Audi gave woman a free meal af ter damaging car ... so she spent £714
WHEN Siobhan Yap’s new car was damaged while still in the showroom, she was offered a free meal for two ‘for the inconvenience caused’.
But if staff at the Audi garage expected to pay £100 or so for a visit to a local restaurant, they were in for a surprise.
Miss Yap, 27, took her mother to one of London’s best Michelin-starred restaurants – and ran up a bill of £714.61.
At L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Covent Garden the pair enjoyed small tasting dishes including one la truffe noire at £35, two St Jacques scallop dishes at £29 each and two la volaille risottos at £21 each.
To accompany the fine food they had four glasses of champagne, two bottles of wine at £69 each, six cocktails totalling £86 and a sloe gin. When Audi was presented with the bill, however, the company declared that the figure was excessive and said it would pay only half of it.
The saga began after Miss Yap bought a £20,000 A3 convertible from the Audi Watford garage. Before she had picked it up, the car was damaged by a delivery truck
Last night Miss Yap, who lives in the town, said that Audi should have set a price limit on her meal and complained that it had refunded her only £250, not half the bill.
She said of the bill: ‘I believe it is relative to the stress and time I wasted in trying to resolve the issue.
‘I asked for a courtesy car in the first instance which they said they did not have. They only gave me one because I kicked up a fuss with the MD.
‘I received a sum of £250 but I have had no further contact with them. The statement that they offered me half is incorrect. She said Audi should pay
‘It was a really nice restaurant’
the whole bill because she had had to send the car back for further repairs, and the amount reflected the fact that ‘they put me through a lot of stress and it was a really nice restaurant’.
A Watford Audi spokesman said the bill was ‘excessive expenditure for two diners’ but it had been ‘keen to make amends’ by agreeing to cover half the bill.’
‘We believe this is a fair and reasonable amount given the circumstances, and we stand by the decision taken.’