BMW Effing P*sstake!

[Minihen_LDN]

Dropped the Z4 off yesterday morning to have the window regulator sorted at BMW Stephen James.
After having to ring up twice to find out if they had finished and what the damage was, I was told someone would get in touch with me asap.

Anyway, I decided to make my way there cos it was nearly 5pm and I'd finished work and the car was meant to be finished by the end of the day.
My phone rings as I pull up in their courtesy car only to be that my car was finished bar a slight glitch and the damage was £455.

£455 WTF??/ Has the world gone mad, since when did it cost that much to have a window regulator fitted?

Anyway long story short, after arguing with the guy for about 15 minutes he has a word with whoever and comes back with we can do you a discount and you'll only have to pay £297.32.

Now I have no idea how much these things cost, but I do know the regulator was £130 +VAT.

Can anyone shed a light on this please. Was getting royally ripped off or is that the standard price for this.

I was also told I had 2 advisories, my alternator belt will need changing at some point - £140 for the part, £75 for labour.
My front rear bush will also need changing - £340 for the part, £186 for labour.

Can anyone shed some light on the prices. Am I better off going to an Indy? Can anyone recommend a good indy in north London?


Many thanks

 

[Benny88]

Dropped the Z4 off yesterday morning to have the window regulator sorted at BMW Stephen James.
After having to ring up twice to find out if they had finished and what the damage was, I was told someone would get in touch with me asap.

Anyway, I decided to make my way there cos it was nearly 5pm and I'd finished work and the car was meant to be finished by the end of the day.
My phone rings as I pull up in their courtesy car only to be that my car was finished bar a slight glitch and the damage was £455.

£455 WTF??/ Has the world gone mad, since when did it cost that much to have a window regulator fitted?

Anyway long story short, after arguing with the guy for about 15 minutes he has a word with whoever and comes back with we can do you a discount and you'll only have to pay £297.32.

Now I have no idea how much these things cost, but I do know the regulator was £130 +VAT.

Can anyone shed a light on this please. Was getting royally ripped off or is that the standard price for this.

I was also told I had 2 advisories, my alternator belt will need changing at some point - £140 for the part, £75 for labour.
My front rear bush will also need changing - £340 for the part, £186 for labour.
Can anyone shed some light on the prices. Am I better off going to an Indy? Can anyone recommend a good indy in north London?


Many thanks

I can tell you now that the part ive made bold is a complete joke of a price, ive just had both sides on mine changed, £60 for the parts

Cant help on the rest of it tho, not sure on BMW stealer pricing but you can prob guarantee it will be at least 3 times dearer than anywhere else!

 

[Minihen_LDN]

Dropped the Z4 off yesterday morning to have the window regulator sorted at BMW Stephen James.
After having to ring up twice to find out if they had finished and what the damage was, I was told someone would get in touch with me asap.

Anyway, I decided to make my way there cos it was nearly 5pm and I'd finished work and the car was meant to be finished by the end of the day.
My phone rings as I pull up in their courtesy car only to be that my car was finished bar a slight glitch and the damage was £455.

£455 WTF??/ Has the world gone mad, since when did it cost that much to have a window regulator fitted?

Anyway long story short, after arguing with the guy for about 15 minutes he has a word with whoever and comes back with we can do you a discount and you'll only have to pay £297.32.

Now I have no idea how much these things cost, but I do know the regulator was £130 +VAT.

Can anyone shed a light on this please. Was getting royally ripped off or is that the standard price for this.

I was also told I had 2 advisories, my alternator belt will need changing at some point - £140 for the part, £75 for labour.
My front rear bush will also need changing - £340 for the part, £186 for labour.
Can anyone shed some light on the prices. Am I better off going to an Indy? Can anyone recommend a good indy in north London?


Many thanks

I can tell you now that the part ive made bold is a complete joke of a price, ive just had both sides on mine changed, £60 for the parts

Cant help on the rest of it tho, not sure on BMW stealer pricing but you can prob guarantee it will be at least 3 times dearer than anywhere else!

Thanks Benny, i thought he was taking the piss with the price quote. I won't be going back to them again. :thumbsdown:

 

[mmm-five]

It's all well & good blaming the dealers, but did you not think to ask the price before you agreed to get the work done

Although to be fair, one dealership did direct me to take my M5 to a local indy when I needed the brake/fuel lines replaced as they said it was a pig of a job and it would cost me over £1000 in labour if I had the dealer do it.

For anything non-warranty/service related my Z4MC stays away from the dealer network as even if I am paying full price for the genuine part, I don't fancy paying 2-3 times my indy's labour rate for the same work, but probably by a 'technician' with 2 year's training (rather than the 30 my indy has).

 

[Stuart Truman]

Was it only in for the regulator? If so WTF were they doing looking at the alternator belt and other stuff to come up with a list of advisories?

I'm guessing they built an hour of labour in covering their time looking for additional work.

Labour at a dealer is what? £85/hr maybe plus vat

 

[Minihen_LDN]

That's the thing, i asked how much they charged to fit the part because initially i was only going to buy the part and source my own fitting. They couldn't tell me how much the labour would cost, i'm guessing they were pulling a fast one. W**kers

 

[mmm-five]

That's the thing, i asked how much they charged to fit the part because initially i was only going to buy the part and source my own fitting. They couldn't tell me how much the labour would cost, i'm guessing they were pulling a fast one. W**kers

They should have a list of how many 'book' hours it is to do almost every job, so that they can give you an estimate. Sometimes the job take a little less time and they make a bit of cash on the labour, other times it take a bit/lot longer and they lose on the labour.

However they're not supposed to add time to it if it takes longer, and used to be one of the advantages of taking a car to a dealer over an indy because if the indy had difficulty removing/refitting parts due to their age (just try to take a badly maintained wheel hub off after 100k miles) they would charge you for the time it took, whereas the dealer was only supposed to charge the book time.

