It's very frustrating when you schedule an appointment, drive to the dealership, leave your car and get all the way back home only to be told that the part isn't is stock.

 

Joey, I think you've completely missed the point. It's not necessarily the distance driving to the dealer for service; it's the advance planning, making sure you've got alternate transportation to work, and then hoping everything goes right at the service department. You don't have the luxury of a quick trip to the Mini dealer a couple miles away like it was a Honda or Chevy.

When you buy the car, you can pretty much decide when to go to the dealership, and it's usually when it's convenient to yourself. Weekends, after normal work hours, etc.

When you need service, it's almost always going to have to be scheduled Monday through Friday, from 8am to 5pm. If you're real lucky, your dealer might have service hours on Saturday morning. So instead of just dropping the car off for service, you're scheduling pretty much the day to get something done.

 

Joey,
SB hit on this and I will continue; my dealer is 85 miles away. I knew this and had no problem with the distance. What I did have a problem with, on the 3 occasions I had to take the MINI in, was the complete lack of caring or understanding from the SA. All 3 times I got the ubiquitous "unable to duplicate" or "it's normal". This after having to schedule an entire day each time to allow for drive time and waiting time.
On the last visit, for a driveline noise, the SA came to me after having the car in the bay for 10 whole minutes, and declared that they couldn't duplicate the noise. WTF?, over. I politely (well, maybe not) told him to get his butt back in the car and DRIVE it. Good grief! Does MINI require any kind of mechanical experience for their SAs? Or is it just a customer service position?
This was one of the reasons I got rid of my MINI (although I am still obsessed and will likely buy another).

 

Not always true there Joey. I bought my car over in Germany at the Military sales that was about 10 minutes from me and that was right next door to a BMW/MINI dealer. Now I live a little over an hour from the dealership but that's no big deal since I'm used to setting in traffic! YEAH for N. VA TRAFFIC!!! . In defense of some of the people, if the stupid techs would fix stuff correctly the first time then we wouldn't have to go in 3 times for an 02 sensor our go BACK in to have the counter reset for when your next service is due. That was my fav trip by the way because the MA at MOS just looked at my like "OOOPS"!

Just my thoughts.

 

okay people come down...

MY only complaint, AGAIN, is with people that are angry they have to drive a long distance to get the car to the dealership for maintenance service.
You guys have no idea how many times i have been standing by the service counter when a customer walks in and the first thing they say is "I hate driving down/up here. Why can't i get my oil changed somewhere else? I have to drive this far for a free oil change is stupid..." or some sort of comment like this...

Well anybody can change your oil but if you want the free oil chage you have to go to a MINI dealer. I'm not saying a comeback. I'm not saying a return trip because the parts were not in stock. I'm not saying a return trip because the moron tech didn't reset the counter. This would **** me off as much as it upset you guys...

example:
I have a Dodge dealership less than 5 minutes from me. My car had the SES on, i scanned it with my DTC scanner, turned out to be a misfire on number 4 cylinder. I checked the plugs, spark plug wires and the ohms on the fuel injectors-bad injector. (this is exactly wjat any other tech should do)

I took it in to the dealership(with a note explaining the issue), dropped it off the night before(they don't have loaners) and got a ride the next day to work with a coworker. The dealership called around 4pm the next day and said the car was fixed. I asked the caller what was done and she said she was not sure but it was fixed and ready to be picked up. I knew the info will be on the bill so after work i picked the car up(the service dept. was closed by then) and found that they had replaced the spark plug wire for number 4 cylinder. When i told them that it was the injector... sure enough 2 miles down the road the light came back on.

Anyways this happened to me and i'll never go back to that delaership again because of the lack of respect and the lack of knowledge on how to fix a car. Now i drive about 40 minutes to another dealership where i have been treated great.

 

i know some people moved from one place where the dealership was closed by and now is far far away, that i understand. it sucks

 

Joey, I think i get what you're saying. You're mad because they complain to YOU about the drive up there. Like there's anything you can do about it. You're there to fix the cars, but you can't fix the drive!

I work in the tourism industry and trust me... everyone has something to complain about. I was even asked once if i could make it stop raining.

My dealer is an hour and a half away, but there is a BMW dealer 5 min from my house. I wouldn't trust the one closer to me with my car for anything. I don't mind the drive to Charleston at all, it's really pretty. I knew that when I bought my car. I guess the thing i mind is that if something happens I have to completely clear my schedule so i can spend the whole day waiting around at the dealer. But I don't complain to my SA about it. It's just part of owning the car.

