Appalling service from Halliwell Jones Chester, UK

S

Screamer

Member
 Flintshire
Took my car into Halliwell Jones in Chester recently for a few minor warranty issues (rattles, etc). Picked it up 2 days later. Had the rattles been fixed? No. Fortunately, I've got a workshop manual for the car, so I can do it myself. They did adjust my glovebox catch as requested and had left the entire surface of it covered in dust. Now glad they didn't do anything else. When I dropped the car off, I asked whether it was possible to have some settings changed in my key. I asked for the full list of options and was told they couldn't get them until they had gone into the system. Assumed I'd get a list when I collected the car. That, unsuprisingly, didn't happen. I went through a few options that i'd picked up online, and we ended up with 2 of the 5 (ish) options i'd requested being agreed. All was fine after that - picked up the car and found the options successfully programmed into the car (presumably only on the 1 key, as that's the only one I gave them).

Until... A couple of days ago, when, out of the blue, I get a call from the dealership telling me they've made a mistake and that I owe them £45 for the key programming service! So what they've asked me to do there is pay for their mistakes. I don't know how it works for other people here who might run their own businesses, but whenever I make a mistake on billing issues, I have to stick by them. Anyway, contacted BMW customer services who told me they'd contact the dealership and get them to ring me to explain why i'd been billed, and hadn't been told. I assumed/hoped this would mean 'a sturn talking to and the bill paid by BMW/the dealership out of goodwill'... Erm, no. Instead, I hear nothing and had to ring back again today to BMW to get them to repeat the whole thing. This time I do get a call from the dealership and am told that the glovebox etc work they did isn't covered by warranty and that was all goodwill work, so they have to charge me for the key settings... Since when has a troublesome glovebox catch and rattles not been warranty work?! Funnily enough, he didn't mention that it was being done on goodwill when I dropped the car off...

Either way, i've now paid up and thought i'd then post this glowing review of their work. Suffice to say I'll be going through to Liverpool (my next nearest dealer) for anything/everything else I ever need (fingers crossed that they're not as bad!)
 
Once again an example of Del Boy service from good old BMW UK. IMHO this is as much BMW UK's fault as the dealers, as they should have been given the stern talking to and the bill waived, like you suggested.

Sorry to hear about your experience, I hope Liverpool treat you better.
 
£45 for key programming? What a rip off!!! On the previous Z, I did it myself whilst it was connected to the machine. The connection time was 5 seconds, the programming I did within 2 minute as it is just a touch screen. Total job less then 3 minutes.

And you are right - you will only have a single key programmed now ...
 
Interesting!

Halliwell Jones wanted £70 more than Williams Liverpool for an Oil service and brake fluid change on my Z4, guess who got my business!

The parking in HJ is rubbish anyway and the workshop in Williams looks much smarter.

Saying that Williams didn't fix my rattles either - so I did it myself :roll:
 
Halliwell Jones is the WORSE BMW dealer in the UK and possible the world

Halliwell Jones is the WORSE BMW dealer in the UK and possible the world

Halliwell Jones is the WORSE BMW dealer in the UK and possible the world


Even thinking about them makes me sooooooo angry.

I bought a nearly new Zed (6months old). Had some paintwork problem. Contacted them, they continually ignored me. I took the issue to BMW UK. Halliwell Jones made out (in written communication) that they offered me many opportunities and made me look like I a difficult customer. Luckily I kept all written communications and confronted them for fraud. I was about to appoint a solicitor when the main dealer man called and almost begged me to drop the case (explanation; some internal problems as they have recently opened a new branch!!) and compensated me handsomely. I decided to drop the case, as did not have the energy and settlement was very attractive.

Take home message:

1) Halliwell Jones is the WORSE BMW dealer in the UK and possible the world
2) BMW UK rubbish and quickly took side with the dealer
 
So far, BMW UK has come out very good for me as they have "made" my dealer sort out oustanding issues and send a compensation cheque ...
 
zed-light said:
Halliwell Jones is the WORSE BMW dealer in the UK and possible the world

Halliwell Jones is the WORSE BMW dealer in the UK and possible the world

Halliwell Jones is the WORSE BMW dealer in the UK and possible the world


Even thinking about them makes me sooooooo angry.

I bought a nearly new Zed (6months old). Had some paintwork problem. Contacted them, they continually ignored me. I took the issue to BMW UK. Halliwell Jones made out (in written communication) that they offered me many opportunities and made me look like I a difficult customer. Luckily I kept all written communications and confronted them for fraud. I was about to appoint a solicitor when the main dealer man called and almost begged me to drop the case (explanation; some internal problems as they have recently opened a new branch!!) and compensated me handsomely. I decided to drop the case, as did not have the energy and settlement was very attractive.

Take home message:

1) Halliwell Jones is the WORSE BMW dealer in the UK and possible the world
2) BMW UK rubbish and quickly took side with the dealer
Click to expand...


When this happen? I thought you had a 2005 Z4?

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5213
 
Fair enough!

I got my Z from HWJ. They were fine when buying it, but can't say I am impressed with the aftersales service - so I go elsewhere now!
 
I too found the process of buying the car very pleasant (dealt with a nice, polite chap).

Problem starts soon after that, ie as you said, aftersales care which is non existant.
 
Always the way... sales people have a vested interest in being nice. I would never judge a dealer by the sales, only the service.
 
sp3ctre said:
Always the way... sales people have a vested interest in being nice. I would never judge a dealer by the sales, only the service.
Click to expand...

