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I've previously commented favourably about my local Audi dealer (a.k.a. Gromit's Retreat Audi) as their sales dept. has been excellent to date. Sadly, their Service* Dept. is entirely a different matter.
My Q3 has a problem - a nice, simple problem, easy to diagnose and fix, one would have thought. The nearside rear window glass comes out of the regulator whenever it is lowered and the window won't shut until I've manually realigned it and shoved it back in. All they've got to do is refit the friggin' thing back in the regulator channel and I'm on my merry way rejoicing.
In an idle moment today I thought "I'll give them a quick ring and ask if I can drop in for them to have a quick look and give me a time estimate so that I could get it fixed - or maybe even fix the thing while I waited (I know, I know - I live in a world of my own at times) as they're only down the road from me.
The phone rang for an age before anyone answered, then held for another age for the Service* Dept. before being told "There's no-one there."
WOT??
The receptionist took my number and promised a call back. An hour and a half later no-one had returned the call so I phoned again, asked for Service* Dept. and after an interminable hold waiting for (wait for it...) the After-Sales Customer Care Department (!) I found myself speaking to a person to whom any technical aspect of the motor car trade was a complete closed book. After three attempts she finally got the hang of "The window won't shut" but it took two further attempts to get "nearside rear" translated into "the one in the back door on the left" and she never did get the meaning of "window regulator".
There was no way I was ever going to get the remotest indication of how long the job would take, i.e. is it a while-you-wait, in for a day, 2 days, a month, etc. and when I finally asked for it to be booked in she said "Any day in November suit you? We're booked up until the end of October."
WOT?? (2)
I told them to forget it and phoned the next nearest dealer - Audi Maidstone (part of the same Inchcape group) and got a totally different response. A very helpful and knowledgeable guy answered the phone promptly, understood the nature of the defect, sympathised with my problem and booked the car in for October 21st with a loan car booked for me and a promise to speculative-order the parts thought to be needed. The day following is also reserved with the loan car in case the job needs unforeseen parts. That is exactly what I would expect a top-quality dealer service* dept.'s response to be and I'm grateful for it. OK, I've got a 50-mile round trip to get the car there and another one to collect it, but the job is being done.
I told him why I was travelling all that way instead of just nipping down the road to Gromit's Retreat Audi and asked him if there was a problem with my local dealer. He said (tactfully) that they had "serious staff problems".
No sh*t, Sherlock.
* I refuse to call it an After-Sales Customer Care Department. This is a bullsh*t-free zone - It's the Service Department. Deal with it.
My Q3 has a problem - a nice, simple problem, easy to diagnose and fix, one would have thought. The nearside rear window glass comes out of the regulator whenever it is lowered and the window won't shut until I've manually realigned it and shoved it back in. All they've got to do is refit the friggin' thing back in the regulator channel and I'm on my merry way rejoicing.
In an idle moment today I thought "I'll give them a quick ring and ask if I can drop in for them to have a quick look and give me a time estimate so that I could get it fixed - or maybe even fix the thing while I waited (I know, I know - I live in a world of my own at times) as they're only down the road from me.
The phone rang for an age before anyone answered, then held for another age for the Service* Dept. before being told "There's no-one there."
WOT??
The receptionist took my number and promised a call back. An hour and a half later no-one had returned the call so I phoned again, asked for Service* Dept. and after an interminable hold waiting for (wait for it...) the After-Sales Customer Care Department (!) I found myself speaking to a person to whom any technical aspect of the motor car trade was a complete closed book. After three attempts she finally got the hang of "The window won't shut" but it took two further attempts to get "nearside rear" translated into "the one in the back door on the left" and she never did get the meaning of "window regulator".
There was no way I was ever going to get the remotest indication of how long the job would take, i.e. is it a while-you-wait, in for a day, 2 days, a month, etc. and when I finally asked for it to be booked in she said "Any day in November suit you? We're booked up until the end of October."
WOT?? (2)
I told them to forget it and phoned the next nearest dealer - Audi Maidstone (part of the same Inchcape group) and got a totally different response. A very helpful and knowledgeable guy answered the phone promptly, understood the nature of the defect, sympathised with my problem and booked the car in for October 21st with a loan car booked for me and a promise to speculative-order the parts thought to be needed. The day following is also reserved with the loan car in case the job needs unforeseen parts. That is exactly what I would expect a top-quality dealer service* dept.'s response to be and I'm grateful for it. OK, I've got a 50-mile round trip to get the car there and another one to collect it, but the job is being done.
I told him why I was travelling all that way instead of just nipping down the road to Gromit's Retreat Audi and asked him if there was a problem with my local dealer. He said (tactfully) that they had "serious staff problems".
No sh*t, Sherlock.
* I refuse to call it an After-Sales Customer Care Department. This is a bullsh*t-free zone - It's the Service Department. Deal with it.
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