At 7,000 miles my alternator went out. The nearest Mini dealer to me is about 100 miles away in Nashville. I called Mini, they connected me to Mini roadside to have the car towed. Mini Roadside (AAA) was completely worthless, 24 hours later they could not make the tow happen. I picked up the phone and the first place I called was able to tow my car there. Wow, that was tough...

A week later my car is fixed. I ask the dealer about getting the car towed back since it was warranty work, 100 miles away, and I had been without a car for a week. They told me to call Mini roadside to have it setup. Mini roadside said it wasn't part of the warranty. So I called Ask Mini and what did I get? More of the runaround. They were completely worthless. They state that there is no return policy for getting the car back to the owner. In my opinion, that is simply unacceptable. Whether it is in the warranty or not it clearly should be. This is a major inconvenience and does not follow the 'spirit' of a new car warranty. Basically i'm going to have to pay $250 to have the car towed back to me because of a major electrical problem just 7000 miles into ownership. Problems like this shouldn't happen, sometimes they do and that's inevitable. But when that occurs there is no excuse for not taking care of the customer!

Not only am I extremely disappointed, disgusted, and downright ticked off, I have vowed never to buy another Mini nor will I recommend one to friends or family. If this is the kind of customer service I can expect, then i'll be taking my dollars elsewhere.

 

It would be nice but I certainly would not ever expect to have a normal production car carry tow-back service under the warranty. They got it in, fixed the problem, now it's back to you. They didn't make you buy a car with lousy local support. Why would you HAVE to have the car TOWED back 100 miles? Go get your car, big deal. What do you think you bought, a Rolls Royce for Pete's sake?

 

I will agree that not being able to pick you up in a short amount of time too tow you there was bogus.

I’m truly sorry about the service you think you should have had and I can understand your disappointment for all the inconvenience the malfunctioning MINI may have caused you, but never have I ever read, seen or heard anywhere where MINI guaranteed a tow back from a service regardless of the miles to the dealer of your choice.

How you feel about the MINI at this time is your opinion, but don’t lay any blame on a car company when it has not specified any kind of policy. You’re lucky you only live 100 miles away from a dealer because I live 6 times farther. But I’ve been driving a problem free 02 for over 3 years and have never had too be towed.

 

Sorry for you inconvenience. Part of this is the price you pay for living 100 mile from the dealer although I am sure there are many MINI owners who live so much farther away.

As to bashing mini warranty service, can you name another manufactorer that would ship the car back to you after the warranty work was finished?

Just interested because I'd really like to know?

 

I live over 100 miles from my nearest dealership and I have never expected them to deliver my car back to me after warranty repairs are complete, nor did they ever promise to. If your dealer promised to do this and they did not follow through with their promise, then your frustration is justified.

My parents drive Cadillacs and their local dealership delivers a loaner to their home and picks up the car that needs to be serviced. Maybe you'd be better off with a new Caddy instead?

If not, nearly every small town has a ford or chevy dealer and you won't have to go so far to have service done. Don't expect them to deliver your car back and forth though. . . .

 

It wouldn't be a problem if I had been given a rental car, seems reasonable to expect one or the other.

 

If you bought it from that dealer and you went with the car, they should give you a rental. Did you ask?

 

Thanks, I really appreciate the thinly veiled insult. FYI, I've owned several Audi's and a Honda S2000 and never had a problem like this. If the service was decent a rental car would be supplied. In a case where it is not and I have been rendered car-less for the last week then I think it is perfectly reasonable to have it towed or otherwise delivered back to me. The dealership indicated Mini would take care of getting the car back. Whether he was simply mistaken or not, i've been jerked around by a system that is at best imperfect and at worse deliberately difficult and obtuse to utilize.

 

Well, it sounds like you have completely unrealistic expectations and just want to vent. Good luck, and I pity your dealer.

 

I have had a similar problem. The car got towed in because the cvt tranny was acting up, we were promised a loaner but when we get there they say we didnt ask for one, like hell we didnt, we go on our way loanerless, they replace the tranny under warranty and we go pick up the car (90) miles one way, we get on the highway and kabooom, the new tranny blows up!! so they pick up the car, and fix the problem. They call and say the car is done and can be picked up. We are like can you deliver the car to us. The service advisor says i will look into it and low and behold the car was delivered to us the next day! so moral is keep n trying and it will be done.

 

Why did you purchase a Mini so for away from a dealership? Do you love the car? Did you ask at the time of purchase what would occur if you ever needed warranty service?


It's hard to think Mini should have to go the extra mile when you could have sorted these things out early when you purchased the car..

Do not assume anything in life you need to speak up and ask ! Why did you not ask for a loaner from the start ?? Enterprise Rent a car is everywhere ! Worst thing that would have happened is Mini would have reimbursed you the cost of the rental if the dealer had no rentals...

