Newbie with a problem!

[Cabar Feidh]

Just had Audi UK Customer Services on the phone and they are not going to reimburse me anything for the parts that had to be broken to get into the door to fix the lock problem!!

Their response was that they had spoken to Aberdeen Audi and agreed with their decision that there would be no good will as the car didn't have an Audi Service History. I then explained that that's what Aberdeen Audi had said to me and that I then had shown them the stamped Service History, which actually did tally up with what was on their computer system although, it didn't show as "services" but other types of work instead. He then went on about me agreeing to the pay for the damage, wrong again - I gave the go ahead to do the damage but said I would not be expecting to pay for it!! Then came back to the no Audi history bit and explained again it did, so he then says having Audi history doesn't matter and it's still no.

So basically, Audi are saying they can damage your car if they have to do a repair and tough, you have to cough up as its not their fault. Not happy at being £400 out of pocket on parts that weren't broken (£600 if I'd allowed carbon trim to be replaced as well) to fix an Audi part that had failed within it's expected lifetime!!

Can I take this any further? Toying with going to the press to give them some bad publicity and maybe shame them into paying up!

Hopefully Audi are watching this post as they were with Steve's one on the DRC and can maybe reconsider. If not, I will certainly not use any Audi garage again and think twice before buying another Audi.


Mike

[adsgreen]

It's a tough one - can see both sides of the story here.

[PetrolDave]

IMHO Audi and/or Aberdeen Audi should at least go 50:50 on the parts that they had to break to get into the door.

[Cabar Feidh]

Hi folks

Finally found some time give an update on my issue with the door. Back at beginning of Feb I decided to write to Martin Sander, MD for Audi UK, after finding his name on here. I fired off a 3 page letter by registered post, explaining the issue in detail and with copies of my service record and the invoices for the work done. That was on a Friday and the next day I had a call from someone at a company called Swift who were doing a follow up on my earlier dealings with the Customer Services dept - took the opportunity to inform them of my unhappiness! I then got a phone call on the following Tuesday from another guy in Customer Services who said he was looking in to my issue and would get back to me. Got back to me the next day and said he looked into the Service History part of it and said he could confirm that the car does have FASH and on that count could offer me a Good Will of £200 Audi vouchers. Nothing being offered for the parts.

I replied that I still wasn't happy and still wanted reimbursed in cash for the parts. He went away and looked at it further came back and said he could up his offer to £250. Told him again I still wasn't happy and was pushing for more as my point was that they hadn't designed the car with this happening in mind so, I asked him if he could forward me a copy of any technical work instructions or procedures issued by Audi on the way of dealing with this problem! This flumoxed him a bit so he said he would talk to their technical people. Got back me the next day and said that he had been authorised to increase their offer of Good Will to cover the cost of my next service at an Audi garage of my choice and that he would send a letter to that effect to me. I thought this would be about as much as I was going to get and would roughly equate to the cost of the parts so accepted. Was feeling quite chuffed with myself until I got a phone call a couple of hours later to say that my father had passed away, hence the time its taken to share my good news.

That and preparing my S4 for sale and then selling it has pretty much taken up my time in the last couple of months but I did manage to give the RS a decent wash/clean and get some photos during the good weather a couple of weeks ago, so here's a couple. Will post more on the New Members forum for all to see.

My bad luck though has continued as somebody's swiped my back wheel arch and bu**ered off! Not sure when or where it happened as the car was pretty dirty at the time during the not so good weather so didnt notice straight away. Will cost ~£150 to repair inc getting a couple of other minor bits done. It was actually pushed in slightly further in but the guy who's doing it pulled back out a bit.

On a more positive note though I've got it booked in to Revolution on Friday to get the remap redone and they're going to fit a K&N filter as well - something to look forward to, a decent run and hopefully a increase in performance!


Cheers

Mike

[P_G]

You'll probably see my car there on Friday as well then. Good luck with the remap and filter abnd a decent result on the goodwill front given the elapsed time.

[Muneer]

I had this exact same problem, about 2-3 days after I bought my car - although mine was the front passengers door.
I rang up a local VW/Audi specialist, who knew exactly what the problem was from the symptoms I gave them and he told me on the phone, that the only way to fix this issue, is by cutting up the door card.

I took the car down to them the following day, they confirmed what the issue was and gave me the prices. I told them to give me a day or two, to try and find a replacement door card myself. Luckily I found someone breaking an RS4 on eBay, who was local too. Called the guy and he offered me the door card for £70. Picked it up the same day - no marks on it at all - and the following day dropped it off at the specialist.

They fitted the new motor, the replacement door card and a new reverse switch - as mine was stuck and total charge was about £300 (inc. parts, labour & VAT).

Shame I didn't see this sooner, as it happend to me in November last year and even I couldn't find any info on it back then. £750 does seem a bit much, but glad you got something back from them. Nice car too!