Jay Levitt

UPDATE: If you're seeing this from Google, you should see what happened when I tried to get Jack Daniels to deliver on their promises:

http://www.jack-daniels-motors-sucks.com

I live in Boston, but I drove to NJ to buy an S6 (four were for sale, so I figured it was a sign). I ended up buying the 2003 Atlas gray S6 from Jack Daniels. Here's how it went:

Good: The salesman, John Durkin, was very friendly and knowledgeable about Audis. We talked a bit, and he offered to take me out for a drive, but by this time I'd already seen Tim's (audiophilitis) S6 and was planning to buy it, so I told him it was pretty much down to numbers. He passed me to Frank, the pre-owned manager, which was much nicer than the mid-negotiation "let me go in the back and check with my manager" shtick some dealers do.

Good: Frank was straightforward. We talked about trading in my allroad, but quickly agreed that I'd do much better selling it privately. We also agreed that we were pretty far apart on price; Tim was asking $38,900 with Alcantara (which is a must-have for me), all-seasons, winter mats, and 13,000 fewer miles, while JD wanted $37k with summer tires, which I couldn't even drive home in. Frank and I walked through the pricing, and he suggested comparing what it would cost to get their car like Tim's, and subtracting a reasonable amount for the mileage difference and lack of warranty.

Bad: Frank tried to show me that a 2003 was worth $4200 more in resale than a 2002, apples-to-apples. But his book assumed that a 2003 would have 20k miles, and a 2002 would have 30k, so that's not apples-to-apples at all. The book assumes $350 per 1,000 miles, so a 2003 is actually worth only $700 more. Frank is smart and does this for a living, so I can't imagine he didn't realize this.

Good: Frank spent a lot of time trying to find in-stock winter or all-season tires that would fit the stock wheels, no small task in mid-January on a Friday evening.

Good: John, Frank and Nicole (another salesperson) spent the better part of an afternoon looking up info, taking me over to the service building to check for VAG codes, and generally obliging me as a very picky customer who already had a perfectly good deal elsewhere.

By the end, I was ready to walk, since at best, their best offer ($34,750) would come out even with Tim's, and I'd still have the hassle of going to an upholsterer to get Alcantara, plus a tire/wheel dealer, plus I couldn't even drive the car home that weekend. Frank then offered to somehow-by-God find winter tires and 16" wheels, and let me keep the original S6 wheels. We shook hands.

I came by the next morning to take delivery. I'd realized that we hadn't exactly specified what these tires and wheels would be, and was afraid they'd saddle me with steel wheels, or with tires that I'd need to replace for Boston winters.

Bad: Nicole, my sales rep, couldn't be found for half an hour. We had talked by phone and I told her I'd be there around 2, which is in fact about when I showed up, but she was out on a test drive or something. I ended up getting shuttled off to Laura, an assistant business manager, to close the deal.

Bad: Laura, as far as I could tell, knew little about Audis or about the car business. She didn't even know what a CPO was. She ended up referring me to Nicole and others for any questions.

I asked to take a look at the car before I signed the paperwork, and Laura took me over. I was pleasantly surprised to discover ATP five-spoke rims and relatively new 205/55R16 Dunlop M2s on the car; I probably would have bought Nokians on my own, but the M2s are a great tire and I wouldn't need to replace these. The rims were clearly used and a bit scratched, but no worse than I'd end up doing within a few months; curbs are hell on S-series cars, with those brakes and offsets. I signed the paperwork.

While Laura was off getting stuff notarized, I took a closer look at the car.

Bad: I noticed that one of the left tires was actually a right-side tire. I then noticed that one of the right tires wasn't even a Dunlop M2, but a Wintersport. This couldn't be good. Also, the cargo cover, which I'd noticed missing yesterday, was in fact still missing.

Bad: Laura went off to find the cargo cover (which I mistakenly called a "cargo liner"), and sent me to Nicole to talk about the tires. Nicole went to check with Frank, who then got John to come talk to me. I want a single point of contact, not transfer-and-triangulate.

Very Bad: John said that Frank had talked to some service techs, and didn't think the tires were a big deal to get back to Boston; he agreed I'd need to buy a fourth tire when I got home, but that they were free anyway, so what more could I ask? That didn't fly, even at the time, and in retrospect, it makes me angry - the tires were, in fact, the dealmaker! After some discussion, they agreed to order me free winter mats in exchange for the tire.

Bad: Got back to the car, and discovered that they thought I meant the cargo floor net, which in fact was also missing. I explained to Nicole that the cargo cover was the "window-shade" privacy cover for the trunk. She was confused, and thought that this should be part of the cargo-bay seatback net; a mistake I'd made when I first got the allroad, but which I'd expect a dealer to know better. In any event, she went off to find one.

Bad: Meanwhile, I realized there was only one remote, and Laura went off to look for that.

Bad: Meanwhile, I took the service plastic off the floors, and discovered the driver's side mat was completely missing. Nicole came back, and said they'd have to order me the cargo cover; I said that'd be fine by me, but expensive for them, and she might want to just grab one off an A6. Told her about the mat, and she went off in search.

