First service query/lost service book

[Audi Pardner]

Long story short guys - car went in for a service to main stealers and they’ve lost the service book. They’re going to provide me with a duplicate book. I’ve got two questions:

1. They say that, from the service history they’ve managed to recover, the first service was at 19,576 Miles (when the car was just over 2 years old). Can anyone advise me at what mileage the first service would have been due? I don’t believe it would have been at this mileage; surely it would have had a few before this.

2. All the stamps in the duplicate service book would be theirs, ie not the previous main dealers (there were about 4 different ones before them) and they’d provide me with a letter saying that they lost the original and the duplicate book is accurate etc etc. However, I’m inclined to insist that they get each of the previous dealers to stamp the book where relevant. What do you think?

I’m bloody furious at their carelessness but it looks like I’ve just got to get the best out of the situation.

Many thanks

[bennn]

They should be giving you a bit more than a duplicate book IMO.

Its going to effect the value of the car / how easily it shifts when you do come to sell, so I wouldn't be just bending over and taking it. Would you be buying an RS with gaps in the service history?

Back to the original questions, if its on long life servicing (which I think is condition based) I would have thought it would be possible that the first is at 19k (if the car did a lot of motorway etc) but unlikely. Also check the dates, IIRC it shouldn't be any longer than 2 years. The above is obviously on the assumption that the first owner had it serviced when it was due.

Mine has been on the long life plan since pretty much new and has around 10k between services if that's any help.

[arthur.d]

they cant just "lose" the book.
the car is worth less with a duplicated book to lots of fussy buyers-the type that buy rs4s for decent money
the stamps require to be stamped in the original servicing dealers format tbh -anything else is not representative of the true history of the car

as you said above you need to get the best out of the situation-imho thats a bucketload of free servicing or a good few quid-maybe tell them they have just bought the car at private sale money...

as for servicing 19k wouldnt be unusual for first service...

[johnnydog]

Duplicate service books are totally different in appearance from the original service book having duplicate written across each page, and each entry doesn't contain the tick boxes that give information of the type of service and the parts replaced.
I personally would be very p***ed off about it, as I still prefer the stamped service book to the current service record A4 piece of paper that you get now.
I would be pushing for some good recompense, to be honest. If you don't get anywhere, I doubt that Audi UK would be particularly impressed if you were to go down that channel as the dealership gets penalised for more than a certain number of complaints per month (and it's not many).
As a way of getting you an original service book type of record, this happened to me a good number of years ago with VW Golf GTi Turbo that I owned. VW although part of the same group, were less than helpful. I ended up buying a service book off EBay; whether it was an original or a copy, I don't know, but it looked identical. VW provided me with a list of the servicing dealers prior to me buying it. I thought the only problem was going to be the printed label in the service book that details the spec of the car and options codes. Fortunately most VW's and Audi's have an identical label in the boot well, so I carefully removed it, photocopied it, and stuck it in the relavant page, then re stuck the original in the boot well. I then contacted each dealer, explaining the situation, and they were all more than happy to stamp the replacement book. I sent it recorded delivery and asked for it to be returned the same. The last ones, the dealer that lost the book and had done previous services completed it.
It was a bit of a faff, but it meant I got the original type of service book back. When I sold the car, the buyer was perfectly happy, and probably wouldn't have bought it without it. Today, you can get a duplicate service printout which is identical, but older cars still need a proper stamped up record.
With the above in mind, it still pays to ring Audi UK ( or VW!) to check that any service history record is legitimate when looking at buying used other than from Audi.

[Audi Pardner]

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

The car was registered in March ‘07 and accordIng to my dealer had its first service in September ‘09 (at 19,576 miles), so at 2.5 years I don’t believe this was its first service.

I’m going to insist that they investigate it further and get the FULL history recorded in a duplicate book stamped by EACH dealer.

And they can chuck in some free servicIng for pissing me about for over 6 months. Grrr.