My 545i w/ sport package weekender now has 15,000 miles (I have a truck for work) and I knew from this forum all about the Dunlop Sport issues so I went to a dealer in SoCal and told the service manager about my problem. It took about 40 min to finally agree to honor the service bulletin and get me a set of tires. I knew they really were looking for any excuse not to do it for free but this is my baby and I keep it that way. Everything goes smoothly until I pick up my car and find 3 of 4 rims scratched or chipped.

This is after I walked the car with the writer before the work was done and told her the car is all original and no one has ever touched anything except for BMW. I think she saw the scratches first but tried to say it was the glue or just dirt until I made her look closely, dissapointing to say the least.

So this all happened last Wed and Thursday I got a message to come in then but could not on such short notice so I left a message to reschedule then another on Friday then again today. How would you re-act, normal BMW service to chase them to fix something they caused??

 

I would make them fix it. Same thing happened to me on my Lexus. During the 5K service they did an alignment because the steering was off center and they scratched 3/4 rims maybe even 4/4 I dont remember... but I made them change them all. I presume they changed the rim... they might have repaired them for all I know but they fixed it... after 3 weeks. 2 weeks siting there "waiting" for new rims and then when I got the car back one of the rims were still scratched... so another week to get that one replaced.

But during that time I got a brand new RX 350 to drive for 2 weeks not too bad. And then in the survey I said it took too long to replace the rims and the customer satisfaction manager offered me $150 towards next service... So over all I'm satisfied with Lexus's service...

BMW I would expect just as much from... in my Eyes BMW is higher than Lexus in terms of "luxury" brand... but thats me... so I expect the same but I know it'll be hard to find a BMW dealer that'll come close to Lexus push for customer service...

 

make them replace the wheels, but they will fight that...just make sure they dont replace the oems with replicas. many tire shops willl do that as most people wont notice

 

Were these scratches from curbing or the installation of the new tires?

Either way I expect replacements. The next thing I would do if the damage was caused by the installation is find out how they do the super high-end jobs like the Z8 and 760. At BMW Seattle I found out they send those jobs out to a specialy outfit that has different equipemnt. I go straigt to the source now and don't let the dealer touch my tire work.

 

yup, its best to go to the shops that do the big suv wheels, because they have the no touch mounting equipment. if they can do a 26" wheel, they can do a 16-20" wheel just fine

 

[quote name='noonehome' date='Oct 2 2007, 08:35 AM' post='476875']
Were these scratches from curbing or the installation of the new tires?

They were from someone at the dealership not correctly doing their job. The machine that breaks the bead I believe caused the chips and looks like a prybar or screw driver like tool caused the scratches. My rims were perfect before I had them install the tires.

The dealership called me today out of the blue and I have to go in tomorrow. Should I complain and ask for new rims or settle for them fixing the old. I don't want to notice any repair job and I want it to last. There is no way I want anything but original BMW rims just the way I brought in the car.

If I ask for new rims what are my chances?

I thought BMW would be alot better in customer satifaction and insure my car would not have damage done to it while in their supervision.

 

You should fight for a replacement.

 

Same thing happened to me, two rims were scratched, they refinished them, then they damaged a third one when it was in getting the first two fixed. So they refinished the third one. A real pain.

 

I would expect them to treat the car as you would... if you would fix a wheel and be happy, then I think that would be OK for them to do also. But, if you are like me and would only accept a replacement even out of your own pocket, then you should expect them to replace the damaged wheel.

When I rashed a wheel I bought a new one, so when the dealer rashed a wheel I demanded they replace it. I had set the precedent to show them the care to maintaining the quality of my car.

My feeling is over time the repair job will not hold up compared to the factory wheel. But, as the car ages there is a patina to the wheels that make a new replacement look out of place. So the next time the damage a wheel I'll be in a tight spot since a new one won't match the others and a repair won't hold up over time.

 

[quote name='noonehome' date='Oct 3 2007, 08:48 AM' post='477451']
I would expect them to treat the car as you would... if you would fix a wheel and be happy, then I think that would be OK for them to do also. But, if you are like me and would only accept a replacement even out of your own pocket, then you should expect them to replace the damaged wheel.

When I rashed a wheel I bought a new one, so when the dealer rashed a wheel I demanded they replace it. I had set the precedent to show them the care to maintaining the quality of my car.

My feeling is over time the repair job will not hold up compared to the factory wheel. But, as the car ages there is a patina to the wheels that make a new replacement look out of place. So the next time the damage a wheel I'll be in a tight spot since a new one won't match the others and a repair won't hold up over time.

So I take my car in today and they have it all day. I go to pick it up and it is sitting by itself so I go and inspect the rim work and I can't believe a BMW dealership like this would try to push this off as acceptable, it's not!

The service writer is playing the game that she can't understand what I am talking about and now the senior service writer says the wheel were damaged when I brought the car in (not a chance) and kept telling me over and over they don't have machines that touch the rim when they take the tire off so it must of been there before.(BS)

Finally the senior writer tells the service writer to just fix them again to make me happy and I am concerned they can even fix it to the level it was before when I first brought it in, I already gave them the chance today. Chips around the lugs, edges and overspray from the repairs not to mention what I found out after I left the dealership really makes me nervous.

My car has 5 miles more than when I first brought it in this morning and 3 miles per gallon average LESS when I picked it up. I turned right around to show the writer and found another service writer to verify my finding which he did and could not answer why my car would have been driven 5 miles to get the rims repaired let alone why my MPG average changed so much.

This dealership is causing me so much frustration for something so simple I am beginning to feel there is no dealership that is any good. Why can't BMW monitor what dealers do as good as they build these cars. I agreed that Lexus is top notch (owned one before this car) in customer relations and BMW cars to me are second to none. I wish the people in charge of Lexus customer service training could school the people at BMW. BMW are your reading this?

I hate to scream for new rims but I don't feel they can fix the damage they have done and to some people it might not even matter but it does to me and it is my car they damaged.

I need to find a dealership I can trust cause the ones so far are sub-standard. I am not the cause here and all they had to do was change out the defective tires without damaging the rims which does not seem like too much to ask for.