Followup on my timing belt failure

[Fred Munro]

This is Audi's typical customer service attitude, Andrew - I call it the
"life would be so great if it wasn't for those pesky customers" syndrome. I
ran into it when I tried to get Audi Canada to cover the cost of repairing
the leaking fuel line on my UrS4. They refused even though Audi was covering
the cost in the U.S. as goodwill. I reported the problem to Transport Canada
and they had a recall out in two weeks. I got my line fixed free and so did
every UrS owner in Canada, a fact I pointed out to the sot at Audi Customer
Service when I called back to vent what was left of my spleen.

This is the reason I will never own a new Audi, but I like the cars and
don't mind as much if these problems come up on a used Audi I've bought at a
greatly depreciated price.

Sorry to hear about your tribulations!

Fred Munro
'94 S4


-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-admin at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-admin at audifans.com]On
Behalf Of Andrew Duane USG
Sent: October 3, 2003 11:28 AM
To: Quattro List
Subject: Followup on my timing belt failure


The word from Audi is that they covered 75% of the repair.
That left me with about $1600 worth of repairs, plus $500 in
towing charges and a cab ride home from where I got stranded.

I am still awaiting a call from someone at AoA to explain the
new policy of only covering 75% of the repair for the poor hapless
victims of this failure. It will be an interesting call, as I am
livid about their attitude. The attitude from my dealer's service
manager was even worse however. He explained *nothing* to me.
Just told me I owed $1600 for the repair. Then proceeded to tell
me that I was lucky I got anything, since my car was 2000 miles
out of warranty (although only 2.5 years old). He wouldn't even
discuss a loaner car for a day so I could buy groceries. Nor would
he discuss any reimbursement for my towing.

Given this, I have decided to think long and hard about owning
any more Audi products. I have put up with the petty annoyances
that we all know about from this list, because at the end of the
day, my cars always ran and always got me home. No longer....

The moral of the story for everyone out there with cars in my
age group (2-4 years old, 50K miles) is:

	CHANGE YOUR TIMING BELT AND WATER PUMP
	DO IT NOW.
	The mileages in the service book are pure fiction.

Audis design has exhibited these failures for years. And if Audi
doesn't do something about it (other than implementing a new policy
to screw their customers who are caught), there will be a class action
lawsuit. A suit which I will happily join.

--

Andrew L. Duane (JOT-7)			duane at zk3.dec.com
HP/Compaq Corporation			Andrew.Duane at compaq.com
110 Spit Brook Road			Andrew.Duane at hp.com
M/S ZKO3-3/U14
Nashua, NH    03062-2698		(603)-884-1294