hey guys.

Just bought an 1997 Audi A4 2.8QM2 weeks ago. I had stopped by audi of Charlotte to schedule an appointment for the JS ignition switch recall and to do an oil change. Spoke to Irwin. Real nice guy. Set me up for Tuesday Feb. 13th at 9 A.M. on 3 days notice.

(I found out Monday I was able to squeeze in a dentist appointment at 10:15 A.M. b/c I had a real bad toothache over the weekend. Come tofind out I need a root canal. Hurts like hell, and Aleve and all OTC painkillers are worthless. Back to topic...)

I called Irwin at 4 P.M. Monday to see if I could come in early as I would like to be done by 9:30 to make my other appointment. He was nice and said I could come in at 7:30 and he would get me done in 2 hours tops. Great, I say.

I show up Tuesday morning at 7:30, pull into the service lane. There are 3 other Audi's there already, so it seems like a slow day and I am in luck. Takes about 15 minutes to get checked in though. Kenn was the guy checking me in.He gets the miles off the car and all the info, and turns down mystereo. I guess he doesn't like John Mellencamp LOL.Then he messed up my seat. Always an annoyance. I informed him of my appointment with the dentist at 10:15 and I HAD to leave my 9:30-9:40. I asked him if there was time, to do a tire rotation. I had noticed the night before that i was missing one lug and some were rusted out, so I stopped by a parts store to buy some new lugs and thought "well while the rotation is being done, they can slap on new lugs, even if they charge me a few bucks extra." Kenn tells me no problem, I will be done by 9:30 he guarantees me. I then tell him if he is running behind, just skip the oil change and tire rotation, I can come back after the dentist. He tells me not to worry, it will get done.

So I go grab some breakfast, b/c across the road there is a McDonalds. I come back at 9 A.M., hoping the car is almost done. Kenn is working with 2 other customers, so i don't bother him. My tooth is killing me, so I decide to take a nap on one of those comfy sofas for a minute. Too bad I can't b/c some momma is playing with a noisy baby. That's O.K. then, I grab a smoke and kill some time.

I'm pacing outside around 9:20ish, getting worried I will miss my appointment. Kenn makes eye contact with me several times and I see him disappear to the garage. I assume it is to check on the car.

At 9:42 A.M., he informs me that several lugs are frozen to the hubs and they can't remove them. I also bought the wrong kind of lugs, so he can't swap them out or do a rotation. That's fine, I say, just slap on one new one where I am missingone and I'll pay the 21 dollars since he had to jack up the car and try anyways. He said he will only charge me 3 bucks for a new lug and I say cool.

This is where it starts to suck.

He proceeds to tell me my car will me done SOON, 30 minutes more at the MAX. Are you kidding me? it is already 12 minutes AFTER the time you guaranteed me I would be driving away! Pardon my skepticism, but I believe they JUST started working on the car at 9:30 A.M.!!!! Kenn then tells me to hold on, he will get it done as fast as possible.

Now I am disgruntled, being my first time in this place, feeling stupid for buying the wrong lugs, feeling mad b/c I was lied to and my jaw is KILLING me.

I call the dentist and inform them I will be late, and if I could still keep the appointment, I will be happy to pay a fee for being late. They tell me if I am not there by 10:15, to not bother coming. SoI cancel the appointment, to avoid a $75 dollar no show fee. What a nice dentist, I think, I've only known him since I've been 5 years old.

So I now realize I need to make another appointment, which is 2 weeks away. Great! So I go back inside the dealership and wait some more.

At 10:17 A.M., Kenn comes by to tell me he's getting my paperwork ready b/c the car is gonna be pulled up any second b/c he sent it to the detail guy to have it cleaned. I look outside and think to myself "WTF, it's starting to drizzle outside" (it later continues to rain for 8 hours straight). So I keep waiting.

At 10:41 A.M., Kenn comes to let me know that they are finished and the cashier is waiting for me. I just stare at him and I don't say a word b/c I think I will cause a scene. I also wonder if he gets the point that I am pissed. Nope! So I just try to get outta there ASAP. kenn tells me all the work done, and to come back ASAP to they can work on the lugs and stuff. THEN he tells me he gave me a "discount" b/c normally the oil change is $110 dollars and he knocked it down to $66.00 ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Fine!! I'll pay it just to not ever have to come back. I didn't know the 2.8 V6 was such a money pit WOW.

I get in my car, readjust the seat, and take off. As sson as I pull out of the dealer, i realize my radio is off. It's a Clarion deck. I just put it in the week before, so i don't know all the buttons yet. I try to figure out how to turn it on. It won't. So now I am super mad. I drive back and simply say to Kenn "My stereo has no power" To which he replies "oh, are you getting a safe code?"
"No, something is not powering up my stereo anymore"
"ok, let me get someone to look at it"

He sends out the tech., and he is a really nice guy and talks to me about how he has a '98 A4 and such. Then he starts telling me all he did was replace the ignition switch and no wires were touched. He noticed some loose wires in the steering column and I tell him I just bought it, I don't know everything yet that the previous owner has done.

So I have to wait another hour and when they come back, they tell me they did nothing wrong. They tested out all the things that draw power and the stereo somehow isn't turning on. Then Kenn tells me that I installed the stereo wrong and probably some wires came loose and there is nothing powering it now. So instead of fighting it, I leave, swearing to never come back, and I call circuit city to make an appointment to re-wire my car stereo.

I installed the stereo a week beforehand with a friend who is good at electronics. We had every printout and wiring diagram possible, and the guy at Crutchfield was on the phone with us for over 30 minutes while we did the install. I just don't understand how the stereo works when i take it to the dealer, the dealer does work to the steering column, and now the stereo doesn't work. I just hope circuit city can fix it so I can know for sure what made it go bad.


Thanks for reading.......

 

you were obviously disturbed by this incident and I can well under stand why ( toothache and Kenn ) both the same thing Kenn rips you off and the dentist rips it out, Kenn needs to get a grip on the workers without taking the P out of the customer

 

did you check the fuse on the turn on lead? its the blue wire. I had a pioneer and had the same thing happen - clarion might be different but check it out.

 

yeah very well could have blown a fuse when he was in there messing with igntion switch. Im sure if hes a good tech he would have disconnected the battery, Maybe upon reconnecting the terminals it blew the fuse.

 

Can you guys tell me where this fuse is? Is it in the fuse box by the driver's door? Or is it something I need to get into the dash for? I doubt he disconnected the battery b/c he would have mentioned that my negative battery terminal needs to be replaced b/c I broke off the end with the screw. It was rusted out when I changed batteries.

On a side note, I opened my trunk tonight and to my amazement, I found a box of empty castrol GTX oil quart bottles in there along with a crumpled up piece of paper that had the work order on it. I wasn't aware that Audi trunks have trash compactors in them?

 

Is there a tech number on your work order. I used to work there and when it comes to kens customers unless your getting major work done or can affect his csi ratingnyou can very easily fall to the bottom of the pile. or thats the way i always took him and irwin can be worse way worse. the only guy that really cares is the new guy. But sometimes they have mornings where things get real hectic. but they should have either got on your care knowing you had a major appt or told you to come back or giving you a car for a couple of hours.

 

shouldve asked for a loaner.