Oh what a long wait.........

RichardT

RichardT

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I have finally collected my new A3 saloon. I have had to wait a long time and I thought that I would document the wait so that some on this forum can see what to expect.

Week 13 (28th March)
Ordered the car.
Expected wait 14 weeks.
I think that, based on stuff on this forum, that wasn’t too unreasonable estimate at the time, but that was about when all the deliveries started pushing out.

Week 24 (June)
Given an initial estimated BW44 (End October)
I was pretty gutted and this is when I started to google around to find some information about the delays, and happened upon this forum.

Week 31 (End July)
Given new BW40
Things are looking up!

Week 36 (Beginning September)
Now BW38

Week 38 (Friday 19th September)
Car in production at Gyor, Hungary

Week 39 (Monday 22nd September)
Car built

Week 39 (Wednesday 24th September)
Released from Factory

Week 40 (Monday 29th September)
Arrived at port of Emden

Week 41 (Monday 6th October)
Loaded onto ship

Week 41 (Tuesday 7th October)
Checking Vesselfinder and Marinetraffic and this forum, deduced that the car is on African Highway.
Tuesday evening ship left port bound for Grimsby

Week 41 (Wednesday 8th October)
African Highway docked in Grimsby (24 hour voyage)

Week 42 (Tuesday 14th October)
Arrived at dealer (Milton Keynes)

Week 42 (Saturday 18th October)
Collected after 29 week wait!!
 
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Nice write-up! Do you have any pics?
 
:):):):):):)
RichardT said:
I have finally collected my new A3 saloon. I have had to wait a long time and I thought that I would document the wait so that some on this forum can see what to expect.

Week 13 (28th March)
Ordered the car.
Expected wait 14 weeks.
I think that, based on stuff on this forum, that wasn’t too unreasonable estimate at the time, but that was about when all the deliveries started pushing out.

Week 24 (June)
Given an initial estimated BW44 (End October)
I was pretty gutted and this is when I started to google around to find some information about the delays, and happened upon this forum.

Week 31 (End July)
Given new BW40
Things are looking up!

Week 36 (Beginning September)
Now BW38

Week 38 (Friday 19th September)
Car in production at Gyor, Hungary

Week 39 (Monday 22nd September)
Car built

Week 39 (Wednesday 24th September)
Released from Factory

Week 40 (Monday 29th September)
Arrived at port of Emden

Week 41 (Monday 6th October)
Loaded onto ship

Week 41 (Tuesday 7th October)
Checking Vesselfinder and Marinetraffic and this forum, deduced that the car is on African Highway.
Tuesday evening ship left port bound for Grimsby

Week 41 (Wednesday 8th October)
African Highway docked in Grimsby (24 hour voyage)

Week 42 (Tuesday 14th October)
Arrived at dealer (Milton Keynes)

Week 42 (Saturday 18th October)
Collected after 29 week wait!!
Click to expand...

Congrats Richard! The four week wait between build and delivery would tie in with what I was told to expect (built w/c 6 October, delivery w/c 3 November). I still don't know if mine has reached Grimsby as yet, but fingers crossed.
 
Andrew, you need to get your dealer to tell you at the critical points. Particularly arriving at Emden and being loaded onto the ship. Then you can deduce the ship. African Highway is currently on its way to Emden - ETA tomorrow morning. Based on your dates it would seem likely it has delivered your car to Grimsby. Although my dealer said they can wait in Emden for several weeks sometimes.
I'd call the dealer in the morning!!
Good luck.
Picks of mine are in the BW 37,38,39,40 thread.
 
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RichardT said:
Andrew, you need to get your dealer to tell you at the critical points. Particularly arriving at Emden and being loaded onto the ship. Then you can deduce the ship. African Highway is currently on its way to Emden - ETA tomorrow morning. Based on your dates it would seem likely it has delivered your car to Grimsby. Although my dealer said they can wait in Emden for several weeks sometimes.
I'd call the dealer in the morning!!
Good luck.
Picks of mine are in the BW 37,38,39,40 thread.
Click to expand...

