Don Keener

Wow... that sucks. If the car doesnt show as presold... it could get snapped up by another dealer if they have a customer wanting to buy it.

gta1216

This is the worse purchasing experience that I can think of. This is far worse than our house buying experience. I never expected this type of service and experience from Audi. They just simply pick and choose what questions and requests to answer and address, and ignore the rest.

AoA said the car is showing an ETA Houston at the end of this month. That is, if I get this car.

gta1216

I did not get any reply from the sales mgr so I decided to call the abs. She said her system shows the car with my name. Not sure if I was misinformed by Audi customer
experience centre rep, or the abs is lying. I asked the abs to send a screenshot of her system showing my name attached to the vehicle. Waiting on her email.

Abs also said that the Audi owner in waiting is only for customer who did a factory order. Since I put a down on a car that was built, they cannot sign me up for it.

Can anyone confirm this for me?

gta1216

I received an update / follow up email from AoA on the car I put a down on. The car would not have my name on the car since it was ordered by another dealership as stock. They also cannot me sign me up for Audi Owner in Waiting since the car was not ordered in my name. The ABS and sales manager can tell me this when I pushed them for confirmation, but they just ignored my emails every time I ask for confirmation.

AoA said the car loaded on the vessel and departed Emden on Aug 12, ETA Houston is Aug 28. Based on this, what is the typical date range it would get to Chicago?

Don Keener

Looks like you are on the Hoegh Delhi...

HOEGH DELHI - Vehicles Carrier: current position and details | IMO 9318462, MMSI 564971000, Callsign 9V2633 | Registered in Singapore - AIS Marine Traffic

Her first stop is Davisville on Aug 22 and then onto Houston on the 28th. I would guess that you would see it during the week of 9/14.. possibly the week before.

snagitseven

Despite the lack of info by the dealer, since the the car is allocated to them, it should be yours since you have a sales order. What is puzzling though, is I had a similar process done in 2012 for my A6 - the car was allocated to my dealer as a stock unit and they subsequently sold it to me. My salesperson was then able to enmail me two or three reports as time went on that showed estimated then actual dates as they were updated. Not sure why you got the runaround on that since every allocated car can be tracked by the dealer.

As to time to Chicago, once you know the Houston port arrival date, it will take about 5-7 days to go through customs, moroni labels and port accessories installed, invoices to be generated and assigned to a transport company, either by train or truck. Then it can take another week or so to arrive at the dealer in Chicago. Finally a day to prep the car for delivery.

gta1216

The car was actually ordered as a stock unit by a different dealer. The dealer I went to did a trade. I don't know when the trade was done, but I assume it was after the car was loaded on the vessel. I received the updated vehicle detail sheet from my dealer this week showing they did a trade and my name is listed as the customer in the comments section. Not sure if this had anything to do with why I did not get any update. Either way, the sales and sales manager was unresponsive to most of my emails rep those relating to my question about vin, if this car is on hold for me, etc.

I read that this dealer require the customer to sign a arbitration agreement. Should I be concerned with this? Would they decline to sell the vehicle if I refused to sign it?

snagitseven

Well, if the car was allocated to a different dealer that could explain why your dealer might not have been able to pull up the status record - I doubt a dealer can see other dealers' allocations. Could be the trade will take place after the other dealer received the car and it is transported to your dealer or they could be rerouting the car direct to your dealer. Hard to know how it will work if your dealer is unresponsive to your questions. If it were me, I would be making a trip to my dealer in person to get mt questions answered by the sales manager. Emails are too easily ignored or forgotten.

Dealer trades happen all the time but Audi is not directly involved in these transactions - it's usually a verbal agreement between two dealers with paperwork that follows with the actual transfer. You just have to rely that the other dealer doesn't change their mind and decides to sell the car to their own customer. It happens though not frequently. I'd be a bit concerned however, especially since your dealer has been less than forthcoming to your requests for info.

What is that arbitration agreement for? What does it say? I've never seen such a thing when purchasing a car.

gta1216

The vehicle details sheet when I put the down payment had the owning dealer's code. The owning and delivering dealer on the updated sheet is matching each other, but is different from the initial details sheet I received when the down was made. However the updated sheet has a pending section that shows a 3rd dealer code requested a trade for the vehicle. Not sure what that means. Did my dealer get it? I have no clue.

About the arbitration agreement, I have no clue what it says since I didn't see it. I only read it online somewhere that this dealer asked the buyer to sign it. I asked AoA and they said each dealer sets their own policy besides the set of rules already set by AoA.

snagitseven

Why You Shouldn't Buy a Vehicle from any Seller That Requires a "Mandatory Binding Arbitration Agreement"

Mandatory Binding Arbitration FAQs

http://www.autonews.com/article/2013...itration-angst