Disappointing Audi main dealer service experience.
Discussion
Had my (black) s4 serviced at a franchised Audi dealer yesterday. Obviously won't name and shame but it's in the 
.
When I arrived to collect the car, it had been parked under a tree and had a significant amount of bird on one of the rear doors. I was unimpressed and made this clear - I was polite (no swearing and lots of 'not your fault personally', 'I'm sure you'd be irritated too' maybe even a stray 'not being funny') but I made it plain that I was unhappy.
To their credit, they've offered to have the car back and polish the area affected - hence I'll follow rule #1 to let them correct this first.
Am I over-reacting with my level of disappointment; I had a nagging sense of 'Dude, it's just a car'.
ETA
Location removed.
.When I arrived to collect the car, it had been parked under a tree and had a significant amount of bird
on one of the rear doors. I was unimpressed and made this clear - I was polite (no swearing and lots of 'not your fault personally', 'I'm sure you'd be irritated too' maybe even a stray 'not being funny') but I made it plain that I was unhappy.To their credit, they've offered to have the car back and polish the area affected - hence I'll follow rule #1 to let them correct this first.
Am I over-reacting with my level of disappointment; I had a nagging sense of 'Dude, it's just a car'.
ETA
Location removed.
Edited by Big Al. on Saturday 26th July 13:51
its a wonder some dealer staff treat people like idiots.Sounds like a very fair resolution. Dealerships are often pressed for space, particularly in the south east so parking arrangements are sometimes less than ideal.
I'm reasonably sure Audi dealers don't train pigeons to deliberately defecate on their customers' cars
I'm reasonably sure Audi dealers don't train pigeons to deliberately defecate on their customers' cars
Edited by Dr G on Saturday 26th July 13:30
Sketchface said:
Had my (black) s4 serviced at a franchised Audi dealer yesterday. Obviously won't name and shame but it's in the .
When I arrived to collect the car, it had been parked under a tree and had a significant amount of bird on one of the rear doors. I was unimpressed and made this clear - I was polite (no swearing and lots of 'not your fault personally', 'I'm sure you'd be irritated too' maybe even a stray 'not being funny') but I made it plain that I was unhappy.
To their credit, they've offered to have the car back and polish the area affected - hence I'll follow rule #1 to let them correct this first.
Am I over-reacting with my level of disappointment; I had a nagging sense of 'Dude, it's just a car'.
ETA
Location removed.
yes, you're being a total girl.When I arrived to collect the car, it had been parked under a tree and had a significant amount of bird
on one of the rear doors. I was unimpressed and made this clear - I was polite (no swearing and lots of 'not your fault personally', 'I'm sure you'd be irritated too' maybe even a stray 'not being funny') but I made it plain that I was unhappy.To their credit, they've offered to have the car back and polish the area affected - hence I'll follow rule #1 to let them correct this first.
Am I over-reacting with my level of disappointment; I had a nagging sense of 'Dude, it's just a car'.
ETA
Location removed.
Edited by Big Al. on Saturday 26th July 13:51
Pfft! I've been waiting six weeks for the dealership in Knaresborough to ring me back regarding a simple enquiry. I was going to chase it up, but then I fixed it myself. Now it's just a little game to see how long it takes for them to call back.
I don't think a bit of bird turd could be called "bad service" unless the bird in question was wearing Audi branded plumage at the time.
I don't think a bit of bird turd could be called "bad service" unless the bird in question was wearing Audi branded plumage at the time.
Some people obviously dont realise that,particularly in hot weather when the laquer on a car becomes soft that bird st can obsolutely wreck a cars paintwork to the point where sometimes a respray is necessary.
Im sure they didn't do it purposely knowing this would happen but to be honest i wouldve done the same just incase a costly repair is needed.
t can obsolutely wreck a cars paintwork to the point where sometimes a respray is necessary.Im sure they didn't do it purposely knowing this would happen but to be honest i wouldve done the same just incase a costly repair is needed.
Well now, this is upsetting. It’s really vital to me, personally, that every single one you on ph likes and respects me.
