Anyone else had a dealership experience like this?

[IbisA7TDI]

Hey guys, so I brought in my car for squeaking side bolsters on my seat. Have about 2 weeks left on my warranty so obviously trying to get things covered and fixed before it ends.

I paid $162 for a diagnostic fee, only to get a report back saying, everything was normal...(clearly not if the driver seat is squeaking and my passenger seat isn't). I even showed them that a member here had a similar issue and used their report as an example to show them .

They said if I want to do a deeper diagnostic, I have to pay 5 hours of labor for them to go inside the seat to take a deeper look, which'll run me $850. Sounds like robbery...

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. Paying a diagnostic fee to only get told I need to do a more expensive diagnostic?

Doesn't quite make sense, but maybe this is the norm for an initial "diagnostic"? Anyone else had a similar experience? I already filed a complaint with AoA

[Nully]

Yes had a similar experience before, went in asking them to figure out why my driver side mirror wasn't dimming (knowing that it was likely a wire short/disconnect as I had done the easy checks). a couple of hours later they call me and blaming the mirror glass (which I knew wasn't the problem since I had switched the passenger and driver side to verify it wasn't.

So I called the BS on them and had to "politely" ask them to do the job that they are getting paid for. The initial diagnostic it seems is nothing more than "I looked at your car and the car is there where you told me, it all looks good"...

[IbisA7TDI]

Yes had a similar experience before, went in asking them to figure out why my driver side mirror wasn't dimming (knowing that it was likely a wire short/disconnect as I had done the easy checks). a couple of hours later they call me and blaming the mirror glass (which I knew wasn't the problem since I had switched the passenger and driver side to verify it wasn't.

So I called the BS on them and had to "politely" ask them to do the job that they are getting paid for. The initial diagnostic it seems is nothing more than "I looked at your car and the car is there where you told me, it all looks good"...

I hope it worked for you when you had asked them. For me, the advisor called the service manager over, and the service manager sided with the advisor and said to me basically, "you signed the initial paper, and unless you pay we have to hold your car".

I felt so harassed.

[ZodiacPhoto]

Hey guys, so I brought in my car for squeaking side bolsters on my seat. Have about 2 weeks left on my warranty so obviously trying to get things covered and fixed before it ends.

I paid $162 for a diagnostic fee, only to get a report back saying, everything was normal...(clearly not if the driver seat is squeaking and my passenger seat isn't). I even showed them that a member here had a similar issue and used their report as an example to show them .

They said if I want to do a deeper diagnostic, I have to pay 5 hours of labor for them to go inside the seat to take a deeper look, which'll run me $850. Sounds like robbery...

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. Paying a diagnostic fee to only get told I need to do a more expensive diagnostic?

Doesn't quite make sense, but maybe this is the norm for an initial "diagnostic"? Anyone else had a similar experience? I already filed a complaint with AoA

Never in my life I've been asked to pay any "diagnostic fee" while my car is under warranty... manufacturer should cover all the diagnostics required to find the cause of a problem covered by warranty.
Is this practice new, or an Audi thing?
I had Lexus, MB and BMW before Audi, and never heard of a "diagnostic fee"...

[Speedooooo]

Yeah I'm confused about why you would pay a diagnostic fee when your car is under warranty.

[IbisA7TDI]

To clarify, my car is under a 3rd party warranty and not under the original Audi one.

But I agree that it still shouldn't be charged a diagnostic fee...because anything found would be billed to the warranty...

Sounds like the dealership has uncommon practices then, and customer losing ones too.

[Vinng86]

Had a similar experience here in Canada with my out-of-warranty car. They charged me a $150 CAD diagnostic fee to essentially read the DTC codes...

[bahula03]

My experience with a CPO warranty is that it's normal for issues that aren't immediately apparent to be written up with a half or whole hour of labor authorized to diagnose, which I don't recall ever having to actually pay with the issues I've had. Under the factory warranty maybe the compensation structure from Audi to the dealerships is different, but especially with a third party warranty, how is the dealership supposed to get paid for the time they spent looking at your car? Why aren't they just billing everything directly to your warranty? Or are you saying they should just eat the cost for everyone that turns up with a concern about their car?

Also my understanding that most warranties don't cover squeaks and rattles because they're not functional or safety issues, and they tend to be fishing expeditions to resolve, which is what you're seeing reflected in that additional diagnostic fee. It sucks and cars like these shouldn't squeak or rattle in the first place, but thems the breaks.

