Just bought an ‘04 MINI with no A/C from a friend, who had just got it back from Beamer Specialists for replacing the oil pan gasket and a few other minor services but says the A/C was working fine til he got it back from the shop.
I’m still looking for a good MINI shop but A/C isn’t complicated so called a shop I’ve had good luck with, Cobb Tire in Greenville, and they found the compressor was disconnected (!) and needed a bit more freon. $150 and A/C blows cold.

if anyone has a MINI shop recommendation, please post it. But Cobb Tire got my A/C fixed in a day. When the previous owner called Beamer Specialists back to see if they could have done anything to the A/C, they told him probably not, but if he brings it back, they didn’t know when they could get to it. This was after they had his car for 4 weeks and he had just paid $2200 for a short list of repairs.