Horrible BMW Service

[leatherpants]

(sorry for the following vent, but I love my X1 and have really had my faith in the brand shaken by the following experience) -

At 49,000 miles my car's service light came on so I called to schedule maintenance (it should be noted that this is a vehicle I bought new from this dealership). Needed new plugs along with the oil change and was told this would take a few hours - but a loaner car wouldn't be available for almost two weeks. So I made an appointment for then and when I brought the car in I was 180 miles over my 50,000 mile warranty. I innocently thought they would honor the maintenance warranty since I called to schedule the appointment when I was below the 50k mile mark, but no, I was told I had to pay $600 for the plugs on top of the fee for the oil change!

I tried working with the service guy but he said the service manager wouldn't budge - then he offered to sell me an extended warranty! I couldn't believe it. I also called the sales guy I bought the car from - he said the best they could do was knock off 20% (?!)

The worst part? I contacted Customer Relations at BMW America and never heard back from them. WTF.

Is this a typical BMW experience? I've never had an issue like this with the new Acuras I've owned. I was even treated better by the the local Honda dealership!
Curious as to what you folks think of this situation. PM me if you want the name of the dealership.

[BeEmVe]

I guess I have mixed feelings. Companies in general are getting to be hard azzed about warranty limits. Consumers need to look out for themselves.

As such, on one hand I see your point and one would hope that the dealership would do the right thing. Especially, if you noted that the car was at 49k miles. However, given that the vehicle was nearing the 50k mark you should have been on top of things and not made any assumptions.

A few years ago I had the vent control on a vehicle go out. I had replaced it something like 350 days before. My SA looked up the notes and said hey we should get this fixed ASAP as the 1 year warranty is about expired. I'll make you an appointment for a couple of days from now and order the part now.

I have another issue to deal with. Not a car but a dive suit that has something like 15 days on it in over two trips. The damn thing is literally falling apart at the seams. However, it is 1.5 years old with a one year warranty. I am sending back to the company. I hope they will replace it. But if not oh well, we will quit buying this type of suit cause the previous one delaminated with similar light usage. THe current one was a "warranty" replacement for that suit.

I guess the question I have did you have the dealer do the service or take to an independent service center (for undoubtably much less).

[leatherpants]

I'm bringing it to another dealership (one that's more than 50 miles from where I live).

[mccannable]

$600 for plugs? Maybe I am missing something but I hope that's at least for the n55?

[leatherpants]

Originally Posted by mccannable

$600 for plugs? Maybe I am missing something but I hope that's at least for the n55?

Nope, the 4-banger. It's what they quoted me before I bailed. This place is notoriously sleazy (judging by the numerous negative reviews they receive online).

[Mr_Jack]

I worked for BMW for 6 years. Seen that happen a lot, to them it is what it is. Warranty and maintenance is 4yrs or 50k miles. End of story, you go over the 50k or 4 yrs, its done. It's your responsibility.

Go to an independent BMW repair shop, you'll save a ton and get better treatment.

[leatherpants]

I actually went to a competing BMW dealership and they waived all the labor fees! Renewing my faith in BMW. They also agreed the other dealership was trying to rip me off by charging $600 for replacing plugs.

[vstolpner]

Glad it worked out for you. I know we have a couple dealerships in my area and one of them is notorious for this kind of crap. That's why I didn't buy from them and will avoid going to them if I can help it.
Shame because the dealership is practically walking distance from my work.

[Carlin/14/E84]

What did happened with the BMW rule +/- 2,000 miles for the car service warranty?

[Mr_Jack]

Originally Posted by leatherpants

I actually went to a competing BMW dealership and they waived all the labor fees! Renewing my faith in BMW. They also agreed the other dealership was trying to rip me off by charging $600 for replacing plugs.

$600 is steeeeep. The N20 plugs are $71 for 4 at full retail, labor depending on the dealers labor rate is roughly 1hr @ $130-$170 per hour. Putting you at max of $241. Plus an oil service $150 max dealer price. You're still under $600. That dealer wasn't ripping you, it was the service adviser. I'd give BMW NA a call with the dealer name and the adviser. Did they give you a written estimate?

[leatherpants]

No written estimate. Contacted BMW NA and left a "formal complaint", but never heard back from them.
This particular dealership (in Western Washington) receives almost daily negative reviews on Yelp, yet BMW corporate does nothing about it. Discouraging.

