Are all Audi dealers unhelpful?
Discussion
Mexman said:
Ok, picture this (and it does happen)
It's 2.30pm and you have 3 handovers this afternoon.
Your first handover is in 10 mins time, and you are frantically running around making sure paperwork is all ready, car fuelled, cleaned and all the other bits you promised to do have been done.
Valeter comes running in saying that he has just scraped the bumper on a fence post around the back or the EML light has just come on whilst he was giving it a final reclean.
Service manager is busy on the phone, techies are all busy on the clock on other jobs.
Your customer is arriving from 2 hours away and is due anytime now and this person buying this 30k, 40k car is known to be a fussy, abrupt person, like he was at the original point of sale.
Another customer walks in and demands your attention to either possibly buy or possibly just pull you around for an hour and waste your time.(could be either)
What do you do?
Quick, time is running out, what now?
You cannot delay or your other 2 handovers are going to run over as well, so you will now be dealing with 3 irate customers, not just one.
Oh and your phone is now ringing, and you have an appointment at 5pm on a car which is a surefire deal as long as you don't balls it up.
Quick, you need to do something now!
What?
We don't deliberately ignore people believe me, but sometimes there are circumstances beyond your control that dictate that you cannot possibly start to get involved with dealing with yet another customer.
It happens, there are only so many hours in the day, and occasionally, circumstances all come together to combine, that create a problem that needs addressing immediately, without further interruptions.
This scenario, when involved with cars, is not uncommon, so many different things can go wrong that are totally out of your control, but can create you an absolute world of pain.
Where on earth do you work? I've never yet met a salesman that was anywhere near ready when I've gone to pick a car up, they've usually not done any of the things agreed as part of the sale, and they haven't even started to get the paperwork organisedIt's 2.30pm and you have 3 handovers this afternoon.
Your first handover is in 10 mins time, and you are frantically running around making sure paperwork is all ready, car fuelled, cleaned and all the other bits you promised to do have been done.
Valeter comes running in saying that he has just scraped the bumper on a fence post around the back or the EML light has just come on whilst he was giving it a final reclean.
Service manager is busy on the phone, techies are all busy on the clock on other jobs.
Your customer is arriving from 2 hours away and is due anytime now and this person buying this 30k, 40k car is known to be a fussy, abrupt person, like he was at the original point of sale.
Another customer walks in and demands your attention to either possibly buy or possibly just pull you around for an hour and waste your time.(could be either)
What do you do?
Quick, time is running out, what now?
You cannot delay or your other 2 handovers are going to run over as well, so you will now be dealing with 3 irate customers, not just one.
Oh and your phone is now ringing, and you have an appointment at 5pm on a car which is a surefire deal as long as you don't balls it up.
Quick, you need to do something now!
What?
We don't deliberately ignore people believe me, but sometimes there are circumstances beyond your control that dictate that you cannot possibly start to get involved with dealing with yet another customer.
It happens, there are only so many hours in the day, and occasionally, circumstances all come together to combine, that create a problem that needs addressing immediately, without further interruptions.
This scenario, when involved with cars, is not uncommon, so many different things can go wrong that are totally out of your control, but can create you an absolute world of pain.
Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 12th February 19:37
Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 12th February 19:40
I'm always ready, if I have a handover at 4pm, I will do the paperwork in the morning, and make sure the car is ready by 1pm latest.
That's just the way i work, so no last minute panics in case I do get sidetracked before 4pm.
Some sales people are dreadful with time organisation though, but sometimes like in the above example I have given, things just concertina into a s
tstorm that is unavoidable.
I dare say it has happened to every sales person more than once, just a combination of an incredibly busy day, or things just go wrong.
There are so many variables, cars misfuelled by other people on the day of handover,(has happened to me several times over the years), so I now do it myself instead, EML/Airbag lights mysteriously illuminating 15 mins before handover, punctures, cars being bashed accidentally, I've even had a valeter snag a cloth driver's seat with the end of the vacuum hose and pulled the thread horribly.
