Zoolander

It is slightly off-topic but some of you guys have given really good advice before on related matters. I am attaching a rough draft of the letter that will be sent to Audi North America, the Lexington, KY BBB, and the principal owner of the Lexington Audi dealership. The rough draft is a little lengthy but I left it that way for the Rennlist board.
I can tell you I am a non-confrontational person but Andy Ludwig the GM at this dealer was a complete jerk and I was willing to go to jail for breaking his nose but the thought of being sued and giving him some sort of last laugh kept me somewhat calm.
Please feel free to give me your constructive thoughts and advice. Be kind as this is a rough draft with little editing.

Thanks guys


Dear Sir or Madam:
We are writing this letter to inform you of the extremely disappointing service we recently experienced while doing business with one of your dealerships - Audi of Lexington, Kentucky.
My wife needed a new car and I have been searching diligently for a few months looking for the right one. I desired to find her something safe and of good quality as well as a reputation, and her requests were quite simple… a white cabriolet, tan interior with heated seats. After scouring the Internet and using the Audi’s Certified Pre-Owned search, I soon found a pre-owned 2004 Audi A4 cabriolet for sale at Audi of Lexington which, according to the details/features listed on their website, met our requirements.
The long distance made me a bit hesitant as I would be unable to inspect the car but I felt confident in dealing with an Audi dealership for a CPO’d vehicle rather than purchasing a used vehicle from either an unknown individual or a non-factory dealership. I contacted the sales rep Malcolm Cheek who answered all my questions and we came to an agreement of sale price for the automobile which was described on their Audi website. I then placed a deposit via credit card and later arranged to fly from Greensboro, NC at 6am to the Lexington dealership on New Years Eve in order to sign the paperwork and drive the car the 6 hours back home for my wife.
When I finally arrived at the dealership the salesperson quickly urged me inside as I was starting to examine the car and had me start the paperwork. After a quick walk around the car, seeing it looked great, and trusting the salesperson I followed him into the building to his desk to begin the paperwork. Upon completion of the paperwork we then walked outside to have him show me the car, it was shortly thereafter that it came to my attention that the car in fact did not have heated seats at all, in contradiction to their advertisement and conversations with the salesman. Needless to say, this was not a pleasant surprise especially since heated seats were a top priority for my wife. I showed them the original advertisement and Mr. Cheek agreed that the car was falsely advertised as having heated seats. He then stated that the dealership gets a list of the option information by entering the VIN into their Audi computer system and from that information they describe the vehicles.
I was obviously very concerned at this point. Malcolm then told me he would speak to the General Manager and see what could be done to rectify the situation. I then told him I would regretfully be contacting my wife to see if this was going to break the deal. He stated he understood.
I then called my wife to let her know of the car not having heated seats and she too was very surprised and let down. She like myself could not believe an Audi dealer would not know their own Audi vehicles they were selling. We both started to get suspicious but decided to not make a decision until we heard what the GM and the dealership would do. Malcolm returned shortly with the news that shocked my wife and I. Malcolm returned stating the GM didn’t want to do anything about it. Nothing at all. I then told Malcolm I had to hear this in person from the General Manager whom I still had not met at this point.
So I walked inside to speak with the General Manager Andy Ludwig about the situation in hopes of working out a solution to this problem which in my mind, involved them either installing the heated seats in the car as it was advertised, decreasing the price of the vehicle by the value amount of the heated seats, another idea I had not thought of, or taking me back to the airport and paying for my ticket home.
Upon walking up to Mr. Ludwig I introduced myself politely. He did not return the introduction but just shook my hand and waited for me to say something. Not being the confrontational type and still being optimistic that he would apologize and make an effort to correct the mistake his dealership made I then told him I was hoping we could work this out. He replied that he could not do anything at this price and then stated “If you had paid our original asking price, I could do something for you”. I was actually speechless for a moment by his lack of concern and twisted perspective of a business agreement. I then told him how I fail to see how it even applies, since we negotiated and agreed upon a price prior to my trip to Kentucky for the car which was expected to have heated seats as well as all the other features included in the advertisement. He answered again with the same response of how I should have paid the asking price and then made another statement that “I should have inspected the car earlier before I flew in to buy it” and how “he would have never bought a car so far away”. I responded how I had purchased other CPO cars like this before without a problem and that we are having this conversation because of a mistake by your dealership. Mr. Ludwig responded that the mistake was made by the salesperson for not checking the vehicle.
After hearing that I should have walked out simply based on the lack of professionalism, lack of ethics, and respect for a customer. I didn’t though because I then asked him if he would pay for my flight home since there is no interest in correcting the mistake made by your dealer and his response was “no, I guess you are out of luck.”
I then told him that if this is the way he was going to handle it I would be contacting Audi North America, the Better Business Bureau, and be making a few postings on the internet and asked him if it was worth losing a few sales over? His response was “I don’t care” and he walked away. At NO time during the entire conversation with Mr. Ludwig did he offer an apology.
So at this point I am at the dealer with the choice of paying for an expensive ticket home or getting in the car and driving home. Personally I did not want to buy the car based on the principal that this dealership did not deserve my business simply based on the General Manager’s actions. On the other hand I knew my wife would most likely still be somewhat pleased with the car and how she was tired of looking for one. It was a tough decision.
It was about this time that what I perceived as a good cop bad cop routine started. Malcolm then asks me to step outside to get away from everyone and begins stating some negative opinions about the General Manager and his frustrations about working for him. He then offers to install one driver’s side aftermarket heated seat system. Which he says is out of his pocket, will reduce his commission, and for me not to tell anyone. We call a few places and find out it will be around $425 to have it installed at a Webasto Authorized Installation and Service Center in Kernersville, NC for $425.
It was quite obvious this dealer had me between a rock and a hard place. It was either going to be a $750++ last minute walk up ticket home or I was driving home a car that was not the one we contracted to purchase and the principal that an unethical and unprofessional Audi dealership gets this sale. After much frustrating and aggravating thought I decided that it will cost me more to fly home and have to look for another car in the near future.
I expected a much higher level of service from your company, and I am quite disappointed. I feel that the Audi of Lexington dealership was very unprofessional in their handlings of this situation, and the General Manager was very discourteous as well as arrogant. In contrast, I recently purchased a Certified Porsche from a Porsche dealership in Florida and they handled the transaction with a high level of class as expected. Similarly, we chose Audi and made the conscious decision to purchase a CPO’d vehicle specifically from an Audi dealership because we felt it would ensure a certain level of professionalism, respect and honesty in regards to the business at hand. Unfortunately, this was not the case and we feel you should be informed.
I write you today in hopes of rectifying this unfortunate predicament. Please feel free to contact me at xxxxxxxx. Thank you.