[xanmato]

3rd party warranty to a dealer means out of warranty. This isn't health insurance, dealers are not contracted to bill out to random 3rd party insurers. They don't care if you have a 3rd party warranty, the only thing that matters is that the work is paid or guaranteed before the work is done. Even work done under original or CPO warranty has to be authorized first. The last thing a dealer or any mechanic will do is bill a 3rd party hoping to get paid. This is why just about every 3rd party warranty makes you wait at the dealer until one of their henchmen comes by and inspects the issue and determines if it will be paid or not. If you read your 3rd party warranty guide, if there is one, I can just about guarantee it has a little disclaimer in the fine print stating that any and all diagnostic fees are to be paid out of pocket, and only reimbursed if a valid warrantable repair claim pertaining directly to said diagnostic is found.

[Alabama]

My experience with a CPO warranty is that it's normal for issues that aren't immediately apparent to be written up with a half or whole hour of labor authorized to diagnose, which I don't recall ever having to actually pay with the issues I've had.

My CPO warranty had a "deductible" charge regardless of the problem, analogous to the deductible I pay for a doctor visit. The deductible was the same whether the issue was adjusting tire pressure or installing a new motor. It had nothing to do with making a "diagnosis". I assume the intent was to discourage the owner from making relatively trivial claims and instead focusing on major system problems. I'm pretty sure the initial warranty to the new car buyer had no deductible.

[bahula03]

Yeah, I didn't mention the CPO deductible because it's not particularly relevant to what's being discussed IMO. My work authorizations have never listed the deductible, and I assume that if I had presented an issue to my dealer where the CPO warranty didn't pay out, they'd charge only the authorized diagnosis time and not the deductible. Which, I'm not sure they can contractually charge the deductible without performing warranty work? Maybe something worth looking into.

Agreed on the underlying point that dealers are, not unreasonably IMO, asking customers to put some skin in the game to avoid wasting time.

[Alabama]

Yeah, I didn't mention the CPO deductible because it's not particularly relevant to what's being discussed IMO. My work authorizations have never listed the deductible, and I assume that if I had presented an issue to my dealer where the CPO warranty didn't pay out, they'd charge only the authorized diagnosis time and not the deductible. Which, I'm not sure they can contractually charge the deductible without performing warranty work? Maybe something worth looking into.

Agreed on the underlying point that dealers are, not unreasonably IMO, asking customers to put some skin in the game to avoid wasting time.

You're right; I get easily confused by the variety of comments. The original comment seemed to imply an issue with an AoA warranty and how an Audi dealer responded. Turns out to be a third party warranty, not AoA, and presumably the owner had the option of using an independent mechanic who may well have also charged for diagnosis. Just trying to be clear on what's an AoA or Audi dealer issue, and what's not. I have had experience where the initial time spent on "diagnosis" was insufficient and was told by the mechanic that more time was required. When under CPO warranty, there was no additional charge; all included with the one "deductible". With an independent shop after end of CPO warranty, there would be an extra charge unless the "diagnosis" work morphed into a repair; then the cost was negotiated.

[5000S]

You're right; I get easily confused by the variety of comments. The original comment seemed to imply an issue with an AoA warranty and how an Audi dealer responded. Turns out to be a third party warranty, not AoA, and presumably the owner had the option of using an independent mechanic who may well have also charged for diagnosis. Just trying to be clear on what's an AoA or Audi dealer issue, and what's not. I have had experience where the initial time spent on "diagnosis" was insufficient and was told by the mechanic that more time was required. When under CPO warranty, there was no additional charge; all included with the one "deductible". With an independent shop after end of CPO warranty, there would be an extra charge unless the "diagnosis" work morphed into a repair; then the cost was negotiated.

That's as clear as mud. Are you running for office ?

[Kevin1]

That's as clear as mud. Are you running for office ?

So clear that he must be running for re-election

[KFT]

The basic gist of it is that the dealership needs to make sure that they are getting paid for their time spent - whether that be from a warranty or the customer. Even while a car is under warranty it is not unusual for some verbiage of an preapproved diagnostic charge if the cause of the concern is found to not be a warrantable item. Whether or not the shop did a quality diagnosis is a whole separate topic. Shops/ dealers have customers bringing in cars all the time for concerns. Some of which are actual warranty covered failures. Some are customer suspicions of a concern or something just not working to a customer's satisfaction, but working as intended. Such as a customer complaining about defroster time for a 100% functioning defroster. A technician gets paid to inspect the car to determine the cause of the fault. If it's not covered for whatever reason then either the dealership eats that cost or they charge the customer. The warranty company will not pay for an item to be checked if it is found out afterwards that it is not at fault or not covered.