John W

Cardiff Gate Audi main dealer is awful

This Audi main dealer is awful, can’t say anything positive about them. My first Audi vehicle and my first experience of using an Audi main dealer, and I have to say what an awful experience that would put me off ever having another Audi in the future. First, issue was the time it took to get the car booked in for a warranty issue, took far longer than it should have and I had to wait weeks for a slot. Second, issue was that this main dealer then expected me to pay £110 for a courtesy car, even though this was a warranty issue. I agreed under duress, as how else would I be able to get the issues looked at unless I agreed to it, as I had no one who could collect me, but I think it’s outrageous to charge for a courtesy car under these circumstances. Also, how can this be described as a ‘courtesy car’ if you’re paying of it? It’s not a courtesy but a profit center if a customer is paying for it. I gave the dealer a list of issues that needed resolving, which were; Driver side wiper blade was smearing even though the car was new Constant wind noise from driver’s door. The stop start system was only working intermittently when I received the car and then stopped working entirely within a couple of weeks. Gearbox was very slow to respond, which is alarming when your pulling out at a junction or roundabout. The front fan was running constantly and would not shut off. The rear reversing camera was placed in an idiotic position where it quickly picks up dirt no matter whether it is dry or wet, and thus you could never see anything other than blurry shapes, so was completely useless for reversing. The dealer only resolved two of the above issues, the stop start and fan overrun, which I recall were connected, so resolving one resolved the other. However, they charged me £558 for replacing this cable insisting that the cable had been damaged by vermin! I was astonished at this explanation, for a few reasons. First, the stop start had not been working correctly since I received the car, so if we are to believe this cause then it had to have occurred at the Audi dealer who supplied the car. Second, the car was always garaged in a sealed climate controlled garage (it houses other cars that need to be kept in pristine condition) and not once had I ever seen any evidence of vermin or experienced vermin damage of any kind to any of my cars the entire time I’ve lived at this location. When I explained this to the service advisor she was completely disinterested and just continued processing the paperwork. It clearly didn’t matter what I said she wasn’t interested. When the dealer sent me a short video it didn’t show any vermin damage, so I called and asked for the cable. I asked again when in front of the service advisor but surprisingly no cable was produced. I chased this up again a week or so after I collected the car but still have not received any call back or the cable. I was also surprised that the dealer suggested I should try to clean the wiper blade to see if I could cure the smearing and didn’t to do this themselves. They also weren’t going to even wash the car before handing it back, until it was mentioned during a call and I replied 'of course clean it why wouldn’t you.' The technician in the video stated that the two front tires were illegal and needed urgent replacement. This was alarming as the car was only a year old with average miles so the tires shouldn’t have needed replacement. I checked each front tire right across the tread but they were not illegal, so that was another ploy to get money out of me. Interestingly, when the car was handed back, I also checked the tire pressures and they were incorrect. So, if the dealer states they were concerned about safety, I’m not sure this holds water if tire pressures were all wrong and they didn’t even bother to check them. I’m a first time customer (and now a last time customer at this dealer) and they obviously weren’t bothered at generating any goodwill , quite the opposite. In my opinion it was shockingly bad customer service and the worst I have ever experienced at any main dealer. They seemed only interested in charging me as much as they could even though it was clear to me there shouldn’t have been any charge at all and I’m completely convinced that the cable was a warranty repair. Its odd that this dealer didn’t simply call Audi and explain the issue with the cable and I’m sure they would have got this cable replaced at no charge to them. I now intend to file a claim in the county court to recover what I think was an outlandish charge and will never set foot back inside this dealership.