Audi warranty rut roh.

[Brett Dikeman]

At 5:27 PM -0500 6/12/03, Todd Young wrote:
>I'm kinda with Mohammed on this one.
>I just took a second look at the site, and I'm more than a little
>unimpressed with this person's presentation.
>
>I see NO facts or dates presented, just a possibly slanderous rambling.

Well, I think he wanted to make a point to AoA, without actually
causing any serious PR damage- he's waving his big stick, giving them
one last chance, and not their only "one last chance", if he's
telling the truth about having told them he'd do what he's doing.

Problem is, he shoots himself in the foot with his attitude.  That's
the real problem here- his implication that the dealership is "just a
fly by night used car dealer", or something to that effect.  That's
slander, folks- and I don't know if any of you remember, but a couple
months ago, a dealership sued a guy over comments he posted in
VWvortex's forums about them.  I believe the dealership backed off or
lost(I forget which), but this guy is still quite likely to attract a
little boilerplate from AoA's legal department.  The only way to
fight these battles is to keep your nose clean, refrain from
attacking anyone, and just state the facts- all the boilerplate in
the world can't fight the truth.  Somehow I have a feeling tomorrow's
update will just be more of the same fire+brimstone.

Now for the flipside.

Audi brings this upon themselves.  All the time I hear horror
stories- horror stories you shouldn't hear about a luxury
brand...where either the region rep, or Audi Client Relations(or the
dealer, as many people don't know about Client Relations) completely
drops the ball, and instead of taking one for the team to keep a
customer, they screw themselves over with the customer, just to keep
the monthly P&L numbers right.  Audi seems cursed with management
that just doesn't understand you have to kiss customer ass and loose
a little money NOW, to keep said customer...and hence keep the money
coming in later.  A car company can't constantly live year to year on
the hope of bringing out one new exciting model after another.  Apple
has the same problem- Steve Jobs even flat-out admits that coming up
with something really grand for each Macworld show was getting to be
very, very tough.

   So what happened to the customer who was screwed over?  Now, not
only have they lost that person, but probably their kids, relatives,
etc.  I dunno about anyone else, but the reason I'm driving an
200q20v is because I grew up riding in type 44's  My Aunt+Uncle
bought a 5000CST a year after we did, in part because we were happy
with our 5000CST.  My best friend's father has owned two Acuras;
guess what my friend drives now, and guess what his sister drives?
Another good friend has Saabs running in the family, though he's not
driving a Saab at the moment due to economics and his strong desire
for very good fuel economy(30+ mpg).

   I saw a sign on the wall at a sandblasting/refinishing company,
while picking up some glass bead media.  It said something to the
effect of "for every customer that walks away angry, you will loose
10 potential customers."  Customers are more easily pissed off than
pleased, and will be using a much louder voice when complaining than
complementing.  You don't see people spending money buying
advertising on Google to tell the world about how happy they are to
own an Audi, now do you?

B
--
----
"...voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the
leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being
attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing
the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
	-Herman Goering, Luftwaffe Commander; Nuremburg, 1946