Very, very bad: Nicole came back and said that Frank wasn't inclined to do anything about the mat; after all, I was getting winter mats, and furthermore, with used cars, sometimes you don't get all the mats. I pointed out that the CPO checklist itself said the mat was present and in good condition; had I not been flabbergasted, I would have also pointed out that the winter mats were because they screwed up the tires which, again, were the dealmaker! She didn't disagree, but said that Frank was giving her a tough time, and she went off to deal with it.

Finally, she came back with a driver's mat from an A6 (no S6 logo, but I can deal), and a cargo liner. They're ordering me a remote key, as well as the winter mats. I drove off and tried to ignore the vibration from the two odd tires.

Overall: The initial experience was great. They were motivated to make a deal, but were in no way high-pressure, and they never tried any stupid "closing techniques" on me (like the Volvo dealer who said "So, how much do you want to put down?" before I'd even expressed a readiness to buy).

The delivery experience was poor. They obviously did a cursory job on the CPO, since three items were missing. Further, they were clearly hoping I wouldn't notice the mismatched tires. I realize that there's no way to for them to get a new set of tires and wheels on a Saturday morning, and I believe that if Frank had a set around he'd gladly have given me them, but they could have handled the issue better both before and after I brought it up. And the floormat thing is just a joke.

Overall, I'd recommend them, with reservations - know what should come with your CPO'd car, and make sure it's there.

TT twister

JD gets a terrible rating on http://1.8t.org/dealers. They have a -20 rating now.

njskier (A4i)

that manager Frank is the epitome of a "used car salesman". I would never recommend anyone to that stealership.

Marc911

Bought my S4 from JD, horrible sales experience!

Jay Levitt

Turns out that, aside from the non-matching tire, two of the three M2s are bad (sidewall cuts and/or bubbles). Apparently they started with four M2s, but discovered one bad one on their own, so they replaced it.

Frank's initial response was that the tire store was just trying to sell me tires. After I got a second opinion, though, he said he'd try to see if he could get me three more Winterforces to match the new one they put on.

The rims are also bent, one pretty badly; it's evident even to my eye on a balancing machine. Apparently the AT Italias are very soft wheels, and probably fare about as well in NY/NJ as here in Boston - not well. (I ruined a set of Mille Miglias in about two years.)

I'm just going to order myself some Ronal R38s, and some ContiWinterContact TS790s, and if Frank ends up paying me back, all the merrier - if not, lesson learned.

Jay Levitt

Frank said to call him Thursday to confirm that the tires were bad. I gave him an extra day, and left voicemail on Friday after trying a few times to reach him with no luck. It's Monday, and still no response.

I wonder if AoA would care that their dealer sold me a CPO car with two tires ready to blow? I wonder if JD would care if this story became the #1 Google hit for "Jack Daniels Audi"?

youareridculous

Here I am googling Jack Daniels to make yet another purchase from them and even before their actual website is listed, I am directed here. Now say I haven't already been familiar with them, I as a potential customer definitely would not go to them having read all of your incessant complaints. Having that said, I cannot believe that all of you had to audacity to post such ramblings on a website. I am not sure how familiar any of you are with how businesses run, but as with every business, they are problems. It is impossible, especially in the car business, to make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time. They are going to be problems, even some, dare I say, bigger than car mats. Now I know this may come as a shocker, but you know those people that work there? Guess what. They are human. Being that we all are human, I am sure you can relate to the fact that some of us humans are bound to make mistakes and maybe not handle every situation in the best possible way. Additionally, one thing to keep in mind... As I am sure that you all think that your particular situation is of the utmost importance to the entire dealership, you are one of hundreds that they deal with every month. As I understand that when it comes to issues with buying an investment like a car, we all think that we deserve-- downright entitled-- to the complete and sole attention of every person we deal with. To some degree, I understand that it can be frustrating, even to the point where you might to vent about it. But to attack the character and integrity of a business on the internet seems absolutely up surd to me. For one, the hypothetical potential buyer is definitely not inclined to give Jack Daniels the shot to make them happier than they obviously made you. Furthermore, remember those humans I spoke about earlier that work there? Well I am sure that the business they are losing from your stategically-labled "Jack Daniels Sucks" website is not well appreciated by their employee's families that end up suffering as a result. In summation, as I sympathize with all of your experiences, defacing a business for a hand-full of negative occurrences is not just ridiculous, it's downright wrong. We are all so quick to complain about a business not making us their first priority, but it may be worth it to take a minute, try and understand the people we are unhappy with, and think about the consequences of what we do. I have purchased many different cars, over many years, and at many different dealerships. I have never had a perfect experience anywhere, sometimes testing my patience to the extremes. But I have never in my life tried to make the lives of the individual that are employed there difficult, especially via posting complaints on the internet using their names. If it a problem in the system-- fine... complain about the dealership or the owner if need be. Making a website and throwing a tantrum about people in situations that are out of their control is ridiculous as well as immature. I for one with continue doing business with Jack Daniels-- I'll let you know if they forget a floor mat, maybe forget to give me an air freshner, or make an otherwise grave mistake in the process.
Drive safely.