Some of the replies I’ll just put down to the school holidays. But seriously the mumsnet reference – come on! School mums are obviously famed for taking care of car body- and paintwork!
If you read my post fully, I’ve set in in context – it’s only a car. So yes, compared to Gaza / West Bank / Israel etc it doesn’t matter. But this is a motoring forum – if you want to wallow in bleeding heart liberalism, cif is over there >>>>>>
Nedzilla obviously gets it. If you get a car serviced, it’s just part and parcel of customer service. ‘Oh, customer a has arranged to pick up in an hour, let me make sure the car doesn’t have any baked-in bird s*** on it’.
I do believe in letting people resolve their own (very insignificant in cosmic terms) mistake and if they do that, I’ll happily give them a glowing reference if audi call (which they sometimes do).
Final thing – are the dissenters here really expecting me to believe that if you had your car serviced at a main dealer and discovered it adorned with baked-in bird s*** that you wouldn’t be annoyed in anyway? You’d just ignore it in case somebody thought you were ‘behaving like a girl’. Sure, sure.
Some of the replies I’ll just put down to the school holidays. But seriously the mumsnet reference – come on! School mums are obviously famed for taking care of car body- and paintwork!
If you read my post fully, I’ve set in in context – it’s only a car. So yes, compared to Gaza / West Bank / Israel etc it doesn’t matter. But this is a motoring forum – if you want to wallow in bleeding heart liberalism, cif is over there >>>>>>
Nedzilla obviously gets it. If you get a car serviced, it’s just part and parcel of customer service. ‘Oh, customer a has arranged to pick up in an hour, let me make sure the car doesn’t have any baked-in bird s*** on it’.
I do believe in letting people resolve their own (very insignificant in cosmic terms) mistake and if they do that, I’ll happily give them a glowing reference if audi call (which they sometimes do).
Final thing – are the dissenters here really expecting me to believe that if you had your car serviced at a main dealer and discovered it adorned with baked-in bird s*** that you wouldn’t be annoyed in anyway? You’d just ignore it in case somebody thought you were ‘behaving like a girl’. Sure, sure.
I think your reaction to a bird crapping on your car is well OTT and I am sure that everyone at the dealer has had a good laugh at your expense. The fact it is black car means some birds find it threatening and crapping on it is their way of defending themselves, next time buy a silver one.
OP - we probably would not ignore it.
We'd go in to the showroom, explain what had happened (knowing that there is no way anyone would be providing a by-the-second watch over my car, and ask if the bird muck could be removed.
The dealer would no doubt be very pleased to oblige.
That would be it.
We certainly would not post about it on PH (it's a complete non story) and we certainly would not phrase it as a "disappointment" as it's not, it's N act of nature.
That's where the comparison to mums net came from I believe.
We'd go in to the showroom, explain what had happened (knowing that there is no way anyone would be providing a by-the-second watch over my car, and ask if the bird muck could be removed.
The dealer would no doubt be very pleased to oblige.
That would be it.
We certainly would not post about it on PH (it's a complete non story) and we certainly would not phrase it as a "disappointment" as it's not, it's N act of nature.
That's where the comparison to mums net came from I believe.
I agree with Garyhun. Whilst not being bad service, it would still be a little irritating because of the potential damage to the paintwork. A simple request for somebody to quickly run a sponge over it and check for lacquer damage would be in order. I'd worry about the actual proper cleaning of it myself later.
Its going to get bird poo on it again and again and again, I wouldn't worry too much.
I've often heard about it wrecking paint, but to be honest I've never had a problem and mine is parked under a tree all the time. Agree about not letting them polish a black car though.
I was once at a Porsche specialist and as I returned to my car the branch of a tree snapped off and hit a rather nice 1980s 3.2 Targa. I think that owner might have had some justification to be a bit grumpy!
I've often heard about it wrecking paint, but to be honest I've never had a problem and mine is parked under a tree all the time. Agree about not letting them polish a black car though.
I was once at a Porsche specialist and as I returned to my car the branch of a tree snapped off and hit a rather nice 1980s 3.2 Targa. I think that owner might have had some justification to be a bit grumpy!
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