Horrible dealer service experience

anatolych · #1 05-30-2011, 03:01 PM

Life Quality BMW in Bayridge (Brooklyn) is the closest dealership to us. When check engine light lit up and our 1.5 year old X5 35D went into reduced power mode on Thursday, I figured we'd go to them to save the time. I knew their reputation was not stellar, but I figured how bad could it be...
When my wife arrived next morning for a scheduled appointment at 9:30 and said she'd wait to hear what the issues are, they offered her coffee and magazines. Two hours later when she got tired of waiting, she approached the customer service representative. She was told that the mechanic will start looking at the car soon! And thats when everything started going wrong. 1. Despite a scheduled appointment, they did not have anyone looking at the car for 2+ hours. 2. They did not tell my wife about the wait so she could plan her day better 3. They did not apologize, but pretended thats normal and was our fault that we did not know they are not in the rush. 4. There are no loaner car available and they will not do anything about it. And to top it off, when my wife picked up the car this Friday, the same error came up twice on on her 5 mile drive home.
In summary, after an incredibly rude service, one week wait, hundreds of dollars of car rental fees we got our car back with the same issues. I don't have to tell you that I took the car straight to JMK BMW, which is 15 miles out, but have the nicest people working there. I was out of the dealership in 15 minutes in a brand new 528i. They should call me back Tuesday with the diagnosis.
The main purpose for this post is to alert fellow NY/NJ BMW owners to avoid LQ at all costs.I gather that the only thing I can do in this situation. If you break in Brooklyn, have your car loaded on the tow truck and shipped to your local dealer. It will save you time, money and aggravation.

I am not yet sure what is wrong with the car, LQ changed the air temperature sensor, which did not fix things. It starts as normal, and after a few miles the Check Engine Light comes up and it switches into reduced power mode. If you turn off the engine and restart almost immediately, everything works again, but repeats a few miles later. I'll keep you posted...

rh71 · #2 05-30-2011, 03:21 PM

wow how did you manage to get a loaner on short notice, and at a place you didn't buy the vehicle from? My dealer has a 3-week wait for loaners and even then I didn't get one... they had to send me to Enterprise Rent-a-Car. Even when I do get one, the best has been a 328i.

Anyway, yes it is frustrating when you get the car back with the same problem. Happened to me right outside their lot but I wasn't going to go home without it again and deal with another rental. At least it wasn't a big problem to begin with.

anatolych · #3 05-30-2011, 03:54 PM

I only had great experiences with JMK before, and just assume that BMW owners are treated the same way everywhere. My brother had his 330 he bought used elsewhere repared at JMK and also had no problem getting a loaner. He got a bright red 328 coupe.
Having a bmw loaner is certainly nice, but I would not mind a rental, LifeQuality refused to provide any help, and I had to pay for rental myself.

jeremym · #4 05-30-2011, 11:48 PM

BMW NA should cover your car rental if you're still under your full warranty. According to the dealer I go to, BMW of Greenwich (CT), they say BMW NA covers rental fees up to $44/day. I had a rental for 10 days for my 07 and BMW NA covered $44/day and I paid an extra $10/day to not have to drive a VW Bug.

Edit: BMW of Greenwich exclusively uses Enterprise. Not sure if this is just them or BMW NA mandated. Also, maybe this is only BMW of Greenwich's policy but my SA said BMW NA covered it. Duno.

Viperfreak2 · #5 05-31-2011, 07:54 AM

It is completely normal. You should never assume that when you have an appointment, it means they will start looking at your car at that time. It means that is the time you should drop off the car, and arrange a ride outta there!

You are right about them being rude by not telling you, but they probably just assumed everyone knows the deal. They shouldn't.

I too used to think the same thing when I made an appointment at Spartanburg Dodge for my Vipers. All those Neons and PT Cruisers would be pushed aside and the Viper would be given top priority! Nope.

Psalm40 · #6 05-31-2011, 12:03 PM

The huge discrepancy between dealer service neve ceases to amaze me. I think your story is all too familiar, but we all also have stories of superior service at other locations.
1.) When I had my Nissan GT-R, they would drop everything and get you in and out, as long as you had an appointment and the GT-R tech (usually one per dealer) was working.
2.) We have two local Mercedes Benz dealers, one about 15 mins farther than the other. I always went to the farther out guy out of habit. They were great. Always had a new MB loaner for as long as you needed/wanted it. No hassle, no paper-work. I thought I would try the other dealer. I let them know I needed a loaner when I made the appointment. I show up at the appointment and they look at me all crazy when I ask for the loaner...they say that I can rent one from there "rental" desk which is a card table with a 18 year-old-girl sitting at it....I finally got the car (for free), a 4 year-old stripped IMPALA which was filthy!

