[Envuks]

Not acceptable in any way shape or form... This is the closest dealer to me by FAR, but I drive to RI and get dealership work done at inskip... Most of my work is done at an Indy, but my turbos under warranty (at inskip) and this new electrical recall (which will also be done at inskip)... This validates why I don't go to BMW of west springfield in a big way. I even felt uncomfortable going to them a couple weeks back to buy coolant.

I'm sorry about this incident. You need a new front bumper. Can't glue that

[dwells]

Hey, just figured I'd chime in here since I have experience with BMW West Springfield. Every experience I've had with them has proved unpleasant, and seeing this has made me decide for sure that I'm not going to be giving them any more chances despite the new staff and the fact that one of the sales guys there is great.

I'm going to go ahead and give you my list of grievances with them and hopefully inspire you to: A. fight them as hard as necessary to get your bumper properly replaced and B. never go back there again.

My first experience there was taking my car in for the HPFP recall - I was having long crank times and figured I'd get it fixed sooner rather than later. They said that replacing the HPFP was "unnecessary" and only performed a software update. I didn't feel like fighting it, so I just dealt with it.

The second time I went there was for a running light replacement. I sat there for, I kid you not, three hours despite having an appointment.

The third time was for various issues. First was that my long crank times were back in the cold and the car actually refused to start a couple times. After three days of being without my car, they informed me that "they could not reproduce the issue" and thus would not perform an HPFP replacement. They also informed me that the issues I was having with interior rattles were not covered under warranty (false) and there was "nothing that could be done anyway." I also had them take a look at my left brake light which was having issues with blown bulbs. They assured me that it was just the bulbs and there was no need for them to do anything with the wiring. Well, now I'm stuck with errors all the time because even good bulbs get reported as blown out and won't work. Of course, now I'm out of warranty.

I wound up taking my car to New Country BMW in Hartford, CT. They replaced my HPFP overnight with no hassle at all despite my car being out of warranty. Even looked over a handful of other things for me free of charge.

I should also share with you my father's experience with his X5 - he took it to BMW West Springfield for a few issues including HVAC and sunroof (which he believed to be under warranty and mentioned his warranty when talking to the SA) and, without consulting him to authorize the repairs, BMW West Springfield "repaired" the vehicle and handed him a $900 bill.

Perhaps the best part of the ordeal was the fact that they were unable to fix the sunroof, instead charging a $200 "diagnostic fee" - they said it was due to debris in the track. Were this actually the case, that means they billed him for something that takes literally 30 seconds to observe. Turns out this wasn't the issue at all actually, and the amount of debris (leaves and such) in there was within acceptable tolerances. Other choice fees included $80 for a running light replacement and $100 for rear wiper blade replacement.

Upon hearing this, I advised him to fight the unauthorized charges - it wasn't until he informed him that he was going to go through Amex for a chargeback that he got a reply, and even then it took two weeks for the refund to be issued. He then took his car to New Country BMW, who informed him that his warranty did in fact cover the issues, and they resolved everything completely free of charge.

One more short but sweet story - a friend of mine had his M3 towed there after the ECU blew. The older SA he spoke to did not know what an ECU was. The service team there installed the replacement ECU without checking to see if the EEPROM was installed, and my friend had to wait another several days after they discovered their error.


The moral of the story is stay far, far away from BMW West Springfield or any other Gengras dealerships.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by patrickguu

glue? that can be buffed out.

Ha!

Honestly, this is one of the few circumstances in which I would possibly lose my cool if the dealer didn't change their attitude quickly. Normally I'm all about calmly and rationally expressing a demand for better service. But these guys sound like grade-A sleazebags that may require some added incentive.

[GoRomeo]

I bet if you would have done this kind of damage to one of their cars, they would have nailed you to the last penny.

[Envuks]

Honestly, I wish this dealership was worthwhile. They're so close to me, but are just a total joke to do business with. I wish bmwna would pull their distribution license so that we could get a quality BMW dealership in the area. I can't own (better put, won't own) a BMW under warranty while they're my closest dealer because I don't want to deal with their awful service.

This dealer's reputation alone is reason to go elsewhere. There are other (quality) dealerships in driving distance so why bother with the headache that is BMW of west Springfield?

This story isn't even the worst I have heard over the years. They seem to always start from a position of not trying to help customers rather than the other way around... They embody everything that is wrong with the perception of the BMW brand.

[armani12]

Hi guys,
Sorry for the late response, but I was quiet busy lately. The only way to really scare them was to tell them I was going to go with my insurance (I spoke to my insurance the day the damage happened in case I'm not happy with their decision). The SA was very frustrated when I mentioned this, and I'm not sure how bad a claim can hurt a dealership, but at the end I had everything taken care of plus they said they aligned my car and road-force balanced all four wheels for free.

