thinktwice

Ughhh... I hate the begging for high survey marks. It's tacky and unprofessional. When this is a salesman's only motive to please you you know there's an issue with a system like that.

rjrdomer

No one mentioned a survey to me at the dealer when I drove away (October 2012). I did the free 5k service a couple of months ago and it was never mentioned.

However, I did receive a few surveys in the mail after buying the Audi. I actually got invited to go to the NY Auto Show last April to conduct a survey comparing Audi, BMW and Cadillac's displays. Displays only. The way the questions were geared, it seemed like Cadillac was paying for the survey - probably trying to find out why they are losing buyers to the Germans. Either way, it paid me $150 for my time (about an hour) and I got to walk around the auto show.

Reisen

I'm a customer service executive at a large company, and we pay over 30,000 of our employees based on survey results. Obviously not 100% of their pay is tied to customer surveys, but it is significant.

Thus, 2 years ago when my salesman at Palisades Audi in West Nyack, NY, wouldn't stop asking for 10's on the survey, I immediately knew what was up.

It's one thing to say "My goal is to provide excellent service, and if I provided anything less than that, I want you to tell me". It's another thing to plead for a score on the survey, or in my case, to have the guy try to borderline intimidate me (he almost got aggressive about it).

In the end, he gave very mediocre service. I had to ask for any updates on the delivery date, I did everything in advance of picking up the car through email (no test drive or "selling" me), and I knew all the information about the vehicle he knew, and more.

I made an appointment with him for delivery, and when I arrived (right on time), he was in a meeting, and claimed he had no idea I was coming. I had to wait about 45 minutes just to start the process, but then it was fine.

I think I gave him a 6 or something, but it was exactly what he deserved. In hindsight, that was probably being generous given his inappropriate behavior about the survey itself.

Rlk1

I took delivery of my Q5 last month, and at no time did my salesman mention a survey to me. I have used the dealer's service department for years, and have only received one survey in all these years.
So, maybe not everyone receives a survey? I would give my dealer all 10's if I ever get one. The whole experience was outstanding.

brutus23079

I took delivery a couple weeks ago and got the "anything other than all 10s is a failure" line from a couple different people. Agree that the whole thing is so artificial. About the only benefit to the customer is that if something does go wrong, the customer can use that incident to ask for something else (depending on severity of the infraction) in exchange for all 10s on the survey. Still a pretty silly system....

Cobalt Rain

We received a signed letter in the US mail from the GM of the dealership!

Several paragraphs: blah blah Audi is so great blah blah our customers are so great blah blah our dealership is so great. Then the gist of the last paragraph is:

Next week you'll receive a survey from Audi of America... BEFORE ANSWERING ANY OF THE QUESTIONS please call us to discuss your purchase. Especially if you are going to rate us anything besides a "10". We want the opportunity to solve your issues before the survey, etc., etc.

Car arrived in late July, and still no calls, no survey, and no follow up from the dealership OR AoA.

My new Subaru (Sep 2000) had better factory follow up than Audi.

redherring

I told my dealership when it came up that I would give them whatever they deserved, but I wasn't going to promise anything in advance (I've bought 3 cars from them so I obviously think they do a pretty good job, but if they screw up I'm not going to lie about it). This kind of "grade inflation" is pointless and, as noted above, unseemly for a luxury brand. As consumers all we owe Audi is honesty on these things--if we reward marginal behavior/service, that's what we're going to get more of.

revsjones

Our salesman phrased it slightly differently, and I think it came across better ... He told us that we would be getting a survey, and asked us to let him know if there was anything about the buying experience that I thought didn't deserve a 10. He said he would do whatever he could to "make it right and try to earn back the 10". That request/offer didn't bother me, but if he had instead just pleaded for the 10s, I might have been annoyed (and less likely to give him all 10s, since pleading like that just feels unprofessional).

914Audi

I've previously had several BMWs and they were the exact same. In their instance it was a 1 to 5 scale, with 4 being "very good", and 5 being "excellent". They only get paid a bonus if they get across the board 5s, and under the then prevailing BMW bonus system, a single rating below 5 cost them their bonus.

It's a crazy system, and most "normal" people would think a score of 4 is pretty good on an individual category. However, because the system jeopardizes them, all their sales folks go out of their way to ensure that customers know that anything less than 5 costs them money. And yes, the grovelling is pretty pathetic at times.

Of course, I used this to my advantage on multiple occasions. Gotta know the system to beat it.

Reisen

This, to me, is perfectly appropriate.