What really amazes me is that the dealers don't take this opportunity for free advirtizing. You have a CURRENT BMW OWNER's full attention. Give them a great new BMW to "test-drive" for the day. Ask them what they would like to drive..."Oh, I see you brought in your 3-series wagon today, maybe you'd like to drive the new X-3 for a few hours, I'm sure you'll really enjoy it!" The customer comes back to their 5 year-old 3 wagon after speding the last 5 hours in a brand-new X3 and you just might have a new car customer! Seems simple....

Obviously this is a passionate topic for me.

Tymah123 · #7 05-31-2011, 12:56 PM

It looks like you were expecting them (LQ) to go above and beyond, which is understandable but I think you were just setting yourself for a disappointment. Loaners are usually booked like a month in advance and like someone posted above the car should be dropped off at the dealership and you should be going about your day. What if the dealer would have to order a part and the car will sit there for 5 days, will you stick around and wait? Of course not. Btw, that happened to me on the E class, the car was not even a month old and the seal on the door was peeling off, I dropped the car off and got a call that the piece of rubber has to be ordered from Germany, car was there for 4 days. That's how it is with the dealers, it's usually never the best case scenario.

alvam · #8 05-31-2011, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Psalm40

The huge discrepancy between dealer service neve ceases to amaze me. I think your story is all too familiar, but we all also have stories of superior service at other locations.
1.) When I had my Nissan GT-R, they would drop everything and get you in and out, as long as you had an appointment and the GT-R tech (usually one per dealer) was working.
2.) We have two local Mercedes Benz dealers, one about 15 mins farther than the other. I always went to the farther out guy out of habit. They were great. Always had a new MB loaner for as long as you needed/wanted it. No hassle, no paper-work. I thought I would try the other dealer. I let them know I needed a loaner when I made the appointment. I show up at the appointment and they look at me all crazy when I ask for the loaner...they say that I can rent one from there "rental" desk which is a card table with a 18 year-old-girl sitting at it....I finally got the car (for free), a 4 year-old stripped IMPALA which was filthy!

What really amazes me is that the dealers don't take this opportunity for free advirtizing. You have a CURRENT BMW OWNER's full attention. Give them a great new BMW to "test-drive" for the day. Ask them what they would like to drive..."Oh, I see you brought in your 3-series wagon today, maybe you'd like to drive the new X-3 for a few hours, I'm sure you'll really enjoy it!" The customer comes back to their 5 year-old 3 wagon after speding the last 5 hours in a brand-new X3 and you just might have a new car customer! Seems simple....

Obviously this is a passionate topic for me.

I would agree with all you are saying but what I am finding is that service delivery on almost anything nowadays is going by the wayside and secondary to actual lower pricing. IMO the retailers think that because of the competative nature of getting a sale means a lower margin they are sacrificing customer service for that lower cost. In tough ecomomies I can see how they would believe that could be a smart strategy but the reality is that when you spend the kind of coin we do on vehicles like these we expect an enhanced customer experience instead of the typical dealership one.

jeremym · #9 05-31-2011, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alvam

In tough ecomomies I can see how they would believe that could be a smart strategy but the reality is that when you spend the kind of coin we do on vehicles like these we expect an enhanced customer experience instead of the typical dealership one.

AGREED.

JCL · #10 05-31-2011, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Psalm40

What really amazes me is that the dealers don't take this opportunity for free advertising. You have a CURRENT BMW OWNER's full attention. Give them a great new BMW to "test-drive" for the day. Ask them what they would like to drive..."Oh, I see you brought in your 3-series wagon today, maybe you'd like to drive the new X-3 for a few hours, I'm sure you'll really enjoy it!" The customer comes back to their 5 year-old 3 wagon after spending the last 5 hours in a brand-new X3 and you just might have a new car customer! Seems simple....

Obviously this is a passionate topic for me.

It would be simpler if the customer came back and was willing to pay retail for the new X3. Unfortunately, the US market has been driven to lowest transaction price, and if the dealer isn't willing to sell a new car at several hundred $ over invoice, the purchaser will go elsewhere. The purchaser will also be very unwilling to buy a new car that has more than a few miles on it, so those demo vehicles are going to have to be heavily discounted.

I agree that dealers should be investing in the customer experience, and it would be far more rewarding for customers, but if customers continue to buy new vehicles based on $X over invoice, and don't reward those dealers making investments in training, facilities, improved processes, etc, then why would they?