West Broad VW/Audi

Poor experience. I recently took my 2004 A4 to West Broad Audi and was disappointed by the service I received. Brad ** (service manager), Mark ** (store GM), and technician Brock were every buyer's worst nightmare.

I took my Audi to West Broad Audi/ VW for a diagnostic. At the time, I was working with an outside German car specialist that recommended I take the car to the dealership because he was having trouble pinpointing the issue regarding why my check engine light was on. Basically, I was told that every piece of work he had done was wrong, everything the dealership I purchased the vehicle from was wrong, and that I needed to fix everything they recommended before they could fully diagnose. At first, I was so taken back that I told them I would need a little time to speak with these other parties before authorizing the work. After thinking about the conversation I had with Brad, I began to question all of the work they were claiming needed to be completed. It was odd to me how he used disclaimers such as this may fix your problem or it could be your injectors or vacuum but we cannot guarantee it.

A few days later, I called the service department to make an appointment to have my outside mechanic come by to understand the work they were saying that needed to be done. I called on a Thursday to set up an appointment for Saturday at 9:00 am. Brad assured me that he would not be at work, but the technician Brock would be there to go over the car. Saturday morning came and I arrived for the appointment. The gentleman working the service lane that morning said, Brad and Brock are not working today. I remember when you called, as soon as Brad finished speaking with you I told him he was mistaken and Brock was not working today. I never got a phone call rectifying the mistake, Brad did not call on Monday as they promised he would, and through my whole ordeal with the dealership, no one ever apologized for the inconvenience.

I was so angry by the missed appointment and the non- direct diagnosis that I decided to go to the store GM Mark ** to try to get better results. Mark was undoubtedly the biggest let down at this dealership. He was in a rush to leave at 3:30 in the afternoon and was completely unprofessional. He did not shake my hand, show me any respect, or treat me like a customer. He told me that his service department told me some things that could be wrong and I would pay the $100 diagnostic fee. Basically, my diagnostic is a list of things that can cause a check engine light to come on and they would like to fix in a trial- and-error type of thing. All I wanted was a direct answer of what the problem was or someone to say if we try these things and we are wrong, we are not going to keep charging you and keep playing around. Mark told me the $1,600 was basically pocket change and that if I gave him $5,000 right now, he would guarantee his mechanics would fix my car. But the nearly $2,000 they wanted without a straight answer of the problem was just my loss. (Money was not the object here, its throwing money away that I have a problem with. )

In the end, I agreed to pay the diagnostic and depart, only to find somehow the Audi specialists managed to completely drain my battery since I dropped it off. I asked both men to be sure I get to complete the CSI survey, yet for some reason Brad tried to get me out of the door and not get my contact information. I, of course, made him enter my email address in the system and print out a copy of my contact information to make sure it doesn't get lost in the mail. Do not do business with this group, because unfortunately, Brad ** and Mark ** are equally unprofessional and simply do not care about customer service.

I own a certified used '99 Volkswagen Passat that I bought from West Broad VW/Audi in Richmond. Two months ago, my oil pump failed. My family (husband, 2 young children) and I were stuck on the side of the highway. The car was towed into our neighborhood mechanic who said he was probably not the person to fix the problem. The car was then towed to West Broad Volkswagen & Audi where the engine was replaced at a cost of approximately $5400. Since then my car has gone back to them 3 times.

The first time I was driving home from work and the driver side air bag came on and the brake light came on and made continual beeping noises. I pulled over, stopped the car and called my husband. The car would not start again. He came, jumped the car and we drove it back to the dealership. They told us the 6-month-old battery was bad. We went back to the battery vendor and they replaced the battery that was still under warranty. A few days later, the same thing happened on my drive from work. Rather than pulling over, I drove it home, which wasn't far. The car would not start again once it had been stopped.

We jumped the car and drove it to West Broad Volkswagen again. The car was scheduled to go in anyway because of an oil leak. The mechanic replaced a seal or tightened something for the oil leak and charged the battery. When we returned to the dealership once more we could tell by the way the car was cranking that the problem had not been solved. There was a slight delay starting. Later that afternoon they said that their "diagnostic" indicated that it was a bad alternator (cost $700). We retrieved the car, purchased an alternator from a salvage yard over an hour away for a '99 Passat. This alternator was taken from a car with 22,000 miles on it. And was checked by the Salvage Yard prior to purchase. This cost $65.

It turned out though, that our car required a '98 alternator. We drove back to the salvage yard. We took the car to a local VW mechanic (not a dealer) where he charged us $61 to charge the battery and put in the alternator. The car started up. We drove across town home. The next day, I drove the car in to work. I drove the car home from work and noticed that it seemed a little weak. My husband tried to drive the car that evening to the grocery store. It would not start.

That evening I contacted Volkswagen via some 1800 number and placed a complaint. They assured me that they would be contacting the dealership to make sure that they are doing what they can to resolve this issue. Today I took the afternoon off to met with the general manager, the service manager and the mechanic to make sure that we are taking the proper route. I initiated this meeting. I had an extremely difficult time getting anyone on the phone. They were "at lunch" for over 2 hours. Finally, I spoke with the general manager and I told him I would be in this afternoon along with a brief synopsis of the past two months. I asked for a meeting to address my concerns.

The receptionist was extremely rude. After waiting a while I asked if the general manager was in the building since he didn't seem to be answering her page on the intercom. She said he was. I asked her to ask him how long he would be. Her response was "You haven't been waiting over an hour have you?" I told her that my time was valuable too and sat down to wait. During the meeting, the general manager, Mark Parham, was also extremely rude. He made comments regarding the "grimace" on my face and my "body language". After a very heated discussion, we came to the conclusion that they would do another diagnostic of the car and we would proceed.

Later this afternoon, the mechanic called with the results of this "new" diagnosis - the alternator was bad. My husband went around with him for a explaining over and over that we had come to the agreement that they would assume that the alternator was good and that they should look elsewhere - fuses, circuitry etc. The service manager called back with the claim that they could not proceed further in the diagnostic until the alternator was fixed ($700 remember?). We did agree that my husband would take the alternator back to the salvage yard (over an hour) and get another one from them. West Broad Volkswagen will put this alternator in for $110.

During the past few months, we made the decision to get rid of this car. This was not an easy decision. We owe over $10,000 on this car. CarMax offered us $5300 for trade in. The car hasn't been in working condition long enough to have another conversation with another dealership regarding trade-in.