[Blade]

Ok my first experience of Audi customer care hasn't been good. Earlier today a complete tosser in a lorry forced me into the curb, he was on his mobile and didn't see me, anyway to avoid losing the side of my S5 I took the cheaper option of driving up the curb. Result one completely destroyed wheel and tyre (split up the side wall). So phone the dealer to order a new wheel/tyre and get the car checked over, only to be told there are no wheels available until sometime mid December !! Not happy now as the car is off road. So I called customer services to be greated by a foreign guy who spoke so quickly and quietly I have no idea what he was saying, he eventually put me through to someone else who was also difficult to hear (Audi UK sort your phone lines out or get better headsets for your operators) anyway they confirm nothing available and tell me that as its a new model its to be expected !! Its a wheel for christ sake not an engine mount or gearbox !!

So after explaining that I shouldn't be without my car for around 7 weeks when there must be wheels over at the factory I'm waiting for a response. If they don't pull the stops out to get this wheel, it will be a short period of ownership with the S5 and a return to BMW where I never experienced anything but exemplary service. So Audi don't let me down please....to be continued.

 

[Rab88]

Maybe the only option you have left to take is to be claiming the lorry driver's insurance. While your car's off the road (and it's HIS fault), you should be expecting a courtesy car for free.

If I were you i'd be having my insurance company chase them for a courtesy car, and any expenses incurred in their delay to deliver one (i.e. days off work!)

Rab.

 

[Blade]

I phoned the company who owned the lorry but my word against theirs and no witnesses. Its not so much the cost - although £340+ VAT for the wheel and £175 for the tyre hurts - its the fact that Audi seem to think its acceptable to leave a customer off the road for so long. Be interesting to see what they say when they call me back tomorrow.

Maybe the only option you have left to take is to be claiming the lorry driver's insurance. While your car's off the road (and it's HIS fault), you should be expecting a courtesy car for free.

If I were you i'd be having my insurance company chase them for a courtesy car, and any expenses incurred in their delay to deliver one (i.e. days off work!)

Rab.

 

[scratch113]

Blade,

Just a suggestion, but I'm sure your dealer will have an A5 3.0 TDi demonstrator that one of their sales reps will be using to get to/from his home for the next 6 months or so until they sell it (my dealer has two!). When I had one as a demo it was filthy and had the guy's golf clubs in the boot! I doubt they do that many demos anyway, especially with the new A4 arriving soon.

Might be worth trying to persuade them to lend you this whilst your car is off the road - I don't hold out much hope for you, but if you don't ask, you don't get...! They also might manage to 'magic' a new wheel for your S5 out of nowhere rather than lend you a car!

You could also try writing to Audi UK head office direct - often gets quicker results if the dealer has Head Office breathing down their neck!

Best of luck!

 

[George]

Sorry to hear the news.

Thinking about this, it's probably too early to see an S5 in a scrapyard, so spares will be hard to come by (may be worth searching though in case there are any write-offs with a good spare wheel yet).

Option B could be to do a good search on the internet to yield OEM made wheels from somewhere other than Audi?

Alternative could be to try and find a replica replacement wheel. Whilst the S5 hasn't been out long, maybe a set of RS4 wheels (or replicas) could do the job? Appreciate this is expensive, but could get you back on the road with even tastier-looking wheels - you'd also be assured of availability of spares in the future.

Finally, I take it that your existing wheel is totally trashed (may be worth trying a good company like Lepsons (http://www.lepsons.com/process.html) who can rebuild almost any wheel and get it looking as new). I've used Lepsons in the past for my BMW wheels - they've recovered wheels that I would have thrown out - quite cheap as well at £55 (+VAT) per wheel.

 

[Guest]

I phoned the company who owned the lorry but my word against theirs and no witnesses. Its not so much the cost - although £340+ VAT for the wheel and £175 for the tyre hurts - its the fact that Audi seem to think its acceptable to leave a customer off the road for so long. Be interesting to see what they say when they call me back tomorrow.

CCTV ?? No way in the world i would let the guy get away with it. Not a bloody chance, i'd be having him pay for everything and some nice equal value car as a courtesy car till the wheel is sorted.

 

[Blade]

No CCTV, it was a lorry from a Timber Yard, they've got seven all the same and wont tell me who was in the area at the time. Nothing I can do about it, but yeah I'd like to rip the guys head off. Not sure which has pissed me off more, the lorry driver or Audi's response. But like I said I'll give them tomorrow to sort it before kicking off.

Cheers though guys, sh#t happens, could have been worse !!

 

[Blade]

and George....thanks for the link, might get it repaired and keep it as a spare...

