That's with Westchester MINI in New York State. I now have 8,500 on the car and wanted to scgedule an early oil change. Good job I did this early since I do 25,000 miles a year so I'll be around 10,000 by the time they can do it.

Has anyone else had problems with such outrageous service dates?

_________________
"You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

 

Yes, that's how it is at some dealers out west too.

It's the MINI cartel -- limited dealer network, arrogant attitude, prepaid service - take it or leave it. And if you leave it, they don't mind since you've already paid for it and they don't have to render the service. It's actually quite clever.

BMW customer service is absolutely the worst I've come across in my many years of car ownership.

 

Well I think it's time for BMW to hear from it's customers. How about everyone contacting BMW North American headquarters in Montvale NJ and telling them IT STINKS!!

 

I was gonna call up my dealer when I was at 9,500miles...

 

I used to use Westchester BMW and had the same problems getting service appointments in a reasonable period of time. That's one of the reasons I went to Prestige MINI as they do not share the service dept with Prestige BMW. I have had my MINI since 7/02 and never had any problems getting a service appointment. Moreover, they have no problems taking on customers that did not by a Mc/MCS from them.

 

I can make an appointment at New Country MINI within 2 days. They fixed my door handle the same day. I wouldn't go blaming BMW or MINI just yet. It sounds more like a dealership problem.

 

I was fairly naive when my Mini was due for the first 10K service, so I called Mini of Mountain View on the same day or a few days after the 10k mark was hit and was given an appointment for somewhere along the lines of two months later. When the day finally came, I was several thousand miles over AND I had to pay for my own rental. I was called several days later and asked how everything went. I complained but, after reading posts here from Mini owners that are upset with the dealers, I figured it wouldn't make a difference. Now I'm coming up on the 25K mark and I'm reluctant to make the appointment.

 

>>I was fairly naive when my Mini was due for the first 10K service, so I called Mini of Mountain View on the same day or a few days after the 10k mark was hit and was given an appointment for somewhere along the lines of two months later. When the day finally came, I was several thousand miles over AND I had to pay for my own rental. I was called several days later and asked how everything went. I complained but, after reading posts here from Mini owners that are upset with the dealers, I figured it wouldn't make a difference. Now I'm coming up on the 25K mark and I'm reluctant to make the appointment.
>>
>>

This one's tricky. Smaller dealers will likely have less of a wait time for appointments than the larger dealers.

When your local BMW dealer signed up to be a MINI dealer, certain specs were required by BMW/MINI in terms of the number of service advisors and trained techs that had to be hired to take car of MINI customers.

That number was, in hindsight, inadequate for demand. Some larger dealers not only have owners of cars coming in that they sold cars to, but also smaller dealer's cars coming in because they are more conveniently located, or for any number of reasons.

The demand placed on the service department of the larger dealer is stronger than anticipated. Most, if not all MINI dealers are looking for techs that they can send through school...this takes time as well.

In one sense having to wait for an appointment may show that the dealer cares about customer service in that the wait time may be less while your car is in service.

Perhaps those dealers with no wait for appointments, may not get to your car in a timely manner when you're sitting there actually waiting for them to service the car.

This too shall pass as dealers staff up to better levels to deal with the demand.

Good Luck

 

"In one sense having to wait for an appointment may show that the dealer cares about customer service in that the wait time may be less while your car is in service."

Yeah, right.

 

When I had my 3 series and later my M3, I always had to wait a month to get a service appt with my local BMW dealer. I have 9,000 miles in my MCS, I'd better call my Mini serivce dept now.

RaceCarDriver

 

I just called Prestige Mini and there is no wait for service. I made my appt for later this week. Call them and you won't have to wait two months.

RaceCarDriver