So many things can go wrong that completely screw your day up.
You then either have to reschedule the handover which causes problems of its own, insurance already swopped over etc and the customer getting 'itchy' or try and cover up the error/mistake or be totally honest and tell the customer the truth which sometimes results in them cocking on the deal.
It's all a balancing act, trying to juggle 6 balls at once.
But this is the side of the fence that you don't see or probably even imagine happening, so when a salesman does try to reschedule you or it's seems that he hasn't got the time to deal with your thousand and one requests, please just think for a minute as to what else we sometimes(not always) have to deal with and go through.
We are not being rude or trying to get rid of you, it's just sometimes time is against us, and buying or considering buying a car is invariably not a 5 minutes transaction, it can be hours, sometimes, hours we just have not got at that particular time.
That's just the way i work, so no last minute panics in case I do get sidetracked before 4pm.
Some sales people are dreadful with time organisation though, but sometimes like in the above example I have given, things just concertina into a s
tstorm that is unavoidable.I dare say it has happened to every sales person more than once, just a combination of an incredibly busy day, or things just go wrong.
There are so many variables, cars misfuelled by other people on the day of handover,(has happened to me several times over the years), so I now do it myself instead, EML/Airbag lights mysteriously illuminating 15 mins before handover, punctures, cars being bashed accidentally, I've even had a valeter snag a cloth driver's seat with the end of the vacuum hose and pulled the thread horribly.
So many things can go wrong that completely screw your day up.
You then either have to reschedule the handover which causes problems of its own, insurance already swopped over etc and the customer getting 'itchy' or try and cover up the error/mistake or be totally honest and tell the customer the truth which sometimes results in them cocking on the deal.
It's all a balancing act, trying to juggle 6 balls at once.
But this is the side of the fence that you don't see or probably even imagine happening, so when a salesman does try to reschedule you or it's seems that he hasn't got the time to deal with your thousand and one requests, please just think for a minute as to what else we sometimes(not always) have to deal with and go through.
We are not being rude or trying to get rid of you, it's just sometimes time is against us, and buying or considering buying a car is invariably not a 5 minutes transaction, it can be hours, sometimes, hours we just have not got at that particular time.
Edited by Mexman on Tuesday 12th February 21:17
keirik said:
Where on earth do you work? I've never yet met a salesman that was anywhere near ready when I've gone to pick a car up, they've usually not done any of the things agreed as part of the sale, and they haven't even started to get the paperwork organised
Give him a chance! He’s got PH to post on, too. gottans said:
My experience of Audi too, if they are busy at least let the customer know, if they say they will call you they should. Anything else is just poor customer service, no excuses.
Exactly. How can you stand there with a customer stood right there and not even acknowledge them? Even a quick "really sorry, we'll be with you ASAP" would suffice. What kind of emergency in opening hours stops that level of courtesy from being extended? Social skills of potatoes.And all these comments about reminding the receptionist you are there after you've already been waiting 10 minutes. f
k that! If they cannot be bothered to acknowledge me when I've already had to ask for help, I'm not going to go back begging them. Have some pride people! If someone wants some of my hard earned, they should at least be prepared to go to the enormous effort of saying hello. I'd far rather walk out than deal with that kind of arrogance. Edited by Gad-Westy on Tuesday 12th February 21:36
Sheepshanks said:
Or are mystery shppers that obvious?
Saw the video from the hidden camera at one (german brand) 15+ dealer years ago. The Service Advisor clocked half way through (complete with look of sheer terror!
) and visibly changed his demeanour. Ironically he hadn't done anything wrong. It was all fine. The Tech who worked on the car hadn't done so well though!Another German brand I have seen the "mystery shop" cars were so obvious the call centre could pick up on them. Often the car had never been to them before. They would thus get shunted to the best Call centre operative. That would get passed down the line. The service would be carried out by the most senior tech on site, would take twice as long as everybody else's equivalent service. Often the car would have been boked in to look at a "fault" that corresponded to a "known fix" bulletin from the manufacturer. (i.e some LED light segments not working and the "known repair" was to replace the lamp. Almost ALWAYS they'd ask to wait. And would sit near the window to the workshop
My understanding is that at least 1 manufacturer phones up customers and asks to borrow their car, in exchange they'll get full valet, next service paid for, full tank of fuel and sometimes even a weekend away (UK only) in return.
