Mike Gyulai

Review of Audi Beverly Hills

I had a great sales experience at Audi Beverly Hil...

I had a great sales experience at Audi Beverly Hills. Everything was running along very smoothly until the final year of my 36-month lease. In for a routine car wash, the drivers at Audi Beverly Hills backed my car into a pole. It was a Saturday so I was told to come back Monday to drop the car for repairs and obtain a rental on the dealer. When i showed up Monday, no one knew who I was. I managed to get a ride to Enterprise, but they had no record of a reservation for my loaner car. I made the shuttle driver come inside and call the service manager on his cell and managed to get a car: a Chevy Cruze, as Enterprise claimed they had no Audis. I figured I'd be a good sport since my experience with Audi had been great thus far.

About a week went by with no phone contact from the dealer so I drove back on lunch and grabbed the service manager who said he couldn't believe I wasn't in an Audi and he'd put me in one the next day. So I stopped back at Enterprise before work and got: an A3, which I drove for the next week with, again, no contact on the status of my repair.

After two weeks, it struck me that I was still paying Audi Financial Services for the full lease on my A5, yet I had been put in vehicles of lower value talk about adding insult to injury. They'd smashed up my car, then had me driving around in cheaper rental cars seemingly indefinitely. So I drove back to the dealer on my lunch (the third time now, mind you) and, again, the service manager seemed awestruck I was in an A3. So I went back to Enterprise for the third time and was given a Q5. Kudos for this being the right move, but boy did I have to do all the work for it.

I was without my car for about 6 weeks, then thanked god that terrible experience was behind me ...

... until October 2016 when I came in for a routine service recall and they smashed up my A5 for the second time in six months(!). A driver wrapped the passenger panel around a pole. They tried to put me in a rental A4 but having learned my lesson before I refused to be in anything less than my lease payments.

Humorously, I received a customer service survey before I got my car back, so when prompted as to whether my service was "Truly Exceptional" I said absolutely not. This prompted a "Guest Experience Advisor" to reach out to me (promising start). We spoke by phone and I then emailed her the photos of both incidents. Her response: "I am so sorry, the visual really upsets me. You are in good hands and I will see you through this. I am on it now." After which she ... never contacted me again (ha!).

My lease ended March 2017 and the car had low milage (~17,000 miles after 36 months) and my inspection showed no needed repair. So I reached back out to the "Guest Experience Advisor" requesting: "Given the two incidents with valet staff at Audi Beverly Hills, the manner in which the incidents were (mis)handled, and the time I was placed in rental vehicles of lower value than my lease payments, I'd like to request my disposition fee be waived from my vehicle return."

The disposition fee is a nominal $350, but at this point my "Guest Experience" with Audi had gone so far south, my hope was they would credit me as a gesture of customer service. Her response: Audi could waive the fee ... if I were to lease another Audi from them. Those of you familiar with leasing know that's the standard offer for re-upping on a new lease.

So unfortunately what started out great ended up as quite a poor experience. And be warned: if you own your Audi or take great care of your leased Audi in hopes of getting an in-the-money early buyout, taking your Audi to Audi Beverly Hills--even for a routine car wash or maintenance check-up--is jeopardizing the value of your vehicle. Body damage like this torpedos a vehicle's resale value. And though you'd hope a dealer that claims to strive for a customer experience that is "Truly Exceptional" would right any truly unexceptional experiences come lease end, that motto doesn't seem to translate to anything actionable when it counts most.