[vstolpner]

If you're willing to put some work into it to improve the service of that dealer get in touch with BMW AG and tell them about the dealer, point out the yelp reviews, and tell them that BMW NA didn't respond at all

[leatherpants]

Originally Posted by vstolpner

If you're willing to put some work into it to improve the service of that dealer get in touch with BMW AG and tell them about the dealer, point out the yelp reviews, and tell them that BMW NA didn't respond at all

I'm assuming that's the German corporate offices? Thanks, will look into it.

[vstolpner]

Yeah it is.

Someone I know has had personal experience that when BMW dealerships denied there was a problem (related to the car's handling of all things), he contacted BMW North America which didn't help, but when he got in touch with BMW AG he got a personal call from the manager of the dealership who was then able to finally resolved the problem.

Not sure your experience will be the same but the more complaints BMW AG heard about them the more likely they are to force the dealer to change.

[mose121]

Originally Posted by Carlin/14/E84

What did happened with the BMW rule +/- 2,000 miles for the car service warranty?

That went away as soon as BMW switched over to the CBS (condition based service) system with the 2002 7 series. Granted it went on a little longer after that since the 7er always gets the new tech first before it trickles down to each new model that follows. So in 2004 the 5/6 series got it, followed by the 2006 3er, etc, etc. When the dealer reads your key it pulls up the list of all the services and it will show a status with due date and mileage for each item on the list. If the status shows recommended or due BMW will pay for it at that time. The key reader is a brilliant tool and BMW is the only company that has figured out the best way to keep track of all the individual maintenance items in the car. Other service indicators are a joke and usually don't indicate when some items need attention. BMW keys now keep track of over 300 pieces of information, right down to customer information, coolant temp, battery voltage, etc. It really is a great system. Having moved from BMW to Porsche, Porsche is a nightmare in comparison when it comes to keeping track of maintenance. If you have a 6 year old Porsche it will take you 15 minutes or more to determine what different services may or may not need done. BMW takes 2 seconds, literally. This makes it very easy on BMW dealer staff and translates into a better customer experience while ensuring cars get the services they need.

Originally Posted by Mr_Jack

$600 is steeeeep. The N20 plugs are $71 for 4 at full retail, labor depending on the dealers labor rate is roughly 1hr @ $130-$170 per hour. Putting you at max of $241. Plus an oil service $150 max dealer price. You're still under $600. That dealer wasn't ripping you, it was the service adviser. I'd give BMW NA a call with the dealer name and the adviser. Did they give you a written estimate?

$600 for just plugs and a basic oil service is a joke. Alldata shows the labor time for plugs at 0.8 hours for a 2014 X1 2.8 xDrive. Granted most dealers are going to charge 1-1.5 hours but still. My suggestion would have been to get the quote in writing, then talk directly with the service manager about your concerns. Remember that when any maintenance service comes due regardless of what it is the key data will indicate the car is also due for a "standard scope", which is a fault scan and where the indicators get reset. Most dealers will charge anywhere from 0.3-0.5 hours labor for the scope, but that still doesn't get you close to $600.

Here's what it really comes down to. Forget everyone else in the dealership, the single most important person that will impact your customer experience the most is your Service Advisor. A good advisor will take control the process and deal accordingly with the shop dispatcher, technicians, and the parts department. A bad advisor will let you down from square one and you'll never be happy.

[xirsteon]

Originally Posted by mose121

That went away as soon as BMW switched over to the CBS (condition based service) system with the 2002 7 series. Granted it went on a little longer after that since the 7er always gets the new tech first before it trickles down to each new model that follows. So in 2004 the 5/6 series got it, followed by the 2006 3er, etc, etc. When the dealer reads your key it pulls up the list of all the services and it will show a status with due date and mileage for each item on the list. If the status shows recommended or due BMW will pay for it at that time. The key reader is a brilliant tool and BMW is the only company that has figured out the best way to keep track of all the individual maintenance items in the car. Other service indicators are a joke and usually don't indicate when some items need attention. BMW keys now keep track of over 300 pieces of information, right down to customer information, coolant temp, battery voltage, etc. It really is a great system. Having moved from BMW to Porsche, Porsche is a nightmare in comparison when it comes to keeping track of maintenance. If you have a 6 year old Porsche it will take you 15 minutes or more to determine what different services may or may not need done. BMW takes 2 seconds, literally. This makes it very easy on BMW dealer staff and translates into a better customer experience while ensuring cars get the services they need.



$600 for just plugs and a basic oil service is a joke. Alldata shows the labor time for plugs at 0.8 hours for a 2014 X1 2.8 xDrive. Granted most dealers are going to charge 1-1.5 hours but still. My suggestion would have been to get the quote in writing, then talk directly with the service manager about your concerns. Remember that when any maintenance service comes due regardless of what it is the key data will indicate the car is also due for a "standard scope", which is a fault scan and where the indicators get reset. Most dealers will charge anywhere from 0.3-0.5 hours labor for the scope, but that still doesn't get you close to $600.

