This is why I hate main dealers!

[Eddy77]

I haven't been near a main dealer for many, many years. My Mercedes has always been looked after by an Independent Merc specialist and the service from him is exceptional.

My 2019 Audi does, however, need to be serviced as it is now a year old. So I call up my local Audi dealer to book it in. And so the chaotic shambles begins.

First of all, it only needs an oil service. How simple this should be.

The message flashed up during full lockdown, when garages were closed. I called Audi back in April and was told that on the Audi A6, the 12 month oil service is "optional" and not doing it will not invalidate the warranty. The first required service comes at 2 years or 20k miles. I accepted that but was a little unsure, so I called them back yesterday to check again (as the service centres are now open).

"Oh no sir, it needs the oil service. Without it, the warranty is invalid".

So - already annoyed at the mis-information - I book it in. This is - of course - handled by a call centre in Glasgow where the line quality is atrocious and even trying to get them to find the registration proved harder than it should be. All booked in. £298 for an oil service (!) - but that's another story.

Then today my phone rings. I'm on another call so a voice message is left. It's Danielle from Audi. Please can I call them about the Q5 service I have booked in. Erm, hang on - I have an A6...

So I call the number left by Danielle and end up in a call centre queue. The person who answers can't find my car on the system, but when I say it was Danielle from xxx Audi, she seems to know who that is and I get transferred.

Danielle is very polite and friendly. She wanted to ask me about the fault on my Q5. "But I don't have a Q5", I say...and no fault. I just need an oil change.

"So your car is not [insert an unkown to me reg number]?"

"No", I say. That's not my car.

"Have you ever owned an Audi with that reg?"

"No", I say

"Hmm", says Danielle, "I apologise. We will dis-associate you from that car then."

Dealer service should be the best of the best, given how much they charge. Yet this experience reminds me of the last time (many years ago) when I went near a main dealer. The call handlers have no idea about the cars, the systems they use don't work properly, and you have zero confidence that they have the faintest clue what they are doing. I still don't really know if my £298 oil change is optional or mandatory as two people from Audi have given differing advice. Personally, I'll get it done as it's a diesel and regular oil changes can only be a good thing.

Contrast that to my local Independent, who knows me and the car, remembers the car each year and what we discussed 12 months before. This is the same guy who drops it off and picks it up free of charge, charges £50 an hour, and knows the car inside out. THAT is proper service.

Not some ill-informed call centre worker, with cr@p systems and mis-information.

If this is typical of main dealers today, they deserve to lose business to the small independents.

Maybe it's an Audi thing. Maybe other dealers are better. But there is not one single aspect of Audi that has impressed me so far. The car is not brilliant. The initial purchase experience was underwhelming with the car supplied with overinflated tyres (51 PSI) and both the front and read number plates fitted very wonkily.

 

[219]

Isn’t there some legislation now that as long as the car is serviced to the manufacturers specification , using manufacturers approved parts and fluids , they cannot invalidate the warranty ?

If that is correct, could you not find a competent VAG specialist who would do the job for you , better and probably cheaper ?

I know a lot of MB specialists can update the Electronic Service Book , so I presume decent VAG specialists will be the same .

 

[Tonygw]

Your view on main delaers is shared by many, although some have very good service from them. But for me.. £298 for £30 worth of oil is beyond a joke.. I am sure they will say they also do many checks but its all stuff you can do your self with no real mechnical knowledge, (wipres, washer, lights horn etc etc)

As for the 20K oil service interval. Audi never learn, they had awful problems with oil sludge killing their engines due to the long servce intervals years ago, its just history repeating. Especially now their enignes run on timing chains that need good clean oil for the tensioners to work properly.

Their oil service interval is nothing more than a marketing campaign to reduce fleet running costs and help grow their fleet market share. They do not care about the individual owner. Audi are part of VW and we all know how honest and moral they are as a company... (no sir the emissions from your car are cleaner than the air going in.... not)


I have always found independents to be much better and certainly care more about their customers. My local merc indy is able to upload each service to the merc service schedule as to keep any warranty you may have.

Good luck.

 

[Eddy77]

I believe you can use an Indy - but you have to be mega careful that you can prove OEM and original parts were used. Often, in the case of a warranty claim as soon as they see a non-dealer has serviced the car during the warranty period, they will try and find some reason to deny a warranty claim. In theory, you should be fine. In practice, all sorts of potential issues could arise. It's not a risk I want to take for the sake of a £100 - £200. I don't actually begrudge the cost...although £298 is absurd for an oil change. it's the poor service that comes alongside which really gets me.

