Since Audi are annoyingly walking around the main point of remuneration in their official Facebook statement regarding the horrendous treatment of Ilke Dunne where they wrote off her car while under their care and tried to get her to claim the cost from her insurance instead of theirs (resulting in her credit record and insurance premiums to be hiked instead of theirs) here is the end result:
Dunne responded to comments on facebook asking if Audi Northcliff had given her a new car saying “They covered the cost of buying a replacement of the same make and model and paid out the money we paid for the roof repair that wasn't fixed.”
Sadly going public, via social media and the like, seems to be the only way to get some reaction from a corporation lately. Phoning a call centre generally doesn't help as the people answering the call have no actual power to do anything, done on purpose, as it usually means the company has to lose money in some form or another.
Making the issue public damages their brand via negative public relations, and affects future sales, usually resulting in far more costing press than the initial issue would have been to resolve. So the head office pays attention and tries to stop the bleeding as fast as possible. Had they just done the level of service they imply in their marketing they wouldn't have this issue.
Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ as well as those sites dedicated to helping the customer, such as Hellopeter are becoming more of a useful force for customers than the inept “Consumer Protection Act”. Why is it the free services are doing more than the one sponsored by our taxes?
Though it should be mentioned that, my guess is that the branches are individually liable for their increased costs and insurance premium jumps due if they actually go out of their way to comply with the service promises the corporation makes in the ads.?
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