craigm1841

I sure am referring to Fields in Lakeland!

CWS530

I purchased my car from a dealer in Chicago and have it serviced locally. I always get a loaner--usually a 328 or 528. I have seen some clients use the Enterprise option, and I would as well, just hasn't come up yet. But, I do know they do not charge the customer. Must be their own policy. I won't go anywhere else, so it works.

PS: I bought my car at Fields in Chicago, but the car was shipped from their dealership in Lakeland, AND they didn't even charge me. Fields is great!

exx1976

Ok, how about this:

The other dealership, the one 60 miles away, they told me "Sure, bring the car in, we'll do the work, and we'll put you in a loaner for the day, no worries. Doesn't matter where you bought it."

WTF?!?!

TrevX

Loaner policies vary greatly among dealerships. At least the dealers here in the bay area are pretty consistent, at least from the dealerships that I've dealt with. I always get a bmw loaner, as long as I have an appointment. I use BMW of Mountain View mostly and the last 2 times they've loaned me a 335 coupe. Steven's Creek BMW also gave me a 335 loaner but their service sucks. BMW of San Francisco gave me a 535 loaner. Out here it doesn't matter if your car still has warranty, you just need to request a loaner in your appointment and here is the trick.... I've always made friends with my SAs, so I call them directly to make my appointments and I don't deal with the appointments desk. When my SA books my service, I ask them to put a reservation on their loaner inventory for me the day before my appointment. They've always accomodated me.

exx1976

Yeah, I don't think I'll be using this dealer anymore. It sucks, too, because they are the only one local (like I said, the other one is 60 miles away). I've just had so many bad experiences with them I can't even begin to describe it.

For instance, when I go to drop the car off this morning - the appointments guy I make the appt with "no longer works there". So I speak directly to the SA. He's trying to read the notes the other guy left on the computer, and gets confused about the progman update. I tell him "There's an SIB on it. When a customer complains the in-dash CD player doesn't play MP3s, you are supposed to upgrade to progman v20.00 or better." BOTH of the SAs start laughing, and are like "Yeah, right. Why would BMW pay for that?" His voice was dripping with condescention and sarcasm. I was like "I can get you a copy of the SIB if that would help. Do you have internet access?" "The crap you find on the internet is not the same stuff we need to see." Like I'm some kind of an idiot that can't tell the difference between a real SIB and some garbage that someone posted in their free time trying to stir up shit?

Turns out they were right (but they didn't have to be such dicks! Either way, they didn't even KNOW about the SIB and were just being dicks for the fun of it?). The SIB is only applicable to cars covered by NEW CAR warranty, not CPO. Then it takes them 4.5 hours to get me a price to even do the work (work that I later found out takes 4-8 hours, and they are calling me at 2:00 when I'm supposed to pick the car up at 4:30?). I tell them "The other dealer will do it for $100 (a mistake, I later find out, but check out the reaction)" "Fine, take it there <click!>".

Then the whole deal with "Yeah, you can get an enterprise rental for $35/day", and then they can't even get me a price on the progman update?? When I called the other dealer back to make an appointment, I made sure to grill them about their price, and the guy pulled up the SIB and double-checked, and admitted he made a mistake. The $100 flat rate was pre-e60. He said it would be $400 at the outside, possibly less, but that the job could take up to two days. It normally takes between 4 and 8 hours, and sometimes it aborts and you have to start the process over. He said if that happened I would not be charged extra, and that in his opinion the other dealership was not trying to rip me off. So I complain about the other dealer not providing a rental because I didn't buy the car there, and he says "Now that's something I do not do. I never refuse loaners, regardless of where you bought the car, especially for a job like this."

ValE60

The loaner policy does vary from dealership, here in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area if you buy the car at their dealership they will provide you with a loaner. However, the BMW's goes fast and once they run out they will give you a Honda Accord
In order to beat the AM drop off rush, I always drop mine off at night around 6ish and I always get a BMW loaner!!!

exx1976

At least you get a loaner (Accord or not). I'd much rather drive an Accord for free than pay $35/day for the "privilege" of driving a Malibu rental..

Either way, I just called the dealership and spoke to the GM's assistant. She's going to go back and give the service manager hell about the way his SA's treated me, and they are going to valet the car to perform the progman work (if and when I choose to re-schedule it). She said if the car aborts and the work takes two days "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it".. Not sure I'm 100% satisfied with that answer, but I guess we'll see.

jagbagri

Like someone said earlier It vary from dealership to dealership and then within your relationship from SA to SA.

I always got a loaner, a BMW if they have any left for that day otherwise an Enterprise who are just next door but I never had to pay for either one. AND I did not even buy my car there and I'm the second owner.
BUT and this is a big BUT, we have about 6 BMW dealers within 60 mile radius form me so YES, the competition is always good for consumers.

exx1976

So I go to the dealer to pick the car up. The GM's assistant that I spoke to said she'd give the service manager a what-for, and that I should ask for him when I get in.

I get there, and he is completely insincere with every word passing his lips. He tells me about how this isn't standard operating procedure, and how they were busy today because they were short 4 people in the front office (not techs, but SA's/schedulers/etc), and that they've won BMW customer service awards for the last two years in a row, yata yata. Never once did he apologize for anything, even when I threw the SIB on his desk and showed him that I DO know how to get a hold of legit BMW SIBs.

On my way out of his office I told him how shocked I was that they got customer service awards two years in a row treating people like this, and told him I'd be sure to let BMW know.

As I was walking through the showroom to leave, I passed the GM's assistant, and told her I'd be using the other dealership from now on. Didn't even introduce myself. She immediately figured out who I was and followed me to the showroom apologizing up and down. I told her that her and the CPO manager are both very nice people, but so far everyone else I've dealt with there sucks, and since they can't run the entire place with just the two of them, I was going to use a dealer that had more than two nice people.

I think tomorrow I'll call BMW NA and let them know how wonderful that dealership really is.


And up until now I've tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, hoping they'd fix it, but alas...

The dealer was Towne BMW in Williamsville, NY.

D33ZNUT5

I feel lucky. I called my dealership last Monday and said I needed to take the car in to fix the chrome trim around the door, (about a 5mm gap on drivers door towards rear of car) and I said that my indash cd doesnt play mp3 and that I heard there was a SB about this.

I then say that I will require a loaner and she replies well then you are going to have to wait until next Wednesday. Of course I said sure, I thought this was pretty reasonable.

Hopefully they don't charge me for a rental when I bring it in on Wednesday since no mention of fees was ever made I also hope that they enable the MP3 even though I don't have NAV or the changer. It's a 5/5 build date so I'm hoping I get the update under warranty still.