F
Former member 61586
Guest
My manager bought a brand new 320i BMW from Sovereign BMW in Bloemfontein. He took delivery of the vehicle on 30 June 2011.
All good right?
Well, not really. According to his maintenance/service book in the vehicle, his maintenance plan expires on 30 June 2016. The dates are written by hand. Start date is 30 June 2011. 5 year maintenance plan as advertised. Still no problems.
The problem comes in when he received a notification from BMW stating that his maintenance plan ends on 31 March 2016 and should he want to increase the length of it, he must purchase a new maintenance plan before the other expires.
Does anybody see the problem here? The date that BMW have on their systems is 3 months short of the date he has for the expiry of the maintenance plan.
So to cut a long story short, he discovered that the date they (BMW SA) have is the "correct" date because the maintenance plan for BMWs (and I assume Minis) starts on the day that a dealer buys a car from the "factory". And if that car spends X amount of time on the showroom floor or the dealer warehouse, then X amount of time is deducted from the maintenance plan. This was of course never explained or disclosed to him and the car was sold with the full 5 year maintenance plan. The dealer even went a step further to hide this fraud by writing the "incorrect" dates into his service/maintenance book.
He has contacted BMW South Africa who have informed him to jump in a river as this is "Standard practice that everybody does". The dealer's solution to the problem was, that he purchase the extension of the maintenance plan if he wants it extended.
Is the above not fraud? Are the prices for these maintenance plans not included in the purchase price? Does this happen at all BMWs? Does this happen at other car manufacturer's dealers?
Anyway, be warned. I was never aware it worked this way. This is just pure assumption, but I assume the reason many more people don't complain about this, is because they purchase their vehicles and sell them before the maintenance plans are up thus never being the wiser.
All good right?
Well, not really. According to his maintenance/service book in the vehicle, his maintenance plan expires on 30 June 2016. The dates are written by hand. Start date is 30 June 2011. 5 year maintenance plan as advertised. Still no problems.
The problem comes in when he received a notification from BMW stating that his maintenance plan ends on 31 March 2016 and should he want to increase the length of it, he must purchase a new maintenance plan before the other expires.
Does anybody see the problem here? The date that BMW have on their systems is 3 months short of the date he has for the expiry of the maintenance plan.
So to cut a long story short, he discovered that the date they (BMW SA) have is the "correct" date because the maintenance plan for BMWs (and I assume Minis) starts on the day that a dealer buys a car from the "factory". And if that car spends X amount of time on the showroom floor or the dealer warehouse, then X amount of time is deducted from the maintenance plan. This was of course never explained or disclosed to him and the car was sold with the full 5 year maintenance plan. The dealer even went a step further to hide this fraud by writing the "incorrect" dates into his service/maintenance book.
He has contacted BMW South Africa who have informed him to jump in a river as this is "Standard practice that everybody does". The dealer's solution to the problem was, that he purchase the extension of the maintenance plan if he wants it extended.
Is the above not fraud? Are the prices for these maintenance plans not included in the purchase price? Does this happen at all BMWs? Does this happen at other car manufacturer's dealers?
Anyway, be warned. I was never aware it worked this way. This is just pure assumption, but I assume the reason many more people don't complain about this, is because they purchase their vehicles and sell them before the maintenance plans are up thus never being the wiser.
