Sytner Audi fiasco and cargiant

natthekat

Smelling a rat-Sytner Audi

My husband bought an Audi TT on finance from cargiant in April '12.
I am the second driver on the insurance policy.

Cargiant talked us into buying their warranty and told us that it would cover anything that might happen with the car in the first 12 months.

In September, the engine started shaking, we were both in the car, had to drive it to the nearest petrol station and call the AA.
The AA guy did a quick diagnostic and said it was a faulty camshaft position sensor.
He also said it would be the best thing to take the car to an Audi outlet for repair, so we searched for our closest Audi branch in London, which happened to be a centrally located Sytner.
(The warranty sold to us by cargiant of course excluded the camshaft sensor.)
We went there together, were promised that they would fix everything very quickly by a slimy salesman called X,
who clearly had pound signs dancing in his pupils when he found out our address.
I said I would leave my contact details as it is in general easier to reach me as I have a flexible work schedule and hubby is at work a lot.
I did specify that I wasn't the reg. keeper of the vehicle.

A week or so later, I was told it wasn't the camshaft and that they'd have to run another diagnostic which would cost £750. I said ok.
They didn't know what was wrong for a few more weeks,
then X called and said the cylinder head on the engine was broken and that it would be easier to just get a new engine
and that because it was a mechanical fault which hadn't been brought on by incompetent driving or anything else Audi would cover 100% of the costs.

The cargiant warranty people said yet again the warranty didn't cover the engine.

A while after that, hubby&I decided to pay Sytner a visit as they still hadn't done anything, and were told by X that he had 'bad news'.
The news was that all of a sudden, Audi had decided to cover 30% of the costs and we'd have to pay the rest, ie £5000. We never saw a written document stating the cost for parts, labor etc.
My husband then called his finance company, and they in turn called X, then called hb back, saying that they had been told we'd have to pay £2400.

X called hb and huffed and puffed defensively and angrily said it wouldn't have been necessary to call the finance company. Again, nothing happened, after waiting 2 months we got our courtesy car just because I screamed in the Sytner office so much they decided it would be better to get us a car pronto.
I spoke to the manager and told her about the ridiculous customer service they had, and she agreed to deal with the case, but she dropped it after a while and transferred it back to the slimy incompetent X. Now the consensus was we'd have to pay a bit over £2000, and all of a sudden we wouldn't be getting a new engine, just a new cylinder head.

None of the people I dealt with at Sytner ever bothered calling regarding the warranty, I don't know what they get paid for.

Again, the finance company called and said they'd been told we would have to pay something over a thousand pounds. So there still was a discrepancy over the amount owed.

They finally finished working on the car, but X called and said the timing belt needed changing (as if they hadn't been able to see that straightaway when stripping down the engine) and that it would cost another £2050.
I am totally furious as there is an obvious scam going on!This is so dodgy it's unbelievable!

Sytner never showed us a document of any kind, or an invoice clearly breaking down costs, nothing!

How can a legit dealership treat their clients like that?

What are we supposed to do now?

There is no way I'm lining X's slimy disgusting pockets with money!

oldagetraveller

I can't answer your questions but have you read Cargiants warranty? What exactly DOES it cover?
Was it their third party AA Warranty?
http://www.cargiant.co.uk/carsupermarket/warranty.asp
"This is a summary of the cover offered.
Specific components are detailed in the Insurance document"
Which ,when you read it, will exclude just about everything for one reason or another!

SLITHER99

I would...

a) pay your bill and get the car back
b) find a local indie you trust
c) get the car finished.

Main Dealers do see $$$ signs whenever any chump, er, customer I mean walk in the door. "Engine shaking? Oh yes, it'll need replacing!".

How a cam belt suddenly needs replacing on a brand new engine and how it costs £2050 is beyond the realms of all reasonability.

Get it back - with an itemised breakdown of what you're "paying for" and get a decent indie to look at it.

