Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexH
I think you are a little dense. Your argument of overhead cost to justify charging $200-$300 for a 5 minute job makes no sense. If that’s the case, then an oil change at the dealer should cost the same, no?. All garage shops (at least in CA) are required to post their hourly rate. An independent shop is normally ½ of the dealer’s rate. So yes, dealers charge a higher hourly rate because of their higher overhead cost. But that does not mean that they can charge 3 hours of labor for something that takes 5-10 minutes. So stop spewing the BS and stick to the issue- fraud.
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I guess I didn't type slowly enough. You are looking at it from the actual time it takes to have the GT1 process the registration change, which is not how auto dealer's operate. With the BT Scan tool it probably takes 5 minutes. But the actual cost to the dealer (or independent BMW repair shop) is more than just the Tech's time. And the Tech probably needs a half hour to do the work anyway to account for setup, clean up, etc. So if the Tech bills out to you at $100 you are expecting it to cost you $8.33 for 5 minutes of work, which is just not realistic.
The original post I responded to said he was quoted 1.7 hours. It seems a bit excessive, but 1 hour doesn't (and the poster probably should have negotiated for 1 hour of time). The dealer also has to warranty his work incase the Tech screws something up during the procedure. And it is not illegal, and not fraud, it is what the Dealer thinks his customers are willing to pay for the service. That is based on several factors, such as the customer's trust of the service department, the competition of other BMW repair facilities in the area, and the ability or inability of the customer having the knowledge and tools to do the procedure himself. If you wanted to do it yourself you'd have to have a $800 lap top, $300 BT scan tool, and the time and knowledge to perform the procedure. Do you think the better deal is for the dealer to charge $170 for the service, or you to spend $1,100 to get the equipment to do it yourself - at the risk of screwing up the ECU module by not properly performing the procedure?
When BMW was selling the Z8 and dealers were charging $20K over MSRP, was that fraud? If he charged you for the service and did not perform the service, then that would be fraud.
For the 90% of BMW owners, who are well off and uninterested in having deep involvement the actual maintenance of their BMW, just pay the dealer to install the battery. The dealer is going to operate his business in a manner that satisfies highest percentage of his customers.