Coopers East Boldon

[Japseroony]

I cannot stress how bad this dealership is.

My car developed a fault that they thought was a sensor costing £650 (part is available from them for £71.32 and is a longitudinal/latitudinal acceleration unit) and when they fitted it they say it has cleared some of the faults but not all so other sensors/units are required.

They eventually said the DSC unit was faulty and wanted a further £1,700 plus VAT so I took the car away from them.

I took it to Prestige German Cars (PGC) in South Shields who took 20 mins to tell me that it was the ABS/DSC control unit that had failed and BMW offered a fix at £860 or a new unit complete (including the ABS pump) for £1,700 but as the pump was not at fault the fix was perfect.

They also confirmed the sensor Coopers had fitted was not faulty nor should Coopers have even replaced it - indeed Coopers had left the old part in the car and PGC test fitted this back on the car - no effect what so ever

So my point is it would seem Coopers don't know what they are doing, charge 10x what the part costs and fit parts that are not required and don't know about the parts available from BMW such as the fix - this has been reported to BMW

[markplant]

Its becoming all to common with dealerships just replacing part after part to try an fix, rather than finding the actual cause of a fault, I'd be using PGC in future if your happy with the service

[maxman]

I would ask for an interview with the sevice manage and the C.E.O of Coopers.Take along some one as a witness and have the service explain in front of his boss how incompetent they are.
Write to the C.E.O of BMW informing them of your experience,and how this bunch of cowboys are bringing g the brand into disrepute .Whats worrying is how many other owners they have ripped off.
Glad you had the problem sorted

[Japseroony]

I would ask for an interview with the sevice manage and the C.E.O of Coopers.Take along some one as a witness and have the service explain in front of his boss how incompetent they are.
Write to the C.E.O of BMW informing them of your experience,and how this bunch of cowboys are bringing g the brand into disrepute .Whats worrying is how many other owners they have ripped off.
Glad you had the problem sorted

I have sent an email to the CEO of BMW Mr Graeme Grieve, the CEO of Inchcape Mr Connor McCormack and the DP at Coopers Mr Graham Cunningham as well as a lady in customer services called Myra Gray who is supposed to be fairly high up the chain in that department - so far no contact from any of them and believe me my email was to the point and damning Coopers in every way.

I did speak to Myra last week and she said she thought Coopers had a training need and was thinking about sending someone up to the dealership

[Mark555]

Hi Japseroony, just wondering if you had any further feedback from this shocking outfit of thieving bas**rds? They need reporting to Trading Standards too.

[Japseroony]

At last had a reply from the DP at Coopers last week and he listened to my concerns and came back to me yesterday. Off to have a chat today for him to present his findings to me and he is asking how they can redeem themselves

[ronk]

Its not for you to ask - I would say its up to them to offer !
if they offer a silly amount or method you can always say no - However , if you ask and they say no, you will be immediately on the back foot.

[Japseroony]

Its not for you to ask - I would say its up to them to offer !
if they offer a silly amount or method you can always say no - However , if you ask and they say no, you will be immediately on the back foot.

Fully agree, I will just be asking for an explanation and see what transpires - they know I love the Z4 and was in negotiation on a new one with them so maybe the DP might look at that

[ronk]

I would say that a return of all of your costs at Coopers was a reasonable starting point then anything else is a bonus.
After all is said and done, you spent cash with them and they didn't correct the fault ! They are supposed to be the "Experts" with a BMW approval and back up!

[Nanu]

Have had a bad experience some time ago with same dealership and not been back since. My white Zed had a large blob of bird s**t on the bonnet which had dried overnight. When I used a hose on it half came off but so did the top layer of lacquer. I phoned the garage and reported it and offered to bring it down there and then but as it was Saturday morning they said the bodyshop was closed but as I had reported it with some of the s**t still on for them to examine and as I was a valued customer they trusted me and just told me to clean it and to bring the car in on Monday and it would get sorted. Needless to say it didn't. On Monday they bodyshop manager insisted that in his expert opinion it was a stone chip and it would cost approx £250 for a bonnet respray. I know I should have taken it down on the Saturday morning or left the s**t on but I foolishly trusted them. Never again and they have lost out on selling me new two Zeds since then. Coopers at Durham are not any better, had a brake light cluster fixed (leaking water) on the same car which BMW agreed to pay the labour for and I the part. Coopers made me pay in full and said they would haggle with BMW for the best deal. They got me £125 only to find out months later that BMW had actually awarded me £175. When challenged I was given the additional £50 with no explanation. Stay clear of the whole lot

[srhutch]

If you paid on your credit card you might want to look at that. Might be able to get your money back that way.

[Denis O]

Have had a bad experience some time ago with same dealership and not been back since. My white Zed had a large blob of bird s**t on the bonnet which had dried overnight. When I used a hose on it half came off but so did the top layer of lacquer. I phoned the garage and reported it and offered to bring it down there and then but as it was Saturday morning they said the bodyshop was closed but as I had reported it with some of the s**t still on for them to examine and as I was a valued customer they trusted me and just told me to clean it and to bring the car in on Monday and it would get sorted. Needless to say it didn't. On Monday they bodyshop manager insisted that in his expert opinion it was a stone chip and it would cost approx £250 for a bonnet respray. I know I should have taken it down on the Saturday morning or left the s**t on but I foolishly trusted them. Never again and they have lost out on selling me new two Zeds since then. Coopers at Durham are not any better, had a brake light cluster fixed (leaking water) on the same car which BMW agreed to pay the labour for and I the part. Coopers made me pay in full and said they would haggle with BMW for the best deal. They got me £125 only to find out months later that BMW had actually awarded me £175. When challenged I was given the additional £50 with no explanation. Stay clear of the whole lot

Am I missing something here?

A bird craps on your paintwork and it's left on for a while, certainly till it dries. You then wash it off and it takes the lacquer off and you then expect BMW to pay for restoration I don't follow the logic.

Bird crap is well known to be corrosive, especilally if the little gits have been scoffing blackberries or similar acidic things. If you don't get it off immediately it will eat the lacquer. How is that even remotely BMW's problem

[Nanu]

The problem was that BMW accepted that the damage was caused by bird crap and had agreed to remedy it because I was a valued customer. However when I attended the garage and they argued that in their expert judgement it was actually caused by a stone chip and denied ever having told me that they accepted that it was bird crap which was calling me a liar. Strange also that I have been owned BMW's now for almost 20 years and have had bird crap on them many times sometimes having been left for weeks whilst parked in airport car parks (Seagull crap) and never had the paint damaged.