 

[scratch113]

Yep, great idea if you can get it fixed - will a full-size spare fit in the wheel-well? If so, why do Audi not offer a full-size spare rather than the puny space-saver? I didn't get a chance to look under the boot liner of the demo cars I drove, but might have to go back in to my dealer to check this out.

 

[SAJ_1982]

Sorry to hear about this, it seems these days there are even more idiots on the road than ever. My brothers TT parked in the car park was reversed into by another driver and he simply drove off. Lucky for us there was CCTV and we got him, but to think, if we didn't have that then we would have been screwed with £2k of damage.

Any chance of a picture of the damaged wheel?

Not sure where abouts you are (you need to put your location up) but my brother has a set of the new 19" S6 wheels sitting in the garage if your interested.

 

[chasTT]

I find it astonishing that Audi can't get hold of a replacement wheel. Surely one of the most vunerable parts on a car. I would have expected them to not only stock them in the UK, but also to be able to get one shipped from the factory on an overnight basis.
I agree with you that this is rubbish customer care, and on a very similar vein I'd like to tell you all about some great customer care.
I had a similar incident a month or so ago, when I had to pull to the side of a country lane, only to hit a tree stump. Great big BANG so I stopped to look, and found a piece of tree (about 1/4" diameter x6" long trapped between the tyre and wheel. The tyre stayed inflated so I drove it to the nearest tyre fitters I could find -KwickFit.
They loved the new car, told me a new tyre (which they had in stock) would be a touch over £200, but then said they'd check it all out first.
They took the wheel off the car, deflated the tyre, removed the piece of wood, checked it all out, and pronounced all in order. No damage to wheel or tyre, and no charge either!
Reluctantly they accepted a tenner for thier efforts, but well done KwickFit -and poor show Audi.

 

[Blade]

There are examples of good service out there, but seems to be less and less common. Its now 11.35 and I'm still waiting for a call from Audi and my car is still in the garage and out of use.... Not going to phone them, just going to wait and see what they do.

 

[chrisH]

There are examples of good service out there, but seems to be less and less common. Its now 11.35 and I'm still waiting for a call from Audi and my car is still in the garage and out of use.... Not going to phone them, just going to wait and see what they do.

I think you're kidding yourself that they will call you. If I were you I would ring them again and ask to speak to someone who can help in this situation or else you will go elsewhere.
As suggested earlier it would be worth talking to your sales person at the dealership and asking if they have any in-house solutions, i.e. repair the wheel with one of the local Spit and Polish lot or borrow a wheel off a demo car.

 

[Blade]

Well maybe I am Chris but if they don't call it'll just add fuel to the fire and I'm not going to let it go. The dealer cant offer any support, they've spoken to Audi and Audi are basically saying there is no stock so tough ! Its now nearly 2pm and still no call. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for a while longer but now starting to get wound up...

 

[Blade]

Thinking what Chris said was right and that Audi wouldn't phone back, I called them, guess what !! No record of my call, no case number, nothing !!! So start again to explain the problem, after ten mins the helpful guy on the end of the phone says I'm not in his region and so he has to pass it down the line, I ask if I can expect a call today, because my car is off the road and he says customer Services centre is closing early today due to a conference. If this is Audi's ownership experience they just lost any hope of my repeat business unles a wheel appears at my dealer by the weekend..I only want a wheel !!

Update

'Courtesy' call from Audi, told me "there are only '2' (yep thats what he said) S5's being built per week and that due to the high number of orders to fulfill, parts and components are in short supply". How can such a small problem turn into such a complete nightmare ???

 

[chrisH]

Sending you a PM

 

[houseofg]

Update

'Courtesy' call from Audi, told me "there are only '2' (yep thats what he said) S5's being built per week and that due to the high number of orders to fulfill, parts and components are in short supply".

Does this make sense to anyone? It's completely circular! They are only making 2 per week because parts are in short supply. And parts are in short supply because of high demand!? The missing logical step here is the bit where they are dedicating all of their parts to the manufacturing process because they are making a LOT of cars, because of demand. This does not a logical/coherent thought make!

 

[doubledoom]

They are making more than 2 a week. They may only be allocating 2 a week to the UK at the moment but they are certainly making more than that.

 

[Blade]

I think thats obvious, but thats exactly what the guy said to me on the phone. They should be calling today with a solution, I'll ask him what he meant..

 

[Blade]

RESOLVED !!!!! 12 x S5 wheels arrived in UK today...Discounted price £374.7 inc VAT plus tyre..Have to accept that as a good result and happy with Audi again.