Often these cars were sourced from another dealers database many, many miles away. Which was another giveaway.
A lot of Sales people aren't worth the time of day ime! Should I ever find myself in a position to buy new. There's only a handful of sales people (from various manufacturers) I've personally met over decades that Id want my sale to go to!
As a flipside I saw the aftermath online about a "gentleman" who had come (150odd miles!) to see a particular car for sale. if you read the initial posts you'd think he'd been punched in the balls by the sales person and then shown a write off pissing oil over the floor. Truth was, the sales person was fairly useless generally and inefficient. So asked him to wait. The car was mint, despite his protestations about "looking like it had been attacked with an axe" But the potential buyer left the building and sat in his car IN THE CAR PARK , so everyone thought he'd gone home. He finally left returning home to his internet forum
TarquinMX5 said:
LooneyTunes said:
Our local dealer's lack of service has directly resulted in nearby dealers selling:
Alfa 146 (instead of S3)
SLK (instead of TT)
Saab 9-3 Convertible (instead of A4)
Touareg (instead of A6)
Haven't even managed to get a test drive out of them... so didn't even bother going back to look at what they had last time I ordered a new car.
Seriously? Are you saying you wanted a 146 but bought an S3 instead and the same for the others. Why not order your preferred option from somebody else. Or are you saying you couldn't get a test drive, which is slightly different.Alfa 146 (instead of S3)
SLK (instead of TT)
Saab 9-3 Convertible (instead of A4)
Touareg (instead of A6)
Haven't even managed to get a test drive out of them... so didn't even bother going back to look at what they had last time I ordered a new car.
If I wanted to buy, for example, a Mercedes E63, I wouldn't buy an Audi RS6 just because a Mercedes salesman/woman ignored me. Seems a strange way to buy things if you ask me.
Audi are not alone though, as another local dealer (who services one of my cars) has now failed to sell me two new cars, in one case even managing to screw up the appointment I’d made to place the order...
I've been several times to my local Audi dealer. Most times I walk away thinking that I must not look like an Audi driver as they make me feel almost invisible.
When I have spoken to them and mentioned it was a company car, they have no interest.
Compared to my local Volvo dealer who couldn't have been more helpful even though they knew it was a company car I was getting, not through them.
Local VW dealer, again happy to be supportive even though it was a company car.
The last two be company cars I ordered... A Passat and a V60
When I have spoken to them and mentioned it was a company car, they have no interest.
Compared to my local Volvo dealer who couldn't have been more helpful even though they knew it was a company car I was getting, not through them.
Local VW dealer, again happy to be supportive even though it was a company car.
The last two be company cars I ordered... A Passat and a V60
Its specific to the dealership not the brand in my experience
Locally:
Land Rover - below dreadful
BMW - nice 'hello' but cancel test drives at last minute
Audi - very warm when walking in but on close inspection I dont 'get' their cars
Mercedes - sub Land Rover, abysmally awful and unwelcoming
Volvo - sub Mercedes, but dealer 10 miles away best of the lot by a huge margin
My last 3 cars have been a JLR product bought pretty much mail order from a dealer a 6h round trip away who was refreshingly straight and honest on the phone, a leased BMW from the other side of the country and a leased Volvo from the guys 10 miles away who have been so fantastic that Id happily get into another Volvo even if it costs a little more than the competition.
Cheers
Mexman said:
Ok, picture this (and it does happen)
It's 2.30pm and you have 3 handovers this afternoon.
Your first handover is in 10 mins time, and you are frantically running around making sure paperwork is all ready, car fuelled, cleaned and all the other bits you promised to do have been done.
