A general rant

S

senwar

Active member
I have to say, my patience is wearing thin with dealers out there.

I had my issues in the past with Sytner Sheffield, and recently had the issue with my rejected/returned X5. It started with a lack of response once I placed my deposit, became annoying when I had to phone to check all was OK for collection only to be told 'oh we were going to phone you' and the collection being delayed by a week. Then when I collected it, they'd not sorted out all the issues, and finally the car turned out to have a problem which led to a return. But even then I had to chase things up constantly - a complete lack of urgency (and care!).

Now, I'm sat waiting for a phone call for the car I've purchased from a different dealer. I placed my deposit on it on Friday, sorted funding out Saturday, and then nothing. Had to phone yesterday to be told 'oh we're fetching it tonight' after originally being told it was being collect Monday. I then asked for a quote to retrofit some parts and could they get back to me by COB yesterday. Again, nothing. No call today either (I would have at least expected 'we've collected it, when do you want it' but no, nothing. I'm leaving it till tomorrow but thats a week after I ordered it, and still no closer to getting the vehicle. I'm away this weekend too so can't fetch it even if I wanted to now.

What is wrong with dealers? I'm getting pretty tired of it all if I'm honest.
 
Wow, totally different from my experience here in the US (Chapel Hill, NC to be exact). Bought the car off the lot-sorted out financing, set a date and time to pick it up, it was detailed, gas tank was full, salesman met me to go over all features of the car-even drove it out of the showroom for me. Attached the license tag and I drove off. When it needed its oil change, called, set an appointment, took it in. They drove me to work and picked me up when they were finished. Washed it while they had it.

My daughter bought a used car from them, a Mazda, and had a wonderful experience.

Nope, dealers aren't cheap, but these guys do it right. Performance BMW. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
certainly different from the experience I've had with Vines Redhill... saw drove and purchased one saturday, picked it up the next saturday with no problems :)
 
reading forums and talking to owners it seems dealership experiences are pretty much the same, sometimes excellent or good more often poor. BMW dealerships in the UK are not the best and not in the same league as Lexus, Jaguar or Skoda if the Driver power surveys are accurate in any way.

If they are busy, and this time of year they may be especially with staff holidays as well then as in most businesses customer care will suffer. Hope you get it sorted
 
I'm surprised. They normally start shafting you after you've bought the car!

Although, I think I can go one up on that...

When I went to the Vauxhall dealer, money ready, to look at buying an Astra VXR... A bloke met me at the door and physically wouldn't let me through the door! Needless to say, I went elsewhere.
 
IK. said:
I'm surprised. They normally start shafting you after you've bought the car!

Although, I think I can go one up on that...

When I went to the Vauxhall dealer, money ready, to look at buying an Astra VXR... A bloke met me at the door and physically wouldn't let me through the door! Needless to say, I went elsewhere.
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You are joking?? How come?

chetalien said:
I'm sorry to hear about it senwar, out of curiousity what did u get?
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a 1 series M sport coupe mate (120d).
 
IK. said:
I'm surprised. They normally start shafting you after you've bought the car!

Although, I think I can go one up on that...

When I went to the Vauxhall dealer, money ready, to look at buying an Astra VXR... A bloke met me at the door and physically wouldn't let me through the door! Needless to say, I went elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Had similar with a Renault Garage - went in with a view to looking at and maybe buying a RenaultSport Clio 172... all the salesmen wouldn't talk to me - seems I was interrupting their enjoyment of a footy game on the telly :(

Went and bought a 206 GTi instead...
 
It depends on who you get to deal with. When buying my first Z4 the idiot in Synters Leicester completely dismissed me, he would not even let me go out in the 2.5 he had because i did not want a silver one, but at that point i was not sure what model i wanted, so needed to try a few, if i had loved the 2.5 i would have waited until they had found the right colour combo, he was made aware of that. They had the nice Sepang Bronze M coupe that someone has on here and whilst i really wanted a roadster, i was totally in love with it, had he let me go out in it i would have probably bought it.

