BMW customer service – appalling, unlucky or acceptable??

It was 3 calendar months or 88 days ago that my 2010 4k S1000RR went into my local BMW dealer due to smoke pouring out of the exhaust :-[ The smoke was just water vapour due to an O ring , but they heard ‘a noise’ from deep inside :-\ I now realise that due to the big end issues apparent on the 2012s, listening for this noise is now second nature. Any way after oil checks they agreed to open her up under warrantee (Whew!). The outcome is that the big end bearings were badly worn. You would think that the rebuild would take a few weeks or so, it didn’t, I still don’t have her back. They say it’s supplier issues, parts being on technical hold issues, delivery issues, blah blah blah! What aggravates me is that I had to fight to get on the priority list, I had to fight to get a courtesy bike which I only recently got, and the customer services people would always come up with excuses prior to knowing what bits were actually required. As a BMW rider for some 6 years I feel really let down, I feel as though I am a nuisance and not a priority. It’s cost me £150 just in unused tax, insurance, and their very expensive extended warrantee that I felt I needed to re-new under the circumstances. They say the excessive wear on the big end is due to it being an ex-demo bike that was thrashed!!! Then why do they sell ex-demos without checking them over, after all they’re BMW and that’s why I am (was) happy to pay extra. Be very interested in your opinions as to what you would expect as compensation for all this, or alternatively if you think they have treated me well. The latest is that it will be back next week, not that I’ve heard that half a dozen times already. Why did I ever sell my Ninja, not a days issue in 5 years

Sounds like the rough end of the stick, hope you get it sorted soon enough.

I bought mine (2010) on the back of bmw's name and history of good engineering and racing heritage. Ive had no problem with service/parts division (but ive had nothing mech gone wrong, YET) but sales dept sucks big time. I cant help but think that bmw as a company is losing out on customers worldwide because of the motorrad attitude. It also pi$$ed me off that other countries were getting 3yrs warrenty and uk had to pay extra. Some of the stories onthe international site are very interesting and quite shocking about bmw's attitude.

one word, appalling... if the bike wasnt so good they'd be screwed

Jules - out of interest which dealer in Surrey are u dealing with?

Hi Dartanion,
It's Vines Caterham, I may be naive but I don't blame them, I think their a victim of the BMW machine, and the people there, especially the mechanic are trying their best, they just have their hands tied as another BMW distributor.

I even have some sympathy with BMW as we all make mistakes, it keeps on coming back to customer services and the way they make me feel I'm being unreasonable, with a lack of pro-activeness to sort it all out...I'm getting angry again now

Jules

Jules, you have my sympathy. i also found customers services crap and even put some hidden sarcasm in their replies. I was on the verge of seeking legal advice. Keep e mailing and dont stop til you get the answers you want, even when they dont reply within 48 hours, e mail again stating you havent had a reply within an acceptable time frame. The more you bombard them the better. If they state a date for a reply and fail to meet it. YEP E mail them again.

Thanks Jamie, You're bang on about the sarcasm, and about hassling em

The next time they ferk me over I'm Emailing the UKs CEO [email protected]. Be interesting to see how he might feel if his motor took 3 months to fix by the self proclaimed king of customer service.

We'll see what happens with getting it back, working, and compo..Still can't wait to get it though.

good luck, and i know what you mean about getting it back, if it had been any other bike or make i would have told them to shove it...

Hello Jules. I'm sorry to hear about your bad luck I to had the mis fortune to buy a shonky ex demo which packed up. However I cannot fault the service I received. I think this would be an issue with any make that has had this many problem machines all at once. All in all I think the service generally from BMW dealers is way above all the other brands.

So far my bike has been off the road sick for as long as it was on the road - service has been pretty crap so far: 3k mile '11 plate delivered with the chain too tight straight out of the workshop after it's 1st year service, delivered with one key and a water damaged (wrinkly) owners manual/service book, & a wobbly rear sprocket the first time I checked it after 8 days of riding...slow or no replies from supplying dealer (although they have supplied/ordered spare key & new service book FOC after requesting them to), bad advice, being told 'they all do that', and admissions from the service manager that he wasn't too familiar with cush drives and sprocket set-ups as most his experience was with off roaders - not sure if that was meant to reassure me. Local dealer isn't proving to be much better atm but I'll reserve judgement for the time being.

Good luck with getting yours fixed OP, I'm currently considering my options.

Shft_Ctrl link=topic=964.msg9004#msg9004 date=1339858054 said:

So far my bike has been off the road sick for as long as it was on the road - service has been pretty crap so far: 3k mile '11 plate delivered with the chain too tight straight out of the workshop after it's 1st year service, delivered with one key and a water damaged (wrinkly) owners manual/service book, & a wobbly rear sprocket the first time I checked it after 8 days of riding...slow or no replies from supplying dealer (although they have supplied/ordered spare key & new service book FOC after requesting them to), bad advice, being told 'they all do that', and admissions from the service manager that he wasn't too familiar with cush drives and sprocket set-ups as most his experience was with off roaders - not sure if that was meant to reassure me. Local dealer isn't proving to be much better atm but I'll reserve judgement for the time being.

