Leo Hease BMW - extremely poor service

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WarrenT

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Yesterday my BMW started overheating. I used my GPS to get me to the nearest BMW agent. When
I got there I was told that it was lunch time and I should wait or return in 30 minutes. I took a walk and returned. After that I was ignored for 10 minutes. I then enquired and was told that they were too busy to talk to me.

I explained that I was broken down in their parking lot. Their reply was 'there is nothing we can do, sorry'. I then saw that they has a spares department so I went to talk to them. I managed to purchase a few items that in my limited mechanical experience thought would make me mobile again and get me to a place where I could have the problem looked at.

This left me in my work clothes with my Learherman and the spare parts working under the hood in plain sight in the parking lot. After my patch job I walked to the nearest petrol station to get water to fill my cooling system. Since BMW was too busy to speak to me, what are the chances they would have helped me with a few Liters of water?

I made it home ending in the car overheating again. The service or lack thereof at Leo Hease BMW is disgusting and they are an embarrassment to their trade.
 
Sorry to hear about your struggles.

It is a difficult situation, I'm sure, for both customer and the dealership. If they spent much time on "walk-ins" they get bullied by their customers who booked in advance days ago because their vehicles might not be finished that day.

And keeping spare mechanics just for "walk-ins" may not be financially viable.

Then you have salaried employees, who gets paid "whatever" and may see you situation happening on a daily basis.

I am sure if you were lucky and was able to speak to a senior enough staff member, you may have gotten a better response, but I suspect you are way to civilized and respectful to have demanded to speak to some "higher-ups", without making a scene.

Personally I have bred a wonderful relationship with a private service centre owner, leading to my ability to phone him at night with a breakdown in another province, and still get help.

I understand you were not close to your residence/work area, which made it more difficult.

Glad to hear there are still men out there willing to tackle a BMW with a leatherman, there is still hope for us all!

Good Luck with the overheating issues
 
That is UNACCEPTABLE bull****. My Mini overheated about 2 years back and when I telephoned BMW, they insisted that the car come in IMMEDIATELY. Emergency breakdown is accepted as a walk in. That dealership stinks man.
 
Unacceptable way of dealing with the customer...

Walk-ins for normal services are not called for, but if your car is broken down in the parkinglot... they should bloody well help you.
 
Thats pretty weak.

ttygt has a point though. Leo Hease is permanently booked 100% for long in advance, so the "broke down in parking lot" must've sounded like awfully convenient story & the rep decided you're a chancer trying to skip the queue.

Or its just bad service...whenever a place has an overabundance of customers service drops because their is no incentive to keep a given customer.

Next time if this happens just phone BMW roadside assistance. Assuming your still within the prescribed period it won't cost you a sent. The roadside assistance do actually go out of their way to help. e.g. We needed a tire at midnight in the middle of the sticks. Took them a while to get there, but we got the tire.
 
Help

Thanks for the replies guys.

I was pretty clear with the service guy that all I wanted was advice. The bleed screw on the water bottle had been twisted off by an attendant at a nearby garage. I was looking to speak to a mechanic to know if I could purchase a replacement screw, book the vehicle in or get it towed.

I hear what you are saying about walk in's but all I was asking for is advice. Seems that was a bridge too far. This is the worst example of customer service. Does anyone know how I can take this matter further with BMW SA?
 
centurion or hatfield??
got a crap service from centurion, went to hatfield and it was excellent
 
That's pathetic service - I've been into two merc dealerships during lunch hour before with breakdowns and both times they worked through lunch to sort me out and both times (as no parts were needed) they never even opened a job card. The dealership in Mthatha even gave me a handful of fuses in case I had more problems along the way.


ttygt said:
It is a difficult situation, I'm sure, for both customer and the dealership. If they spent much time on "walk-ins" they get bullied by their customers who booked in advance days ago because their vehicles might not be finished that day.
Click to expand...

No, it's not a difficult situation, it's a franchised dealership, and they charge top-dollar because they are meant to provide top service. It's inexcusable.



ttygt said:
Personally I have bred a wonderful relationship with a private service centre owner, leading to my ability to phone him at night with a breakdown in another province, and still get help.
Click to expand...

I wonder how he feels about that?
 
@ Fudzy - not sure if you are asking me or the OP, but mine wasn't covered, in fact the second time was when a non-franchised garage had left the turbo pipe unsecured and the agents fixed it free... I almost felt guilty - but managed to hold out. :)
 
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