Apparently standing up for yourself is equivalent to copping an attitude to my current service manager.... I guess I'm just feed up owning "Halo" cars. As nice as they are when they have issues they seem to take 10 times the effort to resolve that a "normal" car and the people you deal with don't seem to give any more of a flip about the car than a "normal car". All this for a hefty price premium. Let's start at the start:
Pre September 2001 my car is experiencing drivability issues bellow 2K rpms, stuttering power delivery and what sounds like ping or knock. I visit the dealership and the technician immediately confirms the behavior in a ride along. A day later they tell me there is a cat fault code, they reset the ECU and will try and drive another M5 to see if it behaves the same and will get back in touch with me.....
Over the next several months I am back and forth to this dealer for reprogramming the ECU, replacing O2 sensors and cats. I made at least seven separate trips for this issue. Only last Wed. did they finally resolve things to my satisfaction.
Elated to finally be rid of this issue and the incessant trips to the dealer to reprogram my ECU for the 3rd time etc., I was gassing her up for a pleasant drive Saturday and look down at my wheels to see what looks like terrible brake dust caking. I think to myself that its odd to see such dust since the dealer delayed me picking up the car so they could clean it for me. I bend down to rub off the dust and it does not rub off. On closer inspection I can see runs all in the silver where some chemical has stripped away the silver paint and exposed the black undercoat. This is on all four wheels.
I call the deal that moment and get the sole gentleman working the weekend. I informed him of my situation very politely. "Hey good news is my car is running great, bad news is the wheels have been damaged". I was at pains to be cool about this, no need to be hostile if everyone is looking out for their customer.
I am told to leave a message with the service advisor who will contact me and also given the name of the service manager for reference. I leave the same polite message with the advisor and await my call....
Monday 11:00 AM no call. This advisor has a history of being slow to get back to me and I am only getting his voice mail so I decide to call the manager. I didn't want a lot of time to elapse before the dealer took a look at the wheels.
I speak with the manager and apprise him of the situation and say that it appears a cleaner they have used to clean my wheels has damaged the paint. His first, number one response is not can I see the wheels or I'm sorry to hear that. It's "we don't use any chemicals to clean the wheels". So he has set up a precedent for being more interested in establishing/deflecting blame than taking care of his customer. I said ok sure you don't, when do you want to look at the wheels. We agree to meet around 1PM today.
Around 1PM the service manager comes out passes me in the waiting room. He looks at me from across the room and I wave back. He is then inundated with requests from his service department. Rather than walking over and looking impatient I stay seated and wait for him to get free and talk with me.
Ten minutes later I get up to see what's going on and he's out at my car with a technician. I think to myself that it would have been nice to be out there with them... I walk out and ask him if he can see what I'm talking about. I squat down and rub one of the affected areas. He say "Yeah, the thing is though I have another M5 doing this...". More pushback in my opinion. So I present him a thread by JCSav detailing his replacement of discolored rims under warranty. I then say even if he does have another M5 with this issue, it should be covered under warranty. He skims the 1st page of the post and starts with "I don't know...". More push back in my opinion.
At this point I realize I am going to be forceful in my insistence that this issue be addressed without delay. I said "You know your service department caused this issue, come on." I also said I knew all about the hoops JCSav went through with his rims because I've been through them over the eight months of trying to get my engine repaired.
He then says how do I know you didn't do this. I tell him because on Tuesday the wheels were fine, you had the car all day Wed, I parked in the garage Thur and Fri, and on Saturday I spotted the problem 3 min into my drive. I also stated that I did my research on the car and I knew better than to use anything other than a mild car soap on the wheels. He then said, see I can throw accusations around too. To this I said you could clearly see the runs in the finish where a chemical was applied, on all four wheels.
Then he says he was all ready to say "looks like I owe you four new rims" but I had to cop an attitude. I told him nothing in his communication with me lead me to think he was going to do that. In fact it made me think the opposite. He then said you won't be copping an attitude when dealing with me. I said I will "cop an attitude" any time his service department damages my car and then tries to push back on me.
He then says maybe he'll just tell me to take it back to the dealer I bought the car from. I told him I'd do that right after I called BMW service and told them how he refused to honor my warranty. He then said to be sure to tell them how rude I was. I told him I would and that I'd put it in the context of 8 months of continuous service for the same issue. The service manager then curtly says I'll order your new rims and huffs off.
Now what do you guys think, if he was going to just own up and replace the rims, why did we have to go through the initial exchange
I'm not inside his head so I sure don't know. But what I am is outside listening to what he says. What he said lead me to think if I wasn't forceful this would at best turn into an ordeal like the engine work (that I pointed out I was very cool about, never demanded a loaner etc) and at worst a drain on my bank account. I never derided him personally or cursed. I might have copped an attitude, but at what point does one have to "cop an attitude" to save themselves tons of wasted time and effort to resolve these issues?
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