[korr]

Hey guys i ran into some issues with a bmw dealer service down in atlanta, and i like to hear some inputs from you guys.

I have a 2011 bmw 335i only about 40k miles on it, last month as i was driving i get a message on idrive saying the car needed checked for safety maintenance and brake fluid flush. I figure since i haven't even gotten the recalls done yet, i might as well get it done together. I call a bmw dealer down here in ATL (not gonna mention the dealer name yet) and made an appointment on 6/27 to bring my car in, the service reception lady told me it was going to be a 2 hour job, no loaner car needed, fine no problem.


So i go in on the day of the appointment, which was about 10 am, they assigned me to a SA, and the jobs that needed to be done were, -recall drivers front air bag, -recall blower motor wiring, - replace interior micro filter, -brake fluid flush, finally a multi point inspection checkup. He tells me its gonna take anywhere around 4 - 6 hours, and offers me a enterprise loaner car. I told him i needed the car by the end of the day, and he assured me it will. I go home waited till about 4.30pm and finally decides to call and see the progress on my car, the service reception lady tells me my SA has left for the day...... ! Then i proceeded to ask if my car was ready? She tells me that my car has been sitting on the LOT nothing has been done, and another SA has taken over the job from my previoius SA. She tells me to call back tomorrow morning to be updated. I was already not very happy at this point.

Next morning rolls around, i needed my own car back, I call the service dept, and ask the status of my car, the service reception lady, tells me to wait as she goes to check, 5 mins later she comes back and tells me its still sitting on the lot and no job has been done. this is around 930 am, so i ask if i can just come and pick up my car, because my sons baby seat is in there, and we had places we needed to go. She says yes you can just come in and pick it up. I get there around 10am, finds my new SA, and he pretty much was clueless, didnt know what needed to be done to my car, i tell him i need my car back, since the reception told me its just sitting there, the SA gets very nervous started to making calls, and tells me to wait as he ran down somewhere, couple mins later he comes back tells me, "oh your car is already being worked on, it will be done in 1 hour" i said ?????? your service dept telling different stories, SA says reception lady has no clue, so i said the previous SA said it needs 4-6 hrs to be done... your saying it only will take 1hr???? then the SA tells me no no, the tech been working on your car since 8 30 am. And gurantees me it be done in 1 hour. Long story short i get it in 1 hour and everything looked fine and i head home. Around


Fast FORWARD to yesterday, im taking my aunt to the airport, i get a flat on my left rear tire on the high way, i pull over to the emergency lane, calls geico, the tow truck gets me to kauffman tires, to get it replaced, and moments later the technician comes and gets me, he wanted to show me something, my left tire that had blown out, had no treads left, it was bald....! my right rear tire had no treads left as well....the front was good. He said you got lucky, it could have been serious. I'm thinking the rear tires were changed at around 20k miles, I drive this car maybe less than 5k miles a year. how the heck ?

Next day i call the bmw service dept and told the SA about what happened, i told him, if you guys did a multi inspection checkup on the car, how can you possibly not notice my tire treads were gone? He said he honestly doesnt know what happened, and its ridiculous, I told him straight up who ever inspected my car needs to be fired, this could have been a serous accident going 65 on the highway. And truthfully speaking, I'm questioning if you guys actually performed any service/maintenance to my car at all. He tells me this matter has escalated beyond his powers, and has to let service manager speak to me, which will be tomorrow morning. And lets see if the manager calls me.

right now Im really starting to think, they BSed me and didnt even perform any service to my car at all. a claimed 4-6 hour job, finished in 1 hour? I mean when i called the lady tells me no job was done to the car, and it sat in the lot, but when i got to the dealer, the SA said its been worked on since the early morning... the recalls, brake fluid flush? Someone is bullshiting. that or they didnt do a multi inspection like they say they did.

Anyways What you guys think?

-*Update 7.18, SA said the service manager will call this morning so far no call yet. However i get email from them, one of those auto template emails saying thank you appreciate my service, and want me to give them 5 stars on a bmw survey. They must be out of their mind, i personally take this as an insult after what just happened. I will give them till the end of today to contact me.

