Dealer lost my business over $2.80

[Nikki]

I took my car to Pacific BMW in Glendale last week for the first time since purchasing the car. I went there at the recommendation of a couple others since I previously have had bad experiences at South Bay and Santa Monica.

I brought the car in for the following and in red/green are the outcomes:

1. Oil change (The computer states it can go another 7k miles but it's been a year and three months since the last oil change) Not covered since the car is not considered a "low mileage oil change" because it was driven 6,400 since the last oil change and it needs to have been under 6k miles to be considered "low mileage". It doesn't matter that when the car was due for an oil change a couple months ago, it had only been driven 4k miles. I put 2k miles driving it out here from Illinois and, therefore, it is no longer considered "low mileage".

2. Brake rotors are worn; there is a sizable lip on the rotor. Not covered since they were measured and are not under the minimum thickness.

3. Squeaking coming from right rear. Due to worn brake rotors but not covered due to reason given in #2.

4. Battery cover missing two clips. Not covered.

5. Satellite radio set up with Sirius but cannot receive signal. Not covered. $200 diagnostic fee.

6. Leak underneath the car. Covered under warranty. Minor power steering fluid leak. Ordered replacement power steering line.

7. Clunking sound coming from rear, especially when shifting. Right rear sway bar mount missing. Not covered. Car looks like it's been in an accident because the rear bumper has a sticker on it and a heat shield is cracked. Also, aftermarket exhaust. Estimate ~$400 not including labor.

8. Coolant at minimum when car was purchased. Check for possible coolant leak. No coolant leak. Topped off coolant.

9. Shift knob lit up unevenly and faded. Covered under warranty, ordered replacement shift knob.


It's hard to explain without writing a novel of how poorly I was treated. What really got me was that they wouldn't replace the rear sway mount, which they estimated at $400. I spoke with the service manager about this and she kept arguing with me that they have photos of under my car and there are aftermarket parts. I kept saying "What does that have to do with the rear sway bar mount?" and she kept responding with, "I'm not talking about the rear sway bar mount, I'm talking about the aftermarket parts but you keep going back to the rear sway bar mount..." at which point I insisted "That's because the issue is the rear sway bar mount! You keep bringing up the aftermarket exhaust but it has nothing to do with the rear sway bar mount and now you're admitting it so why are we still talking about the exhaust then!!!?!?!?!"

ARGHHHHH.



The most hilarious thing about all of this is that I looked up the parts on realoem.com and they're only $2.80!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...37&hg=33&fg=45

All I need is one of #3 and two of #4.

I can't believe they agreed to replace the stupid shift knob that I didn't even care about but they wouldn't replace a $2.80 bracket that is making my car clunk and understeer like a bitch.

So anyway, I am picking up the mount from Santa Monica BMW during lunch and I'm going to replace it myself and call back Pacific BMW and tell them they lost my business over $2.80.

[Swashplate]

Grrr That makes my blood boil.....

[Serious]

yep that's how it is... welcome to owning a BMW.

My car has a glitchy idle issue on cold starts where the car will almost die... the master tech told me it was because the throttle plates and throttle bodies don't fit together properly (apparently BMW doesn't own a dial caliper or a micrometer), but even though they admit the problem is there it isn't "severe enough" to warrant a fix.

Keep in mind this admission is only after 3 weeks of me bitching them out because they kept telling me it was "normal"... yet my e46 m3 never once had these issues in 3.5 years under exactly the same driving conditions, and I seriously doubt BMW intends to sell a $60k car that barely idles when cold.

There is a whole bunch of other issues I went through as well, but I don't feel like typing them out. BMW builds fantastic cars but their service is dog shit, just accept it IMO, nothing else you can do.

