Audi South Africa - poor service

I have been a customer and owner of an Audi A3 for the last 4 years now, driving an A3 1.4 TFSI sportback. A 2014 Model, reg ND 2876.

In the last 4 years, I have been inconvenienced many times by Audi and overlooked these instances as I was quite happy with my car when I did have it available to drive.

My car has had many faults over the years, starting in 2016 when the oil consumption became a major concern leading to the replacement of the engine. I was without a vehicle for nearly 2 months, going back and forth with what the actual issue was until the engine was replaced.

This year, in 2018 the clutches were replaced earlier in the year and the vehicle was at the dealership for a few days. All of these issues pale in comparison to the latest ordeal I have had to endure.

On the evening of 7 Aug this year, I was driving home from the King Shaka airport and the car lost power more than once, with no error message. I managed to drive to a safe place and called the Customer service centre. The vehicle eventually started and an error message for a Gearbox malfunction appeared on the dashboard. The car had completely lost power and had to be towed to an Audi dealership.

By 2pm the next day I had not heard from Audi SA or any dealership so I had to contact the Customer service centre who informed me that my car was at Audi Durban and that a service advisor would contact me. I heard back that a technician was only going to look at my vehicle on Friday 10 August.

It's now the 2 September and I do not have my car back neither do I have a courtesy car which was promised to me last week. I have gone the last month greatly inconvenienced by Audi. I have not had a vehicle, whilst I have paid my monthly instalment, my insurance and my tracker debit orders.

I contact Audi as regularly as every 1-2 days since the service advisor does not sufficiently keep me updated on my car. I called Audi SA last week in frustration and they had told me that the service manager would contact me but to date he has not.

This is the email update I have from the service advisor from last Friday. "In regards to you quire as to what was has been done to your vehicle to date. Your concern was that the vehicle had a loss of power and a grinding noise to what lead to a breakdown On your inspection of the vehicle and diagnosis we found that the mechatronics (gearbox control unit) was faulty Causing the vehicle not to select gears, we replaced the mechatronics control unit and on start-up of the vehicle We found that there was a rattling noise coming from inside the gearbox bell housing. We striped the vehicle and found That the flywheel was broken. We fitted a new flywheel but the vehicle still has no drive. We are currently busy with The technical division at Audi S.A to assist us with technical repair procedure"

To date I am still not able to understand or accept the very poor service and breach of contract by your Audi South Africa.

The recurring experience of poor service and a vehicle with so many technical issues has made me lose faith in the Audi Brand and at great cost to me and my family. As a last resort , I wrote to Audi SA with the intention of getting this matter escalated urgently and a prompt response. I am left feeling like a customer who is not taken seriously and as if my support of Audi is invaluable. This situation compromises my work situation, affects my status at work and retards professional abilities.

I have not yet heard back from Audi SA and I have not had any contact from the service manager at Audi Durban, clearly they do not value customer experience and do not consider the frustrations of their customers.