Can't Get a Real Answer from Dealerships
 

My 2010 MINI is close to 28,000 miles. My service light indicates I still have 1200 miles until it needs its second maintenence visit. However, it also says that I'm supposed to bring it in for servicing this month. The problem is I am leaving the country for six weeks. I called my dealership whose phone is always tied-up and left voicemail. No call back. I also emailed them through their website. No response.

I called two other much more distant dealerships to ask whether I could wait until August. One said "it should be ok" ("should"?) while the other promised to check and would call me back. Three days later I'm still waiting.

Anybody out there have a clue? The car will not be driven during those 6 weeks so it should still fall under the mileage limit, but will be almost 2 months past the due date.

minis are not supposed to be able to let you "hurt them", there are lots of built in fail-safes for the engine in case stuff breaks.

Ask me, 6 to 1, bakers dozen to the other ;)

I'd call Mini Direct and tell them your situation. 1-866-275-6464 (866-ask-mini)It's one thing to be a busy dealership, it's another to ignore & not follow up on customers questions or not give a direct answer that could possibly construe into a warranty problem further down the road.

Finally got a call back from my dealership. They said it would be ok to come by in August. Only took 5 days to reply.

Solution: Don't go thru a dealership ;)

Where should he go for his authorized MINI free service if not the dealership?

Probably overkill, but I would suggest sending the person you spoke with, or the service manager, a confirmation email recapping the conversation. This will simply give you written documentation that you gave advance notice that you cannot meet the service timeline due to your travel agenda, and that the dealership gave their assurance that your warranty will not be adversely affected.

I think this is a standard set up for MINI dealership websites. If you go to your dealer's website and click on the "About Us" tab and then select "Our People" you will get a page with contact people in various departments, including service. Their direct email addresses are there.

Even if your email isn't answered, you will have a dated, written document stating that you were given a waiver on the time condition of your warranty and the reason why. I doubt you will ever need it, but it's good to have "just in case" there's a communication break down of some kind.

Have a great trip!

I was just joking. But I myself don't go thru dealers. But then again, I don't buy new cars and I do my work myself ;)