[Nickco43]

It sounds like you need to find an Indy mechanic. A good indy mechanic will provide better since than 90% of dealers.

Go open your hood and remove this plastic cover:





Open up the master cylinder. If the fluid is dark they didn't change it and if the fluid is clear or yellow they changed it. Any good mechanic could have done a break flush, swapped out an airbag and replaced the blower motor wiring in an hour if they were moving. If they didn't perform the recalls and when they did that opens them up to huge litigation, especially with a Takata Death Bag. I am 99% sure those items were repaired properly. Obviously they did not perform the safety check and it is common practice for dealers so say they checked everything but they never do.

[korr]

Originally Posted by Nickco43

It sounds like you need to find an Indy mechanic. A good indy mechanic will provide better since than 90% of dealers.

Go open your hood and remove this plastic cover:





Open up the master cylinder. If the fluid is dark they didn't change it and if the fluid is clear or yellow they changed it. Any good mechanic could have done a break flush, swapped out an airbag and replaced the blower motor wiring in an hour if they were moving. If they didn't perform the recalls and said they did that opens them up to huge litigation, especially with a Takata Death Bag. Obviously they did not perform the safety check and it is common practice for dealers so say they checked everything but they never do.

thanks..

[JUMAS]

What is you need to do is to contact BMW NA. have them open a case, give them all the information you posted here, give them the names of who you worked with. they will call the dealer and advocate for you.

[city1991]

Originally Posted by JUMAS

What is you need to do is to contact BMW NA. have them open a case, give them all the information you posted here, give them the names of who you worked with. they will call the dealer and advocate for you.

BMW NA is worthless. Called them when the dealership caught my X3 on fire and weren't giving me any scenario's that worked for me. They said to work it out with the dealership. Will never call those worthless POS again.

[tlow98]

The best thing you can do is write a negative review on google and never return.

Anything else will be a waste of energy and time.

[Nickco43]

Originally Posted by tlow98

The best thing you can do is write a negative review on google and never return.

Anything else will be a waste of energy and time.

Holly shit the dealer dicks you around once and you want to bite their head off. Give them a chance to make it right. If they don't want to make it right then bite their head off.

[e90yyc]

Yeah it sounds like they frigged up but I agree with Nickco: give them a chance to make things right.

I’m sorry to hear about your experience though - that sucks man.

[JUMAS]

Originally Posted by city1991

BMW NA is worthless. Called them when the dealership caught my X3 on fire and weren't giving me any scenario's that worked for me. They said to work it out with the dealership. Will never call those worthless POS again.

Well that sucks for you. BMW NA took care of me when I had an issue with my dealer. Had me in a loaner and on the road within 24 hours once dealer was contacted and issue was handled. If you called once im confident you spoke to a “worthless person” it happens. It’s customer service. Persistence is key.

Either way. OP a 5 minute phone call isn’t going to catch your car on fire, so call bmw NA.

[korr]

Originally Posted by JUMAS

Well that sucks for you. BMW NA took care of me when I had an issue with my dealer. Had me in a loaner and on the road within 24 hours once dealer was contacted and issue was handled. If you called once im confident you spoke to a “worthless person” it happens. It’s customer service. Persistence is key.

Either way. OP a 5 minute phone call isn’t going to catch your car on fire, so call bmw NA.

Thanks I will

[CTinline-six]

Originally Posted by e90yyc

Yeah it sounds like they frigged up but I agree with Nickco: give them a chance to make things right.

I’m sorry to hear about your experience though - that sucks man.

This. Calmly explain to them what happened, and that you would like to give them the chance to make things right before you escalate this further.

This shows that you are giving them a chance, but also threatening to not let it go if they choose to play dumb and ignore you. I've never had this fail me when working with businesses. Most businesses want return customers, unless they are stupid.

[John 070]

Yeah I think you're getting hosed. I took my car in for the airbag recall 2 yrs. ago, and a 4 wheel alignment. I got my car back and I had a brake warning.

