complimentary cleaning - avoid avoid avoid

[fysmd]

I recently had a small fault with my A6, turned out to be a temperature sensor in the cabin: AC went bonkers and Stop Start was disabled because of it.

Anyway, dealer took the car, had it all day, fixed the fault and were "good enough" to clean and vac the car for me. They do this every time they have the car and I've never liked the poor job they do of cleaning it but it's "free"...

I was particularly disappointed with the mess left in my wheels, water marks all over the place an general poor job they did yesterday and told them so. When I got home I took a closer look (and feel) at the finish on my car. The finish is dull and has many fine scratches and doesn't feel polished any more. I bought lifeshine and I only polished it last weekend so continued looking closely.

My accident camera had the answer - it turns out that the DEALER takes my lovely polished and LifeShine'd car and runs it through a mechanical CAR WASH while they have it!

I am incensed! HOW DARE THEY DO THIS TO MY CAR?!

I'm hardly a detailing fanatic but I do look after the paintwork in line with the autoglym recommendations and tend to wash it weekly and reapply the polish every two weeks.

[Guest 2]

This is why I don't get Audi to wash mine. They ask everyone now before signing the car in.

Nothing really you can do, cars get swirl marks they're all prone to them no matter how careful you are but I always insist on making a point to the SA not to clean the car.

The machine is their quickest way of getting the car cleaned and back out to the customer, if you want it done right do it yourself I always say! ;)

[fysmd]

They did tell me that it would be cleaned and vac'd but NEVER mentioned they use a ******* machine!!!

They applied the LifeShine and THEY have invalidated it!!

[zollaf]

then write a letter stating you have video evidence, take photo's of the paint, get a quote from a detailer to correct your car back to how it was and if the dealer won't pay then take them to court.

edit, so this lifeshine you paid for, its invalidated if you use a car wash ? you have this in writing ?

[Guest 2]

Do you have pics before it went in of the un-swirlled paint up close? Unfortunately even with every wash no matter how careful you are it will always gain some amount of swirls.

Some do it by hand and some have a machine, I take it it was on site?

[zollaf]

6 hours he spends , every sunday, instead of going to church, polishing his car. he uses all the expensive products and there wasn't a single swirl anywhere. if there was he would have polished it out. it had a proper lush shine to it, cleanest car in the street. got admiring glances everywhere he went. now they have ruined it, your honour ....

[fysmd]

edit, so this lifeshine you paid for, its invalidated if you use a car wash ? you have this in writing ?

it's part of the LifeShine Warranty document - although the phrase specifically mentions brushes:
"Scratching and hazing caused by handheld wash brushes or automatic brush car washes."

complaint written.

[fysmd]

Yes, on site. Within their compound it seems (according to the GPS data also logged ;)

[razor77]

Not good Mr R. I have frequently questioned the quality of all car prep and cleaning, a mechanical car wash says it all. I would have been tempted to question them first and later reveal the video evidence. Personally I would also copy Audi UK in all correspondence.

It's some time back, but when I had the A4 in 2000 with coil issues and they loaned me a Vectra. An immediate complaint to Audi UK who ordered the Leeds dealer to give me an Audi, and the same day I got an A6... I am glad I did it 'cos it took 3 months to get the A4 back (company leased so I didn't care too much).

[fernar]

I now tell my Audi dealer not to clean my car - as already commented, they dont really do a good job anyway - and the last time they 'cleaned' my car, it left a ding on the aluminium trim by the gear stick.

To be fair, the Audi replaced the trim at their cost - so they fixed the problem - however there as the hassle to booking the car in etc.

It turn out that my Audi dealer contracts out the cleaning to a 3rd party.... I dont think theses 3rd parties really care about the quality of the cleaning they do - and they will want to do the job in the shortest time possible.

[Passatier3]

Do you have pics before it went in of the un-swirlled paint up close? Unfortunately even with every wash no matter how careful you are it will always gain some amount of swirls.

Some do it by hand and some have a machine, I take it it was on site?

Bit surprised at your comment there Chris. Of course over time you are going to get some swirls and minor surface scratches to the paintwork but at least with careful hand-washing it will be minimal and if doing it yourself is in your hands.

Apart from the dealer preparation I never take my car anywhere mechanical or even those hand-wash places. Took a Passat to one of those American type car-washes a few years ago and they scratched the side glass by using a broom to clean it!

I always used to wash my Passats before taking them to the dealers and always used to smile when they told me they'd vacuumed and washed it because clearly they hadn't.

After fernar's experience I made sure that my A6 was spick and span before it went in for it's recent recall but even so the service guy (who must have been blinded by the shine!) still said that they would clean it - I said, no you won't!

