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      05-16-2019, 10:07 PM   #1
Scottatah
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Becoming disappointed with dealership - Overreacting?

This is a bit of a vent session and me asking for some feedback on if I’m overreacting in general? It's a little long, so for those of you that read it all - thanks in advance.

Few months ago I took my X3 M40i in for the first service, to look at the squealing brakes and to check the wining noise coming from vents on full blast. Towards the end of the day, I got a phone call asking why I had an after market amp installed in the vehicle. Dude almost had an accusatory tone to him, like why would I desecrate this vehicle? I explained and he said they needed the factory amp to be connected so that they could complete an “eye level” test or something. Allegedly needs all cpu’s in vehicle to respond or it fails. I said “no biggie, when I return to get the air vents replaced, I’ll have the factory amp as well”. Dealership completed the oil change and ordered parts to replace the wining vents. Pretty stoked about the service at this point, minus the dude questioning my life choices with an after market amplifier for the stereo. Was also jacked that they gave me a ride to work in a 7 series car and I nearly fell asleep with the massaging seat and pillow for a headrest.

Week or so later, they let me know the parts for the vents are in and we book a service. In the mean time, I’ve visited the audio shop who tells me the two amps are nearly on top of each other. BMW just needs to disconnect the fiber optic or canbus cables and connect them to the factory amp. Perfect I think. I book my vehicle back in for service at BMW. BMW replaces the vents and then I get a phone call “are you sure the factory amp is here?”. I explain what the audio shop said, but they tell me it’s not there. I say “okay, my bad, audio shop told me it was, I guess I’ll be having a word with them. Please reconnect the factory amp and I’ll get the ‘eye level’ check next time the vehicle is in.” I pick up the vehicle and realize I have no audio. Power, but no audio. On the way home, there’s also a crazy rattle coming from the rear passenger door area. Upon checking it out, I eventually find the cables they didn’t reconnect to the factory amp along with a screw from who knows where in the passenger door cup holder. That’s annoying!

Next day, a lady from the dealership emails:

Thank you for servicing at Edmonton BMW! It is our goal to provide an exemplary experience for you and your vehicle!
If there is anything else, we can help you with before a survey is sent out please let me know immediately!
 
There is no survey attached to this message however BMW Canada may select you to complete a short online survey sometime within the next month. This is your service advisor's report card! We would like the opportunity to earn a 9+ survey recommendation from you!

<man’s email signature>

I figure, if they’re asking, I’ll tell them about the service. I email him/her I explain my annoyances politely and gently suggest if simple things like this are missed, do I need to be concerned about what major things could be missed?

She emails back the same day informing me that she’ll be speaking with the guy who’s signature was in the email (customer relations manager) and he’ll be calling me as soon as possible. Three days later, I miss a phone call from him and get a VM. I return the call and leave a VM. I never receive another email or phone call again. I would have been fine if they just replied to my email and said sorry, we’ll do better, but they set expectations in the email, then again in the voice mail and failed in both cases.

Fast-forward a month or so. Dealership calls and informs me there is a recall on my vehicle and they would like to book me in for service. I say sure and book for a week later. Drop by vehicle off and get a ride to work from them. No 7 series this time, but a dodge caravan. Hop into the third row of seating and its disgustingly dirty back there.



So, now I’m thinking about how this luxury brand not only uses a Dodge Caravan to transport people but has seemingly never cleaned the inside of it. Maybe I was spoiled with the 7-series? Anyways, I get to work about 2h later, my service advisor leaves me a VM. I return it at lunch, but we don’t get to talk until later in the day. Turns out the “new girl” made a mistake and booked my vehicle in for service (presumably this electronic manual recall), without realizing they don’t have the parts for it. Ugh, well that was a wasted day.

Pick-up my vehicle and I’m not sure if it was on immediately or if it happened on the way home, but the ‘Emissions’ light came on in the instrument cluster. I checked google and this forum (coincidentally) said it’s likely gas cap, gas quality, or active vents in grille. Vehicle drove fine, plus it was nearly 7PM so I continued home. Next day after work (yesterday), I contacted the dealership and explained the issue. Spoke with the same service advisor who was cool. We agreed it probably wasn’t life threatening to the vehicle, but he said give him a little time and he’ll call me back. 5min later he called back and said he spoke with someone they’re gonna book me in for whenever I want. Then he transferred me to the booking lady. This lady told me repeatedly that they’re doing extra special services for me. Like she really went the extra mile to make this clear. Realistically, they let me drop my vehicle off at 7:30AM and get the second shuttle even though the service advisor looking after me wouldn't arrive until 945 (I think).

This morning, I check-in at 7:30, explain it all to the lady. She says the advisor isn’t in, she’ll give me a call when she arrives to discuss the service. Cool! I get a ride to work (thankfully in the clean 7 series) and let him know I’m lookin to be picked up at 4 or 430. 4:30 comes around and I haven’t heard a thing, but I’m tired of work so I head out. I call the dealership and explain I haven’t heard from them, I’m supposed to be getting picked up sometime between now and 30min ago, whats the deal? The service advisor says “hey I was just about to call you, we’ve ordered parts and they should be here tomorrow”. I said cool, so what do I do? She asks if I can leave the vehicle with them overnight? I explain no, that’s not possible, I’d have no way to get home or to work tomorrow. She says let me see if I can get you a loaner or whats specifically going on with your vehicle and get back to you. Then I get a call from the gross dodge caravan, he's about 15min out. Cool. 5min later, she informs me that it was the active vents that are the problem. She can’t get me a loaner, but they’re putting my vehicle back together as we speak. I can come pick it up and then drop it off whenever to get the parts installed; they’ll be here tomorrow. 10-15 later, the gross dodge caravan shows up, picks me up and about an hour later after picking up various other people, we get to the dealership, pick up my vehicle, and book it back in for service on Tuesday (I can’t afford to be late to work again tomorrow due to meetings).