Valeter comes running in saying that he has just scraped the bumper on a fence post around the back or the EML light has just come on whilst he was giving it a final reclean.
Service manager is busy on the phone, techies are all busy on the clock on other jobs.
Your customer is arriving from 2 hours away and is due anytime now and this person buying this 30k, 40k car is known to be a fussy, abrupt person, like he was at the original point of sale.
Another customer walks in and demands your attention to either possibly buy or possibly just pull you around for an hour and waste your time.(could be either)
What do you do?
Quick, time is running out, what now?
You cannot delay or your other 2 handovers are going to run over as well, so you will now be dealing with 3 irate customers, not just one.
Oh and your phone is now ringing, and you have an appointment at 5pm on a car which is a surefire deal as long as you don't balls it up.
Quick, you need to do something now!
What?
We don't deliberately ignore people believe me, but sometimes there are circumstances beyond your control that dictate that you cannot possibly start to get involved with dealing with yet another customer.
It happens, there are only so many hours in the day, and occasionally, circumstances all come together to combine, that create a problem that needs addressing immediately, without further interruptions.
This scenario, when involved with cars, is not uncommon, so many different things can go wrong that are totally out of your control, but can create you an absolute world of pain.
But this is no different in concept to time and motion management in any role in any job throughout the world. However, as it’s car sales it seems to be levied as some form of an excuse?!It's 2.30pm and you have 3 handovers this afternoon.
Your first handover is in 10 mins time, and you are frantically running around making sure paperwork is all ready, car fuelled, cleaned and all the other bits you promised to do have been done.
Valeter comes running in saying that he has just scraped the bumper on a fence post around the back or the EML light has just come on whilst he was giving it a final reclean.
Service manager is busy on the phone, techies are all busy on the clock on other jobs.
Your customer is arriving from 2 hours away and is due anytime now and this person buying this 30k, 40k car is known to be a fussy, abrupt person, like he was at the original point of sale.
Another customer walks in and demands your attention to either possibly buy or possibly just pull you around for an hour and waste your time.(could be either)
What do you do?
Quick, time is running out, what now?
You cannot delay or your other 2 handovers are going to run over as well, so you will now be dealing with 3 irate customers, not just one.
Oh and your phone is now ringing, and you have an appointment at 5pm on a car which is a surefire deal as long as you don't balls it up.
Quick, you need to do something now!
What?
We don't deliberately ignore people believe me, but sometimes there are circumstances beyond your control that dictate that you cannot possibly start to get involved with dealing with yet another customer.
It happens, there are only so many hours in the day, and occasionally, circumstances all come together to combine, that create a problem that needs addressing immediately, without further interruptions.
This scenario, when involved with cars, is not uncommon, so many different things can go wrong that are totally out of your control, but can create you an absolute world of pain.
Edited by Mexman on Tuesday 12th February 19:37
Edited by Mexman on Tuesday 12th February 19:40
keirik said:
Mexman said:
Ok, picture this (and it does happen)
It's 2.30pm and you have 3 handovers this afternoon.
Your first handover is in 10 mins time, and you are frantically running around making sure paperwork is all ready, car fuelled, cleaned and all the other bits you promised to do have been done.
Valeter comes running in saying that he has just scraped the bumper on a fence post around the back or the EML light has just come on whilst he was giving it a final reclean.
Service manager is busy on the phone, techies are all busy on the clock on other jobs.
Your customer is arriving from 2 hours away and is due anytime now and this person buying this 30k, 40k car is known to be a fussy, abrupt person, like he was at the original point of sale.
Another customer walks in and demands your attention to either possibly buy or possibly just pull you around for an hour and waste your time.(could be either)
What do you do?
Quick, time is running out, what now?
You cannot delay or your other 2 handovers are going to run over as well, so you will now be dealing with 3 irate customers, not just one.
Oh and your phone is now ringing, and you have an appointment at 5pm on a car which is a surefire deal as long as you don't balls it up.
