kimtu

Hi to all this is my first topic although i have been reading for along time this forum.
i had an airbag and seatbelt warning on the dashboard so i took it to the dealer to get it fixed.(i wish i never had bothered)
took the car in on monday looking at a simple reset and a day max to have it done
had a call on tuesday saying that the car still had a problem despite the reset and recoding of the all car so it needed the battery cable as the impedence was low 0.8ohm so i agreed to extra cost
had another call on wednesday from the lovely lady at the service department saying that despite all this the car still had the light on and the engineer needed to look at it more and would need to strip the car back to look for a fault.she asked for more money and i very reluctantly agreed
had no call on tursday
friday afternoon she called me back and said that my car was ready the fault was down to a bent pin on the airbag sensor and now is fine.
went down to pick up my car (was asked to pay £680 but dropped to £555 i thought a bit excessive just to turn a light off but anyway)
got in my car and the first thing i noticed there was a warning on the idrive about the window antitrap not working and the old battery cable was not in the boot as promised and worst of all the speakers on the driver side had a fault the front one was farting and the rear one was very faint.
promptly got out of the car and made the lady aware of all this issues and she said that i should come back in the morning as everybody had left already.
the next morning i went back and the car had another reset to remove the antitrap warning but unfortunately the speaker issue was not sorted so i was told to call back on the next monday.


the next monday i was given a new date to take my car in a week later

waited a week while driving around with a speaker farting in my door even when i balanced all the sound to the opposite speaker it still came through at times and the volume keeps going up and down

the car went in on the following monday

had a call tuesday and was told that they never touched the driver door so it had nothing to do with them i argued that i would never taken my car in to fix the airbag light and not fix the speakers and that i was not at any point told by them that there was a problem with the speaker when it went in the first time and the guy said that he would find out more and call me back later

had a call on the wednesday and was reassured that it was all to do with the recoding of the car and so ti would have been fixed for me

had a call on thursday saying that now it had nothing to do whit what they did and that they never touched the speaker or the door panel and it was just a coincidence that it got dameged while it was there.


i was very disappointed with the result and asked to speak to one of the managers and the guy said that he would pass it on for me.

had no call from the manager i even tried to call back on friday but i was told that the manager was busy and that he had my number and that he would call me later.

still no call...

this is the main dealer in london stephen james bmw

sorry for the long story hope it is clear enough to understand.

what should i do now?

i am going to file a complaint with them but i do not think it will get far but in the meantime i have had my car broken by this cowboys.

not happy


thanks for reading

phelix

Sorry to hear your tale of woe.

Where are these speakers located? One in the driver's door and the 2nd is where? They may not have touched the driver's door but they probably had a fair bit of the car apart and may have damaged some other wiring and/or not reconnected something.

Try to stay calm and objective with the dealer and take good notes of what was said, when and by whom. Insist on reasonable deadlines (i.e. you'll call me back by xx Feb). If you don't get any joy with the dealer then raise the issue with BMW GB. In my opinion you have multiple grounds to complaint: the length if time it took to fix the car, the fact that it was a bent pin (they don't bend on their own!) and that the car was returned to you with fresh faults/damage. But you need to work with the dealer (as frustrating as that is) until you're really at a dead end with them.

What parts did you pay for during all of this?

kimtu

the only part i paid for was the new battery lead,the total was made up mainly by time.
i picked up the car yesterday as i was promised to be called by a manager twice in 2 days but the call never arrived.
i have wrote an email to bmw head office in germany but no reply yet.
i will write a letter of complaint to the dealer in the meantime but i am not sure if that will go anywhere
i am not bothered about how much i spent i am just pissed off at the attitude of these people..they charge £150 hr and still fuck it up #HELLO!#
i was told that the head unit is damaged and i will need a new one at a cost of 1300 plus labour and it is only the business cd.
i removed the head unit from the car yesterday and i opened it up to look at it (i am an electro-technical engineer and used to install car radio when i was a teenager)i looked at all the parts and nothing seems damaged to me first of all there is not even the slight smell of burning.
today i will head down to halford and buy an adaptor to be able to test the speakers with a radio from my other car just to make sure that the system is fine.
at this moment i have so little faith in these people that i do not believe what they are saying.


thanks

kimtu

PS the speakers are one in the front driver side door and the other one is in the rear driver side i think it is in the ceiling as my car is estate.
thanks

kimtu

i have been down to halfords and got myself an harness to connect a standard car radio in my car.
i took the radio out of my other car and fitted it (just small issue with the way the power cables are wired the permanent live and the switch live are the wrong way around on the harness so i fitted a bridge cable across) the radio came on and i was able to test all the speakers except for the one in the driver side i removed the door card with instructions from the web very easy job and found that the cable had been terminated in tape.
the guy at the service said that the connector to the speaker was damaged and so it caused my head unit to fail.
i have to say it is a square connector made by tyco and i can't understand how this could have been damaged since it's been sitting there for years.
i noticed that my car did not have a twitter not sure if it is supposed to be there.
also 4 clips at the bottom of the door card are missing.
all the other speakers worked fine.
then i refitted the original head unit in the car and the right side speakers are still playing distorted sound.

chim

not nice. so much money for nothing.
Sometimes there dealers make our life harder.
BLUM

narvselius

In a case like this I would summerize it and send it to BMW UK. They (should) keep track on all dealers so that input could be useful for them to be aware of.