As it stands now, I’m not upset, but more so just kinda disappointed in general. This is my first brand new vehicle and my first ever 'luxury' vehicle. While I mostly like the vehicle, the dealership has been underwhelming at times. Between setting expectations (on multiple occasions) and not following through, the disgusting Dodge Caravan and the wasted day due to a booking mistake, I dunno what to think. This booking mistake wouldn’t even bother me, if not for all the other things – I get that mistakes happen.

Many have you have owned multiple BMW’s and/or luxury vehicles. Is this the norm? Am I over-reacting? Would you expect more? I would love for the dealership to reach out and solicit feedback again, I’m not sure what is the best way to provide it otherwise? Sadly, I don’t have much faith in their Customer Relations Manager anymore (email/VM incident). I’m also sad I’ve never gotten an official survey from them as of yet.
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      05-17-2019, 02:13 AM   #2
The Dutch Joe
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Seems like the don't have control over their internal organisation..

Individually, these things can happen...
But all of them together, would also make me reconsider going to this dealer again..

Failing on communication and planning is one thing.
But failing on technically fixing, or even putting back together the car, is too much..

I would ask one of the Managers or Site Directors for a few minutes of their time..
And just explain you experience you had these first encounters.. Or let him read the mail...

A good leader should do something with these signals and maybe offer you a compensation of some sort..
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      05-17-2019, 08:10 AM   #3
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I am also in Canada - I know I expect a loaner car (a BMW) whenever I bring anything in for service (if I bought it from that dealer). Always had the same at Mercedes or Volvo. Volvo actually comes to my house, drops me off a XC90 inscription, takes my XC90 Inscription, gets it serviced and then brings it back to my house at no extra cost. Note that the XC90 Inscription is Volvo's most expensive vehicle (flagship), with the exception of the XC90 Excellence (which is the chauffeur version) and they still drop one as a loaner. I live in NB so obviously a much smaller community and dealers are fewer and far between, but I would not be happy taking a dirty Caravan as a shuttle, especially when it was a waste of time and nothing came out of it.

I don`t think you're overreacting. I would not be overly happy myself - sounds like your dealer is poorly managed and coordinated - or perhaps it was a one-off occurence.
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      05-17-2019, 09:18 AM   #4
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Caravan for shuttling to/from work is normal for scheduled same day service, dealership usually has one heading west, north and east and you can arrange for the return trip at any time. I would expect it to be clean and the driver professional, which it always has been so far. The reality is that BMW doesn't make a vehicle that can fit 5-7 adults comfortably for shuttling.

For anything multi-day or warranty/unscheduled like a failure of some kind I've always been given a loaner.
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      05-17-2019, 04:03 PM   #5
Scottatah
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To clarify, I was disappointed by a Dodge Caravan, but I get it. The bigger issue there is just how dirty it was.
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      05-18-2019, 08:49 PM   #6
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Problem is a dealership is three different businesses and they don’t seem to communicate well or want to get along with each other. So even is sales dept is going above and beyond they are at the mercy of the svc dept to do the job right.

For example, picked up my new X3 about a month ago. Got my windows tinted and then noticed a pretty deep scratch on the drivers side window. Called my sales advisor and he said to bring it in for a look see. Sales manager who closed my deal offered to replace it for no cost to me. He couldn’t warranty it, so he had to bill it to sales and have the service dept do the work. This was going above and beyond since he was going to eat the cost of the window from parts and labor from svc.

Pick up the car the next day and a few days later notice the ambient lighting wasn’t working on my drivers side door. Called sales advisor back and he said to bring it back in. Instead of continuing to use him as a middle man adding more work for him I just said I’d work directly with the svc dept since they screwed it up.

So, even though the sales dept went above and beyond to take care of me, the svc dept could care less and didn’t even do the work right. As a matter of fact when I picked it up the first time the door panel wasn’t even secured properly. I had to adjust myself. Not sure how that one got by inspection or even if it was inspected.

And to top it all off, sales dept has no control over the svc dept. Sales sold me the car but the svc dept is key to keeping me as a customer. If they can’t perform quality work I’ll go to another dealer who can and possibly buy my next BMW from them.

Heading back in next week to get the ambient lighting fixed. Hope all goes well.
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      05-23-2019, 06:43 PM   #7
Scottatah
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After my last service (fixing the emissions light - active grilles) and dropping the vehicle off at 730, but the shuttle not leaving until 820 for some reason....I decided to finally email the dealership.

I kept my email factual and professional. They didn't really have a lot of outs, but they were rather quick to contact me. I scheduled a time to call. In addition to thanking me for providing them the feedback and apologizing about 200 times, he mentioned some of the actions they're taking:
1. Getting their one shuttle van sent for a full detail (already done)
2. Discussing communication with advisors.
3. A few other communication practices.

On top, not that I was looking for this, but they offered the following:
1. A personal vehicle anytime I take mine in for service as long as I give him 24h notice. I think by personal he just meant he would orchestrate it, not an advisor trying to find him a loaner. I'll find out forsure in about 8000km or next time I'm in.
2. A full inside and out detail whenever is convenient for me.

It wasn't my intention to get free stuff, though I will absolutely appreciate both of those as long as they perform them as expected. Also do appreciate everything dude said on the phone and will be thrilled if they follow-through.

As someone that works in the service industry and reads survey feedback, I know that they want this even if there isn't much to say other than "yup, we dropped the ball. Here's some of the things we're going to do to be better next time".

All in all, happy outcome (thus far).
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      05-24-2019, 02:26 AM   #8
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