That is true, but the aftersales service I got from Honda was very good, why can't BMW in there glass and chrome houses be like that? All they seem interested in is the contents of your wallet! :x
 
adambmw said:
sp3ctre said:
Always the way... sales people have a vested interest in being nice. I would never judge a dealer by the sales, only the service.
Click to expand...

That is true, but the aftersales service I got from Honda was very good, why can't BMW in there glass and chrome houses be like that? All they seem interested in is the contents of your wallet! :x
Click to expand...

Yuo, I bought my TT from a Honda dealer and the after sales was great too...
 
Hey all - just come back to the forum after a few weeks of absence (web development tends to throw a few weeks of chocka work at ya every so often... Annoyingly for no extra cash :thumbsdown: ). Good to hear that i'm not alone in hating HWJ! Don't think I mentioned this, but the whole what I can only partially describe as 'buying experience' with them was shocking too, although a few of you here have found that to be OK (as you'd expect - even a bad dealer should be easy to buy from, just horrible after that). First, I went in on a Monday morning to have a look around. Turns out, this is when they have their weekly meeting. Now, there were a fair few other people floating around the showroom too, and I'd focussed in on 2 really low milage (< 2k) Z4 3.0 Coupes, so it was pretty obvious I was interested specifically in them. Now, I would have thought that any other dealer would have sent someone out to approach the numerous potential customers wandering around outside the office... Instead, every one of the staff sat in said office which had full top-to-bottom glass walls that looked out over everyone walking around the used cars, while the meeting (which, incidentally, you could hear every word of) moved on at half the pace of a snail, being led by what sounded like the most obnoxious and ill-informed 'manager' in the world ("we're not moving on the price of that car" in loud and stubborn voice, etc, etc). Anyway, after about 45mins, a salesman eventually comes over (Jeremy Somethingorother - lets say Jeremy Idiot for accuracy of personality). The usual then occurs: we sit down, I ask some questions after having done a fair amount of research about the product in places like this forum, Jeremy Idiot doesn't know any of the answers and so instead just reiterates the spec list which I already know because it's on the car and I had 45mins to contemplate it. 45mins is a long time when said list consists of 3 items. One of which is a storage pack, which of course Jeremy Idiot doesn't know exactly what that consists of. Anyway, more of the usual happens: we go about looking at my current car at the time (Mazda RX-8 PZ) and evaluating it's value before i've had a chance to drive one of Z4 Coupes on display, or even ridden in a similar car. Jeremy Idiot then asks me how much I think my car is worth, so I reply with £15-16k, because that's aroundabout a recommended (Parkers, What Car) private sale price at the time (I'm well aware that the dealer won't give a private sale price, but it's probabaly better to go with an optimistic value than £10k and then, when the dealer can get £14k for it, tell you he could only do £10k). 'Unfortunately' Jeremy Idiot comes back with a quote of £12k, about £2k below typical recommended dealer quotes at the time. I say OK, i'd still like to have a test drive of 1 of the Z4's. At this point it all falls apart. I don't, and never have had, a test drive of any car from HWJ.

Now, i'm 24 (23 at the time), so I can understand anyone being skeptical of someone like me buying a prestige car, but I had my dad with me as an illustration that I wasn't just a kid looking to legally joyride cars. The contempt I was treated with was stunning. As someone running my own business, I would have thought you'd want to throw as many people as possible into your cars for test drives simply because word of mouth is pretty much the biggest and best marketting technique in the world. I realise that, given fuel, maintenance and devaluation costs, that isn't quite possible, but i'd still expect it to be much easier to get to sample a product! I would have had to have been a bit clever and cunning just to evaluate a car, let alone seriously talk about buying it. Needless to say, i'm so glad I sold my RX-8 privately (for £16k) and went elsewhere, eventually buying my Z4MC.

Since all of that, I've spoken to 2 other people who've had dealings with HWJ and they've been just as bad: 1 went in with a friend about my age and couldn't get any serious talk or a drive out of them until they mentioned they were a doctor, and another had their 3 series serviced by them and asked them to look at an oil leak at the same time. The dealership did the service and apparenly changed the oil (can't remember the cost of that, but it was massively overpriced), but chose not to fix the leak. The car went in again a week later for the oil leak, at which point the dealer charged another £450.

So there ya have it Halliwell Jones. Avoid like the plague. Not the one that just kills you, the one that takes away your limbs one by one, then you organs, and only then actually kills you.
 
Oh, and I haven't finished yet ( :D ): After the £45 key memory silliness, I decided to ring BMW to make sure they knew about my bad experience with the dealership and what they had done/said (claiming that rattles and a near-impossible to use glovebox are not warranty work, for example, is something I thought BMW might want to know about). The response went something like this: "do you want us to ring the dealership to get them to explain to you why they've done what they've done, or do you want to ring them yourselves?"... I've never known a better time to use this smilie: :headbang:

I got them to ring the dealership, and all I got back was a call from an angry bloke who apparently was the head of the servicing dept asking me why I'm bringing it up again because it's all over (by that, I think I meant they'd had my money). And that was it. No "we'll look into it and discipline the dealer if they're at fault" or "we'll organise you a refund" from BMW - just a sloping shoulder back to the dealer who unsuprisingly were just a bit worse to deal with than when you're actually trying to get them to do something!

Grr.
 
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