BTW, since you seemes to be able to do some DIY yourself, have you checked the FAQ https://5series.net/faq/ and the DIY section https://5series.net/forums/forum/14-diy-do-it-yourself/

BLooD

Report it to BMW UK, trust me they take complaints very seriously, I have been down that road and come out smiling. Just as a side note I have used Stephen James in ruxley and had no problem with them.

kimtu

THANKS FOR ALL THE REPLY.


I HAVE BOUGHT A NEW UNIT FROM EBAY IT IS THE PROFESSIONAL SAT NAV THE GUY OFFERED IT TO CODE TO MY CAR FOR 90 SO I GOT ALL THE BITS LIKE THE DASH TRIM AND GPS AEREL SO I AM WAITING FOR THAT TO ARRIVE SO I CAN JUST INSTALL IT IN THE CAR SO THAT I CAN TAKE THE DAMAGED CD OUT OF THE CAR AND KEEP IT AS PROOF.JUST IN CASE BMW WANTS TO TAKE A LOOK AT IT..


FUNNY THING IS THAT I WAS TOLD THAT I NEEDED A NEW SPEAKER AS MINE WAS DAMAGED AND ALSO A NEW WIRING LOOM FOR THE DRIVER DOOR AS THE CONNECTOR COULD NOT BE REPLACED.

I BOUGHT A NEW CONNECTOR AND BUSHING CONTACTS FROM THE SAME DEALER SPARE PART DEPARTMENT AND GOT A CALL THE NEXT DAY FROM A GUY IN SERVICE TO TELL ME THE POLARITY OF THE CABLE.

I DID IT ALL IN ABOUT 1HR AND THE SPEAKER WORKS FINE AGAIN (BUT THE RADIO STILL WRONG SO THE RIGHT SIDE SPEAKER STILL SOUND LIKE BURPING).AT THE SAME TIME I THOUGHT SINCE I HAVE THE DOOR CARDS OFF I INSTALLED A PAIR OF TWEETER FROM THE TOP HIFI SYSTEM


THE THING THAT REALLY GOT ME FURIOS IS THAT THE DOOR CARD ON THE DRIVER SIDE WAS LOOSE AT THE BOTTOM AS 4 RETAINING CLIP WERE BROKEN BY THEM WHEN THEY REMOVED THE CARD AND DID NOT REPLACE THEM I GOT THEM FOR PENNIES FROM THEM AND PUT THEM IN.

ALSO THERE WERE STICKY MARKS ON THE LEATHER AND DASH LIKE THEY HAD BEEN EATING WHILE WORKING ON THE CAR.

I AM SO DISAPPOINTED FROM THEIR SERVICE AND NEVER GOT THE CALL THAT I WAS PROMISED FROM A HIGHER UP MANAGER.

I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE SAYING THAT THE RADIO GOT BROKEN BECAUSE OF THE SPEAKER HAD A DAMAGED CONNECTION ON IT,I THINK IT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT THE CONNECTOR WAS BROKEN BEFORE AS THE CONNECTOR SITS RIGHT IN THE SPEAKER SOCKET.I ACTUALLY THINK THAT THEY DID IT TO FIT THE BILL, I NEVER HEARD THE DRIVER SPEAKER MISSING A BIT BEFORE,OBVIOUSLY IF I HAD I WOULD HAVE TAKEN A LOOK MYSELF.

WHEN I REPAIRED THE CABLE I HAVE TAKEN PICTURES OF THE REPAIR AND OF THE RECEIPT OF WHAT I USED.
AND WHEN I TAKE THE RADIO OUT AGAIN I WILL TAKE MORE PICTURE OF THE FINAL CIRCUITS WHICH IS WHAT NORMALLY GETS DAMAGED WHEN SPEAKER CABLES SHORT AND WILL SEND THE LOT WITH A NICE LETTER TO THE DEALER FIRST THEN TO BMW UK.

THIS IS JUST PLAIN WRONG AND I WILL PURSUE IT TILL I GET SATISFACTION

PAYING 150HR WILL NOT INSULATE YOU FROM ROGUE TRADERS

jkspoff

Try calling BMW customer services UK on: 0800 325 600