spagolli94

I bought my 2007 RS4 3 months ago, CPO from Rockville Audi, near Washington DC. When I arrived to test drive the car, the rims were scratched. The manager agreed that one had enough scratches that he had been planning on refinishing it so he gave me a "we owe" document for the refinish. He also agreed to refinish the other wheels (which had minor scratches) at cost, $75 per wheel instead of the $125 they usually charge.

Also, on the CPO report listed a bent rim. The manager assured me it had been straightened. I didn't question this because the car rides perfectly smooth, even at high speeds. I asked them for documentation that it had been straightened b/c a future buyer might ask for it when I sell the car several years from now. The manager said that when I brought the car in for the wheels to be refinished, the wheel guy would throw it on the machine and they could provide me with a document verifying it had been straightened.

Anyway, I live in Philly about 3 hours away. I'm only in MD to visit family a few times a year, so I decided to bite the bullet and just have my local Audi dealer to get the rims refinished while it was in the shop for the 35,000 mile service. For me to drive 3 hours just to save a couple hundred bucks isn't worth it. I also chose not to worry about the bent rim on the report. After all the car rides so smooth that I didn't want to bother messing it.

The local dealer just informed my that while mounting and balancing my winter tires, they noticed a bent rim. At this point, I explained to them the whole backstory and my concern that Audi Rockville may try to say I had re-bent the rim sometime since I took ownership of the car. But get this - the rim in question is actually marked "bent." So it's obvious the same rim that was documented on the CPO report and the Rockville dealer lied to me. It had never been straightened. The good new is that my local dealer was also able to counter balance the bent rim on the Road Force machine, so there shouldn't be any vibration. But I'm still pissed about being lied to.

And I have an issue with the local dealer as well. They never quoted me a price to refinish the rims. They went ahead and did it for $125 per rim. I'm fine with that, but they only did a partial job. They just retouched the curb rash, but didn't touch any of the numerous small scratches on the spokes. If they had called me and told me they were going to charge $125 per rim, only do a partial job, and mention the bent rim, I would have said DON'T TOUCH THEM! At that point, I would have taken the car down to Rockville to have the refinish done 100% perfect and had the bent rim fixed at the same time.

But now I have to pay the local dealer for the refinish AND go to Rockville and pay for ANOTHER refinish to get it 100% right, along with mending the bent rim?

At most, I'm thinking of offering the local dealer cost only. After all, a partial job deserves partial payment. What are my rights here? I drove by the dealer last night to check out the job they did. The rims do look much better than before, but aren't perfect. Although the remaining scratches are quite minor, I would like them perfect - and don't want to have to pay TWICE at separate dealers to get the job done.

What should I do????

RS4bro

Tell the local dealer that you will only *pay* for a fully repaired job. Did you (or they take any pictures before the work was done)?

The other dealer, speak to a senior manager or one of the owners. Escalate the problem immediately and put your compliant in writing. They get rate on their customer service and AoA will ding them.

spagolli94

They offered to apply the price of the work done so far towards a full job. The issue is that the quote for a full job was ridiculously high. They said they would literally have to take the wheels off, remove the tires and respray the entire rim, thus it was very expensive. So I declined that b/c I know that Rockville Audi owes me one wheel for free and the others at only $75 per. And now (especially considering the bent rim), the price difference is significant enough to make the trip down to Rockville worthwhile.

My local dealer SHOULD have told me they were going to a partial job up front so I had a chance to decline in favor of driving down to Rockville.

I'm weighing two options that I'll present to them.

1. I will pay the $125 per wheel, but they need to do the job right, even if it means they lose $$ on the job. Then, when I have a chance, I can head back to Rockville and get that one wheel straightened.
2. I will cover the cost of the job only - $75 per rim. The way I see it, a partial job only deserves partial payment. This option kind of sucks because I've spent $75 per rim and still need to find another vendor or pay Rockville cost to get the job perfect. In essence, I'll wind up paying for the job twice.

Out of the two options, #1 is the best. But this is a tough call because it's only few hundred $$, so it's not worth a lot of time and aggravation.

Winterrunner

I'd not pay them until it is righted... Sounds like a ****ty dealer if you ask me... They have the responsability to do right on your behalf esp.. with the shifty behavior both the dealers seem to have.....

Reggie

US$125 is what most wheel shops charge to do the whole wheel

spagolli94

I went to pick up the car today and saw the rims for the first time in the daylight. They did a decent job on the curb rash, but the spokes still had a lot of scratches. At first the service advisor was getting upset with me for insisting I shouldn't have to pay for a partial job. He said a full job would be several hundred dollars. I said well that should have been explained BEFORE you did the work, giving me an opportunity to decline the partial job. I was like, "what did I do wrong here?" I didn't do anything wrong.

He agreed, but we were still at odds about whether I should have to pay for the partial job. So I had to speak to the manager. The manager didn't really say much. Just listened to what happened. Before I even completed the story, he handed a new invoice to the service advisor and said, here, use this instead.

In the end, we smoothed everything over and I didn't wind up paying for the partial job. Thus I'm free to go back to the original dealer in Maryland so they can make good on their initial promise - and I won't wind up paying twice.

One thing was odd about this whole experience. The advisor kept saying, this has been a learning experience for me. In the future, I'll have to make sure I have a better understanding of the customers' expectations and make sure they line up with what the wheel vendor is able to provide. I was a little dumbfounded by this. When I take my wheels somewhere and ask for them to fix the scratches, doesn't that inherently imply ALL the scratches, not just the ones around the edge?

Anyway, in the end, they stepped up and did the right thing. This meant a lot to me b/c it's my local dealer and I plan on using them to service both my RS4 and my wife's A3 at this dealer for years to come. The next closest dealer is 25 minutes away so it would be inconvenient to go there for service.

I'm not sure why the previous owner thrashed the wheels so bad as the rest of the car is practically flawless. Very strange.

Reggie

Some wheel and tire combinations do not provide as much curb rash protection as other. My RS4 OEM wheels have some curb rash as the wheels are wider than they need be for the size tire. I now have summer rims with a half inch less width and have had much better luck with not getting rash on them.

spagolli94

Actually, they fixed the curb rash along the edges of the rim just fine. Unfortunately 3 of my rims have several hairline scratches each, mostly along the spokes of the rim. They aren't in the outer side of the spokes - they are along the sides of the spokes. It's almost like somebody tried to clean the wheels using a wheel brush that had a rock stuck in the bristles. Luckily, they aren't visible from a distance, but it just seems like a really odd spot to have scratches on the rims. It was these scratches that went untouched, hence the "partial" repair.

The good news is they did a great job mounting and balancing my winter tires - smoooooth. I love the tires so far. Going to make a thread about them in a bit.

RS4bro

Glad to hear it worked out and the manager stepped up. Be sure not to use that SA again at your local shop.

Winterrunner

X2, glad your being taken care of properly...