john s

"dealer made a mistake"
At least they didn't lie and say it was an honest mistake.

"If you can prove damages using another Audi service center then Princeton Audi is contractually obligated to make repairs"
If in fact PA did damage the coupling, from what they're saying I wouldn't be able to resolve the matter through Audi. They would insist that the damaging dealer (Princeton Audi) be given the chance to inflect even greater damage. Draining and refilling the coupling is child's play compared to replacement and proper alignment. Looks like it would have be a matter of taking PA to court in order to get reimbursed for the cost of replacement.

Bluto

get a letter stating the error so if there where any future problems correlating to this you would have some more legal back-up.

rollerskate

yeah, and good luck getting dealer to write a letter opening themselves up to future legal action!?

TTerrell

or management? Not the way I would run it!

Duffer

dealer afterwards to have them check out their work. (once again, under warranty)

Duffer

have an opportunity to fix their miscues and make things right.

rollerskate

the dealer that screwed things up is responsible for their mistakes, and thus responsible for paying to fix any damage, etc.
but you don't have to have THEM do the work. in fact, it might be a bad idea to let them touch your car again for a variety of reasons...

if the dealer just didn't do some stuff, you can get that done elsewhere.
certainly no reason to trust them to do it the second time around...
you may need to make it clear to AoA why you don't want them to do it,
but as long a AoA isn't paying twice to do the work, they shouldn't mind.

if you paid them to do something they didn't do, they owe you your money back.
if you didn't pay anything, then as long as no damage was done, they just owe you an apology (and then don't go back, unless it was some kind of honest mistake). they (the dealer) may also have some problems with AoA but that's between them and AoA. of course, you may want to help convince AoA that the dealer has ongoing problems ... another story...

things get worse if they caused damage - they're responsible for the costs of repairing the damage, but there's no reason to trust them to fix it. things get sticky because they probably won't willingly pay to have someone else fix it, they'd rather do the work (at cheaper cost to themselves) . so then you need to decide if you trust them (maybe it was a fluke screwup, or maybe they have a bad reputation). if so, fine. if not, you may need to sue to recover costs.
of course, if it's warranty work, it gets still more complicated, since you aren't paying anyway - but that still doesn't mean you need to trust them to touch your car again. may require more negotiations and/or lawsuits to resolve... :-(

whole thing a big pain, obviously :-(

john s

But they do and it doesn't make sense. Audi is continually paying dealers for warranty work. If some shop damages my car due to inept handling then I should be able to go or have it towed to another dealer for proper repair. Audi could then deduct from disbursements to the damaging dealer the cost of the repairs along with a deduction for any disbursements associated with the mishandled service. The way it is now you have to file a lawsuit and get upset with Audi.

rollerskate

did you talk to AoA, or just get the message?
if you could talk to a human being, I would suggest asking them WHY they are
taking this stance and WHY they think you should trust a dealer that both
lies about what they did and also botches the job in a way that could cause
serious damage. At the very least, an explanation would be nice.

I can imagine something like this, though...

If dealer A botches the job and breaks stuff, and you go to dealer B to get
it fixed, it shouldn't be AoA that has to pay dealer B to fix it; it should be
dealer A, who broke things in the first place.

the problem is that AoA normally deals straight with the dealer, without
3rd parties being involved. if dealer A screws up, they can lean on
dealer A to fix their problems, but it's probably harder to get hard cash
out of dealer A so they can send it to dealer B to pay for the remedies...
in THEORY, it doesn't seem like it should be that hard, but in REALITY
I can imagine that dealers never like to PAY for things if they have the
(supposed) ability to fix things themselves at less cost to themselves.

problem is, speaking as a customer, I DON'T CARE if it is difficult
or a pain for either AoA or the dealer. my car was OK when I brought
it in, and I want it OK when I take it home. if you break it, I want it
fixed, but maybe not by you. the ultimate responsibility is with the
dealer that messed things up inthe first place, but if it takes pressure
from AoA to get the bad dealer to pay for the repairs, with AoA spending
some time/effort to act as the middleman or policeman or whatever,
that's fine - AoA must exist for *some* reason. (I can hear it now -
"we're available to help resolve disputes, but we can't actually force
anyone to do anything")

unfortunately, I expect that any dealer sleazy enough to lie and
incompetent enough to break things is also probably not going to
care about being cooperative. they've already proved what kind of
priority they put on "customer service" ... :-(
so maybe the lawyer route is the only thing left. for your sake, I hope not...

I suppose the issue at the moment is a little academic, since we
don't know if any damage was done (yet?). good luck...