I am fed up with appalling service at Sydney's factory Rushcutter's Bay BMW / MINI dealership. When you buy a car, you never consider that servicing would be enough to put you off buying into a particular brand... Well, I have been proven wrong.
As the only dealer in the CBD and the only factory owned dealer in NSW, they are incredibly busy. However, they only staff their dealership with skeleton numbers. You could say 1 staff member per 100 customers based on my observations.
So, the experience is as follows:
Dropping your car off: Typically you are on your way to work and in a rush as the dealership is out of the way of the CBD. Expect to walk in and join a line of 10 or so customers deep being served by a lone receptionist. Once you get to the reception desk, you are then kindly asked to wait for at minimum 30 minutes before you can even speak to a service representative to discuss the work you would like performed. Tip: Wear a suit, you will get preference over everyone else in the queue. A little bit of customer discrimination really helps build customer loyalty.
Communication: While your car is being serviced, if you need to follow up or make any contact whatsoever with your service rep, you won't be able to. The main dealership phone number rings out... No answering machine, nothing. So you try several more attempts. After 5 or so calls, you eventually get a receptionist who then asks to leave a message. You leave the message, wait 24 hours... Nothing. Pathetic.
Picking up your car: Don't think this will be any easier than drop off, you will need to kindly wait another 30 minutes while your service rep finishes his coffee.
Inspection of work performed post service: The service rep only takes your money. Don't expect him to walk you to your car to talk through the work performed. No, just get pointed out the door where some junior valet runs and grabs your car.
Workmanship: I recently requested a front brake replacement, windscreen replacement (chipped), to deal with a leak resulting in cabin flooding, investigate premature clutch wear and fix the rear driver's side speaker rattle. All work performed was half assed at best.
Issues Incurred:
- Brake pads; $450 and you get the cheapest and nastiest brake pads available. I have white wheels and I don't think these are the same quality as the original fitted pads. I had black wheels in less than 2 days from excessive brake dust.
- Windscreen replacement; Bonnet has multiple scratches, the windscreen is not the auto lights/wipers compatable glass, the side A pillar moulds have been chipped, the interior roof lining where the windscreen makes contact is hacked and damaged, the car bonnet was removed for the windscreen install and is now out of alignment, windscreen washers now shoot over the windscreen...
- Cabin flooding fix; The issue was said to be the front passenger side door seal. However, I disagree, it was the aircon runoff and they have just not admitted to the real damage incurred. Further, there was mould evident in the rear of the car with the rear floor mats growing it... I requested at minimum the interior carpets be steam cleaned. They have not been even vacuumed. This was a manufacturer/design flaw and warranty has done jack all to fix the subsequent damage.
- Clutch wear; Did nothing, deny there is a problem. It's only a global problem!
- Speaker rattle in rear driver's side door; Having the Harmon Kardon system, I don't want a loose clip in the door being detriment to sound quality. However, BMW did nothing about this either. They actually say door rattles come standard.
- Duration of service; For the lack of work performed above, my car was in at the dealership for the whole month of April. I was told there was a delay on parts. If I can order something off Amazon from the US and have it within 2-3 days, why can't you get parts in a similar timeframe?
- Courtesy car; Are you joking? Unless I have a corporate account with them, no such provision is made. Even though they sell you lemons, they won't give you a car while its in for weeks on end for warranty work. I complained to BMW Australia and the best they could do was provide a base model Hyundai hire car... Need I say more.
Wow... Why the hell would I buy MINI or BMW again?
Anyone want to buy a Mini Countryman?
16 months of ownership is just a nightmare in Australia. Service technicians at factory BMW dealerships have not been trained to service the new cars nor are they at the standard you would expect for the marque.
I am pursuing local lemon laws as I am fed up.
To anyone considering buying a Mini Countryman/Paceman, open your eyes and buy something decent!
As the only dealer in the CBD and the only factory owned dealer in NSW, they are incredibly busy. However, they only staff their dealership with skeleton numbers. You could say 1 staff member per 100 customers based on my observations.
So, the experience is as follows:
Dropping your car off: Typically you are on your way to work and in a rush as the dealership is out of the way of the CBD. Expect to walk in and join a line of 10 or so customers deep being served by a lone receptionist. Once you get to the reception desk, you are then kindly asked to wait for at minimum 30 minutes before you can even speak to a service representative to discuss the work you would like performed. Tip: Wear a suit, you will get preference over everyone else in the queue. A little bit of customer discrimination really helps build customer loyalty.
Communication: While your car is being serviced, if you need to follow up or make any contact whatsoever with your service rep, you won't be able to. The main dealership phone number rings out... No answering machine, nothing. So you try several more attempts. After 5 or so calls, you eventually get a receptionist who then asks to leave a message. You leave the message, wait 24 hours... Nothing. Pathetic.
Picking up your car: Don't think this will be any easier than drop off, you will need to kindly wait another 30 minutes while your service rep finishes his coffee.
Inspection of work performed post service: The service rep only takes your money. Don't expect him to walk you to your car to talk through the work performed. No, just get pointed out the door where some junior valet runs and grabs your car.
Workmanship: I recently requested a front brake replacement, windscreen replacement (chipped), to deal with a leak resulting in cabin flooding, investigate premature clutch wear and fix the rear driver's side speaker rattle. All work performed was half assed at best.
Issues Incurred:
- Brake pads; $450 and you get the cheapest and nastiest brake pads available. I have white wheels and I don't think these are the same quality as the original fitted pads. I had black wheels in less than 2 days from excessive brake dust.
- Windscreen replacement; Bonnet has multiple scratches, the windscreen is not the auto lights/wipers compatable glass, the side A pillar moulds have been chipped, the interior roof lining where the windscreen makes contact is hacked and damaged, the car bonnet was removed for the windscreen install and is now out of alignment, windscreen washers now shoot over the windscreen...
- Cabin flooding fix; The issue was said to be the front passenger side door seal. However, I disagree, it was the aircon runoff and they have just not admitted to the real damage incurred. Further, there was mould evident in the rear of the car with the rear floor mats growing it... I requested at minimum the interior carpets be steam cleaned. They have not been even vacuumed. This was a manufacturer/design flaw and warranty has done jack all to fix the subsequent damage.
- Clutch wear; Did nothing, deny there is a problem. It's only a global problem!
- Speaker rattle in rear driver's side door; Having the Harmon Kardon system, I don't want a loose clip in the door being detriment to sound quality. However, BMW did nothing about this either. They actually say door rattles come standard.
- Duration of service; For the lack of work performed above, my car was in at the dealership for the whole month of April. I was told there was a delay on parts. If I can order something off Amazon from the US and have it within 2-3 days, why can't you get parts in a similar timeframe?
- Courtesy car; Are you joking? Unless I have a corporate account with them, no such provision is made. Even though they sell you lemons, they won't give you a car while its in for weeks on end for warranty work. I complained to BMW Australia and the best they could do was provide a base model Hyundai hire car... Need I say more.
Wow... Why the hell would I buy MINI or BMW again?
Anyone want to buy a Mini Countryman?
16 months of ownership is just a nightmare in Australia. Service technicians at factory BMW dealerships have not been trained to service the new cars nor are they at the standard you would expect for the marque.
I am pursuing local lemon laws as I am fed up.
To anyone considering buying a Mini Countryman/Paceman, open your eyes and buy something decent!