 

[Wheelnut58]

You do have to be very careful for cars under warranty, I know what the law says, about 10 years a go I was in a Honda showroom waiting for my car and over heard a conversation for a warranty claim on the “bullet proof Vtec” type r, where the customer was being told that all the responsibility lay with him to prove that correct parts and oil had been used, when you are being quoted upwards of £10K for a new replacement engine the savings seem a little insignificant.

 

[Will]

I think your experience isn’t shared with all, and probably only reflects on that particular group/network of dealers who perhaps use the contact centre. I have have had great customer service booking VWs in through Lookers VW, and good service both sales and service from Mercedes-Benz retail group and Sandown group (totally separate companies despite both trading under the MB brand)

Had a new Audi some 15+ years ago that wasn’t as good a car as it should have been, and the experiences of the two Audi dealers I used for warranty repairs and servicing wasn’t very good either - main dealers can vary I guess

A bit like there’s many good independent garages out there, but someone else will have had problems with using some of these places too

 

[Rory]

The message flashed up during full lockdown, when garages were closed. I called Audi back in April and was told that on the Audi A6, the 12 month oil service is "optional" and not doing it will not invalidate the warranty. The first required service comes at 2 years or 20k miles.

Don't have an Audi but have a VW and a SEAT on the family fleet and servicing depends if the car is set for fixed interval or variable (longlife) servicing. If it's on fixed then it's 1yr/10K miles. If it's variable then max it will run to is 2yrs and I think it's 18,750 miles (as it's actually 30,000kms).

The snag with variable is if your journeys are all short then it could come up very early - apparently some dealers insist the car needs servicing (which is correct) and others say it's a mistake and just reset it.

 

[HB]

Audi Glasgow
The only worst garage run by bigger idiots is Merc Giffnock.
Yes they returned our SQ7 with massively overinflated tyres too.
Shambles.

 

[Bluegnomes]

"the line quality is atrocious and even trying to get them to find the registration proved harder than it should be" sounds like they wrote the incorrect reg no down. Not too big an issue but I'd suggest this could be the root cause of the rest of the mis-information issues.

Oh and I'd go for the yearly oil service if you are going to keep the car.

 

[Deleted member 150136]

If you want good customer service, buy a lexus.
If you want a good car and good service buy a lexus.
If you want the car you want deal with the consequences of people who are only after your money.

 

[swithin]

I think your experience isn’t shared with all, and probably only reflects on that particular group/network of dealers who perhaps use the contact centre. I have have had great customer service booking VWs in through Lookers VW, and good service both sales and service from Mercedes-Benz retail group and Sandown group (totally separate companies despite both trading under the MB brand)

Had a new Audi some 15+ years ago that wasn’t as good a car as it should have been, and the experiences of the two Audi dealers I used for warranty repairs and servicing wasn’t very good either - main dealers can vary I guess

A bit like there’s many good independent garages out there, but someone else will have had problems with using some of these places too

I agree with you here, especially that there can be bad specialists out there. I used to use a well known 4x4 specialist here in Kent until they tried to fleece me out of almost £4k for 2 problems. One with the coolant system a month after they replaced a coolant bottle, they suggested £2k for a new radiator as it was leaking following "extensive" investigation which cost me £52. They were actually only £5 cheaper than a quote i'd had from Landrover and were charging me £300 more than Landrover for the Radiator. Took it to another specialist recommended to me and it turned out to be a £27 pipe! The other problem was the aircon not working properly, they again suggested a full investigation and worked out it was the aircon radiator if i remember correctly. They quoted me for 3 hours labour to remove a couple pipes and 4 bolts, 15 minute job. All i actually did was keep the aircon on at all times and it came back in a couple of weeks. 2 years on it still works perfectly.

My main dealer nightmare was at Mercedes when my R129 roof was playing up. My specialist didn't have the right software for the roof ECU so advised i go to Mercedes to get them to check it. I told them the car had just been serviced and all I wanted was them to check the roof. After having the car for a day they showed me that they had given the car a full health check on everything and had looked at the roof!. They weren't sure what the problem was. My indy said u should ask them if they had tried a new ECU to eliminate problems, they said no. I then insisted that they do that and after 4 days waiting for one to come over from Germany they plugged it in and hey presto it was the roof ECU. The price they gave me for a new one almost caused heart failure and a recon one was sourced online, put in by my Indy and works perfectly.

Probably the most complicated to fiddle with and definitely the car that frequently causes a "WTF" moment when trying to even change a battery, my Alfa had an engine rebuild by an Indy highly recommended by the Alfa board. Fantastic work done, cheaper than a new engine, and only £40 per hour labour charge. The previous owner had taken the sick Alfa to the main dealer last year, a month before i bought it, who missed everything that was wrong with it and even charged him for a new thermostat which they Indy said was 10 years old. He'd spent hundreds on having the problem diagnosed only for them to miss that a chain had jumped off a sprocket and was eating the engine!

