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Hi, I'm new here and hoping you guys can help me understand where I stand on this issue.
I had my Audi in for a recall around 4 months ago at one of the main dealers. This appointment was following a series of previous unfortunate events that had occurred, including a previous garage crashing my car into a car jack and someone vandalising the car by scratching it. By the time I had my car in for this main dealer recall, I was already pretty upset about my vehicle being taken in to dealerships and really wanted to avoid doing so as much as possible. But as this was a recall and there was a potential fire risk to the car, I decided I will have to book it in and get the work done.
I took the car to the main dealer and everything went fine, dropped the car off in the morning and came to collect it in the evening. The dealer said everything is done and I'm good to go, they handed over the keys to me. The second I entered the vehicle I could see that the volume control knob of the car (located in the center panel of the multi-media system) had been broken off and was laying on the gearbox. It was very obvious that it was broken and out of place, yet the garage made zero mention of this to me and handed the car back as is. I was surprised by this but immediately got out of my car and walked back into the dealership, where I explained the problem. The service adviser at the dealership came out with me and we took a look at it, I showed him the broken volume control knob and his reactions were as following:
1. First he looked at it and picked it up, then he proceeded to saying "well that could have been broken before you gave it to us" (pretty much exact quote).
2. Then he proceeded to place it back ontop of where it was broken and said "well look it fits perfectly, that's sorted that" (paraphrasing but definitely something along those lines).
I immediately told him that it certainly was NOT broken when I gave them the car, I also explained to him that even though the volume control knob goes back on properly it now comes off quite easily and I can clearly see a part of the plastic is now broken. He then told me to "leave it with him" and said he can't do anything right now and will be in touch in a weeks time. I said fine and got in my car and started driving home.
As I was driving home, I was literally thinking of how stressful this all is, I spent so much money buying my flash Audi and I have had damage after damage after damage, I sometimes have had sleepless nights just thinking about this. My biggest thought at that point of time is "I REALLY, REALLY, DON'T WANT TO GO BACK AGAIN..." and I played around with the volume control knob, it appeared to function fine and even though it now comes off easily, there was no visually noticeable difference (i.e. the damage cannot be seen as it is an underlying plastic piece that is broken) and the volume knob appeared to work fine. So before I even arrived home, I stupidly decided to pick up the phone and told the service adviser, even though you guys have broken my volume control knob, it appears to function ok and I can't be bothered with the hassle so don't worry about it. 4 months on and I now regret this and am having second thoughts
.
The problem is the volume control knob now seems to not always function properly, sometimes it does not function unless you squeeze it whilst spinning (as if the underlying plastic gears are starting to skip without pressure). This is only a very subtle and minor issue but now I am thinking I should have gotten them to fix this as they broke it and although at the time the damage was unnoticeable, now because of the damage the volume control knob is no longer functioning as it should and appears to be getting worse.
So I am wondering whether I can legally ask the garage to repair the knob or the best way I can go about this? Or do I just have to take this as a loss now?
I do have some evidence of this break occurring, since after the recall work was done, around 2 weeks later I noticed another problem with the car (which turned out to be a red herring), but I e-mailed the service adviser about this and mentioned about them breaking the volume control knob and even sent them a picture about it in the same e-mail, the adviser did not respond to my e-mail directly but called me up to get the car booked in again for this OTHER issue, which I declined as I didn't want to go back to a dealership anytime soon.
Edit: On a side note, I need some more service work done to my car and I was thinking of e-mailing the service adviser to ask to book the car in and then tell him about the volume control knob getting worse and wondering if he can fix it whilst getting my business to service the car as well? I have a fear he will just outright say no or pretend he can't remember, so I am wondering if this is the best way to deal with this or not?
I had my Audi in for a recall around 4 months ago at one of the main dealers. This appointment was following a series of previous unfortunate events that had occurred, including a previous garage crashing my car into a car jack and someone vandalising the car by scratching it. By the time I had my car in for this main dealer recall, I was already pretty upset about my vehicle being taken in to dealerships and really wanted to avoid doing so as much as possible. But as this was a recall and there was a potential fire risk to the car, I decided I will have to book it in and get the work done.
I took the car to the main dealer and everything went fine, dropped the car off in the morning and came to collect it in the evening. The dealer said everything is done and I'm good to go, they handed over the keys to me. The second I entered the vehicle I could see that the volume control knob of the car (located in the center panel of the multi-media system) had been broken off and was laying on the gearbox. It was very obvious that it was broken and out of place, yet the garage made zero mention of this to me and handed the car back as is. I was surprised by this but immediately got out of my car and walked back into the dealership, where I explained the problem. The service adviser at the dealership came out with me and we took a look at it, I showed him the broken volume control knob and his reactions were as following:
1. First he looked at it and picked it up, then he proceeded to saying "well that could have been broken before you gave it to us" (pretty much exact quote).
2. Then he proceeded to place it back ontop of where it was broken and said "well look it fits perfectly, that's sorted that" (paraphrasing but definitely something along those lines).
I immediately told him that it certainly was NOT broken when I gave them the car, I also explained to him that even though the volume control knob goes back on properly it now comes off quite easily and I can clearly see a part of the plastic is now broken. He then told me to "leave it with him" and said he can't do anything right now and will be in touch in a weeks time. I said fine and got in my car and started driving home.
As I was driving home, I was literally thinking of how stressful this all is, I spent so much money buying my flash Audi and I have had damage after damage after damage, I sometimes have had sleepless nights just thinking about this. My biggest thought at that point of time is "I REALLY, REALLY, DON'T WANT TO GO BACK AGAIN..." and I played around with the volume control knob, it appeared to function fine and even though it now comes off easily, there was no visually noticeable difference (i.e. the damage cannot be seen as it is an underlying plastic piece that is broken) and the volume knob appeared to work fine. So before I even arrived home, I stupidly decided to pick up the phone and told the service adviser, even though you guys have broken my volume control knob, it appears to function ok and I can't be bothered with the hassle so don't worry about it. 4 months on and I now regret this and am having second thoughts
.The problem is the volume control knob now seems to not always function properly, sometimes it does not function unless you squeeze it whilst spinning (as if the underlying plastic gears are starting to skip without pressure). This is only a very subtle and minor issue but now I am thinking I should have gotten them to fix this as they broke it and although at the time the damage was unnoticeable, now because of the damage the volume control knob is no longer functioning as it should and appears to be getting worse.
So I am wondering whether I can legally ask the garage to repair the knob or the best way I can go about this? Or do I just have to take this as a loss now?
I do have some evidence of this break occurring, since after the recall work was done, around 2 weeks later I noticed another problem with the car (which turned out to be a red herring), but I e-mailed the service adviser about this and mentioned about them breaking the volume control knob and even sent them a picture about it in the same e-mail, the adviser did not respond to my e-mail directly but called me up to get the car booked in again for this OTHER issue, which I declined as I didn't want to go back to a dealership anytime soon.
Edit: On a side note, I need some more service work done to my car and I was thinking of e-mailing the service adviser to ask to book the car in and then tell him about the volume control knob getting worse and wondering if he can fix it whilst getting my business to service the car as well? I have a fear he will just outright say no or pretend he can't remember, so I am wondering if this is the best way to deal with this or not?
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