (car wash uses average of 35 gallons per vehicle). Even if I assumed only quarter of that went into my car, it's about 9 gallons that was in my car.

So I was very concerned, started to initiate talk with the GM (Selim Eslaquit), He assured me that there was no damages as they dried it out completely and that there would be no problem what so ever.

I challenged him on the spot, let's open one of your vehicle with panorama sunroof and go ahead and do a carwash, and you dry it out and sell it to customer or you keep it.. can you do it? he said no. So I asked him Why should I keep such vehicle when dealership was at fault and also that they needed to replace the car for me.

then he counter-offered if I kept the car that he would offer to extend warranty to 100k, OR that I trade it in and get a same vehicle with same options (at dealer cost). So then he started to give me numbers, and gave the low balling trade in value at 32,000, and gave invoice price for the new q5. Later that day, I stopped by at the Carmax and found out that my car was valued at 35,000. So I went back to Selim, and asked how he's got to the 32k, and that it was ridiculous he was still trying to make money off my car when his dealership caused great deal of inconvenience. Then he rudely cut me off and said, "Do you work in a car sales industry? I do, you don't, so You don't really know what you're talking about?" I felt very disrespected and demanded to get Audi Rep's number because it was obvious that this GM did not know how to treat their valuable customer. He also said all those in front of his sales people which shows that he's clearly not fit for a GM position at any kind of dealership.

My counter offer to Selim was that he will give me more than Carmax and he does not make not a single dollar on the vehicle he sells to me. not even a hold back, he said he could not do that. He then challenged me if I can sell the vehicle for more somewhere else, then go ahead and do it and come back to them to complete the transaction.

IS HE EFFING out of his mind? Why the heck would I go sell the vehicle somewhere else and basically let him off the hook? This was his dealership's fault, and he was not even trying to make this right, obviously only interested in maximizing the profit on this trade in and selling new vehicle (putting 1 more on the board for them..).


Next day, I contacted the AUDI USA, and rep was very understanding of the situation and told me that he would talk to GM to see if they can come to a resolution. Audi Rep got back to me 2 days later, saying that it was dealership's fault, so they did not want to get involved.
So now ball was back at the GM, he matched the carmax and gave in on the holdback. At this point, I did not even want to deal with AUDI ever again, but since they are getting 1 more sale on the board, I did ask them to either take off destination / processing fee out because I had paid them once before OR offer extended warranty on the new car as well. He of course said no, did not want to deal with me any longer.


One extremely bad dealership experience / and experience of AUDI USA not taking care of their customer with the 2nd Audi, I was very disappointed and ready to move on at this point.

I also honestly feel like I was discriminated because of my age and race. I wonder if I was a older Caucasian male, whether he would be able to disrespect customer that rudely. I felt almost embarrased to go back to the dealership after he cut me off and said I had no idea what I was talking about..

In the end, guess what happened..?
Nothing got resolved, and because I'm being tired of dealing with Audi,
I just treated Audi incident as total bad luck, and ordered BMW instead. Could not be any happier. I did lose about $10,000, but there was no way that I'll buy another AUDI ever again.

Audi will never earn my business ever again, and they have now lost valuable client.

 

I was [generally] with you until I got near the end of your story [in red below].

(1) The issue is between you and the 'independent' dealership, not Audi or VAG.
(2) I saw nothing in your story/recounting to indicate racial or ethnic prejudice.

It seems to me that the dealership made you a reasonable offer early on, ...to extend the warranty.

 

Well, much like with Ben, you lost ME on teh race/age issue. Other than that, I'm totally with you. The dealership DID, by their actions, not only reduce the resale-ability of your vehicle, but then refused to make good on the issue. Anymore, it seems that Euro stealerships are willing to sacrifice return customers because they know another customer is walking in the door, right behind the one who storms out.

Taking care of a customer, and potentially having a customer for life is no longer any part of the stealerships concern.

Of course, I have had my own issues with AoA... I just go there for test-drives because they are convenient. I'd never be foolish enough to purchase from these moroons, or let them service anything of mine. Actually, you could say they are teh reason I'm an Admin on this site. If they hadn't wanted $700.00 to replace rear pads on my D2 A8, way back when, I'd've never went looking for online advice on doing checks and services and found AudiForums.

For THAT, I do owe them thanks.

For anything else, NO THANKS!!!

 

You lost me when you mentioned that you take advantage of a particular dealership (test drives) yet have no intention of doing business with it.

Perhaps we read the OP differently. I understood him to say that the dealership offered a cleanup AND and extended warranty; which seemed reasonable to me.