I have always found Indy's better than main dealers as its their businesses at risk, not their bosses. I've also found joining at the relevant internet boards invaluable for recommendations.

 

[DSM10000]

Isn’t there some legislation now that as long as the car is serviced to the manufacturers specification , using manufacturers approved parts and fluids , they cannot invalidate the warranty ?

If that is correct, could you not find a competent VAG specialist who would do the job for you , better and probably cheaper ?

I know a lot of MB specialists can update the Electronic Service Book , so I presume decent VAG specialists will be the same .

The Block Exemption Regulation allows you to chose any garage or mechanic you wish.

Manufactures can state that parts must be OE or OE equivalent, serviced to their schedule and fitted by a VAT registered establishment but cannot void a warranty on the basis of a vehicle being serviced outside the dealership network.

 

[bob6600]

It is for this reason that I do not use the booking centre. For my first service, I went in personally and asked to speak to a service adviser when they are free. They checked what the car needed according to age/mileage and even gave me a discount. They also said they will match any written quote provided by a VAT registered garage within 10 (or 12 - can't remember) miles providing they use genuine parts. From then, I only ring up the dealership and speak to him, rather than go through the service booking centre.

Your experience is not a good one and would put me off any brand/dealership!

 

[219]

You do have to be very careful for cars under warranty, I know what the law says, about 10 years a go I was in a Honda showroom waiting for my car and over heard a conversation for a warranty claim on the “bullet proof Vtec” type r, where the customer was being told that all the responsibility lay with him to prove that correct parts and oil had been used, when you are being quoted upwards of £10K for a new replacement engine the savings seem a little insignificant.

At which point he should simply have produced the receipt from the dealers parts department

 

[Headhurts]

Yours seems to have been a bad experience from a main dealership.

I have a Mercedes service plan but even before this was using main dealership, they always treat me well and the service plan is reasonable price wise.

As I’m getting older I want a stress free experience and the dealership is fairly close and a comfortable environment to relax in (pre Covid), the down side is they are expensive.

Would I use a specialist? Yes probably if an expensive repair is required but I have been lucky in that since owning the car for 4 years I have not had any issues.

I would be peeved in your circumstances though.

Robin

 

[Deleted member 6183]

JBD has been quiet since lockdown

 

[MCFastybloke]

Dealers are foul, i loath having anything to do with them, not to mention paying them a round coin, i have outside a FMDSH 80k miler Volvo v70, took the pollen filter out 08 date, should have had 2 at least, mate has a 14 reg 5 liter XJ, had the original air filters in, 6 years and 54k miles, my own van at Fiat, i cant prove it categorically but i was so convinced they didnt swap the oil i swapped it my self at home the week after,neither looked or felt like 400 mile oil. Dealer stamps are much vaulted but not worth the paper they are stamped on.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

As for the 20K oil service interval. Audi never learn, they had awful problems with oil sludge killing their engines due to the long servce intervals years ago, its just history repeating. Especially now their enignes run on timing chains that need good clean oil for the tensioners to work properly.

Their oil service interval is nothing more than a marketing campaign to reduce fleet running costs and help grow their fleet market share. They do not care about the individual owner. Audi are part of VW and we all know how honest and moral they are as a company... (no sir the emissions from your car are cleaner than the air going in.... not)

I’m confused: first you suggest that Audi ought to have learned by extending service intervals too far (20k miles) but then suggest the interim oil service is a bit of a sham. So which is it, too little or too much servicing?

 

[markjay]

I do agree that servicing costs is very high at dealers of certain marques, MB included, and apparently also Audi.

That said, I have an issue with the incorrect use of the term 'oil service'. To my mind this means an interim service, i.e. an engine oil and filter change that you would do between two scheduled services for added peace of mind.

But what happens on occasion, is that people enraged by the cost of dealer servicing, refer to schedule services as 'oil service', in order to make it look even poorer value.

There's no need to do that... the scheduled service is expensive enough.

The scheduled service isn't a complicated procedure... but it does involve additional checks above and beyond a simple oil and filter change, they do take time, and time needs to be paid for.

 

[pmcgsmurf]

What gets me and what got me with the last experience with Mercedes main dealer was when they quoted XX for the service but later changed to YY (more).

When I explained I was "happy" with XX but why now YY, they said they had made a mistake and had a lot more work to do!

After checking what this extra "work" was I explained to them that every item and more was covered with the MOT they were doing at the same time.
This made no difference and the "call handler" couldn't do anything so that was that.

A "service" should be a service but I must admit I'm starting to thing (after a VW experience) that this Oil Service is what some of them are doing and no more.