Sincerely,

xxxxxxx

JDSStudios

These guys do deserve to get a bite where it hurts- their wallet, and lose a few sales.
When I bought by 911 C4S in North Carolina, absolutely no money exchanged hands until the dealer
inspection was done and approved.
I would buy 1 hour from a lawyer, and have him edit your letter, perhaps driving the point harder.
John

gota911

Scot - you tell the story and register your complaint, but you don't let then know what you expect. They won't try to guess what you want. I read a consumer advocate column a few years back and the writer stated that the most common mistake consumers make when registering a complaint is they fail to let the company know what it will take to resolve the issue.

What do you expect them to do? If you leave it as it is written, you will get an apology from Audi or the GM (Audi will make him do it) but you probably won't get anything else. If you just want to vent, that’s OK, but you won’t get anything more than an apology. Tell them what they need to do, within reason, to correct this situation. You may not get what you want, but at least they will know what you expect then to do.

I know it is a draft, but you might want to see if you could shorten it up a little. Set it aside for a day or two then reread it. Take out any parts that are not specifically pertinent to the issue.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

JDSStudios

Dealers spend a lot of money advertising. Perheaps you can mention that depending
on how they deal with you, you could publish your letter on all local papers.

To be more specific, like Tim said, what exactly do you want them to do now?
Money compensation?

