I live in Anchorage, Alaska, and although I have a 2007 MINI Cooper S, there is no dealer or service center within 3,000 miles.

I happened to be in Las Vegas in December 2007, and thought I was thinking ahead by buying three oil filters. I told the parts person what year and model of MINI I have and he said that the three filter I bought would fit my MINI.

Today I took my MINI to the local Anchorage BMW dealer for an annual oil change (11,200 miles and first service of any type on this MINI). Note that because they are not an authorized MINI service center I have to pay for this service. I asked them to use the filters I bought from the Las Vegas Parts Department. When the technician tried to replace the filter into the canister it was too large . Because the Anchorage BMW service department had not done an oil change on a 2007 MINI, they did not know that the filters had changed. It was decided that the best course of action was to return the original oil filter and put new oil in.

My real question is when will the parts personnel at Las Vegas MINI know the difference between an R53 and an R56 ? It's a long way from Anchorage to Las Vegas to return 3 $10 filters.

 

Wow.

 

Sometimes, the level of idiocy just feels like its gonna crush you.

Although, not as inconvenient as your situation, I had a similar situation with my John Deere lawn tractor. I travelled about 20 miles to get replacement blades and an oil filter this spring. Brought my original manual. Double and Triple checked the blade part numbers to make sure he gave me the right ones. Get home, drain the oil, and guess what? Wrong oil filter. Not even close. Best yet, not even a "sorry" when I have to drive all the way back so I can put the machine back together.

Who taught this guy the business?

 

Our parts computers all go off the VIN's unless their system is down. That being said there are only 2 oil filters for the mini's and they are very different. Even come in different boxes. The newer ones come in a smaller grey box and they are black filters with wavy filter media. The old ones look like plain old cartridge filters.

Next time tell them to order you part no. 11427557012, that should be the new one.

 

I had the same thing happen to me and I do my own oil changes at every 5k. I ended up an R53 oil filter but didn't notice that until I had my oil drained and my old filter in my hand...doh!! now I check the box before I leave the dealer.

 

I read an article that said Jane Goodall is in charge of parts training.

 

hows the mini holding up in alaska so far?

 

I was a dealer parts manager for 16 years. Worked my way up from parts truck driver.

If you can't get a single-line product's oil filter number right, you probably don't have a future in the business. Either that or the labor pool at that dealer's location is polluted! Sheesh.

 

The answer to your question is "No one"

Like parts depts in many industries these days, most don't even have dedicated parts personell, they simply outsource that to someone in a call center who looks it up on a computer (1st chance for an error) then transmits the order to an order filler (2nd chance for an error) who pulls the part off the shelf (3rd chance - was it stocked right?) and wouldn't know an oil filter from a cabin filter and ships it out (4th chance for an error - shipping address and carrier) and when you get it you find the mfr put the wrong part in the box!

It's a sorry state of affairs and it's industry wide, and I don't mean just the auto industry either........

Companies are looking for a way to cut costs and the first way to do that is to lower labor costs by eliminating skilled or experienced workers and replacing them with non-skilled, young and/or inexperienced........

 

Get familiar with www.realoem.com. and classic auto campus. Order your own stuff (NAM discount) by part number and all should be good. There are other parts outlets as well. I just listed one option to get you going.

Matt