Quick, you need to do something now!
What?
We don't deliberately ignore people believe me, but sometimes there are circumstances beyond your control that dictate that you cannot possibly start to get involved with dealing with yet another customer.
It happens, there are only so many hours in the day, and occasionally, circumstances all come together to combine, that create a problem that needs addressing immediately, without further interruptions.
This scenario, when involved with cars, is not uncommon, so many different things can go wrong that are totally out of your control, but can create you an absolute world of pain.
Where on earth do you work? I've never yet met a salesman that was anywhere near ready when I've gone to pick a car up, they've usually not done any of the things agreed as part of the sale, and they haven't even started to get the paperwork organisedIt's 2.30pm and you have 3 handovers this afternoon.
Your first handover is in 10 mins time, and you are frantically running around making sure paperwork is all ready, car fuelled, cleaned and all the other bits you promised to do have been done.
Valeter comes running in saying that he has just scraped the bumper on a fence post around the back or the EML light has just come on whilst he was giving it a final reclean.
Service manager is busy on the phone, techies are all busy on the clock on other jobs.
Your customer is arriving from 2 hours away and is due anytime now and this person buying this 30k, 40k car is known to be a fussy, abrupt person, like he was at the original point of sale.
Another customer walks in and demands your attention to either possibly buy or possibly just pull you around for an hour and waste your time.(could be either)
What do you do?
Quick, time is running out, what now?
You cannot delay or your other 2 handovers are going to run over as well, so you will now be dealing with 3 irate customers, not just one.
Oh and your phone is now ringing, and you have an appointment at 5pm on a car which is a surefire deal as long as you don't balls it up.
Quick, you need to do something now!
What?
We don't deliberately ignore people believe me, but sometimes there are circumstances beyond your control that dictate that you cannot possibly start to get involved with dealing with yet another customer.
It happens, there are only so many hours in the day, and occasionally, circumstances all come together to combine, that create a problem that needs addressing immediately, without further interruptions.
This scenario, when involved with cars, is not uncommon, so many different things can go wrong that are totally out of your control, but can create you an absolute world of pain.
Edited by Mexman on Tuesday 12th February 19:37
Edited by Mexman on Tuesday 12th February 19:40
bad company said:
MitchT said:
Main dealers are like recruiters. I haven't a fking clue how they stay in business.
Both seem to do very well despite your thoughts. Maybe the bit about you ‘not having a fking clue how they stay in business.king clue’ is accurate.for personal stuff we've not ventured past our local ford dealer,
service is spot on not pushy, always helpful. if you walk in and they are busy you'll get offered tea/coffee and they manage to pickup the phone and return calls.
same with the company that supplies our taxis. albeit all done over the phone,
no messing about theres a price theres a delivery date. constant updates and realistic promises, even when they get delivered the driver will stop off locally and get them washed prior to handing them over and make sure their fuelled up.
basic customer service isnt hard. In the Ops scenario what would it have taken for one of the sales team to stick their head out apologise that they were in the middle of sorting a customers issue out/training/bragging about who banged the tidiest service advisor/comparing pointy shoes If their ok to wait ask the receptionist to get them a a coffee and a brochure if not take a note of name and number and follow up personally when mutually convenient. Its not rocket science, just common sense
service is spot on not pushy, always helpful. if you walk in and they are busy you'll get offered tea/coffee and they manage to pickup the phone and return calls.
same with the company that supplies our taxis. albeit all done over the phone,
no messing about theres a price theres a delivery date. constant updates and realistic promises, even when they get delivered the driver will stop off locally and get them washed prior to handing them over and make sure their fuelled up.
basic customer service isnt hard. In the Ops scenario what would it have taken for one of the sales team to stick their head out apologise that they were in the middle of sorting a customers issue out/training/bragging about who banged the tidiest service advisor/comparing pointy shoes If their ok to wait ask the receptionist to get them a a coffee and a brochure if not take a note of name and number and follow up personally when mutually convenient. Its not rocket science, just common sense
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