[mhughett]

It's interesting that you are missing the whole mount on the rear sway. I bought my car in July from my local dealer and it had only 7.8k miles on it. I was also hearing a clunk when backing out of my driveway so I put the rear up on ramps and lo and behold I was missing the bolt that holds the rear sway bar to the mount. The mount and bushing were in place but they were hanging loose as the bolt was missing. If I had gone much longer the other two items you mentioned would probably have fallen off. Between this and the infamous motor mount bolts, makes you wonder if they have heard of loctite in Spartanberg when they assembled these cars.

[Nikki]

Originally Posted by Serious

There is a whole bunch of other issues I went through as well, but I don't feel like typing them out. BMW builds fantastic cars but their service is dog shit, just accept it IMO, nothing else you can do.

I would accept it, except that I HAVE had good service before. This is my third BMW and I didn't have any issues with warranty work with the dealers in New England. I have heard LA is notorious for bad service and ripping off customers but I didn't expect it to be this bad. Also, it's not just BMW that has terrible customer service around here...it's pretty much any dealer you go to. I want my friendly New England dealers back.

[Tonybest]

Sorry to hear about all this...

My dealer will do an oil change under warranty when the computer says so, and/or once a year at the minimum. And my dealer will do everything possible to satisfy me (within reason)... Battery clips would be changed without hesitation.

[Crimson92]

Hey Nikki, that totally sucks.

Ive had bad experiences with BMW dealers but this is absurd.

Give me a call later so we can work something out on the sirius.

[jumpthewire]

I go to Centre BMW in Sherman Oaks to avoid the LA dealers.

[Crimson92]

Originally Posted by jumpthewire

I go to Centre BMW in Sherman Oaks to avoid the LA dealers.

i have no complaints with them.

although the SA i used to work with no longer works there.

[ebruder]

Nikki,

I is my understanding that BMW rescinded the 6,000 mile low mileage criteria due to so much customer outrage. You should now qualify for a low mileage oil change after 1 year regardless of mileage. This change in policy was in October or November I believe.

EB

[Nikki]

Is there any documentation of that? There's no use trying to argue anything with this place but at least if the next place gives me shit I can bring it up. I'm planning on going to Calabasas and seeing my friend's service advisor there. I think her name is Jessica(?) but anyway, she's supposed to be really good.

[esqu1re]

Wow. 400 bucks. Sway bar clamp better be made out of unobtanium.

[bosstones]

Originally Posted by Nikki

Is there any documentation of that? There's no use trying to argue anything with this place but at least if the next place gives me shit I can bring it up. I'm planning on going to Calabasas and seeing my friend's service advisor there. I think her name is Jessica(?) but anyway, she's supposed to be really good.

Somewhere, there should be. I had an annual oil change done about a month ago. Talking w/ my SA, he stated that the recent amendment to BMW's service policy was repealed so I was good to go for the oil change. I haven't gotten around to looking for a copy of this yet, though. It's worth digging around for in you case.

[jmillet]

Originally Posted by ebruder

Nikki,

I is my understanding that BMW rescinded the 6,000 mile low mileage criteria due to so much customer outrage. You should now qualify for a low mileage oil change after 1 year regardless of mileage. This change in policy was in October or November I believe.

EB

Please document this change in policy.
SIB 01 04 10 was revised in August 2010 to change the interval between annual oil changes.
http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=421437
They included a three page attachment outlining various scenerios:
Engine Oil Change Scenarios.pdf
Thanks

[Pheonix]

Let be honest here! BMW builds great cars but they are not known for "Reliable" nor "Great Customer Service". Also, most of their so call "Technicians" are not that great neither. It took me 4 trips (to 3 different dealers) before one Dealer agreed to replace the Center Console Door because the Light was constantly ON. That is after i printed out some of the posts from owner with similar problem. One S/A actually told me that is NORMAL for the Light to stay ON all the time!

[Hawkeye]

Such a ridiculous policy. It is one of the reasons BMW is most likely not going to get my business again... or at least I will factor in the "Free Maintenance" as no benefit when making a decision between vehicles.

