Hello All.
Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up.

Last Tuesday (9/25/2007) I called Herb Chambers because my A/C wasn't working, I had an engine light on (Overheating) and my car had gone into "limp mode" I was told (By and extremely rude young lady) that the earliest they could look at my car was October 11th, more than two weeks away! I asked about having it towed in via roadside, and was told that this wouldn't speed up the process. I was also told that no loaner would be available until the last week in October . Obviously, I wasn't too impressed with this. I asked to speak to the service manager (who was in a hurry to just get me off the phone), who told me that I could bring it in, but no one would be able to look at it for "a while." He also confimed no loaners available, but I could get a rental, and if it was warranty work, they would pay for the time it took to repair (but not sit at the shop while they were too busy to look at it).

So I called Inskip Mini in Warwick, RI, who took my car in on Saturday, (9/29/2007) and fixed it the same day. They even offered a loaner.

So long story short, buyer beware! If a dealer also has Porche's and BMW's in their building, chances are they're using the bays to get $200/hour instead of warranty work on a Mini. I noticed when I bought the car at HC that all of the service bays were taken up by non-Mini vehicles, but didn't understand what that meant to me until now. Hey, what can you expect for just under $30,000? Want good service? Go to Inskip.

 

Lesson of the day - Don't go to Herb.

What can you expect? He still needs to pay for the Ford GT his son totaled!

 

Wow. Thanks for the heads up. I bought mine at HC, I guess I shouldn't plan on going back.

 

Y'know, I never thought of it until you brought it up, but I think you may have a point. When the dealership is Mini + BMW (and maybe + another high-end brand) the Mini service customer may be looked down on. I just had a similar service experience with a dealership where the Mini department is basically downstairs from the BMW showroom. And I also ended up going to a Mini-only dealer instead. I wonder if anyone else had a similar experience.

 

I do MINI parts at Inskip on Saturday, so I must have been there on the 29th. Sorry I missed you.

Glad to hear you were treated well, Geoff is a great SA,(he's off on Saturdays) but sounds like James took care of everything. The techs there are also very good at what they do.

Let me know the next time you come down even if it's during the week, i'm right next door at BMW.

EDIT: BTW, in addition to MINI, we also have Porsche, BMW, Audi, Volvo, Infinity, Lexus, Mercedes, Smart, Bentley in the same complex and they all have their own service/parts/sales departments. You will never get bumped for a higher end car.

 

Good to know Partsman, sorry I missed you!

 

I got mine at Herb Chambers as well. Ill have to see how far INSKIP is from me.

 

Unfortunately, I've had my car in many times since I bought it at HC in December of last year. They have yet to get anything right the first time, which sucks coming from NH. Here's my rants and raves thread.......anyone have good/bad experiences at Peabody?

http://www.mini2.com/forum/new-york-...1-venting.html

 

FWIW, Mini of Peabody service was top knotch. Service Adviser actually advised AGAINST me getting a more expensive service done at one point. Good guys.

 

What am I, chopped liver?

 

why were you suprised that more bays were taken up by more non mini cars? thats because they do way more business with bmws which is there biggest income and they have the same amount of bays as porsche. They sell many more bmws so therefore there gonna conecntrate on those more because theres a bigger demand.

 

Am I the only person who enjoys experience at HC? I find everybody there polite and helpful, and the best being their main service guy Mark.

However today though, when my MCS to brought to HC because it kept stalling on me , they couldn't really figure out what's wrong with it and pinpoint the problem. Somehow the problem went away miraculously and I was told it shouldn't happen again? Huh?

 

yeah marks a good guy. very charismatic and into his job.

 

Does anyone know a good place to take the car for service? I plan on doing some mods CAI, exhaust, Pulley, chip. and want to find a garadge that will still keep the warranty and not mind the mods?

