questions...longish

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

In message <73a1c723.3547de0a@aol.com> DOUBLDz writes:

> I was given the maintenance record book and only glanced at it the
> night I bought the car (I hope that doesn't put me in the dumb
> blonde category).

It puts you in the same category as Roger Galvin, Membership Secretary
of the UK quattro Owners Club (and a techie) who made _exactly_ the
same mistake when he bought his V8Q.  Roger isn't blond - I do
occasionally refer to him as 'dumb', but only when he buys _another_
ur-quattro.

> It appeared to have all the stamps in the proper places and so
> forth. A couple of days later when I took it out to see about the
> next scheduled maintenence I saw that there was already a stamp
> saying that the service at 37,500 had been done. Since my car had
> only 31K miles it was quite apparent that something was amiss. A
> quick check of the VIN numbers proved that this was not the
> maintenance record for my car. Long story short, the dealer said he
> had the right book, promised to mail it, etc.etc. Guess what, I
> still don't have it and the dealer didn't return my call today. Any
> thoughts on my recourse, if any, would be appreciated.

This is _VERY_ common over here.  In fact, it's very rare (in my
experience) that the service history really makes sense if you read
it, and finding the wrong car's book is equally common.

What happens here is that the book is taken off you (or taken from the
car), the mileage is written in, and the book is dropped on the desk
of whoever stamps it - there's supposed to be only one stamp per
dealership.  Later, it just gets put back in the wrong car.

My advice would be to _write_ a formal (obviously polite) letter to the
dealership.  It's harder to forget and/or lose than a phone call.

In theory, the maintenance record should also be in Audi's computers.
It often _isn't_, and I know of people who had problems getting
warranty items done because a service was "missed" according to the
system.

--
 Phil Payne
 Phone: 0385 302803   Fax: 01536 723021
 (The contents of this post will _NOT_ appear in the UK Newsletter.)