[bmw3series2010]

hello members

this may seem a bit trivial to some people but because it has happened to me on many occasions i wanted to see if other members think this is an issue worth discussing. several days ago i booked my car in to Shitner (pardon the pun) Oldbury to have my rear alloy refurbished and a brake fluid change. i had spent several hours the day earlier detailing my car so i pointed out to sytner that i do not require your complimentary was and vac (it has to be complimentary.....have you seen the way they was and vac !!!!!!!!!!! awful !!)

collected car following day...joined the m5 and low pressure warning come on. checked the pressure and the idiots only inflated it to 1.95 when it should have been about 2.9....so not very happy so far. as i always carry an electric pump was able to inflate but at all times i wore gloves so whenever i sat in my car my hands were clean. i then noticed my hands felt a bit sticky on the steering wheel and when i got home got a clean rag out with some leather cleaner and wiped down the steering wheel and was disgusted to see the dirt that come off the wheel. i then did the same with the drivers seat and again the seat was covered in grime from top to bottom.

after receiving a text message from sytner this morning asking me if i was "delighted" with my service i felt that i have put up for too long with bmw technicians who do not bother to take care of our cars. benham bmw have twice damaged my car when in for service and now i insist on going over the car with a service member before leaving it to them

i just wanted some feedback from other members if me asking for techinicians to take care of our cars especially when it comes to using their greasy hands/clothes all over the interior of our cars is being unreasonable. i would also like to see if other members have noticed any dirt/grease on their cars when returning from bmw service....thanks guys.

[Mud]

express your concerns with Anneka, who works for Sytner and she can investigate on your behalf.

But have you mentioned any of this to the dealership? I would call them and tell them you are not happy and mention the grips and ask them how they are going to make you happy.

[dxb335d]

I've had some awful experiances also mate.
Not with your dealer though. Write to the dealer principal and
you may get some money back off the bill.
Then do not use them again.

[scottishpete]

Yip first contact needs to be Service manager,if that fails write to DP with your concerns

[toxicnerve]

Mate, my local Sytner did the same thing. I got about half a mile up the road and warning light came on. Then when I took it in for another issue they scuffed both o/s wheels and didn't tell me! I spotted it before leaving so they agreed to sort it. The service manager said even if I had spotted it after leaving the would have sorted it out for me butnot sure I believe him.

[bmw3series2010]

just finished washing the car and discovered what a p*** poor job they have done refurbishing the alloy. was told by body shop to just pay a bit extra and have the whole wheel done so i agreed only just to discover that finished look of the alloy is way below standard. it seems the prep work they have done on the alloy is very minor as all the imperfections in the alloy (around the spokes) have just been painted over. the bumps in the paintwork not are only noticeable when rubbing your fingers over them but also very obvious when the light reflects of the alloy.

i think this is the final straw i am going to have to call the service manager in the morning. they charge their customers over £100 an hour and pay peanuts to there service staff but its always the customer who gets inconvenienced

[themangood]

That is what you get when you take your car to main stealers, shoddy work. I have had my own experiences with 2 different main stealers. No names

[Anneka @ Sytner]

Hi bmw335iconvertible,
Sorry to hear about the tyre pressures being low, I'll make sure that the feedback reaches Oldbury so that we can avoid a reoccurance of this mistake.

Regarding the alloy wheel refurb, this will need more investigating. Our smart repair teams work to approved BMW standards, however, if the finish is very poor we will reassess.

On occassions where we are asked not to wash a car, we usually ask our valeting teams not to clean the cars at all (as we have done so in this situation). My apologies if this was not your preference.

Our technicians really do try to keep the cars as clean as possible, they do cover the seats before they get into your cars. We don't currently cover the steering wheels as this would create a safety issue with grip on the wheel. I'm really sorry that you found that the cleanliness of the steering wheel and seats was not satisfactory.

[ss134]

I've had several issues with my local BMW dealership in Germany as well. For a 'premium' brand i have been unimpressed to say the least with the way they operate. It got to the stage where i would take the car in for a minor fault and dread what other issues the car would come back with that it didn't have before it went in.

[EddieL]

My tuppence worth.

If bmw335iconvertible can see that there is a poor finish to his wheels, and I am prepared to trust him on this, then I'm sure the technician seen it also.

The overwhelming impression I get in circumstances like this is that the guy has seen the finish is not up to standard and thought 'F**k it, if he complains we'll fix it'. Then you get all the assurances of how we will look into why this happened when basically it could have been avoided by having someone employed to over check the work for quallity. You can see it's not right with a free visual check so why let it go out and cause the inconvenience? The answer of course is money, and it's not good enough.

Hope you get it right second time of asking.

[toxicnerve]

Originally Posted by ss134

It got to the stage where i would take the car in for a minor fault and dread what other issues the car would come back with that it didn't have before it went in.

Yeah, this is what happens. Your confidence is completely eroded and you're left worrying about "what now?" even when you take it in for the most trivial of issues.

