Carlsen Audi - sheesh! [warning: rant]

[Brett Dikeman]

At 10:53 AM -0400 7/25/02, Marc Swanson wrote:

>Looking up the part numbers yourself will eliminate these sorts of
>problems and helps out the dealer tremendously.  Consider that Carlsen
>is using the same catalog that many of us are using at home so if they
>can't distinguish between closely related parts then you probably
>wouldn't be able to either.  If you lookup the part numbers yourself and
>make a mistake at least you can figure out where you went wrong if you
>get the wrong part.


I once spent 10 minutes arguing with Linda about whether or not
200q20v's came with Leather.

Why?  Because I was trying to get a replacement rear speaker.

My three points, mainly:
-not a single 200q20v exists in the country with a cloth interior
-the #$@! speaker has a sticker on it that says "LEATHER"
-the #$@! car is sitting in my driveway and I know #&$! well it has leather

...went nowhere, because the allmighty parts catalog told her that
there was no such thing as a '91 200 with leather and Bose.

Oh, and I just realized, I have a wastegate frequency valve sitting
in the bottom of my closet for something other than a '91
200q20v(again, thanks to Linda.)  I later got the right part, but the
paid return-shipping slip never came, and I eventually forgot about
it.

About the only thing I can say for Linda was she always remembered
me("Honey, there aren't many Bretts that call up here for parts"),
and she gave you lots of information("ok, there's none here, the
warehouse in XX has 2.." etc.)


I've also stopped recommending Clair...their prices are atrocious,
which is a shame, since they're 30 minutes away.  Every time I call
them for a quote, its:

-"oh, we'll have to special order that, and its past 11am, so we
can't order it today, it'll get ordered tomorrow AM, and then be
there the following day."  My response: "Thanks anyway."<click>

-price quoted is substantially over what places like Zygmunt charge,
and that's BEFORE sales tax that I have to pay on Clair orders.
Quoted prices after discount somehow magically always end up ever so
slightly under list price..and tax inflates it over list price.
Zygmunt almost always comes in under Clair, even after OVERNIGHT
shipping on the Zygmunt order.

Brett
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