Here's what it really comes down to. Forget everyone else in the dealership, the single most important person that will impact your customer experience the most is your Service Advisor. A good advisor will take control the process and deal accordingly with the shop dispatcher, technicians, and the parts department. A bad advisor will let you down from square one and you'll never be happy.

This is the kind of sentiments that has been making me 2nd guessing myself as to whether I want to pick up an X1 or not. Sure I am not buying the dealer, but still the overall service / customer experience matters. 8 out 10 BMW dealers I have researched had this bad reviews on yelp/google.

[Njerts]

Originally Posted by xirsteon

This is the kind of sentiments that has been making me 2nd guessing myself as to whether I want to pick up an X1 or not. Sure I am not buying the dealer, but still the overall service / customer experience matters. 8 out 10 BMW dealers I have researched had this bad reviews on yelp/google.

I am sorry to be the one that tell you, you will never enjoy any vehicle if you pick random bad events off the internet.
Very few people post how great a car is.

[vstolpner]

Originally Posted by Njerts

I am sorry to be the one that tell you, you will never enjoy any vehicle if you pick random bad events off the internet.
Very few people post how great a car is.

That is very true. I know someone who is on their forth BMW and loves it. That said he had a couple experiences that were less than perfect, but the cars sure made up for it.

[leatherpants]

I've just written off this particular dealership and have taken my business to a competing dealership (which is further away from where I live, unfortunately). Will probably take my out of warranty X1 to independent shops for maintenance in the future. The whole experience has been unfortunate.

[Red Bread]

Originally Posted by leatherpants

I've just written off this particular dealership and have taken my business to a competing dealership (which is further away from where I live, unfortunately). Will probably take my out of warranty X1 to independent shops for maintenance in the future. The whole experience has been unfortunate.

Just curious, but after owning a number of brands in and out of warranty I'm not sure that going to an independent shop is ever a bad idea. Very few dealers have a fair or trustworthy service department.

[mose121]

Originally Posted by Red Bread

Just curious, but after owning a number of brands in and out of warranty I'm not sure that going to an independent shop is ever a bad idea. Very few dealers have a fair or trustworthy service department.

I may be somewhat partial, but the statement "very few dealers have a fair or trustworthy service department" is not accurate. That may be your particular experience but as a whole it does not represent most dealers. Dealers get a bad rap, mostly because of statements like that. Also, just because someone perceives a dealer as being unfair that doesn't mean they really are. Most people have no idea what kind of overhead and expenses dealers have compared to indy shops. Just because an indy shop is cheaper by no means indicates that the dealer is not "fair". Conservatively speaking, a dealer has twice the overhead as an indy shop. Most "specialist" shops were started by a tech that worked at a dealer. That dealer likely paid tens of thousands of dollars to send them to regular manufacturer training. They now have the training, but do they have the hundreds of thousands of dollars in special tools required to do the job right? No, well unless they stole them from the dealer they used to work for which happens frequently. Shops that don't specialize in any particular make or that don't have ex dealer employees usually provide horrendous service. There are just as many if not more indy shops that provide worse service than a dealer for any number of reasons. They don't have the tools, they don't have the training, they don't have the technical support, they don't have the infrastructure, They don't have factory support, etc, etc, etc. We fix indy shops mistakes all the time and I guarantee it happens way more frequently than indy shops fixing our mistakes. Any repair that's out of the ordinary, an indy shop tech is probably learning how to do the repair at your expense. You may even pay more labor time than you would have if you went to the dealer. I see indy invoices all the time and I say to myself, "they saved $31 there, then paid again for us to do it right".

It's important to note that I am not saying all indy shops provide poor service. I know of some extremely good indy shops that provide excellent service. I'm saying more indy shops provide bad service than dealers. The difference is you might not even realize it because you're blinded by the little bit of money you saved, but didn't realize they only fixed half of the issues and missed the other half, they did sup par quality repair work skipping steps, and they changed your oil but didn't do the other 7 maintenance items the car really needed. Going to one that you are not familiar with or without a glowing referral is really rolling the dice. On the flip side, there's always a tech/advisor or two in every dealer that really has no business being there and is just as prone to mistakes or causing issues.

[Red Bread]

Just because a dealer has more overhead than an indy, they should benefit from new and used sales and be able to be competitive. But almost universally, they're not. Just my experience in SoCal and North Texas.