AUDI & the Last Straw

[Nemesis]

I like my 3 litre Diesel Audi A4 so much that I try to maintain it with genuine parts where I think it's important, the gearbox oil and filter being important things, so genuine Audi parts and Oils please (I know AUDI don't make them but they also don't intentionally sell counterfeit stuff either)

 

I've often wondered at what point I'd call time on AUDI's poor customer service and at what point I'd get the dummy out about cost.....

Well it finally happened today, AUDI Birmingham, enter via the showroom, past the reception desk complete with no less than 3 nicely dressed ladies, walk the full length of the showroom to the parts desk and find the smallest sign that says "If you require Parts Service please ask reception to let us know you are here" It was a lovely walk back to reception and the 3 nicely dressed ladies, 1 was doing something on the computer 2 was on the phone talking to what sounded like a really unhappy customer and 3 just ignored me and played with her phone, 3 had lovely nails and I'm impressed that she could see her phone at all, given the eyelashes she had on must have needed planning permission.

I stood and stared in wonder at the amalgamation that was the 3 well dressed ladies, and I stared for what seemed like an age at the modern miracles of manicure-age that were giving the smartphone a real workout, number 2 looked over at number 3 and I think 'scowled', tho I'm not too sure as the facial expression was mostly paralysed by some sort of modern chemical injection or maybe just the shear weight of adornment, I was impressed at how she resisted my Jedi imposed urge to punch number 3 in the ribs to get her attention, in the end number 1 (obviously the weak minded one of the 3) looked up long enough to see that I'd visibly aged since entering the showroom and asked if she could help me, "yes please, can you let parts know I'm here please?"

 

At last you say..... on the the bit that annoyed me.

 

Now, I'm a bit of an oddball and when I go and buy things I tend to think 'what if I break it whilst fitting it, I'll get a spare' So "Hello", says I to the nice man from parts, "can I have 2 of (oil filter kits for the gearbox) please"...... "Certainly Sir that will be £43.20 please"

"Ouch", says I they've gone up a fair bit since I last bought 2 of them"

"Yes Sir they have"

I paid for said Items and added to my visibly aged quota marvelling at the showroom and all of the well dressed peoples that adorned it.....

 

Items arrive and I had to ask "where's the big 'O' ring that seals the cover, it should be in the kit"

 

"No sir, they don't come with the kit, they are £8.20 plus VAT each"

 

I lost the plot completely and asked if he had read the price correctly, I'm sure he meant to say 8 pence or even 80 pence each, but no he was sticking to his £8.20 plus VAT..... each !

 

The dummy came out, I think it's made orbit somewhere near Venus...

 

Refund processed and feedback left with the most grown up looking well dressed individual I could find, I went home and bought 2 of said kits from an online parts purveyor for an all inclusive price of £33.77, that includes £8.45 for postage!

I opted for the more expensive Febi-Bilsteine quality so I hope they are ok.

 

The Sage and I are going out to dinner tonight where I hope I can grab a drink or 3 to sort out my shredded sensibilities.     

Nem.........

[Arm]

I used to obtain components for a race team as one of my teams responsibilities.  The mark up on parts is unbelievable. For example a throttle body was euro 34 to buy from manufacturer.  By the time it got to retail it was euro 400. Everyone along the way had had a big chunk of profit.

[Steve (sdh2903)]

It's the same setup at every posh audi showroom. Lots of heels, make up and big hair. In this day in age I find it incredibly cringey.

 

My last dealing with them was for a service on the wife's leased a4 1.4 petrol. It was contractual that it had to be main dealer serviced. So called up to get a price, bear in mind this was the first service, that'll be 479 of your finest please. Jesus wept. Why so high? "Its a major service sir" really? Its the first service so what gets changed? "Well we change the oil and filter and the car will get a thorough inspection"

 

Luckily they were price matching on servicing and the local independent quoted (using gen audi parts and oil) 159 quid.

 

The audi place price matched it without even blinking. Over 300 quid less. Robbing b******ds. Its purely on the badge too as I had a golf gti and Leon cupra in the same period and their respective first services were both 200 quid at the main dealers.

[Paul Aspden (MoFast)]

Many years ago in about 2003 when I was heavily into Audis there was a smart company called vag parts in Swindon. Really great guys. What they did was collect orders from everyone and then get them shipped to the U.K. directly from Audi GMBH for half the price of parts supplied by Audi U.K. 

 

Even back in the early 2000s Audi U.K. where vastly inflating prices.  
 

I believe vagparts closed its doors simply because Audi U.K. threatened legal action. Even when Audi GMBH where OK with what was happening.

 

Audi U.K. are a very different beast to Audi GMBH.

 

It was the Audi Q5 that finally led to me loosing the plot and buying BMW.

 

The Q5 would go through suspension bushes every 20K and the gearbox oil needed changing every 8K 

 

I had previously owned such great cars as the original URS6, S2 & RS2 all of which didn’t have a spot of rust on them EVER even underneath, yet the Q5 after 5 years of ownership was virtually ready for the scrap

heap.

 

So with designed in obsolescence coming from Germany and magnitudes of price hiking from Audi U.K. THAT WAS IT….

 

 

[Steve (sdh2903)]

1 hour ago, Paul Aspden (MoFast) said:

I believe vagparts closed its doors simply because Audi U.K. threatened legal action

 

Same with TPS. They used to supply to retail and trade until they were threatened. Trade only now.

 

My neighbour has a q3 that I help with routine stuff and he was always for buying oem only until I convinced him that lemforder made all the oem suspension arms. He couldn't believe it when the lemforder bits turned up at 1/4 the price with the audi logo on them

[SootySport]

Look closely at Eurocaparts listing you will be presented with 2 to 5 options of the same part, the chances are one of them is the same Audi part offered by a main dealer and at a greatly reduced price. 
You do of course have to play the 'Click & Collect' game to receive the discounts.

[jeff oakley]

Main dealers will always have to charge more than others for the same product, it is dictated by the manufacturer.

 

This is why the dealership premises are the way they are. In the UK if you want to have a franchise then you play by their rules. We were owned by Lookers at one point, a typical new dealership site was 2 million to set up and you had to follow their rules. We could have supplied the same parts but that was not allowed, only on ales cars could they use none OE parts and even then only if it was not part of the franchised sales for used cars.

 

When I retire I will write an article on parts supply in the UK and what to look for when ordering