So my Mini was at the dealership on Thursday getting a new gear shift because mine was going bad. They fixed it promptly, and the cause was due to a "coffee spill." I do not, nor have I ever, been a coffee drinker. And I cannot remember spilling anything in or around my gear shifter in the 6 years I've owned the car (but it's not impossible.) Let's call that problem #1.


Problem #2, it now seems as if the dealership may have accidently scratched the top portion of my hatch. How? I don't know, it's in a very weird place (like, the tippy top rim of my hatch.) But there are two new, very obvious scrapes that were not there three weeks ago when I washed my car by hand.


It's impossible to prove this happened at the dealership. but I'm pretty sure it did. I've already been going back and forth with them a bit about the reason why my gear shifter failed, and I don't want to be seen as a pain in the *** because I do love my Mini and have always had great service at my dealership, but I'm kinda pissed at this point. There's not much I can do about the gear shifter. It was a $1.2k repair bill and I FELT it going bad, so I knew it had to be fixed, they're just not really sure how it became defective, which is why they're giving me bogus answers.


I am, however, rather pissed about the new scratches. I know they could have come from anywhere.... but I'm almost certain it happened at my dealership.


Advice? Help? Sympathy?


What would you do if you were in my situation? Let it go? Write a letter to corporate?

 

My sister had her infinity SUV scratched at the dealer during some work too, she called them up and they viewed their surveillance video which proved her right. They had it fixed a few days later. I'd start with that. I would even mention to them over the phone "I don't want to be a pain in the @#$@ but I really love my mini and so on", you might get some good feedback if you start off that way.

 

There was a time when I would go to the dealer, before taking possession of my Mini they would walk around my Mini marking down on a clipboard any noticeable scratches and dents. I would then inspect it myself and sign on the dotted line so if it did come back with scratches or dents there's no question who had done it. I always do this at places I take my Mini to and insist that they inspect the car for scratches and dents and have them sign it on the estimate, if they refuse I kindly ask for my Mini back immediately!

This way if you get your Mini back with damage and the shop refuses to pay, call police, file a report, take pictures before taking possession of your Mini and you have a win, win in small claims!

However I would just file a claim with my insurance because after paying filing and paying a court clerk to serve the defendant that would equal my $100 deductible. My insurance would then go after the shop for damages with my pictures, police report and signed estimate, easy win.

 

The "coffee in the shifter" is a known issue with the R56 auto. The cupholders are right above some of the sensitive bits for the shifter, and if any liquid gets into them, it can seep down onto the shifter. It doesn't necessarily cause problems right away, either--it can take a while. 5 years is a long time, but I wouldn't say it was impossible.

Sorry to hear about the scratches.

 

Did you notice the scratches right away when you were there or when you got home/couple days later when you got home? What I would do is go in and speak with the Service Manager. I agree, relay you don't mean to be a pain, but tell him about the scratches and how you are just a little frustrated after dealing with the shifter and then come to find new scratches on the car. Just be try to be nice about it as most of the time people in the service department will do their best to possibly make things right with nice customers. Coming from working as a SA at a dealership, our service manager always tried to make things right when he could as we were very focused on customer satisfaction. Of course, each dealer may handle things differently though.

 

Please contact the local service rep, they do the region for MINI and can authorize a fix or contact the manager at the MINI dealership and just let them know , most dealerships are willing to help. Had a dent once from MINI and pointed it out , they fixed it asap.

 

This is a tough one. I'm on the other side of this as I have a full service shop and am lucky enough that when a car comes in for service at most 3 people will touch a customer car including myself. So if an employee knowningly damages a car they report it to me and then we give the customer options on how we can fix it. We are human and not perfect, but sure try our best to care for each car as our own.
We did recently have a wheel get scratched just like this were the customer wasn't 100% sure we did it, and we didn't do it. Which this doesn't help me sleep as I don't want them to think we did it and didn't own up, and at the same time wasn't going to pay for it unless we knew 100% we did it. Then 2 weeks later we found the scratch on another part in the shop proving that the damage happened in our shop. My tech personally called the customer to let him know we had found that it was 100% our fault and take care of getting it fixed. It's a rock and a hard place for both parties as neither of us are sure where or when it happened. So we take responsibility for what we do.
Now I've started to make walk around videos of cars that are towed in to record the condition they arrive to us. This way we can compare if need later.
So I would advise customers to walk around their car with their camera at the dealer when they drop it off at the dealer. Then when they pick it up walk around it before even moving it from the spot it is parked in. If you find damage bring them out and show them the before video to prove that it happened there. This way they both know it happened while in their care and have to take care of it. It only takes one person in that long chain of service writer, porter, technician, porter, car wash guy, porter to damage something and not say anything to make this a big mess.
I think dealers should also make a video rather than the silly paper that never shows the actual damage and keep it on file so if you do pick it up and find damage they can review it themselves.