[bmw3series2010]

hello anneka

the dealership in question was oldbury not solihull. i had driven almost 20 miles before the warning light came on so i am not sure if the tyre has been damaged internally. the reason i did not ask for the car to be washed and vac'd was because i had cleaned the entire car the day before. just to make sure i used a clean cloth to check the passenger side seat and that was spotless so it was pretty obvious whoever drove/sat in the car a) did not remove there dirty gloves when driving and b) did not cover the seat. are you saying if i had asked for the wash and vac, part of that service includes cleaning the seat and steering wheel or have i misunderstood you. i am also curious to know if my car had been off the premises as i noticed on the invoice when the car was booked in to when i collected the car 10 miles were added onto the mileage.

as for the alloys benham bmw damaged my previous alloy wheel and as a gesture of goodwill (and having bought my car from them from new) they offered to refurbish both front wheels and when i inspected the wheels after the re-furb they were as new in other words spotless were as yours were spotMORE !!!

i normally don't bother complaining as i have found it to be a waste of time but when you have a tyre under inflated, soiled seat/steering wheel and finally the sub-standard work then you have to say something. since 2005 i have purchased 2 new cars from sytner central and it infuriates me when i receive this level of service from a premium manufacturer. this was the first time i have used sytner oldbury and it will probably be my last.

[bmw3series2010]

Exactly right eddie that’s was so infuriating. When I went to collect my car it was raining, which is why I always try and drop off and collect on a dry day so you can check for damage. I could not really tell what condition the wheel was in but it must have been damn obvious to whoever was doing the work that the finish was not up to standard. Its only today when I washed the car and dried it off did I notice the shoddy finish. It’s the kind of finish you expect from chips away not bmw. Now I have to take time out from work to sort this out. It cost me £25 just in taxi fares as well as the inconvenience. I hate having to take my car into the dealers as like “toxicnerve” put it you are left wondering what will go wrong this time !

[Anneka @ Sytner]

I will speak to the service manager of Oldbury in the morning, I am certain that he will do all he can to rectify the situation and am sincerely sorry that these issues have occured.

[toxicnerve]

Anneka,

No disrespect but I have to agree with EddieL. You are well aware of the issues I experienced when the bodywork was carried out on my car and it seems the problem of quality control is not isolated. Indeed my car is still badly finished (holograms and scuffs) but I simply can't be bothered with taking the car back in again due to the inconvenience and the potential for something else to go wrong.

I paid top dollar for the work and frankly regret it no end.

[Anneka @ Sytner]

Toxicnerve, I wasn't aware that you hadn't taken us up on our offer to rectify this. I agree that you paid a lot of money for the work which is why I think it is important for you to be happy with the finish, I have contacted Dave in this regard to see what he would like to offer. Apologies that this is still outstanding.

With regards to the quality checking, I agree that something is clearly lacking in this department and will bring this to management attention immediately. As always, thank you for your valuble feedback.

[Em135eye]

toxic - you have holograms on your car? Cool!

I hate it when dealers wash the car - even when you ask them not to. All I can think of is grit filled sponges - arrggggh!!!

Anneka - just out of interest, what's your role at Sytner? On a positive note, Tim at Sytner Leicester was excellent when he sold me my 335d last year.

[Anneka @ Sytner]

I'm your Internet Forum Relationships Executive, in the most basic of explanations, it's my job to make sure that our forum members receive a fantastic level of customer service and support online and to help with any dealer issues/queries that may arise.

Toxicnerve - I have spoken with Dave and he would like to go over the car again and polish out any holograms that still remain. He apologises for missing them last time.

[Irnbrukid]

[Ti Rich]

Sytner Oldbury repaired my front alloy a few months back. They did a good job on the repair BUT they have re lacquered the whole inside of the wheel and sealed in the dirt they did not clean off first!!! So my alloy now looks permanently dirty on the inside of the wheel. Its going in for an oil change a week Wednesday and i will raise this with the service manager then as i have not had the time to take it back yet.

On the subject of the oil change the prices just keep going up and up. £285 for oil change and micro filter service is just a rip off. I said i would change the microfilter myself and the price dropped to about £230. In other words they removed the microfilter but not any labour charge. When i said that's expensive and will phone around the price instantly dropped to £196. Still expensive but quite a bit cheaper.

I have brought two new cars from here in the past two years and just feel rather let down........I pay for all the servicing myself, it's my own car. I just feel that i am getting ripped off unless i argue the toss.


rant over.............

[flyfs6]

I couldn't resist posting this all the way from the Asian continent/

Ti - Service charges are on par with the industry. On another note the service estimate for my sisters 2008 Yaris was £223.35 plus brake fluid...I'd almost consider running the BMW a bargain in this case. Still considered expensive anyway.

IMO a perfect alloy wheel repair is only when the old finish is completely stripped off in a acid dip and the wheel is repainted properly e.g. through Lepsons etc, even then there maybe a difference in colour to the original finish. A smart repair is hard to perfect but only as good as the person performing the repair, local repairs are even worse.

[creepy coupe]

Originally Posted by flyfs6

IMO a perfect alloy wheel repair is only when the old finish is completely stripped off in a acid dip and the wheel is repainted properly e.g. through Lepsons etc, even then there maybe a difference in colour to the original finish. A smart repair is hard to perfect but only as good as the person performing the repair, local repairs are even worse.

Ideally yes, but when we go to see/buy our used BMW's, we all want them yesterday, so the dealers only have a limited amount of time to get things fixed, Sytners or High Wycombe got refurbed a couple of wheels on the 335 I bought from them and to this day, a year later, the repair is top notch.