My BMW Dealer

My BMW dealer emailed me today as my R1250RT is due to come to the end of its finance agreement at the end of July. I’d started to make a decision that today became final. I will no longer be using them for future motorcycle purchases, servicing, accessories or parts. After eight years, I’m moving on.

So why?

It really started when I bought the current bike. I was planning on a September purchase but there was a bike with my specification in the country, so why not have that one? It made no difference to me so I agreed the deal. As it got closer to the end of that month – July 2019 – we discussed collection. I wanted to pick it up on the 1st of August as I was off work that day, so could wander in during the day. The salesman pressured me to pick it up the day before. There will be those of you who will have cottoned on to why at this point. However, I wasn’t really thinking too much about it. I was working on the 31st, so collecting a bike meant doing a day’s work, traipsing home, changing bikes and then riding across Bristol in rush hour traffic to get there between five and six in the evening and I didn’t particularly want to. However, he persisted much like Mrs Doyle in Father Ted, so I relented.

As we were rolling the bike outside, he thanked me because this bike meant that he had met his target. Okay, I’m not stupid. I know that they have targets and that this is how they make their money. But it still left a bad taste. If he had said as much before and asked me to accommodate, I’d have been amenable. As it was, I left feeling a little pissed off and that irritation remained under the surface to this day.

A year later, my XR needed a warranty job and they lent me a bike. When I returned it, they complained that I hadn’t topped it up with fuel. As they had given me the bike full to the brim, the short trip home and back, meant that I would not be able to put in the minimum vend. Also, bear in mind that as this was a warranty claim, I shouldn’t expect to be paying anything at all even a couple of quid for fuel, out of principle. My usual approach has been to top the bike up if it had enough space to do so and not if it is too full. It all evens out over time. Anyway, I found myself being ticked off in the showroom over a couple of quid’s worth of fuel.

I left feeling pretty pissed off. Remember, I was still irritated from the previous experience. I slept on it and made a formal complaint the following morning. I did get a formal apology from that one, so put it aside and carried on. However, we were two strikes down.

Just before Christmas, my RT fuel cap failed. This is a known fault for the keyless systems, so I thought it would be a fairly straightforward warranty claim. Oh, no, it was my fault apparently because I was using a Givi tanklock system that had caused the fault. This, despite having used it on the previous bike and the XR with no problems. Also, Givi is a well known manufacturer that makes accessories to fit the bikes for which they are sold – and the implication here is that we cannot fit aftermarket accessories to our machines for fear of invalidating the warranty. The dealer flatly refused to take the matter up with BMW as it wasn’t a manufacturing fault – as they refused to let BMW take a look, how would they know? And even if it wasn’t, for the low cost, keeping the customer sweet has benefits in these situations. I’d have happily accepted a goodwill deal had they offered one. Anyway, the use of such words as fraud in association with the claim brought back the annoyance over the petrol issue where I was being accused of stealing fuel.

A colleague suggested that they have big dealer syndrome and today’s email exchange rather confirms that.

I wasn’t going to make a big deal over the warranty claim. I paid for the part and resolved not to go back. I have a local mechanic who did the service a week or so ago. However, as they got in touch, I thought I’d let them know. I was offering a small window of opportunity to at least try to recover the situation. Never let it be said that I am not a reasonable man.

Nope. The guys in the service department are right and that’s all there is to it. So I said my goodbyes as it were and told them that they had lost my future business. Given that my past business has amounted to in excess of £60k, you might think this would register, but apparently not. They clearly think that there are plenty where I came from and I won’t be missed. They may be right, but from a customer service perspective, they have dropped the ball here – three times now.

So, fine, they won’t miss me. But there’s an old saying about bad customer service and this post is a part of that. I might not have named them, but if I point out that the next time I want a BMW, I’ll go up the M5 to Cotswold, it will be a simple matter to work out.

As it is, I’ve got bit of a wait, because that Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello isn’t hitting these shores until next autumn and the one I want is already spoken for, so probably this time next year. Looks like I’ll settle the balloon payment on the RT and bide my time until then.