Good luck with getting yours fixed OP, I'm currently considering my options.

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ouch mate, have to say that my dealership (once they admitted there was a problem)

Shft_Ctrl link=topic=964.msg9004#msg9004 date=1339858054 said:

So far my bike has been off the road sick for as long as it was on the road - service has been pretty crap so far: 3k mile '11 plate delivered with the chain too tight straight out of the workshop after it's 1st year service, delivered with one key and a water damaged (wrinkly) owners manual/service book, & a wobbly rear sprocket the first time I checked it after 8 days of riding...slow or no replies from supplying dealer (although they have supplied/ordered spare key & new service book FOC after requesting them to), bad advice, being told 'they all do that', and admissions from the service manager that he wasn't too familiar with cush drives and sprocket set-ups as most his experience was with off roaders - not sure if that was meant to reassure me. Local dealer isn't proving to be much better atm but I'll reserve judgement for the time being.

Good luck with getting yours fixed OP, I'm currently considering my options.

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ouch mate, to be honest once my dealership had admitted there was a problem they were great, it's bmw uk customer services i have the problem with

My local Dealers are in Norwich and I don't rate them. But are they any worse than most? Last week I called in at Bowers (Bury St Edmunds) who are Yamaha dealers (purchased my R1 from them some years ago) Salesman saw that I had BM and went into what crap quality bike was and I should try the latest R1. With comments like that NO WAY are they going to get any future business from me

As for service od the Beemer you don't have to take it to a BM dealer for warranty to still apply . Some change in European law I think , so I'm going to use a small independant bike shop. ;D

jamie link=topic=964.msg9011#msg9011 date=1339866396 said:

ouch mate, to be honest once my dealership had admitted there was a problem they were great, it's bmw uk customer services i have the problem with

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To be fair they've been fairly apologetic and want to be kept in the loop, although this doesn't change a lot of the facts - I just expected better from a premium brand who are *new to the market and already fighting against reliability issues and costumer dissatisfaction. After all, you pay the premium when buying from a main dealer for a higher level of customer & after sales service.

As for Yamaha - crank failures on less than 3yr old 6k mile bikes...pot, kettle.

I think all dealers are different & it definitely pays to shop around, I've got three in my area, one i took for my first service. (it cost me £220 and when i got it home one of the front callipers was seized, so i rang them up & asked for a explanation ,i didn't get any satisfaction!) :-[ So i mention this to Chandlers and they said bring it in & they will do a complete strip down gratis
So this gets me in for future services which seem to work out £40 cheaper than the first dealer, bonus Ive heard that the third dealer in posh surrey charge a whopping £100ph thats ducati territory
I would recommend chandlers in portslade, the boys there do try to put the customer first, if you go in with problem they will do their best to sort it (i find to get the best service be polite after all you want them onside to deal with BMW for you! )

I bought my bike from coopers sunderland and have had 100% perfect service from them. Bike that i first had me name on had the recall issue so i asked them to order me a new bike so i didnt have a recall bike and they did that no problem. Then the rear seat cowl had been rubbing a bit on the rear seat unit and worn through the paint and a little bit of odd paint on the plastic tank cover thing, went in took him litterally less than a 20 seconds to look at the bike and say he would order the bits and sort it out.

Perfect service lads are sound and cant do enough for you, the place is full of nice looking blondes and the coffee and biscuits are nice so all in all i cant fault them

Alps Pacino link=topic=964.msg9226#msg9226 date=1340141414 said:

Perfect service lads are sound and cant do enough for you, the place is full of nice looking blondes and the coffee and biscuits are nice so all in all i cant fault them

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Hey Alps, sounds like Carlsburg do run a BMW dealers. Lucky you bud

Haha if they did i'd have already had all the blondes bent over the coffee counter but its not that good a dealer haha

Hi Jules, its a bmw attitude problem,my 2012 went in today for the recall work 8 weeks late ! (chester) dealer has never rung, always me calling them & bmw customer services are crap ,promised numerous times to explain all never happened . Once i get bike back (if ?) think i will plan major attack to try & get some sort of compo ,but prob be waste of time . Found my local bm car dealer has the same up there own arse`s attitude when mrs went to try one.Bmw seems to have real customer issues,perhaps forum members could join forces to lobby c/services ?
But then you ride down a favourite bit of road & all hassle is almost forgotten !

long way to sunderland, do they do b&b as well ?