BMW NA Useless - Anyone Agree?
 

Everytime I go to the dealer I get lectured about how when I receive the service survey from BMW NA to give them 5's blah blah blah - I hate Open Road BMW in Edison, NJ and have had numerous problems with them claiming items weren't covered when Morristown BMW then covered them - not to mention the people are rude and acting like they are doing me a favor at Open Road....

With that being said...I do not give them 5's - and I have called to complain and received calls from BMW NA to see if I was satisfied with the service.

And I get the same answer everytime - "we are sorry but each dealership is independently owned and operated."

Then why do they waste my time with these phone calls to see how my service is and why does everyone say to reach out to BMW NA with any complaints.

I mean am I off with this observation???

p.s. - it is ironic how the same people who own Open Road BMW in Edison also own Morristown BMW and yet the warranty policies are apparently different and so is the service...

its all up to the service manager he can do whatever he wants. And yes BMW NA is useless. BMW ia lucky i love driving there cars. Because if they were not so damn fun to drive i would never buy another one.

i don't get the pressure to "give us all fives". it makes you feel as though the quality of your future service depends on it. the dealer that i purchased my car from has not returned any of my calls in the last two months - incidently - i did not give them all fives as i had requested a couple of things touched up on my X before i took delivery that never were done. plus, i was told i had bluetooth with my assist, which i don't. i was also told i had run-flat tires, which i don't. i would have been able to read the manual on all of it, except the manual was missing and though they told me they would have a new one sent to me, they still haven't.

what is the point of the survey if it doesn't improve service?

in most cases i've found that when you are honest about the service, you get "punished" for it.

tommys103,

I understand what you are saying. I also went to open road for all the previous services. The other dealers are too far away from me so I have to stick with open road. Actually, there is a good service manager in open road and his name is Tim Taylor. If I'm not satisfied on anything, I usually get help from him.

I was under the impression that the dealers get rewarded ($$$) for good survey results. I read that somewhere but I can't recall where.

I dealt with him once as well...he told me because they had treated me wrong he would offer me a 15% off parts coupon the next time I wanted to buy parts from the counter for any repair I wanted to do myself or accessory I wanted to buy. My response was: "Should I go to the website and print out the same 15% off coupon that is available to anyone with an internet connection or do you have a special one for me?"

I don't mind the drive to Morristown BMW from Staten Island - it take me 45-50 minutes as opposed to 15-20 to Open Road - I will gladly drive there when they saved me over $1500 in repairs last week that Open Road wanted to charge me for - $1500 is definately worth a half hour of my time to drive. The only thing that sucks is that I don't get a loaner bc I didn't buy my X from them.

Yup BMW NA IS USELESS!

I'm hoping we see improvements soon ;)

I don't think you are necessarily off, but I do have a few observations.

The short version is, if the survey causes you stress quit doing it. If you keep doing the surveys, think about your expectations. The long version follows:

1) There are obviously some BMW dealers who don't get it. The only power you have there is to vote with your feet. Don't deal with them.
2) There are some very good dealers. I have dealt with two of them.
3) I don't have any specific comments on BMW NA, since I am in Canada and BMW NA don't actually cover NA. I have not had dealings with BMW of Canada, as I don't see what it could ever gain me. They shipped the truck to my dealer on schedule, that was the end of my involvement with them.
4) BMW NA is right in what the phone person told you, they have very little ability to impact the service delivery quality at your local dealer. They have no commercial relationship with you. They are a marketing group, or middleman, that gets the cars from the manufacturing company to the dealer. That's it.
5) I think BMW CA (and I presume BMW NA) honestly want to have good, or better, dealers. The reason they ask for the surveys is so that they can measure their dealers, and hopefully that leads to decisions about which ones should be dealers and which ones shouldn't be. That takes time, however. They aren't there to fix a one time service issue. They are there to decide if a dealer remains being a dealer. If a dealer has a good share of market, and some service issues, BMW will likely only see the share of market numbers. If they have two dealers where they only need one, the one with the better satisfaction figures may win. BMW can incent good performance, but you need to actually have a businessperson at the dealership to figure out how to maximize their own benefits through that system. If the dealer doesn't pay attention to the BMW payments, the incentives have no impact. It doesn't go much further than that.
6) If you believe that BMW reads your surveys (I do, by the way) then you should participate. That doesn't mean they will fix your problem, however. If doing the survey causes more stress, skip it, it isn't worth it.
7) There are very few times when getting the marketing company involved changes a dealer decision. That is because the marketing company has already made their money off you. The dealer stands to get future business. Yes, I agree that BMW stands to get future car sales, but it is a very indirect benefit. The dealer motivation is much stronger, or should be.
8) Based on that, I would invest in building a relationship with the 'problem dealer' service manager. If that doesn't work, just walk. Your efforts may lead to a better relationship, however, and then you win.

Just my $0.02. I have worked on the dealer side, and closely with the marketing company, in a similar line of business (not BMW). The issues around the quality of dealers, resolving customer issues, etc, are pretty much the same.

Good luck.

service advisors get graded by your reviews. perfect scores usually will enter them into a nationwide contest where if they win, they are eligible to ride say an M3 for $200 monthly payment for a year...i'm not sure BMW NA actaully can do anything how service is handled at the dealership level, thats why it feels like BMW NA is totally useless to most people.

i have an amazing relationship with my SA (Aaron Burkhard at Savage BMW). We email each other dozens of time practially every day. Just about eveerything, and only about the BMW problems when they arise. I see it as a win/win situation. Be nice to them, talk to them about other things t han just your BMW problems, and offer them starbux coffee here and there, itll make their work less monontonous and youll stand out on his book. SA's usually work in teams also, and they are rewarded in many different internal ways..bottom line is be nice to them and treeat them like people and theyll return the favor.

just my two cents

kirk