I recently purchased my second Audi, an A6 from Audi Bellevue. Since purchasing from Audi Bellevue, I've heard positive feedback from friends of mine about Audi Seattle's service department and have been considering establishing service there for my other vehicles. For this reason, I decided to stop by Audi Seattle as I am in the market for a new Audi SUV.
Unfortunately, my in-person interaction with Audi Seattle was far from preferable. It made me walk away from the possibility of purchasing my third Audi with a lot of frustration. My interaction was with a sales associate who possessed a strong combination of immaturity, arrogance and lack of competency in what it takes to facilitate a positive interaction with a customer. Trying to not become too detailed I will highlight a select few:
1. I walked into the showroom anticipating the purchase of a new Audi SQ5. Having researched in advance I believed I had a good idea of what I was looking for. I called ahead in an effort to establish rapport with a salesperson so that they would anticipate my arrival. After arriving hours later and asking for Brad by name, I was pointed towards the showroom and waited 15+ minutes with no update from anyone. After inquiring at the front desk I was told that I was being handed off to Tyler who was "a great sales rep and would take excellent care of me." This was fine with me; however, it would have been more professional for someone to let me know sooner than me waiting for 15 minutes then having to go inquire on my own.
2. After test driving the car I had a handful of thoughts and questions to ask. When I walked back in the door, Tyler asked me "how did you like it?". I responded "I liked it, but I have a few questions, concerns and considerations I would like to discuss with you. He replied "ok, so are you going to buy it?" I was floored. I then repeated my statement, "I liked it, but I have a few questions, concerns, and considerations I would like to discuss with you." I then asked, "is this not the normal next step in the process of buying a car?" He replied, "well a lot of people just buy the car". Seriously? If that was the case then Audi Seattle doesn't even need sales associates. Very unprofessional.
3. After sitting down, I indicated that while driving the car, I noticed a significant lack of responsiveness when performing a rolling acceleration which most people would attribute to Turbo lag. I explained that I previously test drove an S4 that had the same engine configuration and didn't feel this same lag in responsiveness. He bluntly suggested that this must have been my 'perception' of the performance rather than an actual issue. After leaving and doing a bit of research I found that this lag in responsiveness is a very common complaint which is detailed in many reviews both by media and consumers alike. I wouldn't necessarily expect a salesperson to openly own up to this as a known issue, but I would hope that they were knowledgeable enough to know it is a common complaint and not blame it on a customer's inability to accurately perceive performance. If he was actually unaware, I hope he did research afterwards to be better equipped to handle an inquiry such as this in the future.
4. During our conversation, I indicated that the configuration we drove is not exactly what we were looking for. A good salesman would either point me towards another similar car in stock that meets our needs or look at this as an opportunity to push me into a custom order. Instead of doing either of these, the salesman immediately lost interest. From then on out, he directed his attention squarely at his computer screen for extended periods of time, which required me to repeat myself on multiple occasions. When we were leaving, I realized that he had never volunteered his business card to me, so I asked for it and for novelties sake decided to ask about other new or used stock that may have met our needs. I was able to confirm that there were multiple other vehicles on the lot that would likely have met our needs, but these unfortunately for Audi Seattle were never suggested. At this point we were too far past the point of working through additional options.
Bottom line, from the moment I entered the dealership to the moment I left was one of the most unprofessional and condescending experiences I have ever encountered when trying to purchase a car. However, it was completely enlightening since I now do I not foresee purchasing an Audi from Audi Seattle or consider them as an option for servicing my Audi's. If I don't have confidence in their sales associates, I certainly don't have confidence in their service department. read more