Audi Sheffield equals Disgrace

[Rams]

Sheffield Audi is by far the worst dealership of any brand ive ever been to and there have been a few bad ones.

If only I could give a negative rating.

Arranged a test drive for two cars for last Saturday on Thursday and was told everything would be ready to go.

Drove up from Derby with my brother for the agreed time to be told the person I was seeing was busy.  Someone else would see to it. They eventually came back and said due to a change in their insurance the person accompanying me needed to be over 30 years of age and could we wait 15 to 30 mins.  

So we went to look at cars outside to kill time and an hour later went back in to see what was going on, to then be told there was nobody to take me out it had to be a manager and there were no one available and would I wait for another unknown period of time. 

Clearly I said no and so in the end waisted 6 man hours between the two of us on a bank holiday weekend. (2 hrs Travel and and 1 hr milling about for both of us)

Absolutely shocking customer service and we will see what Audi UK and the franchise owner have to say about it.

They really couldn't have cared less.

Avoid this place and take your hard earned cash elsewhere!

[Steve Q]

Welcome to the forum Robert, 

youll find the members on here are a friendly and helpful bunch :) 

sorry to hear about your bad experience but it does sound to me they thought you were timewasters. 

The prejudging of people in the motor trade is rife, I can say this as iv worked in it. The one thing i learnt is you can't judge a book by its cover which this sounds like what Audi have done for what ever reason. 

What were the 2 Audis you wanted to test? 

Cheers 

steve 

[Magnet]

Hello Robert,

I certainly don't want to excuse the treatment you received, but I wonder if the (valid) criticism of Sheffield's Audi dealer could be levelled at quite a number of main dealers over a busy bank holiday weekend period when staffing levels are likely to be lower.

I could be out of touch with car buying at a particular dealer,  but would I be wrong in thinking that their preferred and normal car selling/customer buying route would be for a potential customer to come in and view the vehicle and then a test drive is arranged following this face to face contact. If this is the more normal route to test drives, then it would have been good if they could have informed you of this when you arranged ( telephone call arrangement or other?) the appointment. 

As Steve says, it would be interesting to know what two models you are considering buying, and whether the dealership may be able to re arrange something for you at a more convenient time following a face to face discussion on what you want to buy. 

I think any open criticism on forums, although most certainly potentially helpful to others, might also be considered as somewhat premature until the dealer has had time to consider your complaint and their response included in the open criticism. 

Let's hope you are able to buy the car you want at another dealer (more local to you?) or even reconsider Sheffield Audi if they prove to be more accommodating at another time.

Be interesting and helpful to know where this goes from there. Could you keep the forum informed? 

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[Rams]

Morning all. 

The two cars in question were A6 BITDI and SQ5 not cheap cars!

I'd spoken on the phone to arrange and was completely clear and honest with my intentions and that my local garages did not have stock which is why I was wanting to try Sheffield.

There was no mention during the call that they would struggle to fit me in or that there were conditions around their insurance or managers having to accompany people in such cars rather than any member of the sales team.

In fact they said they didn't have much on.

The change in story says to me they were blatantly lieing to me or that they are completely incompetent in resourcing to their legal requirements.

Either way it is a rather damning outcome.

Why would I travel to them if I was just a timewaster?

I am normally a very relaxed person who does not complain about mediocre service but this was really very poor.

I will listen to any response they give me in a considered fashion but the odds on them having a good argument are higher than winning the lottery.

[Steve Q]

Certainly not cheap cars! 

I find their insurance argument abit odd to be honest. As I say working in the trade previously I have never come across that before. But maybe it's a new practice. 

Keep us posted on how you get on.  But as Gareth has said I feel it is an issue seen across a lot of main dealers around the country 

[Magnet]

Hello Robert,

I can well understand your frustration, and I wonder if despite the multi billion communication set up we have these days, whether it fell apart simply due to someone not talking to someone else. I guess you have the name of the person you spoke with on the phone , and no doubt this is where you will level your complaint when you talk with the dealer principal. 

I don't want to make light of this Rob, but having recently returned from the WW1 war graves and the Menin Gate which lists the names of over 55,000 young men (average age 21?) who gave their lives in action - for us- and have no known graves. It sort of puts (small?) problems in a sort of order of importance in an elderly brain! 

Is it worth talking nicely but firmly to the dealer principal, saying how disappointed you were, and asking him to personally follow this up for you and arrange another set of test drives, and when this is done, talk nicely over a cup of tea and try to arrange to best deal you can with them. All peace and light and little intolerance for other people's situation. Was/is intolerance the basis of most wars, and are we learning to be more tolerant of one another?? Consider this to be a rant from, let's say "the supposedly mature"! 

Anyway, Rob, good luck with your test drives and more importantly good luck in sorting it out with Sheffield Audi on an amicable basis.

Kind regards. 

Gareth.