Dr.Aronis

I'd like to not only watch, but be right up close watching.....

**** happens, we all know that, but I don't want to initiate a multiple return to the dealer 10 hours round trip to fix problems they cause......

Mike

Rakete

tech from hell stories....I must be odd or something because in 20 years my Audi techs have all been good. I get the feeling that some of the people posting here go to the dealer with an attitude which doesn't help the problem. Like you Mike, my authorized is a 300 round trip for me so you want them to get it correct the first time. But again, you don't let family members in while you operate....ha

RFGURU

What the hell- customer attitude? Any competent tech should not mind being watched (save for legal liability issues), where's the professionalism? In professional work as in servicing these cars, its either done right or wrong, where does attitude come into play, its a freaking job. I do my job the same way whether or not I like the customer or not. I am proud of my job, and apparently some techs just don't give a shi#?

Rakete

I use to have one tech that would grab and chair and tell me to sit while he worked on the car and I didn't ask if I could sit because most shops have a sign about customers not being in the shop. You won't know until you ask....but a lot of people leave their cars and pick them up later. I always wait. We all do our jobs....and so do them better than others..like anything in life...lighten up.

DaveyKid

They'll make every excuse under the sun for not allowing you the opportunity to watch what's happening from insurance liability issues to not enough room for the technician to do his job. Maybe some people reading this are going to take offense to my comment, but you are dealing with an individual who could care less about your car, your investment and your thoughts. They care about doing an "adequate" job, getting out of there at the end of the day, and keeping mistakes to a minimum at best. I would go so far as to say that they might show resentment towards an individual that displays a greater wealth than they do, they've probably heard a few customers scream about the mistakes they've made which they may hold as a grudge against some of us, and above all else I've found that most technicians I've dealt with are complete idiots that treat us like we don't know a thing about our cars. Fact is, we know more about recurring problems and how to deal with them because of this board then they care to admit.

Now, I'm not talking about service managers because quite honestly they are not working on the car but I'm referring to the technician themselves who deal with these problems day in and day out. Where the svc mgr comes into play is flexing his muscles when things go south. Mine does an excellent job of that for me and because of that I'll continue to go to my dealer until I see that support fall off.

Whew, I feel better!

jatwrite

To wit: My car sat on a dealer hoist in Florida for 30 days due to an Audi screw-up. The short version is that the dealer was waiting for a part from Germany that was already here, but AOA -- which told the dealer to make the order -- didn't know it was here because Germany didn't tell them.

Another mfr-dealer issue is pride. In Florida, my tech clearly was annoyed by AOA, saying "they don't want us to do anything anymore, except what they tell us to do." Being any company's "robot" is no fun. More importantly, that approach clearly is not working, since the "robots" are overfilling our oil months after the issue first came up. They also have yet to resolve the OnStar issue, which has been going on even longer.

Did you know that the President of AOA is in Germany, not the US? Doesn't that seem odd? I think it's part of the problem. Some of their policies are so unnecessarily secretive, too, like US dealers not being able to find out the status of a parts order to Germany until the part reaches US shores. That's one reason my car sat so long. Can anyone think of a benefit for such a policy, other than covering someone's *** in Germany?

Rakete

it does take far too long to get them when they have to order from Germany.

jatwrite

At least Len Hunt's office said that. I'm not sure about the new guy.

I wrote a long letter to Mr. Hunt last Jan. 30, explaining that I was a long time Audi owner (1st car 1971) who was frustrated while waiting for parts (a wait which was unnecessary, as it turned out, per above story) and begging them to stock all RS6 parts in the US. A polite young woman called back to say they won't do that because Audi has too many models with too many parts to stock. Keeping a full inventory here apparently would be too difficult and/or unprofitable.

In addition I told my AOA advocate of my strong desire for parts here. He said "That's my crusade," but later admitted he could do nothing to change the discouraging response I got.

As a self-employed person, my profits suffer from the time I waste in service -- waiting for loaners that aren't ready, driving back & forth and the like. So, following the same logic as Audi, I will avoid Audi purchases in the future if my life becomes too unprofitable due to waiting for parts.

Rakete

German car that has a long wait for parts. I can tell you stories about Jaguar in the earlier years that would curl you hair and GM wasn't any better. Let's just hope our Audi's will rarely need parts. All in all I have been treated 100% better by Audi than all the other brands of cars that we have owned 40 years.

jatwrite

Which, by the way, does not limit me to the Big Three. Numerous Japanese brands manufacture here too.

But unless I experience more lengthy parts/service delays, I will give the German makes consideration as well -- unless their quality continues to drop. Have you seen where VW is these days on the J.D. Power surveys? Near the bottom, barely above the low budget Korean brands! Audi is below average, too, with results worse than many US brands -- in initial quality as well as after three years.

I suspect part of the problem is the economy in Germany. From what I've read, the days of government largesse are over, and workers now are being asked/told to put in more hours for the same money -- and if they don't, their bosses say, then the company will have to shut down the plant(s).

Working in an environment like that has got to take a toll on product quality.