[dkaile]

Saw this Facebook post of a hour back where a customer's Audi Q7 given for servicing at Audi Service Center, Vakola is being driven and misused by that ASC. The following quote from his Facebook Timeline is self explanatory -

My Audi Q7 (Bat-Mobile) has been stolen/misused by Audi India ...few days back i had sent my Q7 for Servicing at the Audi Service Center in Vakola. Looks like someone there has been driving/speeding my car across Mumbai last night (blissfully unaware of the GPS Tracker i have installed in my car) i have been receiving number of Over-Speeding alerts + as u can see from the MAP from 12AM to 5 AM the car is been driven...and even as i type this i can track the car been speeded far away from the service center.... i have heard many times of cars being misused while away for servicing...but with this kind of data...i can only wonder how bad state of affairs are.. So as we speak residents of Mumbai City! And as the sun...that had been too afraid to show its face in this city, started to turn the black into grey...I smiled... I'm Batman. I don't enjoy anything. AUDI IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...&type=1&ref=nf

[jkdas]

Smart owner. Guess others should do similar to check. Lets see if there are any more updates about this from him and Audi.

[9thsphinx]

Okay, so Audi's caught while misusing a client's car while in for service. And with the proof presented, they agreed that they're in the wrong. Now, I am trying to imagine, how would the client be compensated for this mishap on Audi's part?

[shankar.balan]

This should be sent to the Board Members of the Audi team.
The Dealer/ Service Centre should be severely penalised (say something like Rs 10 Lakhs as a fine for such behaviour.)
Then the Dealer should be publicly sacked by Audi ensuring that no other manufacturer comes near them in future.
Lastly, the owner of the dealership and the perpetrator of this outrage should be publicly flogged, and faces blackened they should be paraded around Bombay by being made to walk everywhere for 7 days, with only dry bread and water being given to them at intervals of half an hour.
I would quite like to be an "enforcer" sitting and devising new ways of making these creeps pay for their crimes!

[mayankjha1806]

Can one get this information with the GPS tracker, i.e. I have one on my Civic but not sure how to get this information out of it. Usually when they take the car for service they take the MMI card out and hand it over to the owner (So it does not gets stolen).

Compensating the customer is one area they need to worry about, hopefully they have someone like @Shankar at the helm .

[aditya101]

Ever overtaken by rashly driven Expensive SUV at late hours? Is it a surprise with such thugs driving them ... this adds to my list of "Service Horrors" I have read here at TBHP:

- VW Jetta(?) taken out at night from service centre and completely written off in accident.

- i10 "lost" by the Hyundai service centre overnight ... recovered by police later.

- Skoda Octavia original parts replaced by spurious ones

[shivasuma]

The more I read about Audi/VW/Skoda, the more I believe the parent company VAG is at fault equally. They only care about increasing their market share & profits with total disregard to customer after the sale is done. How much effort does it require on their part to rein in the dealership? I wonder if their top brass actually understand the possible repercussions of such behavior. God save them.

The more i hear such news about VW, the more the hatered grows in my mind against this brand.

The attitude at their dealerships, the way they talk and the sort of over confidence that they show with their customers and their brashness in some cases. I hate this BRAND.

How could one take a customers car for a Joy ride. Do they know the cost of that car and the type of priviliged customer?

If i were government and if the complaint comes to me, I would Demand Audi to replace the car with a brand new one + 10L penalty. Any such occurences would lead to a penalty of 100 Crores + BAN . No Appeals No petitions. FLAT.

I seriously doubt the ability of the management of VW. How are they running it since ages and how are they surviving?

[Axe77]

what kind of GPS device provides this kind of data to the cell phone offline? seems like a handy device to install. can anyone share the hardware / software details?

thanks

[vikram_d]

The software used by this person seems to the one in the link below.

http://technopurple.com/

[quickdraw]

This post was done by my boss. You can track the progress on his (public) facebook page here http://www.facebook.com/vishal.gondal

[Omtoatom]

If there is any veracity in this gentleman's claim, then this is a totally deplorable incident. For me, it marks a disastrous chapter in VW's Indian operations and yet another black spot on the German group's reputation in India. Audi should go all out to investigate this matter and severely penalize the dealership if it is found to be errant, in any way. Get the top rung leadership accountable because any attempt to look the other way could be potentially fatal. Absolutely no two ways about it.

Very smart on this guy Vishal's part btw and a pretty handy device to smoke out such miscreants.

[Axe77]

EDIT: Got the info. Technopurple. Spoke to their office as well and they offered a demo if I'm interested. Total cost of hardware + software is about 16,500.

@quickdraw: Can you please update this thread on what the interaction and consequence at the Audi dealer has been?

Originally Posted by Axe77

what kind of GPS device provides this kind of data to the cell phone offline? seems like a handy device to install. can anyone share the hardware / software details?

thanks

[Lalvaz]

I guess Audi will blame the dealer, Dealer will blame an errant employee, who will get a slap on the wrist, customer will be compensated (only because the evidence is foolproof), and the matter will be hushed up.

Whats surprising though is how did an errant employee manage to sneak the car past the dealer's security, that too after working hours? Shows complicity of the guards/service personnel at the very least. And shows how group Audi needs to really ensure that these incidents are not repeated. Skoda already has a sorry image amongst the indian public, last thing Audi would want is negative publicity for the Audi brand.

[KnightRider77]

Holy co-incidence Batman! Vishal Gondal, whose Facebook post has been quoted, is my ex-boss and the last person whose name I expected to pop up in here. Small world indeed.