External mirror

[tc4332]

A couple of weeks back I had the misfortune of meeting a rather strange cyclist. I'll not bore you with the details or even a photo of this insane person.
His parting shot before jumping on his bike and pedalling off down the canal towpath where I could not follow was a swift kick at my offside (driver side) mirror. This resulted in the mirror dangling on its wires and needing a Sellotape repair to make it short term useful.
Visited Warrington Audi and stores quoted £489.32 for the mechanical inner and mounting. Luckily the outer shells were not marked and the mirror glass was also good. Problem, not available in UK. Stores reckoned a week for delivery from Germany but they let me know it arrived in three days, result.
Yesterday at 07:30 I walked into the showroom, handed in my keys and made myself at home with their kettle and biscuit jar.
At 11:00 I started to wonder what was happening. My car had been in two workshop bays and had been valeted. I had received my visual check video that was good but reported that the driver's door mirror needed replacement urgently??? Duh, that's what it was in for. They even reported that I was in luck because they had the required part in stock, I'd ordered that (see above).
I went to speak with the service advisor because the video asked me if I wanted them to go ahead with the repair. I told her that that is what it was booked in for and that the £60 Diagnostic that they had run was completely unnecessary. The Service Manager spoke up and told her to negate the Diagnostic Charge because he knew that I was capable of running my own, nice when these people remember you.
At 12:00 the job allotment chap came up and explained that the mirror had taken 30 minutes to swap BUT, now we start the SHARKS Music, it needed calibrating. Nobody there had done it before and there top super-duper Audi Master Tech was reading the books. Eventually my car reappeared in the workshop but now in the Master Tech’s bay. We are not allowed into the workshop area at Warrington but having friends in high places The top manager came to make me a coffee and his secretary (sorry PA) took me to the management secret workshop viewing window to see what was happening (after that the workshop fitters kept smiling at me, made me feel important). Master Tech had his laptop plugged into the car, what looked like a giant domino lying alongside, and a smaller domino stood up near the rear offside wheel. Remember the setting up reverse camera template? Something like that.
14:00 they told me car ready, and it was superb. Clean, tidy and a working mirror. Job done.
At this point I had to pay the bill. My service advisor would not let me see the bottom line because it was rather expensive, her words. She took her time explaining the video report figures, i.e. brake and tyre wear. Then she moved her hand and allowed me to see the final figure.
Shock horror!
Total cost £587.18. (£489.32 plus £97.86 vat).
This meant cost of fitting and calibration with six and a half hours in the workshop including a superb valet was nothing.