I like a guy they have named Jason (He is a salesman, but he will be a SA next month as he told me just recently). When I just purchased the car from them, my rfts had around 5/32 of an inch... 6 months later and after driving around 8k miles 1 of the tires caught a nail, so I went to get my tire replaced because I purchased the wheel/tire warranty. The SA said my tire had around 3/32 of an inch, so I explained that it wasn’t so long since I bought the car, so I called Jason and he quickly had my tire replaced. Weeks later I had a low coolant, so I took it back to the dealership to get more coolant and to ask them to check for any leakage. They gave me a hard time and wanted to charge me 20 bucks I believe for the coolant, but Jason gave me coolant for free. And a couple of times thanks to him I've got diagnosis for free, but when Jason was out (and the new service team came) I took it because of a creaking noise in the suspension every time I will hit bumps and a shake when pressing on the brakes, so I mentioned this to the SA, and he said you have warranty so you might just pay 50 bucks for CPO work. When I had the car back they gave me a bill for 178 dollars I believe, and the SA explained this charge is for only 1 hour out of the 3 hours they spent trying to find the problem... the page they handed to me said 3 hours of work on checking the sway bar and found the bushings to be bad and they said I needed new brakes. SO I thought that this sway bar must be difficult to look at. I took it to an independent shop for alignment and ask them to change my sway bar bushings... they said they will check that first because they want to make sure that’s the cause of the problem. They said my bushing were ok and a little of lubricant was poured on them I guess, but my trust or upper control arms bushings were leaking, so the independent shop replaced them and all problems were gone. They also mentioned my brakes were at half their life, and I will be ok for a couple of thousand miles.

Finally, yesterday I took my car back to the dealer because I hear this ringing/chirping noise near the engine belts, and it gets louder as I press on the gas regardless of the speed of the car... It sounds like a tensioner belt or bad pulley, so I took it there to just ask them whether this will be covered by CPO, and they said belt wont, but pulley will, so they asked one of their BMW techs to come see my car real quick. The tech sat on my car and opened the hood and started looking between the engine for any noises, and he went to my trunk to look for the badge I guess, but I debagged my 335i, so he asked me "Is this a 328?' I was so surprised he couldn’t tell my car by the engine sound or what was under the hood (mine is stock 100%). SO I THINK I WILL BE SEAKING ANOTHER DEALER FOR SURE.

I have more stuff to tell, but I think this is enough. Thanks for all the input and have a good weekend everyone...

[tigermack]

New one for sure...

[///M3NACE]

If this was my car I would have it fixed by my own shop and pay for it and send the bill or sue.

[Runner340]

Originally Posted by armani12

The tech sat on my car and opened the hood and started looking between the engine for any noises, and he went to my trunk to look for the badge I guess, but I debagged my 335i, so he asked me "Is this a 328?' I was so surprised he couldn’t tell my car by the engine sound or what was under the hood (mine is stock 100%). SO I THINK I WILL BE SEAKING ANOTHER DEALER FOR SURE.

I have more stuff to tell, but I think this is enough. Thanks for all the input and have a good weekend everyone...

The tech may have been a transplant from their Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership.

All kidding aside, sounds like this particular BMW dealership has some serious internal operation problems. This should not be the experience a BMW owner should be having...

[armani12]

Remember I told you about the problem I've been having with my car after I've got it back? Well, I'm not sure if this is related, but I looked at the document they handed me on Wednesday of the past week, and I noticed they put 270 MILES!!!. I mean I had their loaner and told them I was going to NJ and put quite some miles, but they never said about putting so many miles for taking a bumper out and then in + the balance of the 4 wheels and alignment... They body shop they sent it to is located in the same town (if you know West Springfield, MA the shop is called Fathers and Sons collision). The distance from the dealer to the body shop is no more than 5 miles so I mean why so many miles in my car??? How do I know whoever had it didn't abuse or drove the crap out of it? Do you really need to drive it that much to test for bent rims? alignment? I've lost my cool today with this, so I will talk to the manager this Monday... I'm officially done with this dealer even if that means no more loaners.

I dropped off the car on March 19th. On the 20th they said my car is already at the shop with new wheels they put on. On Friday the 22nd I visited the body shop and my bumper was already taken off. On Tuesday the 26th Dealer got the car back late afternoon and I was told they only need to align the suspension. On the 27th I've had the car back. Unless the body shop (who had it 7 days with no bumper) drove it a lot of miles, the only other explanation is that someone from the dealership took a road trip with my car (the dealership only had it 2 days).


I erased the SA name on the picture because I don't know who's fault was this, but the doc is pretty clear... yeahh friendly service... guaranteed repairs for life ha!

[bplewis24]

Make sure you report these guys to BMWNA.

Even if the body shop did it, IMO the dealership is responsible for the body shop they trust with their cars.

[Envuks]

Originally Posted by bplewis24

Make sure you report these guys to BMWNA.

Even if the body shop did it, IMO the dealership is responsible for the body shop they trust with their cars.

Ditto. This situation just gets worse and worse.... I would have just pushed for a cash settlement in the bumper. Even if it didn't cover the whole thing, at least you don't have to deal with these guys.

You should file with BMWNA. There is NO reason to put that many miles on a customer car. Totally insane!

[dwells]

Originally Posted by armani12

Well, I'm not sure if this is related, but I looked at the document they handed me on Wednesday of the past week, and I noticed they put 270 MILES!!!

That's insane. I don't know if you read my rather lengthy post up above where I shared my experiences with BMW West Springfield, but it further reinforces that you should never go back to them.