 

my advice would be to call around and just ask how they feel about mods. Tell them what your gonna do and dont plan on racing or whatever and just want it for the streets. thats all i can say

 

I've always had nothing but good experiences with Herb Chambers' service department, and Mark in particular. It's not always easy to get a quick appointment, but bear in mind that they only have one or two MINI techs, as opposed to Peabody who has at least 3 or 4 times that many. As far as loaner cars go, it's been obvious for years that MINIUSA prefers to **** people around and treat them like dirt, so not getting a loaner shouldn't exactly be a shock. If you drive a MINI, you belong to a lower caste than BMW and Porsche drivers. Get used to it, cuz it ain't gonna change.

 

Hm. Apparently we can't refer to, ah, Mr. Cheney around here.

 

MINI does not require that dealers give loaners, but many dealers do offer loaners anyways. It might not be a MINI, but at least it is suitable alternate transportation so you are not stranded without a car. Just because you drive a MINI doesn't give them any reason to treat you worse than a BMW customer, because the BMW and MINI labor rates are just about the same (or exactly the same) depending on where you go so they can be making just as much money servicing your MINI as they would on a BMW. If some dealers can give loaners/rentals there is no reason they can't also.

 

yeah--not a big fan of herb chambers. I took my infiniti there once for service. Not a good experience. I highly recommend Peabody. I took mine there and took a test drive in the R56 with an Armenian gentleman who raced the old minis for 20 years. A great test drive--I scared the crap outta him, but he let me take it a little harder than others might have.

Also, they told me that they would do a 17% pulley themselves.

___________________________
2004 Chili R53

 

The HC service consultants are great and responsive. But I have no trust on the tech. there. I had my 07' MINI driving lamps installed there, $500 for parts and $400 for service !!! (but I didn't have to pay for service charge). When I picked up my car and did a quick check, both lamps were pointing to the different directions and one lamp wasn't even tighten . I asked the service consultant to bring it back to the floor and tried to get it right, the next thing I heard that the tech. blew my fuse. Alright the tech. couldn't get it right that day and I had to bring my car back the next day. Finaly they aligned lamps. Few days later the checked the lamps again and make sure they were not loose, the same lamp was loose again!!! I got my hands dirty and tighten it myself, and it never get loose again.

Who still need pay $400 to the HC tech. and not getting things done right!?!? Good thing I have 10 months to think about where to bring my MCS for oil change . Any recommendations in New England area?

 

It doesnt supprise me that Herb takes that long for the next available appointment. I am driving a BMW right now and waiting for my MCS in two weeks. I usually go to herb for my BMW service because it is close to where I live. Usually takes two weeks for appointment without loner and three weeks with loner. Is not really because you are in a mini. Is just because herb bmw has only one shop for all three brand.

The advisors are not the greatest there. I had to give the advisor a low rate when BMW NA called me after my service because the advisor was kind of rude. However, the next time I went the SA treated me in a better manner.

One experience that I have with them is that they dented my hood after service. Looks like an X5 backed into my car. Well, the fixed it but the paint job was pretty bad (small bubbles).

FYI- I bought my mini at peabody because they only have minis and will go there for service in the future.

 

Happy New Year! I’m Kerry Masone, the Sales Manager at HC MINI. I’m very sorry to hear of the experiences that HAILPURDUE and scho06 had with our service department. Despite what has been said, we really do care about our MINI clients. Mark and Nick, our MINI Motoring Advisors are two of the most caring and honest people that I know and work extremely hard to tend to the needs of each MINI service client. I will be the first person to admit that whether it involves sales or service, we are all human and do make mistakes. It is my experience that when mistakes are made, our team here at HC MINI does everything in their power to make them right. If that is not what you have experienced, I sincerely apologize and would love for you to give us another chance. Please do not hesitate to contact me at 617-731-1700 x203 or email kmasone@herbchambers.com and I will work as hard as I can to address any concerns that you may have.Happy Motoring

 

Kerry is a doll and her crew in sales at HC is wonderful!

Unfortunatley, our MINI is headed to service today after a little incident and I hope to be able to report good things soon!

 

That would be Hrach(sp?)...and he did the same thing with me on my test drive...hes a great guy.

 

I admit that Kerry tried very hard to make up the inconvenviences that her colleuges created, and understood they are out of her controls. It would be nice to have HC upper management to know our frastructions via customer feedbacks because we don't know if the same thing happens to us again IF we go back to HC services or sales.