LVDell

That is good advice Tim gives. Shorten it, specify EXACTLY what you want. And then............kick their *** on the web!

dD/dt

Agreed that you absolutely need to state what you consider a satisfactory resolution. Further, I would:

-edit for length (i.e., don't go into details that arent' specifically at issue, like the color)

-change the narrative of your discussion with the GM. It should be entirely factual, so don't use impressions like "unprofessional." These impressions belong in the introduction and conclusion of the letter, but the description of the events will hit harder if it is only facts. Sprinkling impressions (appropriate though they are) through the timeline of events will make you seem angry and spiteful, which you don't want.

Since you were in NC and the dealer in KY, you may be able to threaten reporting an interstate commerce violation to the FTC. Can a lawyer weigh in on that?

nosub

Sorry to hear about your experience, sadly I had similar at the local Audi, Land Rover and Porsche dealers. After son totaled our LR3 we bought a CPO LR3 which was advertised as having Bluetooth phone connectivity. I also confirmed this by phone with the salesman. Upon delivery of the LR3 it did not have it. Called the salesman, nothing. When they made their QA call I told the lady I spoke to, she transferred to the sales manager and 3-4 days later they installed the Bluetooth stuff at no cost to me. Was impressed with that...

On to your situation...
Suggestions:
-Edit for length
-Insert what you want, you complain but never tell them what would make things right for you
-2nd the suggestion to have a lawyer write it up for you.
-Include copy of the ad for it

MUSSBERGER

IMO you might have been better off buying it then pointing out it was misrepresented.

apterr

Scot,
I think the letter is excellent. You do state in the middle of the letter that you expect heated seats installed or cash back or something you have not thought about. I like the advice about having an atty look at it. You may get that by posting it here. I do have a couple of thoughts:
1) Explain that the reason it is lengthy is you want to be certain to state the facts clearly so Audi NA can take action against this GM and do the right thing.
2) After the GM said he would never buy a car so far away perhaps you can add a sentence like "with the internet's astronomic growth, isn't Audi interested in this? Other manufacturers are. (perhaps you can dig up some statistics from another dealer as to how many cars they sell via internet, around here they do a lot).
3) Prior to sending it to the papers and BBB, tell Audi NA you are giving them the chance to rectify the situation. Let them know you are giving them a 7-10 day timeframe to research and reply to you. Let them know if you don't hear anything by then you will be a) sending your letter to the papers b) BBB and c) every Audi enthusiast web forum (name them) and other automobile web forums (state number of members wherever you can).

End your letter with something like: "I hope the lack of integrity, honesty and respect I received from this General Manager are not indicative of the other Audi dealers in North America. I look forward to your reply."

Good luck. I was in this situation once many years ago. Came out they exceeded my expectations. Hope the same happens for you.

Andy T

Paul 996

Zoo,

I read this last night but didn't comment right away. This is a lousy situation and I feel bad that it happened to you. This letter is full of emotion and color, throw it away- go talk to an attorney and have him/her draft up a new one.

Your only valid angle here is that the dealership advertised a car as x (and you have a copy of this advertisement) and you have a purchase order/contract for a car referenced by the ad.

Regardless of what you were able to negotiate as a discounted price on the car has nothing to do with the dealer's obligation to provide you with a car as advertised. FWIW: you could have purchased this car site unseen and just had it delivered to you as many others have done. If my car arrived w/o xenon lights, heated seats, the alloys shown on the pictures, heated seats etc... I would expect immediate compensation at the going rate for hopefully OEM level of equivalent product... nothing else.

Best of luck in resolving this.

pat056

My comments? As Tim said, be specific about what you want them to do. No bank will deposit an apology into your account.
I wouldn't bring the salesman's offer up in the letter. IMHO, he asked you not to mention this to the GM. If you accepted his seat, you accepted the terms of his offer not to tell anyone. If you feel you must, I would let him read your final draft or at least tell him your breaking his confidence. Maybe others thinks it's a small point but I see it as staying on the high road.
Including a lawyer to edit the letter is a good idea. I think John Edwards will be available real soon and he has a license to practice in NC.

Tippy

Excellent point Tim.

I also think you have got your point across very well and the length of the complaint would raise my interest if I worked for AOA.

GL, what a b@st@rd, hopefully he gets reprimanded and you get something positive out of it.

RF5BPilot

I think this is what small claims court is for.

Ray S

I'm confused. Did you walk or buy the car?

Stefan Richter

Me too - did you buy the car?

Stefan