BMW dealer problems, what should i do?

[olf]

Hmmm, I had a side window replaced by autoglass after a little scrote broke into it recently. That's not Original Teile as they say.

Bummer, got me thinking.

If I were you I would ask glass fitting dealership to authorise the warranty work at the dealer the car is at now or come and pick the car up at their own cost.

[Wacky Racer]

I would ask myself why the door glass is not BMW branded...

Has the car door been involved in a bump, or is it simply an opportunistic thief has broken the window to steal a radio, sat nav or something???

[MitchT]

M3E46 said:

What would you do in this situation?

I'd sell my BMW pretty darn quick if it were valuable. As this rot sets and becomes more widespread residuals are going to plummet. Until BMW clean up their act I wouldn't think of buying another car from them and if the one I have now was valuable I'd get shut, quick, before its value starts to reflect the poor service that customers are receiving. Maybe when their profits start to suffer because people aren't buying new BMWs, knowing that they'll have trouble selling them on later becuase people no longer want to pay premium used prices for what is no longer a premium ownership experience they'll wake up and sort their act out.

Have you told Vines that they sold you a car with non-official glass and that this is now affecting a warranty claim? I'd be interested to know where they stand on it.

[Silent1]

Call head office, i had a similar problem with the mini and Specialist cars stevenage, the claimed the a-pillar trim wasn't covered because the windscreen had been replaced (before i bought it from them) and the trim had to come off to change it so they wanted to charge me £30+ for the parts and 1 hour fitting time when BMW st albans said it was a warranty issue,

Then i had the steering wheel leather start to peel they put it down to handcream being used on it, i pointed out neither me or my girlfriend used handcream but they wouldn't budge.

So i put a call into head office, they looked into the matter and within 2 days i had all of the parts replaced FOC except i had to pay steering wheel fitting, the only shame was that it was BMW head office that paid for the goodwill and specialist cars wouldn't even stretch to the £38 fitting charge

It's such a shame as it's the polar opposite at audi, they will try and put anything through as a warranty claim before asking for money and they will also go out of there way to help

Maybe BMW dealerships will start to learn aftersales is more important than presales and that whether it's £10k or £100K you've spent, you're just as important

[olf]

Nobody else makes M3's!!!

[bmwdrivernigel]

I have dealt with Tom Dodd at Vines for years, he used to be at Royal Ascot. Must have had over 100 7 series over the years and he is brand new, Vines is an independent, and always bend over backwards for me, there isnt a better BMW dealer in the south of England. It is good to hear that they will try to keep a driver happy. Stick with them and they will keep you happy ( ish )

[MitchT]

No response from Sytner then?

[darreni]

The problem is that although you bought the car as an AUC, from BMW, the contract lies with the supplying dealer, any problems & you are left to argue with them. BMW UK do not want to get involved with disputes between customer & dealer & have no power to force the supplying dealer to sort any problems.

I am going through a similar issue with the dealer that supplied my M3 as an AUC at the moment. BMW UK are useless. Legal action may be the route forward.

[olf]

M3E46 said:

Update:

Seek authority from my suppling dealer? Authority to what? Allow you to process the claim?

This is what I said in my original reply to you. Get the original dealer to authorise the warranty work, then Sytner are covered.

[ean218]

M3E46 said:

How can another dealer authorise work that the other dealer deems not to be covered by BMW guidelines and BMW UK allowed the work to go ahead at the supplying dealer, with no risk to their licence?

On closer inspection you may well find that "authorise work" actually means that Vines would have been asked to pay for it themselves, rather than getting it done through the BMW warranty system. Sytner wouldn't have been worried about their franchise, the service manager was probably worried about not getting paid by BMW. Even now with Vines doing the work themselves they may not get paid by BMW.

All seems quite reasonable to me, you were supplied by Vines. They supplied you something that wasn't quite kosher, albeit probably through no fault of their own. You then approached Sytner to do some work, they discovered the not quite kosher thing and pointed it back at Vines to sort out.

[Fixedwheelnut]

Unfortuneatly any non BMW equipment is not covered by Warranty regardless of who sold the car, if Vines sold you the car then it is their responsobility to repair it, if Sytners were to repair it then they would not be able to claim it under Warranty as BMW would simply reject the claim as a non genuine part, as such they would be out of pocket for something that was not their fault in the first place.

If Vines have now repaired it then they have done so at their own expense they cannot claim back anything from BMW.

To be honest Sytners did not really explain the situation to you very well. At our dealership they would usually contact the selling dealer and explain the situation, the selling dealer then may or may not authorise the repair work to be carried out or they may want to inspect the vehicle themselves.

Or the Customer may choose to pay for the repair then claim it back from their selling dealer.
Hope that helps make it clearer.