QQQQuattro

For those who don't know, this involved a customer being sued for libel over a post made on the VWVortex forum about the Jim Ellis dealership (VW/Audi dealer in Marietta, GA). The lawsuit was dropped when practically the entire automotive community throughout the world rallied behind "g-man" to help fight his legal battle. Response from the dealership to my email follows:



Thanks for your email of concern. I've included a letter that states our position and also some avenues for future actions to keep this kind of thing from happening.

Thanks



Dec 4, 2001



To Those of Concern:

From: Jimmy Ellis, Chief Operating Officer, Jim Ellis Auto
Dealerships



Re: Jim Ellis Volkswagen of Marietta and George Mantis, i.e.
g-man ae



After my meeting with Mr. Mantis on November 30, 2001, I feel this situation is now resolved. We regret that Mr. Mantis's service experience reached this level of dissatisfaction without my intervention.

The Explanation of Jim Ellis Volkswagen of Marietta's actions: Our actions can be summarized in two ways: "Awareness" and "Concern"

"Awareness" because we were not aware of the intent of the information in the on-line world of chat room forums: how they operate, who these individuals are or what the mission or agendas are of these forums.

"Concern" because we saw a complaint about a service experience roar out of control to a point that respondent postings became vulgar and personally threatening to some of our employees. I now do not believe that this was Mr. Mantis's intent. However, it nevertheless pushed Mr. Farmer finally to the judicial system for help.

It has been our commitment for over 30 years and will be in the future that: "We will aggressively address any situation that we feel is a threat to the safety and comfort of our employees"

Maybe we overreacted, but our actions were based on our knowledge of our industry's history of individuals injured, some fatally in the work place out of rage and anger. That is a troubling reality that we can't afford to ignore.

So What Now?

Mr. Mantis and I have agreed on a few ideas that we could all benefit from:

First, that Jim Ellis Automotive Dealerships understand and improve its online communications. To that end, we will install links with VW Vortex, as well as other online forums that would benefit from having easy, direct communications not only with the Jim Ellis Companies and their management, but also to Jimmy Ellis, Chief Operating Officer of Jim Ellis Automotive Dealerships.

We have recently upgraded our website (http://www.jimellis.com)and feel that it offers a great deal in this regard. However, we are always open to customer comment and suggestions. We have a page on our site now that will enable you to contact us. (http://www.jimellis.com/contact.asp), We will add further links to make communication easier.

This should enable anyone who has a dispute with the Jim Ellis Dealerships to communicate with us when necessary, so this situation won't happen again.

We'll go further to say that we would open a page for informational questions from technical to operational about your Volkswagen.anything that
we could do to help make your ownership experience a better one.

Mr. Mantis and I also agreed that the VW Vortex forum as well as other forums about cars and their owners should never be a forum that allows vulgarity or personal threats. They should instead be forums where owners can seek information that will improve their ownership experience.

Jim Ellis Automotive Dealerships will commit to help in this mission and open the on-line informational channels of communications to any Volkswagen or Audi Owner who is seeking a better experience.



Yours very truly,



Jimmy Ellis
Chief Operating Officer
Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships
jimmye@jimellis.com

Allroad Atlanta

I attempted to buy an allroad from Jim Ellis. What a joke! I won't go into the details due to JE's fondness to sue people who speak the truth but I'll give you an example.

I mentioned, in passing, at the end of the test drive that the steering was too light but I wasn't worried as I had read about removing the 605 relay on audiworld. The salesman said that all of the people who post on these sites are low lifes with nothing else better to do with their time and if I had a degree in automotive steering and thought I knew better than Audi then I should go right ahead. Think about this! Here I am, a potential customer saying that I had read something on a site and he's basically telling me that "I" am a low life because I'm reading the posts on the site.

I mentioned to him that he was basically full of sh&^ as the relay was actually an optional extra in Europe and there's zero problem with removing it. I suggested that he spend a little more of his time on this site to better learn his product.

I bought from Nalley.