Brian
Junior Member
Posts: 41
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Post by Brian on Apr 15, 2002 15:46:24 GMT -5
I took my A4 into Barnardi for the 30K service on Wednesday. Here's the story from that point:
When I showed up I asked if there was a loaner/rental available and was told no - only for "drivability issues". After a couple of hours of waiting I was told that they needed a part that they didn't have in stock for a warranty repair they were doing on the transmission and Matt, the service dude, offered me a loaner. Minor issue but annoying nevertheless.
I picked the car up at 8:00pm Wednesday evening and drove back to Arlington. Friday afternoon I went to the glovebox looking for something in the owners manual and I found out that EVERYTHING was missing - owners manual, registration and service receipts for the car. Called Barnardi right away and they said they had it. (why didn't they call me to tell me??) I asked them to get someone to drop it to me and I was told no. No time. They would mail it to me. I insisted they overnight it to me and flag it for Saturday delivery. "No problem," said Matt the service dude.
Fast forward past me waiting all day Saturday, to Sunday when Nancy & I pop by the dealership on our way house-looking... No service people are there but a sales guy was nice enough to spend 45 mins looking for our papers (it's illegal to drive without the registration) to no avail.
Now it's Monday and I called demanding the registration immediately and it turns out it had JUST been picked up by FedEx. Had I known all this (read: had they called me on Friday to say it missed pickup) I'd have driven there this morning to get the stuff. Now it turns out I have to wait ANOTHER day. On top of that the service manager hung up on me when I told him I thought his follow-up service was bad. And I had to tell him that this fiasco is NOT the result of his parts department neglecting to schedule the pickup but of his service department for not replacing the papers in the first place! I just called AudiUSA to complain about him and Bernardi.
Man this is frustrating... the car has been fixed very well but I'm in for a whopper of a ticket if I get caught driving it without the documents .
Based on this experience I will not go to Bernardi again and will not recommend them.
Thanks for letting me vent. I should have listened to Ringo and tried Brookline or Clair.
Brian
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Post by AluminouS4 on Apr 15, 2002 15:59:29 GMT -5
Yup...typical of Bernardi from what I hear. Go to Clair and you'll be happy. Unless you are George Ira is very good too but is up on the north shore.
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Post by gravis on Apr 15, 2002 16:08:06 GMT -5
Brian,
I feel your pain. Although I only used their service department once or twice, both instances were less than ideal. No loaners, and I had to wait for a month or more for standard service IIRC. To top it off, I went there with my a$$ in my hands begging to unload my 2000 A4 2.8 for a 2001 S4... their response was "well, the payments for a LEASE will be well over $800/month" !!! What a rip-off! I couldn't believe what I was hearing, so I left. I went to Wagner and I was driving a new S4 about a week later with PURCHASE payments around $800/mo. Not only were they quite nice over there at Wagner, all service includes a free Wagner driver pickup and return at my work. I never have to drive to the dealer. Bernardi just doesn't cut it in attitude or service. Get out of Bernardi.
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Post by a4spinner on Apr 15, 2002 16:23:59 GMT -5
Sorry to hear about the bad service but I know Matt and he is usually a really nice and professional guy. That is where I've had my car serviced but possibly will change.
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Ringo
Junior Member
"Cannibals prefer those who have no spines." - S. Lem
Posts: 125
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Post by Ringo on Apr 15, 2002 16:27:33 GMT -5
That sucks B. I'm beginning to think that my experience might have been the exception to the rule. I'll keep using Jeff over at Brookline unless we run into problems down the road. After that I'm thinking about finding a solid non-dealer mechanic for everything but big warranty work.
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Post by Mirror|rorriM on Apr 15, 2002 16:32:32 GMT -5
Stay away from Bernardi. Bernardi = BAD
Let's see....took delivery on August 23rd with three "we don't have the part yet" promises: new front license plate bracket, new floor mats, new fuse panel cover.
A week later the bracket was in, but they claimed to be unable to get the old one off. I figured that they were just lazy or morons, and that I would do it myself. I guess I was right on both counts. It took me about 3hrs to change the bracket because the bolts were seized and I had to drill them out.
They also replaced the fuse panel cover....BUT they replaced it with one that was broken in a different place. I gave up on this. If they thought they could replace it with a different broken piece, there's no way I would get a new one from them, esp after already having taken delivery.
A month later the floor mats arrived, I thought. Whooops! Wrong mats! Two weeks until the correct ones arrived.
About a month after I took delivery of the car, I did an autox at Smith & Wesson. Someone commented that it looked like I was going to roll the front tires off the rims. I checked the pressure - 26psi hot. That's about 22psi cold? Good-bye sidewall! I rolled one tire so far that I scratched a rim. "You should have checked your tire pressure before running in the event." Normally, I'd agree. But I paid Bernardi $900 extra for the Certified Pre-Owned classification which included (among other things) a 100 point inspection. I guess the inspection is optional? A month after the autox the tires were on the verge of belt separation. Bernardi replaced all four with no paperwork to prove they f-ed up.
In November I noticed that after driving for a while, the front right quarter panel would become hot to the touch, and stay that way for almost 40minutes. I brought it to Bernardi and they tell me this is normal. A week after that I get a CEL and I bring the car to Wagner. They replaced a vacuum hose. Problem solved.
