Hi all,

Well here goes my horrible service experience with Laurel Audi in Westmont, Illinois:

I purchased my car from a local dealer in Illinois who took it in to Laurel Audi for it's prepurchase inspection and final warranty service. At the time of inspection I was charged extra on top of the warranty service for a "mechanical inspection" which i have now found out was not done at all. I live in D.C. and if i would have waited to drive the car back here, it would have been over 50k miles and out of warranty. The selling dealer took the car into the dealership and the service rep who was looking at it is named Blake Farmer. He was impossible to reach and when I finally did get a hold of him he told me the car needed a serpentine belt, waterpump, thermostat. Great, I thought- i'm glad this stuff is getting fixed.

So fast forward to a day later. I fly to Chicago to pick up the car from the selling dealer. Everything looks great and I see the service record shows that the thermostat and serpentine belt were replaced. no waterpump, so i think maybe it wasn't needed. I get in the car and start driving back towards d.c. 20 miles out i get a low oil warning light. I pull over into a gas station and have to add 5 quarts of oil to the car. wow, a certified audi service dealer that doesn't know how to check the oil on a car.

so no harm done huh? well- first thing i do yesterday after work is take the car to the audi dealership that is local to me for an oil change. while changing the oil- the service tech calls me into the shop and tells me there is a coolant leak. i look under the car and there is red coolant- dripping all over the place. not only that- but a ton of white and pink residue from a past leak there as well which the tech points out. great! now my car is out of warranty and there is a leak from the waterpump/pulley area. i called laurel audi up and spoke to their service manager, Ed Skibinski. He tells me first that he can't do anything for me in a rude condescending tone. then he tells me, well...bring the car in and i'll look at it. i tell him i'm 750 miles away from him and he basically says "tough". Then he tells me that the dealership i'm at now is being audited. ??? Who cares, I want my stuff fixed, how unprofessional

So long story short, I was a victim of horrible customer service- and obvious dealer fraud. The "inspection" that i was charged for was not done, the oil wasn't even checked, the warranty item wasn't fixed. The waterpump is a long job and it was obviously ignored because while speaking to the original tech at Laurel Audi- he kept mentioning how busy they were and how a waterpump is a big job. so they cut corners and didn't do it. now i'm left with a possible huge bill.

i've called audi advocate up and hopefully they will work something out for me.

sorry for the long rant.

 

Well. I'm a standup guy and just like i posted my bad experience, i'll now post my good experience as well:

Ed Skibinski called me and told me that he would take care of the repair to my car that could be done here in the d.c. area. After the dealership here repaired the waterpump/thermostat/serpentine belts- Ed sent a check for the work and resolved my issue. I'd like to thank him for being a standup guy and turning this experience around for me. My faith is restored!! [/align]

 

We bought our A4 new in 2000 from Laurel, and have had nothing but excellent service from day one- everyone there is top-notch! Don't quite understand how your experience went sideways...

Just-for-fun, I'm attaching a photo of my "fishing car"

[IMG]local://upfiles/45579/FF04C71627714C8EBFF7EF73ECF1B91B.jpg[/IMG]

 

Napleton porsche also in Westmont, Ill who I bought my audi from are ********. dont buy from them!!!!!

 