However, when the new model came out i popped in to have a look more than buy and the saleslady dealing with me this time was so different - presume she was new sales rather than used, but even so i am possibly in the market for a used X5 and she has again been so helpful, even though she knows i am not going to move from M for some time, she offered me weekend test drives in different models of X5. Whow what a difference. I did explain to her that i was reclutant to use Synter Leicester due to my first experience and would have preferred to go to Rybrook Warwick - who where absolutely amazing and let me out in an M which i then bought, after test driving a 2.5, in silver which he knew i would not buy.

Being in customer service/sales i do rather expect a high level of service, but if that Synter salesman had worked for me - he would not have lasted long, he lost them a sale.
 
I think the dealer behaviour varies what time of the year and month u go to them. I always found that end of month is better as they trying to get their numbers up but at the beginning not so good.
My experience: I was decididng between M and 3.0si, to upgrade from 2.5i, was looking at dealers who had both so i could test drive on same day. found Knights South Staffs had them both, Both were specced to my liking would have got any of those. I arrived on the day with my wife. I guy wouldnt take me in the M. he said he cant take me for a test drive in the M but only 3.0si, i was bitterly disappointed after having driven 50miles from worcester. I had an appt too. i asked him if it was sold but he said he cant let me try them both. I went for a test drive in 3.0si, the shortest I've done on a 30mph road. bsolutely useless after a mile or two he asked to turn around. I had made up mind I wouldnt buy from these guys. I go to rybrook worcester previously robert stern- pretty good. No problems.
 
senwar said:
IK. said:
I'm surprised. They normally start shafting you after you've bought the car!

Although, I think I can go one up on that...

When I went to the Vauxhall dealer, money ready, to look at buying an Astra VXR... A bloke met me at the door and physically wouldn't let me through the door! Needless to say, I went elsewhere.
Click to expand...
You are joking?? How come?

chetalien said:
I'm sorry to hear about it senwar, out of curiousity what did u get?
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a 1 series M sport coupe mate (120d).
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No idea mate! I guess I looked like I couldn't afford one or something :rofl:

Useless garage, both in sales and service. Not surprisingly, they got taken over at the start of the year.
 
Mattt said:
I've always fancied being a car salesman, I'm sure I'd be better than 95% of them out there.
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Matt, your helpful and know something about cars which makes you far too overqualified for the job. :lol:

I can't recall the last time I walked into a dealer where the salesperson didn't try the hard sell or spouted some bull which anyone who had done their homework would see through. :headbang:
 
Am i the only one who's never had a bad experience?

I got my car from Soper BMW in Lincoln after i had seen it on their website. I hadn't even phoned up to say i was coming or anything but the guy was very helpful and within 15 minutes of being there i was out test driving it! It was a Friday when i went to see it, i said i wanted it and the following Tuesday it was on my drive!

I'm currently involved with Sytner BMW in Sheffield after the accident the other day. So far they have been nothing but helpful and knowledgable when i have spoken to them. I even went up on Thursday and i was taken upstairs to the workshop to see it, and was given the rundown of what was happening with it. I'm very happy with the service so far. no complaints. Hopefully it will stay the same.

:)
 
Lucy said:
Am i the only one who's never had a bad experience?

I got my car from Soper BMW in Lincoln after i had seen it on their website. I hadn't even phoned up to say i was coming or anything but the guy was very helpful and within 15 minutes of being there i was out test driving it! It was a Friday when i went to see it, i said i wanted it and the following Tuesday it was on my drive!

I'm currently involved with Sytner BMW in Sheffield after the accident the other day. So far they have been nothing but helpful and knowledgable when i have spoken to them. I even went up on Thursday and i was taken upstairs to the workshop to see it, and was given the rundown of what was happening with it. I'm very happy with the service so far. no complaints. Hopefully it will stay the same.