On Dec 26th my car was involved in a little accident in which the side airbag went off (I guess that's another system Bernardi never checked). My mechanic fixed all of the mechanicals, but brought the car to Bernardi for them to do the airbag. I got the car back (over a week after Bernardi said it would be done) with a few nice suprises. Bernardi apparently had trouble taking off the trim around the radio. It now has a nice crease next to the head unit. This trim also was not put back on properly, so I got to fix that myself. The radio was not (and still is not) properly reattached to the wiring harness. When you would push on the headunit, the radio would turn off. Pushing against it hard seems to have fixed this, but the radio still is not properly seated in the console. The passenger side seat cover was not stitched up as well as I would have liked it to be. The stitching is clearly not the same quality as the original, despite the fact that they ordered a $500 seat cover. The other nice suprise I found is that Bernardi cracked one of the trim pieces while doing the repair. I did not notice this until two months later, so I'm not going to pursue it (I know how poorly Bernardi will treat me).
So, in summation, AVOID BERNARDI LIKE THE PLAGUE!
Wagner, however, has been excellent. I can always get an appointment within a week, the repairs are done quickly and done well, and it seems like they actually care when there is a problem. This is where I take my car while I'm at school. I recommend that anyone in the area go there, otherwise try Clair.
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Brian
Junior Member
Posts: 41
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Post by Brian on Apr 15, 2002 17:33:53 GMT -5
I posted a version of this (although not mentioning names) in the AudiWorld A4 forum and in Audizine A4 forum. I directed them to BostonAudi if they wanted the name.
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wclark
Junior Member
Posts: 47
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Post by wclark on Apr 15, 2002 18:31:44 GMT -5
I would never buy a car from Bernardi (again) or trust my car to them. Clair is excellent...
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dotorg
Junior Member
Posts: 72
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Post by dotorg on Apr 16, 2002 8:54:29 GMT -5
That sucks B. I'm beginning to think that my experience might have been the exception to the rule. I'll keep using Jeff over at Brookline unless we run into problems down the road. After that I'm thinking about finding a solid non-dealer mechanic for everything but big warranty work. Brookline was the worst dealership I've ever dealt with, for any car, period. I went in there looking at the A4, took a 1.8t for a test drive and when it came time to talk about price and ordering the car, they made it very clear that they didn't want to take time to work it through with me and said flat out they would not order a car for me, clearly because they thought I couldn't afford a $30k car. Two weeks later I ordered, without even a test drive, my '00 S4 from Clair. Oops, thats quite a commission they lost. Guess I could afford it. I would never recommend a shop where the sales staff is not only prone to making those sort of assumptions, but supported by the management in doing so.
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Post by nene on Apr 16, 2002 8:58:41 GMT -5
Bernardi Audi....Bad, Bad, Bad!!!
Dang it, I hate those guys!
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Ringo
Junior Member
"Cannibals prefer those who have no spines." - S. Lem
Posts: 125
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Post by Ringo on Apr 16, 2002 9:03:57 GMT -5
Brookline was the worst dealership I've ever dealt with, for any car, period. Man, I'm with you on the sales staff. When I stopped in to look at the used S I bought I really didn't get the time of the day. In fact when I took it out they sent one of there car prep guys with me, not even a salesman. Then the sales manager talked to me as if I was just another kid (mind you I'm 31) dreaming about an S. WTF. It all worked though by mistake he read off to me what he paid for it on the trade 25.5 and I ended up with it at 26.2 plus the 2 year, 100K warranty. However, I still can't complain about the service. Yet?
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Brian
Junior Member
Posts: 41
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Post by Brian on Apr 17, 2002 9:01:40 GMT -5
Yesterday afternoon at 4:30 I finally got my registration back. Man, what an ordeal. I even had to involve AudiUSA. Can you believe it?!?! To get someone at Bernardi to listen to me without hanging up I had to call use one of the Customer Service people at AoA.
Interesting, though, the service quality survey people called to ask about my dealer experience just after all of this was resolved. My negative answer hopefully will affect their car allocation in some manner.
Brian
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kkemp
New Member
Posts: 10
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Post by kkemp on Apr 17, 2002 9:09:51 GMT -5
Agree that Bernardi sucks...
I bought my 2000 A6 2.7T there, and after finally getting out of there with the car, I vowed never to return.
I've never dealt with Brookline from a sales perspective, but I serviced my car there, and worked with Ronnie DiSouza, who was good to me. Overall I had a very good service experience there.
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Post by enpassant on Apr 28, 2002 15:43:57 GMT -5
I won't get into all the details but Audi should pull there franchise, if that's what you call it. They lie, don't return phone calls and mislead you. We bought a $40k A6 and they did not give us what they promised. If you want more details email me.
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Post by S4MadMan on Apr 28, 2002 17:42:44 GMT -5
Went to Bernardi to purchase an S4 and they didn't even give me the time of day. I walked around repeatedly asking to speak to some one and no one would give me the time of day. So I left, went to Clair and got my S4 in 15 minutes.
Also, tried to schedule a service appointment and Bernardi just...well, they suck. AVOID Bernardi at all costs.
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