ORIGINAL: itsmeek

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.