 

--Wow sorry to hear about the lousy support from your Mini dealer mattharris75. I've heard similar complaints about how worthless AAA has been at getting help to drivers that are stranded. They're famous for keeping 1 driver and truck on duty for 50 square mile area on a saturday night. I once waited for 45 minutes for a truck and I was in town in a supermarket parking lot when my car wouldn't start.

I can tell you that not all Mini dealerships are the same. The one where I live has a shuttle that will pick you up from work or from home and drop you off at work if you need as well. I have heard of some dealerships that go so far as renting the customer a car for the weekend when the repair didn't complete on a friday.

You should definitely write a letter to Mini, and to the dealership. I hope you talked to the management at the dealership to express how unhappy you are. It may seem cruel and mean to yell and scream at the dealership manager and the Mini customer service rep, but sometimes you just have to demand better. If they don't give you satisfaction keep asking for their supervisor. A manager has a general manager, and that manager has a store owner or a regional manager. Go as high as you need. You'll at least feel better by yelling at people. You might even end up with a free cab ride out to the dealership or a free tow if you yell loud enough. Just remember this isn't personal this is business. If you give them enough hell they might think twice before giving someone like you anything less than stellar customer service. Hope it all works out for you.

--pyratio

 

[QUOTE=Passat774]Why did you purchase a Mini so for away from a dealership? Do you love the car? Did you ask at the time of purchase what would occur if you ever needed warranty service?
QUOTE]

There are a lot of MINI owners that live more than 100 miles from the dealer. I live about 225 miles one-way from my dealer. Only 100 miles would be great.

 

From my 2 experiences, MINI of Nashville's service is horrible. The work is fine I guess, but their service advisors aren't. I am also curious though, did they straight up tell you no loaner car? Cause that worries me.

 

gees, I go in for a oil change and out local Mini dealer gives a loaner..( ok, for 5 bucks,it was my lexus that was totaly free). I thought all BMW/Mini dealer offered loaners....

 

" I have vowed never to buy another Mini nor will I recommend one to friends or family".

Now that's a harsh toke! Over anticipated service treatment?

Hmmm, you don't get it. It's all about the car and reasonable dealer service. I could list several good and bad dealer experiances but no one (here) cares.

Owners on this site see past dealer issues and value the car for the car.

Yeah, I think I'll keep on recommending MINI to my friends and family at least until the dealer makes me push the car in and walk - uphill, both ways.

 

Read your warranty... There's no guarantee of a loaner car, no guarantee of "tow back service" Loaner's are strickly at the discretion of the dealership and there are several that don't give them period the end. Other dealers are more reasonable and provide a loaner free for 1 day and the owner must pay for additional days while others provide loaners if they are available.

With that in mind, do you really think it's reasonable for MINI to provide "tow back service" to all there owners... Especially when an owner might be 100, 200 or more miles away from the nearest dealership?

The bottom line is that you made the decision to buy the car even though you lived so far from a dealer. That was the risk you choose to take.

As for those who mention that their local Caddy, Ford, Jaguar etc dealer will deliver cars to their owners when they go in for service, read the fine print on that offer. Normally there are mileage caps, there are few if any of these dealers that are willing to offer such service out beyond 25 miles from the dealership. Heck every dealership I've dealt with that offers shuttle service normally caps it at 5 miles from the dealership...

 

Very nice said. If you have high expectations, why didn't you ask for a loaner or a rental car? There is only one problem that I see, and Mini Roadside Assistance is kind of slow, it happened to me once, reps. are very helpful but the tow service takes forever.

But, please let's be realistic before beating others up...

 

I could only wish that this would be my biggest problem in life..... perspective, huh?

 

I'd be upset too if my car broke down in 7k miles!!!

Let matt vent. he needs to let out to get his composure back.
let's support our team member. he'll come through.

 

Support is one thing. But to go along unreasonable expectations is quite another.....

 

Amen to that my friend.

 

Not only am I extremely disappointed, disgusted, and downright ticked off, I have vowed never to buy another Mini nor will I recommend one to friends or family. If this is the kind of customer service I can expect, then i'll be taking my dollars elsewhere.[/QUOTE]

THERE IS NO point in buying something that can not be serviced near you...Buy american next time...and you shall get similar treatment!

 

awww, he's a man. he can handle this. He'll come through, you'll see. (i hope?)

 

Hell I wish that I had a MINI dealership within 500 miles even 1000 miles.
100 miles I would take a MINI roadtrip to go pick it up, no more than a couple hours there and a couple back. You can get reaquainted with you MINI.
Life is to short to worry about little stuff like this.
Cheers