That's interesting since I had just done all 4 brakes and the ABS/DSC hydro myself, and had driven less than 100 miles. They tried to say it was like that when it came in. So I did what OP did, if that's the case, it would have been pointed out when I dropped it off, since you have lackeys taking pics with iPad Pros and you read the key for faults.

Long story short nothing got any response until my BBB complaint dropped them from a A+ to a C-. Now suddenly I got the, "What can we do to make this right," phone call. Even BMWNA told me nothing we can do, and no repsonse either.

I told them what they did, and I said you can change my water pump (I just wanted to see the reaction). Service director says, "We can do that."

Well I decided I never want these guys touching my car ever again, so I never went back. They sent me a check in the mail for what they broke, and also a "free oil change" coupon, which I threw away. Again, I would rather DIY than to ever let them touch my car again. Mistakes do happen, but lying is not acceptable at least to me. Find another dealer, but if you feel you're entitled to any type of monetary compensation from the inconvenience, do the BBB thing. Nothing else seems to matter to a BMW dealership.

(lucky no problems with the selling dealership, the above is near my office)

[tlow98]

Originally Posted by Nickco43

Holly shit the dealer dicks you around once and you want to bite their head off. Give them a chance to make it right. If they don't want to make it right then bite their head off.

I don’t think leaving a public review is biting their head off at all. As long as it’s factual and presented appropriately then you’re just recounting the facts.

Besides, it’s more than likely the only way to get the business to make it right - sad but true.

[John 070]

Originally Posted by Nickco43

It sounds like you need to find an Indy mechanic. A good indy mechanic will provide better since than 90% of dealers.

Go open your hood and remove this plastic cover:





Open up the master cylinder. If the fluid is dark they didn't change it and if the fluid is clear or yellow they changed it. Any good mechanic could have done a break flush, swapped out an airbag and replaced the blower motor wiring in an hour if they were moving. If they didn't perform the recalls and when they did that opens them up to huge litigation, especially with a Takata Death Bag. I am 99% sure those items were repaired properly. Obviously they did not perform the safety check and it is common practice for dealers so say they checked everything but they never do.

I find that with DOT4, it looks like water, clear. And it does take some time since BMW opens all 4 bleeders at each caliper. With DOT3, it has a golden color even when new.

I now prefer to do the flush myself, since I had to do that plus the ABL bleed with the DSC Hydro. I could see paying someone as it's just time consuming. It's all good. Maybe they're like Lexus and used a turkey baster lol (Crooks!)

my shot at Lexus, they have unbelievable customer service, but there's zero enthusiastic aspect and the service costs more than BMW and they don't do things right. Funny how incompetence is everywhere, just that Lexus owners are happy.

[e90yyc]

Former dealership employee here. Though I didn't work in service, I certainly heard enough about service in my time there that I feel qualified to chip in my opinion.

I don't mean to turn this into a circle jerk, but as CTinline-six rightly pointed out, diplomacy is always the best option.

I'm always amused at the "go in with guns blazing!" responses people seem to get when they post their dealership "horror stories." Look, I'm not saying the OP is wrong to be upset; all I'm saying is that when we remove emotion from the equation, most (operative word) of these situations are not nearly as bad as we first think/feel.

Yes, something worse COULD have happened. But it didn't. So let's focus on facts, and not hypotheticals.

Unless you feel a righteous indignation so strong that regardless of the outcome you'll never return to that dealer, if I was you I'd be interested in preserving a good working relationship with them before going straight to 11 (threatening legal action). There's no faster way to piss the other party off and sour a relationship than to use the 'S' word. Frankly I think that threatening to sue unless absolutely necessary is petulant.

Where I worked, they would lick the salt off your balls after you ran an ultra marathon just to keep you as a client. I'm confident they will take care of you man. It sounds like you're reasonable and are just seeking others' input, but in my experience, even the unreasonable clients were looked after by the dealership.

You'll be all good.


Edit:

Meant to add to my earlier post that the way I interpreted the SA's statement that your car will be "done in one hour" is that the tech is currently on hour 5 of a 6 hour job, if you know what I mean. I didn't really read that as "this entire job will only take one hour." Could just be me though...

[e90yyc]