I left my car at Schaumburg Audi for 5k service on Saturday. I was supposed to pick it up the same day, but they leave me a VM 5 minutes before closing time telling me to come pick it up. WTF.
So today comes and I get a call from the service guy, Ted. So before he starts talking, I tell him that I'd be happy to pick the car up after work. He proceeds to tell me that I can't. I go wtf?! and he, without any hint of apology whatsoever, tells me that the wheels (Hartmann 19" RS4 reps) have been stolen off of my car. I was in shock. This is one one of the better/bigger Audi dealers in Chicago/NW Suburb area... mind you. I ask him if they had the video rolling. Ted tells me that it wasn't working at the time. How the F does a car dealership have a non-functioning video camera over a weekend? I thought "BS!" but went with it. I ask him if the car is sitting on bricks and he tells me it's sitting on jacks and that there is no other damage at all beside the wheels missing. I say bullshit, but went along with it again. He said he's got a police report in (which I don't know if it is true, but i'm sure my insurance people will get that taken care of).
This whole thing smells foul with inside job. First of all, the wheels are just RS4 reps that look like 20 other sets of wheels on other cars.. Second, non-functioning camera? Third, thieves don't go on a dealer car lot and steal shit unless they want to get caught on the security camera. It's got to be one of the employees that saw my car.
The biggest thing that pisses me off is the attitude of Ted. He sounded annoyed rather than apologetic.
I have the claim initiated with Allstate and I told them this sounds fishy and wanted it investigated thoroughly. And they better pay my 500 dollar deductible. The wheels can be replaced easily but I hate the fact that I might need to go back to this shitty dealership for service.
********************- UPDATE **********************
Yesterday evening 06/18, I was contacted by the general manger of said dealership. We had a long conversation and he was extremely reasonable and apologetic. He was talking to me as another Audi enthusiast and was regretful that the situation has come to this. All in all, he promised to cut a check for $500 deductible and offered to let me use the loaner as long as my car is out of commission for repair. (He even offered me to a free participation at private tracksession in July which he is attending himself.) That was all that I demanded and he had issue with fulfilling them.
I have requested that Admin on other forums to delete the post I have made (clublexus, supraforums ** I come from Lexus/Toyota group before converting to Audi) and they were immediately removed. I have contacted the editor at Jalopnik to temporarily remove his blog posting and am awaiting his response. **Edit: I have told matt the outcome of the situation and to update his blog post to give credit where it's due.** No false statement was made on my part and there is no risk of further legal ramification for the blog that was made, but i felt it was the best i could do since they took care of my requests. I have asked Anthony to delete this post as well.
I think the biggest cause of this whole mess was the attitude of the service dept. They should have elevated this issue to the fullest extent to at least *try to* accommodate my needs, instead of shutting me off. And as you can see my request was not all that out-landish. I hope their service dept learned something from this incidence as their actions have affected their sales dept I'm sure. ** Oh, and I almost forgot to mention how Audi of America customer relations dept was little to no help in this case. I am truely disappointed that they could not leverage any authority on this. **
In any case, I'll let this thread float for another couple days and make another request to anthony to have it deleted.
Thank you all for your support and I couldn't have done this without you (and huge thanks to Jalopnik and Supraforum ** SFOT CREW ** that have been the most active).
- Jason
Originally Posted by grmncrsnbr
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