Anonymous

Terrible Misleading Customer Service

I ventured into the Audi dealership (Lenton Ind Est, Abbeyfield Rd) late Thursday 13th May 2021, just prior to closing. A salesman approached me (Sean), who was friendly and polite, took my contact details and the car I was interested, Sean said that he would call me the next day once he took a look on the system. I explained I was interested in a Used A3 S-Line vehicle, Petrol, 1.4 - 1.6 engine equivalence. Sean called me Friday 14th as promised in the morning, he said that he had taken a look at their system and progressed to inform me of a vehicle, the spec of the vehicle was not what I originally specified, it was a 2.0 Litre Diesel, Tronic, Sean quoted the vehicle was just over £27k. I reiterated the model and details that I was interested in, Sean said that he would take another look, I made it clear that my intention was to test drive the vehicle of interest, once located. Sean again took the vehicle requirements as well as suitable colours of interest. We confirmed an appointment on Saturday 15th May @ 11am. Saturday I turned up to the appointment as agreed, I initially had to wait for Sean as he was with another customer, around 10min later Sean came to collect me. We sat down he asked me to remind him of the vehicle credentials I was interested in, I was a little annoyed by this as I had already specified twice before the credentials of the vehicle of interest. I was under the impression that Sean had taken notes. I said I had done some further investigation on the models and was interested in either A3 Sport & S-Line models. I enquired what were the differences between the two models, I had already ascertained differences from the Audi website, but was also interested in differences which the website may not specify which I expected an Audi salesman to know. Sean said if he takes me through the build car feature on the website that would provide a good idea of the differences. I had absolutely no interest in purchasing or ordering a new car and I knew this was a sales tactic. I went along with this ploy, Sean began to navigate through the screens, by the 4th screen I am sure the calculator had generated a build price of £27-£28k, at that point I decided to put a stop to rouge. I re-iterated that I was ONLY interested in a Used A3 2020 vehicle. I seemed to know more about the vehicle spec variants than the Salesman, I had quickly viewed the Audi site earlier that morning to understand this in 20min, I repeatedly corrected Sean when mentioning model variants eg 35 TFSI was the 1.5 Petrol engine etc. This was quite disconcerting, it is a Salesman job to have detailed knowledge of ALL vehicle specs & variants! Progressing through the appointment Sean mentioned that during the appraisal of my vehicle he would need to test drive it and check the tyre treads. This was a first for me, in previous experience salesmen during the car appraisal switched on the engine to check the mileage and checked the body of the car, physical driving of vehicle was never requested. As expected Sean asked questions about the car, I answered all the car history questions, Sean progressed to check the vehicle, took pictures of cosmetic dints, one dint he pointed out and asked if i was aware, I said "Yes", I have no control over people who open their car doors without checking, it was a small dint the paintwork throughout the car was perfectly intact. The part exchange vehicle is nearly 10yrs old, less than 60,000 mileage and mechanically sound. Sean did his little drive of the vehicle in the Audi Car Park and checked all 4 tyre treads. Sean switched the engine off, Sean specified that the Fan was going for quite some time after switching off the engine and asked if I was aware of this! I replied "Yes, of course it is a standard built in feature of the vehicle, the fans remains on a few seconds after the engine is switched off as part of cooling the engine." I reiterated "This is core functionality of the car not a fault". I know of several car that have this same feature, one would expect a Salesman to be aware of this. Back in the showroom, Sean went on to say he did not believe that they had a Petrol A3 for me to drive and that they had a demo which I could test drive, the demo was a TDI 2.0 litre Diesel, ideally not the car I wanted to test drive. I enquired that I overheard another salesman take customers to test drive an A3 and if he could enquire if that vehicle was the spec I was interested in, I said that I would be willing to wait upon the return of that customer if the vehicle was more aligned to spec of interest. Sean replied did I know which salesman, I said I only overheard the salesman say he would bring round the A3 for the customers to test drive I did not look over. I enquired if Sean would be able to check on Audi system if an A3 was booked out for a test drive with which he could check the spec. Sean said that it does not work that way and he would be unable to check! He further mentioned that he had another appointment soon, which gave me the impression of being rushed it was 12.15, On that response I decided to go ahead with the test drive of the Diesel A3. I further decided to query the Appraisal of my car and asked Sean if it was standard procedure that a Salesman test drive a vehicle and check tyre pressure, as I had NEVER experienced this in the past! whilst I was there, I did not witness the same treatment to any other customer! Sean replied "Absolutely 100% this is standard and we do this for ALL customers who are