My car 2005 Audi A4 1.8T had coolant leaking problem only in the winters starting in 2007. I have been telling the Audi Westmont service consultants since and no problem was found. Although the leak was slow I had to replace coolant at least twice each winter. I took my car to Audi westmont, where I bought the car, for almost all my services during the warranty period. During the 65000 service (out of warranty) I was advised to change the cam shaft seals as the oil is leaking "every where" so I went ahead and got that done and a few days later on a cold morning, I got the check Engine light. Code basically showed engine misfire cylinder 4. I looked up online and the only thing which can cause coolant leak in cold days with engine misfire and sweet smell after the car started for first few minutes is a head gasket leak. I got an estimate on how much it would cost me. I was told 1400 by one of the service consultants who advice me previously about the cam shaft leak. I called other dealers (Naperville -quoted 1700) and so it seamed like good deal to stick with Laurel audi. When I went for the appointment there was another "consultant" who volunteered to help as the original one was still on a test drive. And this was 30 min into my appointment time. This other consultant seemed like he was more seasoned in playing games. He smoothly asked me to sign the "diagnosis" cost and when I said I do not need diagnosis but would like the head gasket changed he smoothly and sleazily said the cost would be included. and at this time I told him that I was quoted 1400. But he did not say much. I had a feeling something is wrong fro his body language. But then I was hoping for the best. Left the car with them over the weekend. No call till I called him first. Could not find anything wrong. They are doing some additional diagnosis. I said Okay. 2 days after I get a call saying They need to do combustion chamber testing etc and it would cost more. I insisted on just replacing the head gasket and then the sleaze comes out. He says "before I go ahead with that I want to make sure the cost is 1400- just in case" And I thought there it goes. Next day promptly I get a call with the cost of 2200. Why? for the extra "nuts and bolts" they will need to replace while getting to the head gasket" "and also the valve cover gasket". Thats exactly what he told me verbatim. I lost the trust by this time and said no, I will take the car back and I was promptly told that I will be charged for the diagnosis. Okay I pay and I pick up the car which has been lying in the cold for a whole week and god only knows if they even touched it but when I was driving it had such bad rough idling. It actually got worse!. Now it smells like something is burning like rubber in the engine. Interestingly though, there have been no more engine lights.

BTW when I took it for the 65K service I also had a "check right brake light" warning. I could never check it my self and the "consultant" told yeah the light is gone and it needs to be replaced- costs 40 bucks. I said no and later I checked with my friend pressing the brake and it was just fine! And as I mentioned all warnings disappeared.
Very disappointed with Audi and the "service" at the dealership.

 

hoping they fix my car and get it back to me soon.. not sure what happened... they are telling me they are baffled too.. not sure what to believe

 

I had the worst experience EVER at this dealership - I cannot believe their sales rep wasted all of my and my family's time when everything was discussed over phone days in advance. I am an employee of VW/Audi and we get a discount and I had told this rep that I had the Audi Employee Certificate just 2-3 days before I came into the dealership. Finally after making arrangements ....my wife and I took time off work - even asked my parents to join us there...we all go to this dealership, checkout the car and fill out the credit app and show him my employee certificate and he says sorry we are not obligated to accept that and claims I never mentioned anything about it on the phone when I absolutely did mention it on the phone to him!! I will NEVER go back to this dealership - absolutely no regard for customer's time and no respect for customers. Maybe this dealership should have a requirement for their sales reps to pass the hearing test before they put them on the job - honestly I just had a bad feeling about their sales rep from the first phone call - he was constantly being pushy and trying to pressure me come in and buying the car as if the car was the best car ever. Funniest part - he compared it to Tesla and said Tesla puts cheap parts in their car. My advice - skip this dealer and goto other Audi dealers who actually appreciate your business. I am part of the Audi family and this is how they treated me...imagine how they treat other people! Totally unprofessional! Avoid this dealer at all costs!

 

Has anyone been to the Audi Westmont lately? I went in with a coolant leak and left with a horrible engine shudder at idle and a check engine light and a $2400 bill. I went back in and was told ALL plugs needed to be replaced. I ask "in a day, cause I drove it here perfectly fine!" After running the total to over $2700... THE SHUDDER IS STILL THERE and the CEL is on ALL the time. There is no excuse - they are either crooks are completely incompetent... still searching for a way to fix my low-idle shudder that DrDg has! My code-reader from Amazon is in the mail...

UPDATE: Well, not for a lack of trying they have told me there's nothing they can do. I've posted in the A8 section if you want to see the codes but basically they said my manifold is warped. They said car w 89k miles basically had self-corrected a Bank 2 intake leak "perfectly" and that when they cleared the codes as part of their normal maintenance it erased the car's self-correction algorithms. They said they could probably fix it for $2500... on a 2007 w/ 89k miles... after I've spent over $2700... naw.

They were very responsive, courteous, and got me a rental ASAP for as long as I needed. If only my car wasn't so much worse than before I went there.

 

I'm thinking small claims court,post haste.Sorry to hear of your troubles..