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It’s difficult to write this review as we love the car and the dealership was recommended by a friend, but after today’s incident (the THIRD issue within three weeks of buying the car) I have no choice.
SUMMARY:
PROS – Great selection of cars. Very nice looking dealership (which makes sense when all they care about is taking your money).
CONS – Unbelievably untrustworthy. Do not appear to care about their customers. Sales people will say whatever to get you to buy vehicle and off the phone.
SOME SPECIFICS:
We live in North Carolina and drove to Columbia, SC because they had the vehicle that we wanted in stock when no one else did near by. The sales person we dealt with was courteous and the dealership was beautiful. The price for the car, which was a CPO auto with only 5,000 miles, was respectable based on calling other dealers. Not the best but not the worst. We didn’t other haggling over a few dollars and just made an easy sale. Then we drove the car off the lot. That’s when we realized our mistake with Audi Columbia.
We got 5 miles down the road and noticed CHIPS (multiple) in the windshield. When I contacted my sales person I was told “we will make it right.” We turned around to go back to the dealership when she called back and said that the sales manager is arranging for a company to try to repair the windshield and if that doesn’t work they will replace it. I asked if we should come in and were told “no, go home and we will call tomorrow about the repair.”
Tomorrow came, then the next week, then countless emails and FINALLY the name of the repair shop was sent over. They repair people tried to remove the chips, which are distracting to the driver, and could not. Given that my wife drives our little kids around, we don’t want any type of distraction.
When we called up Audi Columbia they said “no, we won’t repair it.” What!? They then tried to argue that the chips were OUR fault and that they never found them during pre-inspection!? That’s right. They argued that within the FIVE MILES that we drove leaving their dealership THREE chips occurred. They said, “a windshield is expensive and we’re not replacing it. You misheard us before.” Lovely.
Around this time, while showing the car to a neighbor, we found not one but TWO plugs in the tires. When I contacted the same sales person she told me again, “we’ll take care of it.” Four hours later I get a call “we’ll I wanted to do it and the sales manager wanted to do it but our general manager said no.” Again, promise one thing then retract the promise. She said “come in by 10am tomorrow and we will SWAP it with another car.” So they were going to give some other unsuspecting sucker the bum tire. Of course she tells us this at 5pm on Thursday offering for me to take off from work to drive 2+ hours for them to right this wrong. What a great attitude.
During this whole process we remained polite but annoyed, we eventually spoke to the sales manager, who said “I don’t know what to tell you, she’s saying one thing and you say another!” We have phone log showing the exact time we called when the chips in the windshield were found and where we were. We have logs showing the time between calls about the time. This isn’t he said she said, we have NOTHING to gain from finding chips and plugs.
The dealership is simply untrustworthy.
AND HERE’S THE BEST PART…
Today, three weeks after buying the car in South Carolina, we go to register the vehicle in NC as we only have four weeks. On the way to register the vehicle we receive an email from Audi Columbia saying they JUST sent in our paperwork to the NC DMV and, sorry, we couldn’t find the DMV you asked us to send it to.
That’s right. THREE WEEKS after the car was purchased they “get around” to sending on the forms we NEED to register the vehicle. Then they send it to the wrong place! When I asked why they waited for the last minute to do this, I was not given an answer from the sales woman at Audi Columbia or the women that handles the paperwork.
I’ve purchased VWs, Saabs, BMW, Mercedes in NY, NJ, LA and other states but I have NEVER dealt with a dealership like Audi Columbia. They are the reason that stereotypes about slimy car dealerships exist. Get them in, sell them a car, and kick them to the curb.
If you need a car, find it elsewhere in Augusta, Charlotte or Hilton Head.