 

My dealer is only about 30 min down the road from where I go to school, about 2 hours from home

 

Actually, my number 1 gripe with service is with MINI thus far have been replacing my dead pixel screen with another dead pixel screen and then telling me its all they could do, even though its a manufacturing defect.

Also in doing so, the dealer damaged my chrome line trim.

This is regardless of the 45 minute drive each way to my dealership.

I chose this dealership after dealing with 3 other mini dealerships and held service and courtesy as my priority in paying full retail for this car.

Yes, i believe many folks gripe online about pety things but complaining about these posts is really not accepting or understanding the fact that this is an online forum for all to voice their opinions.


to answer your thread title, People complain because they are unhappy or dissatisifed.

 

thanks at least somebody understands me
yes that's exactly my problem. for example, friday i got to work at 7:45 am. At 8am we got our fist customer who drove 1 hour & 15minutes to make it in. I was at the service counter talking to the SA and the first thing to come out of his mouth before we even said hello was, "You guys better be ready to take my car in, i just drove from "where ever" to get here and i don't want to wait since i got the first appointment."

that's the kind of attitude that you sometimes get when dealing with a customer who had to drive a long distance.

He then asked me if i knew what i was doing, just like that He only came in for an LOF and a tire rotation, do i know what i'm doing... how dare he???

So you know how karma works right? I was under the car doing the oil change and noticed his 2 front tires completely bald, down to the wire, so he needs two tire now.And before i quoted the price on the tires i found he had both outer tie rods bad. I mean a lot of play on the tie rods, so those will need to be replace and an aligment done. And i'm NOT going to let the car go without them because it's a safety item and they can actually break and you can't steer the car.

So he bought the tires after seeing them and i replaced the tie rods and aligned the car(under warranty) but he had to wait about an hour and a half for me to do the work... am i happy that he had to wait, no not really i'm just doing my job, but maybe next time he won't be so rude or so impatient when dealing with other people...

 

Well that's all that had to be said in the beginning!

My wife works as a customer service agent for an airline. She's the one behind the counter. She not the one in charge of weather, broken airplanes, the cause of passengers arriving too late to make their flight, passengers with oversized and overweight bags, etc. Yet, many seem to think she has the omnipotence to make it all better.

Now what I think the customer is really saying to Joey, who IS an agent for the service department, is "I had to do a lot of planning to get up here, and I had better not hear anything about needing to order parts, ran out time, you need to do it all over again later! I was told this would happen today." The customer, in their way, is telling you they don't want to have to go through all the hoops they had to go through to get service done on their car. I.E. Their time is valuable too.

So, listening to customers (the ones who keep you employed) is part of the employment package. Just like they knew what they were getting into when they bought a car from a dealer some distance away, you should have known what you were getting into by taking a customer service job.

 

[quote=Gromit801;1201819]

...Now what I think the customer is really saying to Joey, who IS an agent for the service department, is "I had to do a lot of planning to get up here, and I had better not hear anything about needing to order parts, ran out time, you need to do it all over again later! I was told this would happen today." The customer, in their way, is telling you they don't want to have to go through all the hoops they had to go through to get service done on their car. I.E. Their time is valuable too.

So, listening to customers (the ones who keep you employed) is part of the employment package. Just like they knew what they were getting into when they bought a car from a dealer some distance away, you should have known what you were getting into by taking a customer service job.[/quote]

EXACTLY!

 

Dude, you seriously need to chill out. Here is a simple answer.

Of course people know how long it took to drive to buy the car. Do you have to insult their intelligence?

What they didn't plan on was LIVING there every other week with the car throwing codea, stupid idiot lights going on for no reason, a long list of continious problems (e.g., windshields broken, Yo Yo, Cold Start Problems, BPV valves ... an endless list).

After about the third visit people get totally fed up with warranty work.

Now you are a face they see. They don't see MINIUSA or BMW, they see YOU. So, of course, they are going to ***** about the long drive after they have done it 5 times in the last two weeks

As to "how dare they". I assume your a very good mechanic. Do you think all are?

