Audi N1 City Service Delivery Disaster

To whom this may concern: I don’t voice problems and issues on a public platform as voiced below however I deemed this necessary as I have not been successful anywhere else. I am a big fan of German vehicles and I have owned mostly German auto mobiles in my life. When it was time to purchase a new vehicle in 2014 I was convinced by my son that I should get an Audi. I approached Audi N1 in Cape Town South-Africa and met with a sales lady named Lydia Kepler. I decided after meeting with Audi to buy an Audi and Lydia informed me that there is a built Audi A3 in Germany ready to be shipped however the Audi available did not have 3 of the extras I wanted. Namely leather interior, Tow Bar and Reverse PDC. Lydia convinced me that Audi South-Africa is excellent in their craft and it will be no problem to have the extras fitted once the vehicle arrives in the country. I was hesitant to do this because I prefer to have extras factory fitted. Lydia was so convincing that all my doubts had disappeared and I singed on the dotted line. WORST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE!!! When it was time to collect the Audi I arrived at Audi N1 and found that the vehicle waiting and financed for me was not the Audi I had purchased it was a Q3. To my disappointment I could not get my car on that day as the entire financing had to be redone with another bank as the bank who did the first financing did not want to refinance. I then financed through a different bank. This entire experience spoilt all excitement I had in receiving my Audi A3. After all the above was sorted out I eventually got my new Audi. Within a week of driving my new car I started noticing problems with the reverse PDC. It was just a continuous tone as soon as I selected reverse gear. This is not the first car I have driven with PDC so I knew it was problematic. I contacted Audi N1 and they had me bring the car back. According to them the problem was solved however within a couple of days the problem had returned rendering the reverse PDC useless to me. Time had passed and eventually the time came when I required the use of the cars tow bar. The tow bar fitted is one that can be removed if not being used. When I tried to connect a trailer to the tow bar I realised that the fitting required to go into the electricity fitting from the town bar could not fit because the flap covering the fitting could not open properly as the bumper was too close to it and in the way. That meant that obviously I could not tow a trailer. I had to leave the trailer and drive to Audi N1 to find out what was going on. When I arrived at Audi N1 I asked to speak to Lydia as she was my contact at Audi N1. After a while she presented herself and I informed her about the problem. She directed me to a technician at Audi who informed me that the car does not have the correct bumper for the tow bar fitted. Basically when the town bar was fitted before collecting my car for the first time the bumper was cut to fit the tow bar. I was told by the technician that it was not supposed to look like this because the bumper was obstructing the power supply for the converter to be fitted. Clearly the fitting was never tested before the delivery of the new car! He also told me that they would have to fit another part to the bumper to make the bumper look normal (this part had to be ordered from Germany) when the tow bar was not in use. He then forced the fitting into the power supply to make the part work with South-African fittings. I was concerned because I thought he had damaged the fitting by forcing it in. He said it should be fine. Well the fitting has never worked properly there is always an indicator problem when towing a trailer. Returning to the PDC problem. My car was due for a service in 2015 and I got hold of Audi N1 and made a booking for the vehicles service and a booking to sort out the PDC. On the booking day I arrived at Audi N1 to find that no service booking was made only a booking for the PDC. I asked for Lydia she did not come out of her office for a while and made me wait for her. I was livid because I don’t have time to book my car in for one problem and bring it back another day for a service. I booked the service and the PDC on one day as I cannot be without my vehicle for too long. I told Lydia to sort this problem out so that I can return and have the service and PDC problem solved in one go. I was so frustrated at this point that I got into my car and reversed into a short pole behind me as the PDC did not work properly it could not warn me that I am about to knock the pole. I knocked a huge dent into my bumper. Eventually Audi contacted me and informed me that I have a booking for the above. When the booking day came I again took the Audi back and booked the car in. The service lady and I did the check list together. We did the walk around and marked one or two small scratches on the car and the dent on the back bumper, we then signed the document. When Audi N1 phoned later to inform me that my car was finished I had arranged with my daughter to collect the car as I was unable to. When my daughter arrived to collect the car the service lady informed her that she and I had missed a dent on the left front of the car. My daughter brought my car home and informed me on what the service lady had told her. I immediately went to my vehicle and saw a very obvious dent on the line of the front left side of the vehicle. This could not have been missed when we did the walk around. I phoned the service lady and she said she only saw it when I drove away. I questioned her about it and asked her why she did not phone me immediately when she saw it. She could not answer me, she also informed me that she had marked it to the paper we signed after I had left. I told her that it is ******* to change any document once it has been signed without the other party knowing about it or initialling next to it. She also informed me that the PDC will not work because it pics up on the town bar and that I must ensure that the rubber fitting/cover for the hook is always on. I told her it was a ridiculous instruction. I spoke to Audi N1s manager about the dent he said it could not have happened at Audi N1 and I must have caused the dent myself. At this stage I had lost all confidence in Audi N1 and contacted Audi South Africa about my experience. I got exactly the same response and attitude from them. Now I had lost total confidence in Audi. I am not prone to drive around with dents in my car I had the car fixed through my insurance. One good thing if you can call it that is that I arranged with the technician who informed me about the tow bar bumper problem to have the part for the bumper sent to the establishment who fixed my car to install the new piece. The fitting for the bumper was supp**** at no cost. At this stage after all most 2 years the PDC was still not working. In February 2016 my car was due for another service and I decided not to take my car to Audi N1 as I will never set foot there ever again. I decided to have the service done at Audi Summer Set West. I contacted them and booked an appointment and also informed them on the PDC problem. When I arrived for the booking I informed them about another problem that the Leather interior is pulling loose. They said they will check up on this. Before I left I saw Lydia Kepler walking around in the office. She saw me and did not even greet or make an effort to find out why I am there. My confidence dropped to my knees however the car was checked in and I left. When I arrived for collection the same day the lady who handled my cars service informed me that the PDC is an instalment problem and that the glue used did not glue properly. She even showed me that one of the sensors was completely loose. I was also told that the PDC was installed by VW and not Audi. She also told me that the leather interior was not installed by Audi but by McCarthy. She said she had confirmed this with Lydia. I felt like I was about to explode. I asked to see Lydia. She never appeared. I continued to walk to her office to confront her on this because I was never told that anything was installed by any other establishment but by Audi when I purchased my car. Lydia was again unwilling to help me and deemed it fit to inform me that I must sort this out with Audi N1 and the outsourced companies who installed the extras in my car. After all this I am still driving around in an Audi with faulty PDC, leather interior pulling loose and a tow bar that does not function properly. No one wants to take responsibility for this. I can’t help but ask if this is the service delivery that one should expect from a huge well known car manufacturer like Audi. Could this not have been resolved just as easily as selling the vehicle to me? Is this the type of people Audi employs as ambassador to their good name? I bought my car in 2014 and the car only has a mere 17 000km on the clock. This is completely unacceptable to have this problem for so long. I have never experienced service delivery like this from any dealership before. I am hoping that this Email will reach the correct individual within the Audi group to help me resolve this problem. The service promised when purchasing the vehicle has never been delivered to me. I will definitely not buy an Audi ever again or recommend Audi to anyone know or come across. I am to this day an extremely dissatisfied and mistreated customer. Ina Combrinck