[mfanatic325]

Time to start looking for a cheap indy shop you can trust Nikki. These BMW stealers are not to be trusted, ever. I only go to them for "free" stuff
I'm really glad that I'm capable of doing most of the maintenance items myself. I usually just go into my buddy's shop and borrow lift(s) and/or tool(s) as needed. And if I can't do something myself, then I pay the shop cheap labor to do it

But of course, I'll leave the truly involved items to a local indy shop. These items should be rare though, considering the car is still pretty new

[tekmoe]

Sorry to hear about the bad service.

Off topic, I've been to LA once and I'm sure as hell not going back. Screw that arm pit of a city.

[jumpthewire]

i though New Jersey was the arm pit?

[mfanatic325]

lol any stealershit is an armpit

[onebluemcm]

Originally Posted by mfanatic325

Time to start looking for a cheap indy shop you can trust Nikki. These BMW stealers are not to be trusted, ever. I only go to them for "free" stuff
I'm really glad that I'm capable of doing most of the maintenance items myself. I usually just go into my buddy's shop and borrow lift(s) and/or tool(s) as needed. And if I can't do something myself, then I pay the shop cheap labor to do it

But of course, I'll leave the truly involved items to a local indy shop. These items should be rare though, considering the car is still pretty new

I would just say that it's risky going for free stuff because of the pretty high liklihood that while getting said free stuff, they might/will quite likely royally F somthing up. It's not like they put the master techs on the free stuff work....

And as much as I like Cali, this problem is far and away much more prevalent in your part of the country. I don't know what else to say besides there is nothing you can do about it - it's where you live. I've been on car enthusiast forums of one kind or another for over a decade, going all the way back to when I was into modding pick up trucks for off roading - every single forum, regardless of what the topic or brand of car was, it was always the poor folks in SoCal that had the worst time of it with dealers and service. From the M3 forums, yeah, Nikki, your experience seems exactly, precisely par for the course for the majority of people. If you hear one or two people chime in about a good experience, of if you or anyone else has had good experiences before, it was or is because these people have found the one honest person at a dealership and keep seeking that person out. It's not as bad here in Richmond VA, we have two dealers and we're not that big of a city, but I definitely have 2-3 people I know I can approach and the issue will get taken care of correctly, and only one is a SA. Every single time I talk to someone else, I am thoroughly regretful for having done so because I treated like crap or a moron, and.....whatever the issue was does not get fixed correctly.

This is so prevalent in BMW for one reason - they have us by the balls. It's a generalization, but it's true. For the vast majority of BMW owners, they don't know anything other than the BMW dealer for getting work done. The vast majority of owners are not enthusiasts, and have no friggin clue that anyone else can actually work on their car. BMW doesn't have to worry about customer service training, customer satisfaction, or anything else. Even if they get bad reviews so what - they know that the overwhelming majority of BMW owners will come back to them no matter how bad or good they are treated because they have no other choice. Back to Richmond VA - there are ton of Bimmers rolling around here with two dealers in town. There is exactly one, start-up, indy BMW shop - that's it. And he's hard to find, hasn't made marketing a priority. There are a few others that will do BMW work, but they do all sorts of other stuff too and your average 3-, 5-, X3, or X5 owner is unlikely to take their car to one of these shops to have their 535 worked on beside an early 90s Honda.....

I don't think BMW purposefully hires big a-holes as SAs to bully customers, although we have one at one of the local dealers that you would swear was hired to be the biggest deuche possible, on purpose. Being in a service profession where customer service is literally what makes us successful, I think it's that BMW just realizes that they do not have to prioritize customer service because BMW owners have no real option, they have no competition, and the result is what nearly all of us have experienced - a garbage experience for service.

Rant officially over. Cali people, your options are slim, your dealers are the scum on the bottom of shit service barrel.

[just2talented]

Bro u want to talk about bad service? Read my saga

http://www.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=432410