However, all that could have changed since I last paid for BMW to do anything other than a service/inspection (about 7 years ago).

Have a look at your invoice/receipt and it will say how many AW (labour units in 1/12th of an hour or 5 minutes usually).

 

[mad4slalom]

the regulator not so much of a shock as the quoted price of an anternator belt, 130, ? ihad one on the s50 z3m about 35 quid, you sure thats right ?

 

[ab7]

That's the thing, i asked how much they charged to fit the part because initially i was only going to buy the part and source my own fitting. They couldn't tell me how much the labour would cost, i'm guessing they were pulling a fast one. W**kers

Out of interest did you get quotes from other nearby dealerships beforehand...?

 

[original guvnor]

I think the lesson here is with main dealers, whatever the work, ring around of few of them to get a ball-park figure and then find out how much the part(s) cost as well. Then if you know one local to you, ring a trusted Indy for their price. Knowledge is power!!

It never ceases to amaze me some of the servicing prices some people get on here from some dealers. They'll always offer you a crap price first because a lot of people just accept it without query.

 

[Denis O]

Not sure if it's the same "£140" belt but ECP are selling a Dayco Drive Belt for £10.08p. It's the only drive belt they list for a Z4 so I'm guessing it's the same.

My local dealers hourly rates are £130 + VAT and it'll go up the closer you get to London.

I wouldn't go anywhere near a main dealer unless it was for a part that you can't get anywhere else. Of course, if you have a AUC Warranty you have to but other than that why would you?

 

[original guvnor]

I wouldn't go anywhere near a main dealer unless it was for a part that you can't get anywhere else. Of course, if you have a AUC Warranty you have to but other than that why would you?

Actually, I'm not sure even that is true these days. Provided the parts are genuine OEM then I think you can take a car outside of the dealer network and still maintain your warranty. To prevent you doing that I think contravenes EU law. I'm sure someone on here posted a letter they'd had from Mondial to that effect.

 

[ben g]

a genuine bmw alternator belt costs around £30. i checked the price a couple months ago as mine needs changing.

 

[Minihen_LDN]

Was it only in for the regulator? If so WTF were they doing looking at the alternator belt and other stuff to come up with a list of advisories?

I'm guessing they built an hour of labour in covering their time looking for additional work.

Labour at a dealer is what? £85/hr maybe plus vat

Yup, it was in just for a window regulator, i have no idea how they came up with those advisories. The car had been serviced only before i bought it and i've done 2k miles in it.

 

[Minihen_LDN]

That's the thing, i asked how much they charged to fit the part because initially i was only going to buy the part and source my own fitting. They couldn't tell me how much the labour would cost, i'm guessing they were pulling a fast one. W**kers

They should have a list of how many 'book' hours it is to do almost every job, so that they can give you an estimate. Sometimes the job take a little less time and they make a bit of cash on the labour, other times it take a bit/lot longer and they lose on the labour.

However they're not supposed to add time to it if it takes longer, and used to be one of the advantages of taking a car to a dealer over an indy because if the indy had difficulty removing/refitting parts due to their age (just try to take a badly maintained wheel hub off after 100k miles) they would charge you for the time it took, whereas the dealer was only supposed to charge the book time.

However, all that could have changed since I last paid for BMW to do anything other than a service/inspection (about 7 years ago).

Have a look at your invoice/receipt and it will say how many AW (labour units in 1/12th of an hour or 5 minutes usually).

The AW states 20. I have no idea what that means.

 

[Minihen_LDN]

the regulator not so much of a shock as the quoted price of an anternator belt, 130, ? ihad one on the s50 z3m about 35 quid, you sure thats right ?

Yeah rang them up this morning just see how much it would cost to sort out the advisories. Couldn't believe it.

 

[Minihen_LDN]

That's the thing, i asked how much they charged to fit the part because initially i was only going to buy the part and source my own fitting. They couldn't tell me how much the labour would cost, i'm guessing they were pulling a fast one. W**kers

Out of interest did you get quotes from other nearby dealerships beforehand...?

I haven't had a chance to, figured i'd get some help on here before i rang other BMW dealer garages.

 

[Minihen_LDN]

a genuine bmw alternator belt costs around £30. i checked the price a couple months ago as mine needs changing.

Bloody hell, surely it's illegal to charge that much for something that cost soo little. I shopped around for the window regulator and they all came up at the same price, why is the alternator belt so different?

 

[mmm-five]

The AW states 20. I have no idea what that means.

20AW (arbeitswerte/labour rate), so 20 x their 5-minute labour rate.

They ostensibly split the hour into 12 x 5 minute units so that they can charge you in smaller/more accurate increments, but I think it's so they can say "Our labour rate is £10/AW" when it's actually £120/hour.

So in your case, they've spend 1 hour 40 minutes of labour doing the job. If anyone on here has access to the latest BMW KDS software they should be able to tell you what the BMW 'book' rate is for that job (of course the replacement of the regulator may only be one element in the whole labour charge).

 

[Minihen_LDN]

The AW states 20. I have no idea what that means.

20AW (arbeitswerte/labour rate), so 20 x their 5-minute labour rate.

They ostensibly split the hour into 12 x 5 minute units so that they can charge you in smaller/more accurate increments, but I think it's so they can say "Our labour rate is £10/AW" when it's actually £120/hour.

So in your case, they've spend 1 hour 40 minutes of labour doing the job. If anyone on here has access to the latest BMW KDS software they should be able to tell you what the BMW 'book' rate is for that job (of course the replacement of the regulator may only be one element in the whole labour charge).

Well in the end they charged the 20AW at £150 + VAT