If it's any concellation, I got stung for an Evans Halshaw warranty which also covered flat nothing. The only useful warranty is on a brand new car! Anything else is complete hogwash!

natthekat

Thanks for the replies!
@oldagetraveller: Yes it was the 3rd party AA warranty, I told my husband not to buy anything apart fom the car, but the dude who was selling us all the stuff was banging on about how everything would be covered, and I wanted to scream at him, because it's the only way to deal with idiots that works, but I'm not 'allowed' to do that when I'm not on my own, I need to be 'polite', in other words I need to let other people scam me.

@Slither99-very good advice, thanks, I'll definitely do that as Sytner are nothing but slimy freaks. The guy who works there is trying to pocket some money for himself, if he thinks that isn't obvious he's crazy. Totally agree with the warranties being hogwash, well it's not my money but the husband's, hope it'll make him start standing up for himself a bit more in future!

maninthestreet

£750 for a diagnostic check??!! £2050 pounds to change a timing belt??!!!! Why were you dealing with a salesman in relation to a repair to the vehicle?

You may want to post this on the audi TT forums:

http://www.ttforum.co.uk/forum/index.php

artbaron

This sounds like criminal behaviour if it's all as reported. The warranty isn't worth the paper it's written on and those costs are well into the realms of lunacy. Diagnostics for £750? (I rarely pay anything and have never paid over £40). Belt replacements for £2050!? You'd be ripped off if you were charged over £500 for the belts (not knowing which engine you have, maybe cheaper).

maninthestreet

OP - have you written a formal letter (not email) of complaint to the dealer principle outlining your complaint?

natthekat

maninthestreet wrote: »

£750 for a diagnostic check??!! £2050 pounds to change a timing belt??!!!! Why were you dealing with a salesman in relation to a repair to the vehicle?


I think I might have used the wrong word here. The place in question is Audi Victoria (in London) and belongs to the Sytner group. Because nothing points to them being part of the Sytner group, I first thought they were an Audi center (as in Audi Audi, not Audi Whatever), so technically, they are a dealership, but they also repair cars. As you might know, there is Sytner BMW, Sytner Porsche etc, so they are not restricted to Audi.
When you walk into their office, there is the requisite squeaky-voiced secretary and one or more people sitting at a desk. They know as much about cars as I do (pretty much zero lol), and the mechanics (whom you never get to see) do all the actual work. The desk people just sit around all day eating biscuits and getting fat. By 'salesperson' I meant one of the biscuit eaters.:)

natthekat

artbaron wrote: »

This sounds like criminal behaviour if it's all as reported. The warranty isn't worth the paper it's written on and those costs are well into the realms of lunacy. Diagnostics for £750? (I rarely pay anything and have never paid over £40). Belt replacements for £2050!? You'd be ripped off if you were charged over £500 for the belts (not knowing which engine you have, maybe cheaper).

It's exactly as reported, actually even a bit worse as we were told ridiculous things by the slimeball at Sytner, all of which I decided to omit as the OP would have turned into a novel.

natthekat

artbaron wrote: »

This sounds like criminal behaviour if it's all as reported. The warranty isn't worth the paper it's written on and those costs are well into the realms of lunacy. Diagnostics for £750? (I rarely pay anything and have never paid over £40). Belt replacements for £2050!? You'd be ripped off if you were charged over £500 for the belts (not knowing which engine you have, maybe cheaper).

Yup I know-lunacy! I wonder whether they have fixed rates, like when you go to the hairdresser's-the prices are clearly displayed and you know what you'll be paying for beforehand. Or do they just look at you, your clothes, your nationality ('aha they come from somewhere East, must have money'), your address and subsequently decide what to charge you?:eek:

The engine is a 3.2 Quattro (I guess the 'Quattro' bit relates to the engine, please forgive my stupidity if I am wrong, I don't work with cars so pretty much know absolutely nothing about them except how to drive one lol).

missile

How old is the TT? If under three years it ought to be covered by Audi waranty.

You may know nothing about cars, but surely you know to ask for an estimate before work is done? If you smell a rat go elsewhere.