Audi Manhattan & "ACC and Audi Braking Guard: Unavailable"
 

I am a new owner of a 2013 A8L and this is my experience with Audi Manhattan.

About 3 weeks after I received the A8 I got into the car in my garage and when I started the car "ACC and Audi Braking Guard: Unavailable" error message came up.

So i set up an appointment to drop the car off at the dealer and pickup a loaner vehicle on Wed evening 06/19

The car was in like new condition when I dropped it off and the staff were generally polite, I was not given a vehicle condition report for the A8 I turned in for service.

I was given a loaner Q5 by my assigned service advisor, it was pretty dirty inside with a bunch of visible crumbs and dirt sitting in and around the center button's area, with an Audi bottled water and mints sitting in the cup holders dirty stickiness, a bunch of someones papers stuck between the front seats, and later I found a big bunch of someones electronic keys in the passenger front door which I handed to an Audi rep when I returned the loaner, going from my pristine clean new A8 into a Q5 all sticky and dirty with big crumbs sitting right next to me in the center button console was a culture shock, but I was not interested in being fussy so I took it and left, a clean car would of made all the difference.

Friday 06/21 afternoon around 3pm I get a call from my assigned service advisor, The call goes like this: "Hi Mr...., so the car you dropped off has damage to the front fender, and it's going to cost $990 to repair.

I was confused to say the least, "I do not understand, when i dropped off the car there was no damage at all the car is in like new condition?"

"Sir, the font fender is damaged, JUST AS I SHOWED YOU WHEN YOU DROPPED OFF THE CAR"

"But there was no damage when I dropped it off, the car is almost new and you did not point any damage out on the car when I was with you that's a lie."

"Sir, we video tape every car right when it comes in, I SHOWED YOU, and its damaged, someone hit that car and damaged it, The car has "ALSO HAD BODYWORK DONE TO IT, that car was in an accident"

"Is there visible damage to the front of my car?"

"Yes Sir, your car has visible damage to the front fender."

"There is no way you video taped damage to my car when I brought it in, and the car has never had ANY WORK done to it, its an almost new car that sits in my garage, I know my car was not damaged this is complete BS."

At this point it was clear to me that I was outright being lied too in the most unprofessional & unbelievable manner, to get me to pay for an electronics problem that should be covered under warranty, and I began to worry that the car had indeed been damaged after I had dropped off the car by a service employee at Audi Manhattan, and it was being blamed on me.

I told the service advisor I do not want anything at all done to the car, and I am coming to pick it up right away, after hearing the lies, I had lost all trust in Audi Manhattan's ability to service the vehicle or speak the truth about anything.

It took me abut 1 hour and 45 min to get to the dealership in Friday afternoon Manhattan traffic, all the while worried someone crashed my car at the dealership.

I arrived at the dealership, and see my car sitting in the bay ready for pickup looking just as when I dropped it off, I rushed to my car to inspect the front fender (picture attached in the dealership at pickup) not a nick or scratch or any damage to be seen.

One of the service girl's came over and I briefly explained why I was here and how I was told that the car's front was damaged etc etc, we are both looking for damage to no avail.

Then my service advisor comes out with a bill of $369 and says "work was done by my technicians on the car, and we cannot work for free, but if you refuse to pay the bill I was cover it myself!"

"I did not request any paid work to be done to my car, you called me and outright lied to me, where is the damage? show me the damage you pointed out to me and video taped? I want my car back and I want to leave, I do not trust this dealership to touch my car again, I want a receipt showing $0 and I want a receipt for the loaner vehicle i just returned.

"It's OK you do not need a receipt for the loaner vehicle, it will be processed in the next 24 hours".

"No Sir I need a receipt for the loaner vehicle, I am concerned i will get a call saying I damaged the car".

So off he goes to get me a new bill with $0 and a loaner rental agreement, then he comes back out with the Manager who says pretty much the same to me that his employees cannot work for free and there is a bill but if I insist he will clear it out, I told him about the Call from the service advisor, who did not deny what I was saying, the manager did not respond about the call, but then he goes on to tell me that with "these cars that have all these electronics, we have lot's of problems on these roads".

I am about to leave and I look at the $0 bill, it says the under-car sensor's need re-alignment and I see it says "VEHICLE HAS HAD BODYWORK" I could not believe my eyes, the car is almost new, never had any damage or incident whatsoever, and here is a bill from Audi stating that the car has had bodywork?!?!

So I went back to the Manager who asked the service advisor about it, and then I overheard him saying that unless they are sure there was bodywork done it should not be put there, and he then re-printed the bill without the bodywork lie.

With that I got out of there and will never go back.

And no the car was not fixed.

Is that the dealer where you purchased the car?

Yes it is

As I read the story, it almost seems like they may have just gotten mixed up and called you when they meant to call someone else. "Mr. Johnson: you have cancer... oops, I was looking in the wrong patient's chart... you are fine". But they never got to admitting the oops part.

If there wasn't a mix-up like this, then it sounds like there are two other possibilities:

1) They damaged your car somehow, possibly not even knowing that someone hit it in their parking lot, and offered to repair it and charge you for it. (yes, their claims of having the damage on a video sounds ridiculous)

2) There was never any damage to your car and they are absolute dirtbags and were trying to get some extra money out of you to do a repair that didn't exist.

I find #2 to be very very unlikely. This would require a conspiracy of a number of different employees. A boss would need to be telling people to come up with the story and have a bunch of people all lying for them. Sounds ridiculous to me. If they were going to be unethical like this, it would be much easier to just say "yeah, that ACC problem needs a new module" and charge you a thousand dollars for that and not even switch the module. This kind of stuff probably happens more than we know it and probably doesn't really require a conspiracy, just someone saying "hey, if the modules seem like they might be bad then just replace them.. wink wink, know what I mean".

just my two cents.

I can only guess that you have other dealers that you can go to. You are lucky. I've only got one Audi dealer so if this happened to me, I'd have to get a BMW as my next car. :(

It was not a mix up, the service rep simply created a lie about my front fender being damaged (which it was not) to get me to pay for the advanced cruise control repair that should be a warranty repair.

I guess he assumed I would just pay up and he could get on with his job, the other employees at the dealership and the manager who I informed of what I had been told on the telephone call, did not express any surprise or regret and the service advisor did not apologize when we were both looking at the car that clearly did not have the damage he had told me about on the phone, so I would not be surprised is this is a tactic the service advisors at that dealership use when they want to.

WOW! If there staff is being coached on this behavior then they must be in some financial trouble that they'd go to this extent to get money out of a customer. Tell as many people as you can to NOT go there so they fail and can't keep screwing other people who may be a bit more trusting.

In New York you do not have to be in some financial trouble to go to that extent to get money out of a customer, its all too often part of the New York city experience.

I would give AudiUSA in Atlanta a call and report this dealership. This is totally unacceptable behavior for a car dealer regardless of the brand of cars they are selling or where they are located. The dealer would not be out any money on warranty work as that is fully reimbursed by Audi so I am not sure why they would concoct such a story but either way, Audi really needs to know about this dealer and their business practices. Audi is on a bent to become the luxury car brand of choice in the US and this type of malarkey is certainly not going to help them achieve that goal!

I'm not shocked by this at all. New York is populated by some of the most dishonest, rude and disrespectful people that could possibly be imagined. It is best avoided.