OK. Maybe someone on this forum works at the port of Houston or knows about these things:

I custom ordered a 2011 S4 several months ago and was assured by the dealership that the car would be ready for me when I returned to the States (I've been working out of country for a couple of years). I was told the car would be ready by the middle of December so I started calling a little before then to make sure everything was on track...I was told it was.

Well, the week of 13Dec10 came and went and the car was not at the dealership. I was then told that it would be in the week of 20Dec10. When that date week was missed, it was the following week, then the following...

Now, here we are at the 10th of January, my car has still not left the port of Houston and the dealership doesn't know why. They claim to be asking continuously but that whoever controls this type of thing is not telling them why it hasn't shipped. It's gone up to the regional manager here, but I'm sure it could go higher.

I'm completely frustrated. This has, by far, been my worst auto purchasing experience ever. I've bought several new cars, but they've always been off the lot. This was my first special order and my first Audi. I thought that with the quality of car, I would receive exceptional service and should be able to understand why my car has still not shipped - nada.

Supposedly there were some programming updates that needed to be done? Seems like an excessive amount of time. Now I'm being told that a shipment number has been assigned but that it still hasn't shipped and the dealership (surprise surprise) doesn't know why.

To their benefit, the dealership has provided me with a car to drive (at their cost) and they tossed in the Audi Care at no cost, but the wait is ridiculous and they continue to misrepresent when the car will be ready for pick-up. When I asked for pictures of the car at the port (because I was concerned the car may have been damaged), I was told that if any damage over $240+ was done the car could not be sold and they would be advised but they would try to get me pics - no pics.

Any suggestions? Does anyone know of anyone that works in the port? Is this typical?

I'm struggling not to just cancel my order and look for something else. While I have a purchasing agreement with the dealer, and I've made a down payment, there's an issue of reasonableness and I think I could get out of the agreement if I pushed the issue. I really want the car though. I test drove a 2010 S4 when I was in country last year and fell in love with it. I think I'd be very disappointed if I switched, but the fact that there is no information coming from the port is simply unacceptable and incredibly poor customer service.

Suggestions? Maybe I should just keep putting miles on their lease car and deal with the fact that Audi may just have bad service and not care much about their customers...

Wouldn't you know it. The day after I get irritated enough to post something here, the dealership calls and tells me that they finally found out why the car was held up. Two reasons:

- I ordered special badging for the car that was late in arriving; and
- The quality control people have been on vacation until this week.

Seems strange that all the quality control people would be gone and I don't understand why the car was held up because of stickers (basically), but those are the excuses. They should have also been able to find this out long ago but apparently the port folks don't communicate directly with the dealerships.

The car is now supposed to be shipping out tomorrow for arrival either Thursday or Friday. We'll see and hopefully I'll have some pics to post soon.

Here's to remaining optimistic...

I have to say it all sound somewhat fishy to me and to top it off they would have know your car was arriving so why book out both people for holiday...... hummmmmmmmmmmm

Well, the car finally arrived at the dealership and I picked it up on Friday. I almost forgot all the frustration and paranoia after I started driving it. It's one hell of a car.

The weather has been bad here lately so I don't have very many pics, but here are a few before it went to detailing...

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Wow Scott, just saw the pics and wanted to say that is a beautiful looking car

awesome pics; i have heard from few friends that it also performs excellently. I have a good mind to place an order for one, but your bad experience urges me to give it a second thought. after all, service is of utmost importance

Thanks guys. The car is fantastic so far. I'm certainly looking forward to summer so I can get the original tires back on and run it a bit harder. I need to get it out of the break-in period too...

I agree completely, service is key, which is why I switched from my local dealership and took my business to a dealership 2-1/2 hours away. The original dealer didn't seem to be taking me too seriously so I wasn't interested in giving them my business. The dealership I ended up with, in my opinion, did everything they could to make me happy: free Audi Care; free rental car for the duration of the delay; free mount / balance of my winter tires; and free tire totes. The problem seems to be the relationship between the quality control folks of Audi at the port and the dealerships. There's some kind of disconnect between the two and they really need to work together better (delay for badging and not having quality control people available for a month is just ridiculous). I'm optimistic that, since I now have the car, the efforts by the dealership will continue and I'll get the proper service when I need it.

I would definitely recommend purchasing the car. If you're on the fence, just go and test drive it. That's what pushed me to make the deal. It was so much nicer than any car I've had in the past that I couldn't see passing it up.

Good luck.

Good for you that you could find a decent dealership for service though it is a bit far.

And, thanks for the suggestion, i will spare some time to test drive the wonder car.

All the best

Wow, man, this is a very cool car, I would really like to have such a car, but I just have a rumpled Honda Civic 2012. By the way, you know why it is rumpled. The thing is that I ordered it from Germany and to transport it to Philadelphia, I had to use the services of a transportation company, but during the transportation, the truck with the cars had an accident and my car was wrinkled a little. I will never use the services of this company again, but the thing is, I’m moving again and I need move my car to another state. I read about www.a1autotransport.com, but I don’t know how good this company is. Maybe you heard something or used its services. I need feedback from people.