 

If there was any instance of ageism or racism, from what you said in the story, I sure as hell didn't see it.

 

You make the mistake of being overly judgmental without paying attention to any of the details. I'll bet you work in IT...

They wanted $700.00 to install rear pads on my car, and this almost 10-years ago. JUST THE PADS. Either they wanted to soak me, for the sake of soaking me, or they had other reasons for wanting to charge me such an exorbitant amount. I can't wait to hear your justification for that one.

Plus, as you undoubtedly have not yet intuited, I get to read a LOT of peoples' comments about dealers on this site. AoA gets ripped on here, A LOT. Not a lot of people praise that dealership. Do a search, THEN come back and talk. Tell me what YOUR tally is on good versus bad.

AoA is closer than Rockville Audi, so, if I wanna test-drive, I visit them. Bt, until I start seeing anecdotal evidence that they've reformed their elitest, pompous ways, I will never spend anything but time there.

 

Goodness gracious, sakes alive! If I cared whether or not I would be allowed to continue participation in this forum, I might beg forgiveness or slink into the background for a while. Since I don't, I will respond and see if my post is cancelled.
As to the first 'charge', I suppose I was judgemental though not overly so BY ANY STRETCH.. Taking advantage of a dealership's generosity (test drive) with no intent of doing business there based on a preconceived opinion is not something that I would do.

I would agree that 10 years ago, $700 to replace the rear brake pads only sounds very high. I would not agree for the work to go forward if I didn't like the quotation. On the other hand, I stand by a merchant's right to price his merchandise and service as he wishes. In a free market the pricing decision will stand or fall over time. Would you prefer that government set prices?

Regarding intuition, you made it abundently clear that you are an "administrator." Hopefully you are paid what you are worth.

 

Ben, I'd never bring my personal feelings into my (unpaid) position, here. Not teh way I live my life or handle my business. Any/everyone here is free to disagree with me as stringently as as they want. You can even call me names, if that makes you feel better (tho, I doubt YOU would... So far, You don't seem to me to be the type). Go ahead... I honestly don't care. It's the internetez. Anyone who gets on the internetez and takes either it or themselves seriously deserves whatever abuse the internetez decides to pile onto to them.

The only thing *I* care about is how you treat the other members. How you behave, in general; and whether or not you're spamming the forums. Ask any of teh long-term members about me and they'll tell you "Jazz can give as good as he gets," but none of them can or will say that I banned someone simply because of something they said to me.

As for the "taking advantage of..." Tell me, do you intend to buy from EVERY store you walk into? Or, like pretty much everybody *I* know, do you occasionally wander into a store simply to look around? There's nothing different in what *I* do to AoA. And, if you want to argue salesman's time, trouble, gas, etc... It's the cost of doing business. You walk into a store and you could be leaving scuff marks all over their floor that someone has to clean up... Ever not put an item back exactly where you picked it up from? Someone has to put that back... Use their restroom? (across 50+ years I am sure you've use 1 or 2) resources must be used to compensate for your social interactions within that store. No difference.

Honestly, if AoA did manage to clean up their act enough to encourage people to post POSITIVE remarks about them, here and on some of teh other Audi Forums, I would reconsider. But, they don't. Their behaviors have been fairly consistent over the nearly decade since I first visited them, and subsequently joined AF. Again, I get to see many, many posts telling of their ***-hattery. Here and elsewhere... I feel no guilt for my actions. I sleep well, at night.

Phoreel-foreal, even in your other post touting the newfound return to caring, concerned dealerships, you do not mention a single one by name. Give credit where credit is due; if it truly IS due. If it is earned it should be rewarded, don't you think?

BTW, I am paid exactly what I am worth, by Internet-Brands, in case you missed that part.

 

Let's back up if we may. I entered this thread to suggest that the OP seemed (to me) to expect something more than that is reasonable under the circumstances that were outlined. The service department acknowleged it's mistake and offered an extended warranty. You offered your thoughts (I have no problem with that) then went on to say that you would not do business with the dealership other than to avail yourself of the opportunity to test drive vehicles and that if you were to buy an Audi it would be from another dealership. I took issue with that and you lit into me with a remark speculating about my profession. That's OK, my skin is thick. Are we on the same page?

Since you asked, I have had excellent experience with Butch Ostalett Ford, M-B of Georgetown, Jackson Imports, Covert Cadillac, BMW of Austin, and Austin Subaru during the past 10 to 12 years.

 

yeah... we're good. never weren't, AFAIK.

I have opinions; and, so do you.

We discuss.

Neutral corners.

Life goes on.

~one old guy to another~