Vorsprung Durch Technic - apparently German for Progress Through Technology and the infamous strap line for Audi. I hope that they are progressing through technology because over here they are definitely not progressing through customer service. Here's a little synopsis of our 'Audi' experience...
Ian finally got his social security number, his first one never did turn up and he had to re-apply and that process was further complicated by the fact that he'd travelled back to the UK in the meantime and wasn't showing again on the immigration lists, he still doesn't have the card but he was given a number which finally enabled us to get our cars.
I've never had a 'new' car and by that I mean a shiny, sparkly, never been driven, straight from the showroom car. Always let some other mug take the financial hit I was told. We have to purchase/lease cars here, unlike India cars and drivers are not part of the package (damn it...I mean...what a shame!) We also found it was better to purchase before we got here via a company called International Autosourcing. This way you benefit from a tax incentive but your choice of car is limited, but you can use your UK credit rating/history - a good thing - because having been here for such a short time that's something else we don't have.
There is an Audi dealership about 5 miles away from our house and that's where I thought we'd be going to collect the cars. But oh no. Audi delivers to International Autosourcing who then deliver it to a dealer, only they've fallen out of love with our local dealer so they deliver them to Greensboro about 2 hours away. Not far really but it took a couple of hours worth of phone calls to change the car hire drop off location and around $150 in penalties! Grrrr!
We arrived at the dealership, did the paperwork and I asked who would be 'handing over' the cars and showing us....OK read 'me'...all the ins/outs/gadgets. The girl doing the paperwork looks a little embarrassed as she explains that no-one, nobody will be doing this as it is 'technically' not one of their sales, it's just a handover. Hmmm is it? We've bought 2 cars, spent alot of money, tickled the American economy and Audi's sales books in troubled times....can none of the idle coffee swilling, thumb twiddling sales staff sitting around here spare us a few minutes? Apparently not.
Ian's car is sitting outside ready and he's quietly having kittens and chomping at the bit because he realises that his car is actually a better model than he ordered and keeps disappearing outside to marvel at the fact. Mine, they tell is on it's way from the workshop. Hello? They did know what time we were coming and the cars were delivered to them a week ago. Meanwhile the kids are running around and playing with a little soft ball which doesn't amuse the snooty manager who thinks it pertinent to point out that one of the cars in the showroom is worth $150,000 and he doesn't like the idea of fingerprints on it. I'll just send them out into the car park by the busy highway then shall I?
Eventually they bring my car round and it looks luuvvelly...wait a minute...apart from the scratches on the door, the wing, the bonnet. The sticky shipping tape residue on the doors, the boot and wing mirrors. This car had obviously not even been given a cursory glance over. At which point we did finally get some attention - a man with a cloth and some kind of T-Cutt stuff to polish out the scratches and some luke warm soapy water to remove the sticky stuff. Except he missed a bit.
Almost done here we thought! We changed the kids car seats over into my car, strapped them in and we were almost, nearly, just about to drive off to return one hire car. I reverse out. The car stops. It isn't going anywhere anytime soon because there is no fuel in it and it appears the keys to the hire car have gone missing. After several dialogue exchanges with various people eventually a nice man with a Jerry can arrives and dribbles a few drops of the hard stuff into my tank. "Hopefully that'll get you to the nearest fuel station half a mile a way". Gee thanks mate you really know how to help a girl out!
We get talking and it turns out that the nice man with the Jerry can has been to Chester and Wales (that'll impress some people that I know!), had a lovely time in Wales and thinks it is terrible that nobody is helping us nice English people out...so bless his cottons he helps firstly in the half hour search for the missing keys and then proceeds to do a little of the sort of 'handover' I'd been hoping for! Now I can almost work everything. Finally we limped off their forecourt in search of some juice to get us back home.
One thing of great value he did tell us, which neither of us knew....is that you should never use cruise control in wet weather - he spoke from experience and a lucky escape.
So as you can probably tell the whole day was not the 'Audi experience' we expected, but we did meet a very nice man who has been to, and had a nice time in Wales.
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