interested in part exchanging a vehicle, 100%", I remained doubtful and let my expression relay my thoughts to Sean's response, I am well aware that Audi would never resell a Ford Focus and that the vehicle is sent straight to Auction. In addition I overheard another Salesman selling a new A3 to a couple where he enquired if they had a vehicle to part exchange, they said they would be paying cash and not interested in exchanging their existing vehicle, the salesman said that it was not a problem and that they like to take the hassle away from customers by allowing part exchange, he said the vehicle would go straight to Auction and if issues are identified with the vehicle afterthefact, there is no recourse on the customer and Audi take full ownership. This information differed quite somewhat to I was told by Sean whereby when stated that he had to check for faults by driving my vehicle, which absolutely contradicted the "100% statement that all customer vehicles are test driven and tyre tread check during the appraisal!", at no point did the other salesman mention to the other customer that those steps would be undertaken! I also decided to ask what time Sean's next appointment was at, Sean replied 1pm. We then progressed through booking the vehicle for a test drive, Sean mentioned what excess would I like to select, again I was confused and said "Excess for a test drive", Sean showed me the form, £50 Excess was checked by default, I said does the dealership insurance not cover this!? again a first for me! Sean selected the Dealership option, upon reading through the loan agreement it returned an Excess of £500, I questioned this and cancelled the agreement, Sean required assistance to reset the loan agreement, upon his return he said the excess would be £250, I challenged and said that initially there was a £50 option, he abruptly replied that he could not select the £50 excess, the system does not allow it. I said I work in software and if the option was initially available for selection by default, then there would be nothing to prevent re-selection. To cut a long story short the £250 excess was the only way to progress. At this point possibly 45min had passed since Sean appraised my car, I asked if he could provide me with the part exchange value of my vehicle, Sean abruptly replied "it has not come back yet", I looked bemused, 45min with todays technology, he could not give me the exchange value? I said I would like an idea to work out how much I would need to pay cash for the vehicle, Sean said it would be ready once I returned from the test drive, another Sales tactic, which I am well aware of. From experience a salesman can tell you within 5min of appraising your vehicle what the part exchange value is! I gave Sean a bemused REALLY look, to which he retorted "it would be the same as We Buy Any Car website value". I sat and continued to read through the loan agreement in detail, I noticed that the customer in addition is responsible for replacing petrol used during the test drive, at this point I decided not to progress with the test drive of vehicle spec that I had no interest in purchasing. I said If I am forced to sign a loan agreement to test drive a vehicle with an excess of £250, then I would rather drive the exact vehicle of interest. Overall, I felt Sean wasted my time arranging an appointment when he knew that the vehicle of interest was not available for me to test drive. I made it clear that my intention of the appointment was to test drive a vehicle, Sean was 100% aware of this, it was obvious Sean's intention was to sway me into purchasing a new vehicle. I had caught Sean in several misleading statements during the appointment all detailed in this review eg Vehicle availability, Car Appraisal requirements etc. I felt I was treated different to other customers due to being Single Woman of Afro Caribbean descent, I could over hear how other Salesmen dealt with customers and to reiterate, whilst there, I witnessed no other appraised vehicles being test driven or tyre tread checked by other Salesmen, I felt that I was singled out and treated poorly by a salesman who became unprofessional and rude when challenged! I would NEVER venture back to Audi Abbeyfield Road, Nottingham dealership and would rather take my business elsewhere. Spending over £20k is a lot of money and you deserve to be treated with respect and honesty. This is not the treatment you would expect from a dealership, I went to Audi for a more professional and honest service. What I witnessed and experienced was the same underhanded salesmen techniques widely known, their interest is solely to ideally sell a new car, due to the commission/benefits a salesman will receive upon achieving this. However, money is money, I could easily afford to buy a brand new vehicle and pay cash lump sum, the money was never the issue, however the attitude of Audi was an issue, they seem to judge a customer on affordability, but have no idea on a persons true intent. I may have been swayed to pay more had I been treated in the correct manner, but this would never be a consideration going forward! If you have taken the time to read this fairly descriptive review of events, I thank you. A final summary below to close this review. My advice take heed of the other review on this site, all these people having similar opinions as well as myself is a statement in itself, we do not know each other nor met, which says something of the overall lack of professionalism and underhanded tactics of Audi Nottingham Dealership!