jrturbo

Hi Guys

I thought I should share my recent experience with servicing my 1995 M5 (currently the car has 79,000 km =48,000 miles) here in Southern Spain.

I walked in to my local BMW dealer 2 weeks ago and requested an Inspection 1 service, I was told that the earliest date would be the following tuesday (1 week later), I agreed to it brought the car to them at 9:00 am and I spoke to the service advisor and told him that I didnt want the airfilter replaced (K&N panel filter installed) and the she should tell the technician working on the car to do a good job as I would be checking the car afterwards, I also warned her that i had worked for BMW in past and that I was well acquainted with the vehicle and service arragements. I was advised that the car would be ready same day at approx 5:30 pm. I popped in to the dealership at 5 pm to enquiry how everything was progessing and was told that the car was nearly finished, I advised them that I would pick the car up later in order to give them a chance to wash & vaccum the car. At the end I could not be bothered to collect the car that same evening.
On wednesday at Midmorning I received a telephone call to advise me that the car was ready, whilst on the phone I asked how much did the invoice amount to ? and was told that the cost was approx £ 450, I was somewhat surprised as I had not been contacted for any additional work.

I went to the dealer that afternoon to collect the car,I asked the service adviser to run through the service invoice and found that they had in addition not only carried out the service but also replaced the rear brake pads, all the driver belts, the microfilter,the windscreen wipers, the brake fluid and coolant & antifreeze. None of this addtional work consulted, they just went ahead and did it.

Furthermore, checking through the invoice I also noticed that there was rocker cover gasket, when I questioned the service advisor why wasnt it present on the invoice, she said it must be because it wasnt needed. I replied to that, in which case your technician has not done the job properly, otherwise how could he adjusted the valve clearences as part of the service. She dissapeared again to talk to the technician and when she returned she advised me that they did not have the gasket in stock so they reused the old one.
I told them that i did not want the car back , that they should keep it to replace gasket and to contact me as soon as the vehicle was ready. Thursday I received a phone call to tell me that they expected the car to be ready by friday afternoon.
Friday afternoon came and went and no phonecall was received.

I went to the dealer on Saturday Morning and much to my surprise I found out, that the service department was not open on saturdays, and that the earliest I could pick up my car would be Monday am.

I turned up on monday at midmorning to collect the car wanting to avoid the early morning rush at the dealership, when I was parking I received a phone call to advise me the car was ready, upon my arrival I was told by the service advisor that the service manager would be dealing with me.

The service manager appologised to me for the delay in the completion of the work, and advised me that the additional items had been repalced because they where worn, and the BMW service schedule indicated that these items should be checked during service and replaced if ness at an additional cost the customer. I advised him that I gave him my mobile tel number, and all it would have taken was a phone call and I would have probably agreed to all the work except the coolant change since the car earlier this year had been involved in a light frontal accident and the radiator had been replaced along with the coolant and that all the additional work had increased the cost of the service by a third, and on this alone it merited a phone out of courtesy at which time I could have been also advised of the problem with gasket not being in stock, which was also un excusable considering the car had been booked it with a weeks notice.

He agreed to credit me the cost of coolant change and apologised once again fore the delays and inconveniences caused to me and that was it.

I paid and took the car away, and later that day whilst driving with the aircon on I noticed that the belt was screeching and slipping, This got progresively worse until it was unbeareable to drive with the aircon on, So I went back to dealer, explained what was happening with the car and demanded that they should rectify the fault inmediatly, the took car in the workshop and had to wait 1.5 hours, when they returned the car me , they explained that the aircon belt had lost its tension, they could not explain why, the retensioned and advised me that I should not have any further problems, but just to be on the safe side they would order another belt and replace it again when it arrived in stock under warranty.

Guess what, yesterday the belt started screeching again and its getting worse, today is bank holiday here in spain, but you can guess where I am going on thursday morning.

I wonder wether its worth the agro having the service work carried out by the official service network in order to be able to boast about "Full service history" by BMW dealers.

Sorry to be so long winded about the whole affair.

Joe Rubido

M5ROB

I,unfourtunately, know how you feel. My dealer did something similar. From talking to a few "unoffical" BMW dealer sources here is your best alternative: GIVE THEM ALL 0's on the customer service index. This works best because the dealer are paid for "warranty work" according to this index. The lower it is the less they get and the more likely they are to change their ways. Besides,it goes to BMW N.A. for review. I used to go to a dealer 60 miles away because the service was better and they treated you correctly. Now I go to the local dealer. The changes may not be overnight but eventually BMW N.A. notices the trend (as opposed to an isolated case) and makes changes. BTW,the dealer 60 miles away is now the one to avoid.

My .02

Rob

Bob Harper

Joey boy,
You used to work for a dealer so you know what goes on! How's it feel to be on the other side of the desk?
I think you must be getting old Joe, in the old days you would have done the work yourself.
Find yourself a specialist, enthusiasts know that specialists do a better job than franchised dealers.
Take care you - keep in touch

Bob