Do you want me to tell you how many times I had to go back to get a problem solved??? Mechanic says the car is aligned, I drive it and it pulls, they drive it and so Oh yeah, and back and forth until they throw their hands up and say ... buy camber plate:impatient Are you kidding me? How DARE you (MINI dealer) tell me I have to buy an aftermarket part to get the car aligned. Where they competent?

So if you have an attitude of "how dare you", think about the frustrated customers who are fed up with poor service ... and guess who pays your check? Might it be the people who buy those cars and take them into your dealer for service.

 

^^ vitamins, Chows, vitamins!!! nice post btw.

 

::sigh:: I'm just tired of people complaining about ANYTHING

 

Just a thought.....maybe they are unhappy with the frequency they have to come to the delaership? Maybe they are unhappy that the dealer makes them come to the dealership for things that could be done simply by a monkey.

Just a thought

 

or like my local subaru dealer... car comes back like it was worked on
by a monkey...

 

that's a complaint

 

This must be NAM's "time of the month/year" for heated threads. This is like the third one I've read today. I'm learning a lot though.

 

yah, we're all accountants.

 

Vitamin Q!

 

wrong thread dude ... Try the rants thread

 

I get why joey1320 is complaining, but I don't understand why he thought he'd get sympathy here.

There is only 1 MINI dealer in all of San Diego county. ONE?!?!?! And it isn't even in the city of San Diego. How can this be?!?!?! At least it finally moved into a bigger facility to handle all the service requests, but seriously, we are all dumbfounded here as to why no other BWM dealers have been authorized to handle MINIs.

Additionally, it is frustrating when you get LOUSY service and have NO OTHER OPTIONS than to put up with it, or switch to a dealer in the OC or LA.

 

Joey,

I work at a place that I deal with the customer. Often, very often, the customer insults my intelligence, my capabilities, my work. However, I sit back, take a breather, and do what they ask. "The Customer" is not knowledgeable of "What We Do". They do not know (in any line of work other than their own) the intricacies involved. They do not know who's decision it is to build a dealership in a specific location, or how goods/services are scheduled. They do not know timings, other customers, or parts availability. they know their vocation, and nothing more.

Maybe you should ask, "How was the drive?" Act/be concerned. Gain some knowledge on the traffic patterns in the area and suggest better times to bring the MINI in. Put the onus on the customer to ask what times are best to bring a vehicle in (ie, "Next time you schedule, ask what are good times to come in.") Maybe the SAs/MAs should take this into account when they schedule people (they have address information). Often it is frustrating from a traffic point of view, and not a distance issue.

Make it clear that you wish a dealership was closer, but that MINI is the sole decider. Maybe say, "Yeah, it sure was a long drive, but at least it was in a MINI." My SA said that to me - I had thought of it on the way in, enjoying 696, but perhaps owners who don't think that way (driving MINI = FUN) may rethink their driving attitude.

I'm 45 minutes to 1.5 hours away from my dealership depending on the traffic. I've scheduled times with them in the past for pickup/work based on the best times to avoid traffic. I knew the distances I had to drive when I bought my MINI.

All of the above advice is untested (I do not work at a dealership), so take everything I wrote with a grain of salt.

John

 

I wonder if sometimes people are telling you that they just drove an hour or more to visit because they want you to understand that they are going to have an utter fit at you if you screw up their servicing ?

For me, going to my local dealer was extremely inconvenient - I am usually in the office before the dealer even opens, so I had to conduct negotiations by phone and drop off my car the night before, or real early (5AM early) in the morning and get myself the final 15 miles to my office.

If I then go to collect my car and the SA explains that they could not find the fault - that I demo'd to them a week previously, or worse they want to keep it over night, it does not take a huge amount of immagination to see that I may just be a little annoyed. Oh and if (theoretically of course) mechanic/semi-trained-monkey manages to put almost 100 miles on my car testing the window regulators(?), do you feel that I have every right to be annoyed / upset / crazy ? How about if they also damage the paint on the drivers door and scratch the rear bumper too ? Would you be happy or paranoid ?

Given that I have vowed to never, even step into my 'local' dealership again, and that there is a serious amount of 'bad feeling' between us, which is being resolved by MINIUSA at the moment, I now have to go considerably further for a service than previously.

So, give people a little slack, they are stressed at the journey, stressed that they are leaving their pride and joy in the hands of semi-trained monkeys, and they really just want their car fixed and returned in good shape......