Cheers Richard. If you look at the BW 41, 42, 43, 44 thread, you'll see my frustrations grow over recent days, particularly as Audi CS have told me two different possibilities in two consecutive days...

TBH, I can't be bothered to keep ringing up now and I'll just have to be patient!
 
Absolutely. If you know it's been built, then that's the biggest milestone. It can't be long now! I only called CS once, when my sales person was on holiday, and it seemed a bit of a pain.
But it was fun tracking the ship!!
 
At the end of the day once your order is locked in, there is nothing the dealer can do to influence the time it takes to get to you until they have it arrive at their holding compound.
We all do it, but harassing the dealer is relatively fruitless.
Sometimes you are just as well riding it out and waiting for good news.
 
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RichardT said:
Absolutely. If you know it's been built, then that's the biggest milestone. It can't be long now! I only called CS once, when my sales person was on holiday, and it seemed a bit of a pain.
But it was fun tracking the ship!!
Click to expand...

I was hoping to track the ship but when you don't know if it's at Emden, Grimsby, or still in the North Sea, it's somewhat impossible! I'm on this forum far more than I should be, desperately looking for any clues as to where mine might be. The wife has forgotten what I sound like, I don't have time to talk to her anymore :laugh:
 
I guess it's just a matter of your dealer. Mine just emailed me whenever the status changed once it was built.
Andrew - you're going to love your new car!!!
 
RichardT said:
I guess it's just a matter of your dealer. Mine just emailed me whenever the status changed once it was built.
Andrew - you're going to love your new car!!!
Click to expand...

We didn't get off to the best of starts. The car was ordered at the start of May and promised for August (optimistic). I rang Audi CS up a couple of months later and was told that the order hadn't been processed due to the dealer exceeding their quota!

I haven't heard from the dealer since, apart from the odd reply to several emails and texts.

Still, I can't wait to get it!
 
Andrew_Bu said:
We didn't get off to the best of starts. The car was ordered at the start of May and promised for August (optimistic). I rang Audi CS up a couple of months later and was told that the order hadn't been processed due to the dealer exceeding their quota!

I haven't heard from the dealer since, apart from the odd reply to several emails and texts.

Still, I can't wait to get it!
Click to expand...

Wow - that sounds grim! Anyway not long now. And within a week of getting the car, you will get a questionaire from Audi about the whole process. Time to get your own back!!
 
RichardT said:
Wow - that sounds grim! Anyway not long now. And within a week of getting the car, you will get a questionaire from Audi about the whole process. Time to get your own back!!
Click to expand...

Ahh, I didn't realise that they do that. Knowing me, I will be so pleased to have the car that I will be full of praise! I do feel a little bit of empathy towards Audi CS as they must get bombarded will calls from impatient customers wanting to know where their cars are. Having said that, they really should have better tracking systems in place, and ideally an online resource, so that customers can monitor progress during the (long) time it takes for a car to be ordered, built, transported and finally collected.
 
Andrew_Bu said:
Ahh, I didn't realise that they do that. Knowing me, I will be so pleased to have the car that I will be full of praise! I do feel a little bit of empathy towards Audi CS as they must get bombarded will calls from impatient customers wanting to know where their cars are. Having said that, they really should have better tracking systems in place, and ideally an online resource, so that customers can monitor progress during the (long) time it takes for a car to be ordered, built, transported and finally collected.
Click to expand...

From what you say, it seems that one of the faults lays with dealer who (a) gave you an optomistic estimate for delivery and (b) didn't tell you when they couldn't place the order.
When I was collecting it was made very clear by both my sales person and by her boss that responses to the Audi questionnaire reflect on the sales person. Personally I think this is a bit unfair because they do not have any control over the order once it's placed, and their dealings with customers are bound to be determined by the dealer management. So it's difficult to complain about the (say) delivery time when that has nothing really to do with the sales person. Though I suppose the argument is that it is the sales person's job to keep the customer sweet whatever happens!
 
Interesting thoughts Andrew, BUT where are the pics buddy? :think::laugh::laugh::laugh:
 
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