Percy_991

Hi All,

A few months back I rang a few stealership's in a 60 mile range to get some quotes for supplying and fitting a new inlet manifold and exhaust manifold. I managed to get one BMW stealership to reduce the labour rate and I spoke with the parts manager to get a good discount on the parts; this alone saved me a few hundred pounds at least. Two days before I was due to go in, I fired across an email to the service department, with the parts department copied in, confirming I would be in and also to clarify the costs. I received an email back with the confirmation from both departments.

I take the car in to the stealers around 11:00AM on D-day and again clarify the work and costs with a service adviser. He looks at his notes for the job and says everything is in hand and my car will be ready at the end of the day. I then leave in a dirty Mini One courtesy car which is covered in mud both inside and outside! About 16:00 I receive a call from the service adviser telling me my car is ready to collect and that the work went to schedule. I get to the stealership and wait in the coffee area being amused by the stealerships in-house clown disguised as a BMW 'tyre expert'; see my other post on tyres! Anyway, my turn and the service adviser hands me an invoice and asks how I will be paying. The invoice amount has increased by about £400! I ask him to explain. He "um's" and "ar's" telling me the work had taken longer than expected and there were additional parts that needed to be used. So I ask him to give me a breakdown of these. He is unable to do so and tells me there were additional gaskets and bolts and "you know when work is carried out sometimes we need to do other stuff". I was not buying into this and asked to speak with the service manager. The chap tries to phone him, (apparently), but no response. I ring the parts department and speak with the parts manager, whom I had spoken to before my car came in, to clarify the parts that were used on my car and the prices. These matched the prices I had been quoted before. So where was this extra £400 coming from?

The service adviser tells me that the stealership have done me a favor at this price and that it is at costs; how many times have I heard this one? This is despite me driving about 50 miles to get to this stealership. Anyway, I tell him I want to get a coffee and head towards the coffee area. I then phone the stealership and ask to speak with the service manager. Call gets routed straight away and I notice an office with the door open just off the coffee area. Whilst talking to the service manager, I can hear the conversation on my phone and from this office. I wave my arms to get the service managers attention. He comes out, and we continue the conversation face-to-face.

I tell him I need to know where this extra £400 has come from as I had agreed a labour price and a parts price before work was carried out. I then told him I had confirmation back from his own team a few days previous. Furthermore, I told him that when I was phoned to pick up my car I was told everything went according to plan. Again, I was struggling to know where this extra £400 was coming from. The manager was pretty embarrassed and said there must have been a communications problem within his team and parts. We went back to the service desk where "Mr. Chuckles" aka the original service adviser was sat. His manager told him to amend the invoice. After apologizing, the manager left me with Mr. Chuckles who had the nerve to tell me "not to feel guilty for not paying the extra £400"! Wow! To that I told him that I did not feel guilty as there was nothing for me to feel guilty about. His unprofessional mannerism was far from what I would expect. I wont be going back there again in a hurry.


The moral...

The moral of this rambling is to stand your ground with these stealerships if they try and bend you over a bonnet. Question them and if this fails ask to speak with the service manager / someone higher up the food chain.

Another thing, in my experience it normally works out cheaper to speak with the parts department directly about what discount they can offer. I normally find the parts guys at the stealerships are very grounded and good chaps unlike some of these hyped-up t*@'s in the service department.

Our American Friends...

To the chaps over the small pond in the US, what is the customer service like at the stealerships there? Is it common practice for stealers to try bend you over for some extra cash? Would be interesting to hear other peoples experiences.

swajames

These practices are pretty universal and yes they happen here too - and they are certainly not limited to BMW... Overall, I've found fewest issues with Lexus, there are no surprises other than pleasant ones (e.g. not being billed for things I'd expected to pay for). Your post really hints at the primary cause of issues like this - it is not the brand, it is not really the dealership per se, it is the service advisor. I saw both sides of the coin with my local BMW dealer, most of the time I saw stellar service from a couple of SA's in particular but I did experience pretty appalling service from at least one other.

Percy_991

Agree with regards to the SA's. I have had positive experiences with some SA's over the years; especially when I had my E92. However, it seems that many SA's at the main stealership's measure their level of customer service / commitment against the age / millage of the vehicle customers turn up with. So many times I have seen them running around for customers who turn up in basic poverty-spec cars that are new. Ironically, I would argue that it is the owners of the older vehicles, like myself, that provide BMW with more revenue from a servicing point. I have spent around £10,000 since late 2009 on the maintenance of the E60. Swajames - I'd hate to even contemplate what the repair costs on your 997 would be if things went wrong outside of warranty.