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Some help and advice please on the situation below:

I took my car in for a service on the 3rd April 23 to Audi Watford at 9am. Came back to collect it at 4pm only to find it had been involved in some sort of accident.

When I checked the car in the morning it was perfect no dents or damages. I reported the issue straight away but as it was at the end of the day, not much could be done. I returned back on the 4th of April as I didn’t receive a call and Simon Herridge the aftersales manager came out to see me. I was shocked by his comments saying the damages doesn’t look fresh, implying I was lying about the damages. Apparently, they do not have CCTV footage available and he said they are not responsible if the accident happened in their car park, even though I left the keys with them for a service. Apparently, the engineer who worked on the service said the damages were present before moving it into the workshop. He said the dealership is only responsible for the car when it goes into the workshop and my car only went into the workshop at 2pm so for 5hrs the car was parked at the main dealership car park, but yet they are not liable.

This dealership does not book the car in with any visual checks, so basically it’s your word against theirs. As a paying customer, you leave your car with a main dealership thinking it will be looked after and provided with a professional service.I paid £600 for an Audi service plan for an oil service and ended up with over £3k in damages, and I feel customer service in handling this situation has been appalling. I am posting this on social media platforms to make customers aware that cars are not safe when booked in for a service. It is now the 14th of April and basically no closer to resolving the matter.

I am fuming about the situation, and any advice on the next steps would be much appreciated.

I feel your pain, £3000 !... any images you can post up, that sounds a whole load of damage..

I know this is of no help now, but I take shots of each facet of the car when I drop it off anywhere especially in a car park, I always snap a couple of pics of the cars either side of me.

A lesson learned on a 7 seat Shogun, drove it home and noticed a huge wing scuff on the back quarter panel after being parked up in car park..

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Personally, I would speak to the Head of Business and explain the situation. Depending on the subsequent response, make it known that you will be contacting Audi Customer Services with a complaint about the dealership. Audi UK used to only permit a very low number of complaints regarding any dealership each month, and presuming this is still the case, if this number is exceeded, large bonuses far higher the damage cost you've stated can be lost by the dealership, so it should really be in their interest to rectify the issue without Audi UK getting involved, if not only to retain customer satisfaction.
Not conclusive, I know, but on the rear of the job card used to be a vehicle symbol for the technician to mark any damage, and this can also be noted in written form. May be worth asking to see the job card, and any differences in the pen from the technicians notes on the repair and the vehicle symbol, could be brought into question as to whether the damage notes were done at the time or 'afterwards'. As I say, not conclusive, but depends how far you want to take it.

I agree, having worked (very briefly) for a Land Rover dealership there was always a very robust inspection of all vehicles at the point of drop off. Main reason being that most of them never got washed by their owners, so after a service and clean they would try and point the finger of blame at the garage after they had been off-roading or ‘parking by ear’.
In the dealerships ownership (all be it temporarily) they must carry a duty of care to you car so I would pursue it. That bloke sounds like a right tw*t so definitely escalate it to the dealer principle.
While our cars are special to us, unfortunately if they aren’t brand new, they are of little importance to the dealer network. Good luck in resolving it bud.

thats a lot of damage by the sounds of it. what was the damage exactally?

Front driver wing, headlight, bumper.. hence very expensive unfortunately

ouch!
i hope they fix it for you. Nuts that they are even contesting it!