Must say that they do a good job of my wife's Mini Cooper S though - probably got their own staff.

[pbc26]

I have just had the exact same issue - when checking the car in, i questioned whether the car would be hand washed or put through a car wash - i was assured that it would be hand washed as there was no mechanical car wash on site.
Collected the car, looked reasonably clean (bearing in mind it was filthy when dropped off), drove back to work where the sun was shining directly onto the passenger side, HORROR!!! the whole car is covered in micro scratches - straight on the phone to the dealer then took it over for inspection, they have agreed to have it totally detailed at their cost. They didnt admit to using a car wash, but i can assure you that it will never be cleaned by them whilst being serviced - i paid a lot of money for Shiraz Red so i expected them to treat it with the care it deserved! Imagine if it had been a £13ok plus R8.

[ScottyA6]

They used a what !!!!!!! :aargh4:

It would have been a quick trip home to pick up the axe if it had been mine. If I wanted to sand the car down a bit I would get the Black & Decker out and give it a quick once over with some 200 grit. The rotten little toads.

[Forkit]

pbc26, based on your location, did you go to the Poole Audi? Worried now as my car is in there having the clutch judder investigated..............

[green A8]

I'm a grumpy old git who also happens to be related to a car valeter/detailer. As a result of this, and the fact that my car's only done 25K miles, from new. My 1996 Emerald Green Pearl Audi A8 looks in a little above average condition. The one thing I will not allow is for any main agent to wash my car. What I do is slap a couple of laminated A4 sheets of paper in the cabin of the car whenever it's dropped off for any work to be done. Which tell all and sundry that I do not wish to have my car cleaned in any way whatsoever. I also inform the Service Manager of my wishes. Up to now no one at the dealerships I use has ever washed the car.

You really ought to have seen the condition the Wifes new A7 was handed over to her in. She almost cried,when I pointed out the swirls all over the place, and a few long water blade scratches to the roof as a bonus! It took around ten hours to machine the car back to how it should have looked when leaving the showroom. I did all the work with our rellie, as I simply didn't trust the main agent to do a good enough job. I'll wager that they would have exchanged swirls and scratches for buffer trails. We even had to wet sand some orange peel from the bonnet. This car also get's the 'keep your valeter away from my paintwork' treatment whenever it goes in for any work.

[JimC64]

I'm a grumpy old git who also happens to be related to a car valeter/detailer. As a result of this, and the fact that my car's only done 25K miles, from new. My 1996 Emerald Green Pearl Audi A8 looks in a little above average condition. The one thing I will not allow is for any main agent to wash my car. What I do is slap a couple of laminated A4 sheets of paper in the cabin of the car whenever it's dropped off for any work to be done. Which tell all and sundry that I do not wish to have my car cleaned in any way whatsoever. I also inform the Service Manager of my wishes. Up to now no one at the dealerships I use has ever washed the car.

You really ought to have seen the condition the Wifes new A7 was handed over to her in. She almost cried,when I pointed out the swirls all over the place, and a few long water blade scratches to the roof as a bonus! It took around ten hours to machine the car back to how it should have looked when leaving the showroom. I did all the work with our rellie, as I simply didn't trust the main agent to do a good enough job. I'll wager that they would have exchanged swirls and scratches for buffer trails. We even had to wet sand some orange peel from the bonnet. This car also get's the 'keep your valeter away from my paintwork' treatment whenever it goes in for any work.


+1 on the above from me, almost identical.

At least 2, perhaps 3 A4 pieces of paper with " DO NOT WASH" written in big bold black letters, 1 is left on the drivers seat, 1 on the passengers seat and another on the dash.

I also inform the service manager that i DO NOT want my car washed and watch as he writes this in bold letters on the service paperwork

[JannerAudi]

Hi, No reflection on my local Audi dealer but I decided against their Autoglym Lifeshine offer on my new A6 arriving next month as I prefer and will enjoy detailing the car myself.

Do all Audi dealers now ask if you want your car cleaned when they service it or do you have to make a special point of saying not to clean it ?

[Guest 2]

You need to say to the service advisor and make sure they write on the job sheet that its not to be washed.

[Whippy53]

Hi, No reflection on my local Audi dealer but I decided against their Autoglym Lifeshine offer on my new A6 arriving next month as I prefer and will enjoy detailing the car myself.

Do all Audi dealers now ask if you want your car cleaned when they service it or do you have to make a special point of saying not to clean it ?

Mine has always asked, but I still make a point of instructing them not to. Had mine lifeshined and they did a bang on job, I inspected the finished product very carefully afterwards and it was fine.