:)
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I've had my issues with Sytner Sheffield in the past.

They do seem a lot better now though.

Saying that, I remember a right smug little t0sspot who worked for Sheffield Audi, and I nipped in a few times when looking for a TT. He used to be very dismissive in a 'ha as if you can afford a TT' kind of way.

I took great pleasure in taking my new TTR a week or two later just to pick up some polish just so the smug get could see he'd missed out on a sale (bought it from Sunderland instead).

Carrying on from my earlier rant though - have to say I'm still rather peeved. On Thursday last week the dealer agreed a price to retro-fit cruise 'yeah should be no problems doing it for that'. Today they've gone back on it, and even quoted a 15% discounted price that is HIGHER than the price for the part they said on Thursday. Just said forget it. The annoyance is, if I'd have known this I would have collected my car today instead of Wednesday.

Oh well, at least its nearly time to get it.
 
Mattt said:
I've always fancied being a car salesman, I'm sure I'd be better than 95% of them out there.
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I was one once, in the dim and distant past. I found it hard to be economical with the truth, strive to beat your colleagues to take the most deposits on a saturday, take the ridicule and peer humiliation from sales managers, work all the hours god sent just to look as if you really want the job and stitch people into high interest bearing loans in the full knowledge that they will never be able to trade out of thier new car once the novelty has worn off.......... I went to University and joined the legal profession instead.
 
I currently live and work in the UAE - recently went to the Jeep dealership to buy a new Wrangler. Chose the colour, retrofit parts and agreed the spec. Delivery - 3 days! Picked up the vehicle and salesman took about an hour to show me round the vehicle and check everything was as ordered. Difference here is that the customer is seen as the most important factor in keeping the business going. Have now had a couple of phone calls from the original salesman just checking to see if everthing is OK with the vehicle. A couple of minor problems have been dealth with immediately! Would have bought a BMW but prices here are astronomical and unfortunately the attitude of BMW sales staff seems to be that of the UK - almost a couldn't care less attitude. Perhaps it's the training they get......
 
I think experiences at BMW certainly do depend on if it’s a new or used car your interested in.
No doubt a new car sales experience should be faultless - although I can imagine some big egoed sales people who don’t care after you have signed.
Used sales are different and im not surprised that the BMW experience was bad.
When I’ve had warranty work done, they are not helpful in anyway whatsoever
It’s all down to a lack of direction - and that’s something you definitely lead when you have a hungry crew of egomaniacistal salespeople!
Then again - it can’t be all that bad ALL of the time - otherwise they would not be in business!
What is interesting is how constantly over my BMW driving and forum posting time - I’ve only every seen BMW dealers or $tealers as I like to call them come under mass scrutiny on forums. Perhaps out expectations are very (and quite rightly) high - and Joe public is non-expectant or the wool can easily be pulled over their eyes??
 
I will never buy another BMW again and would recommend my friends to stay away from them.

I have found the dealers friendly but completely incompetent at fixing anything but simple warrenty/quality issues. My brand new Z4 Coupe went to three different stealers a total of 12 times in the past 2 years with a list of problems and the car still has big issues.

Perhaps the dealers are too driven by targets and deadlines; I suspect that they're under-staffed - but if it isn't obvious to them how a problem can be solved within 5 minutes, they put a plaster on it and/or send it away and claim that it has been fixed, when it hasn't. I'm sure they still charge BMW UK for every time it's in.

My local dealers have never provided a courtesy car (sometimes they rent you a car); never clean the car; and often have you wait 2 weeks before they can book you in. On two occasions they kept the car for one week without actually getting round to looking at it. On two occasions I had to get a bus home (2 hour journey, including connections, to go 15 miles - isn't public transport great!) because they couldn't get to it in the one hour they had booked it in, and asked to keep it overnight. On all other occasions I had to get a friend to give me a lift.

Does that sound like a premium brand dealer looking after a £35k car??

No more BMWs for me.
 
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