Dear Sirs,
Firstly, I would like to thank the service staff for fitting my car in at short notice after I brought the car to the wrong dealership, due to my local dealerships being in the North-West.
Secondly, and more importantly, I would like to assure you that I’m not attempting to claim recompense for any damage caused to my vehicle. However I am most definitely seeking assurances that processes are put in place so that more care is taken in future to ensure this situation is not repeated on my or others’ cars.
On Tuesday 1st March, I brought my 2006 Z4MC (VX56ONN) to your service department for a diagnostic check on a failing rear PDC sensor. After the diagnosis had been completed and a date & time put in the calendar for replacement of the sensor, I was told my car was waiting for me outside, and was told it had been washed.
I’m sure your service advisor noticed that I was a little shocked that my car had been put through the complimentary wash regime, despite my vehement curtailing of the wash the previous week (when it was in getting a headlight washer cover fitted) and explaining to a female member of your service staff that I do not want my car put through the wash process as I spend a considerable amount of time and money keeping it as scratch free as possible, including personally spending up to 4 hours at a time cleaning it, or spending upto £500 to get it professionally detailed every 6 months – and the car had only had its latest full detail & paint correction 2 weeks previously.
I did point out to your service advisor that I was not happy with it being washed, and that I hadn’t assumed it would have been washed after only a 30 minute diagnostic visit. To be fair under the overcast skies on the forecourt their seemed to be little, if any, paintwork damage.
Unfortunately, under the harsh high-intensity lights of the office car park it became apparent that the standard BMW wash methodology they use in the North-West is the same all over the country, and includes using what I can only assume was wire wool, sandpaper, or simply a filthy wash mitt along with a disinterested, minimum-wage valeter who simply doesn’t care about the cars that he/she is rubbing dirt into. If the valeter is a member of staff then I believe some re-training from a professional detailer is in order – if the valeting is outsourced, then I recommend you end the contract before you have claims for paint corrections and resprays.
To my untrained, critical eye, it seems that there has been no attempt to do anything other than dampen the surface grime before rubbing it all back in to the (until yesterday) pristine paintwork, and I’m now back in the position I was in a month ago of having clean-looking bodywork with lots of fine scratches, rather than dirty-looking bodywork with a few tiny scratches.
I do hope this letter is received in the manner it is intended, which is as a reminder that the vehicles that owners are expected to pay you over £100/hour to work on are not all company hacks, that some owners take pride in the appearance of their vehicles, and that owners should be able to expect the same level of quality from every part of their experience – from drop-off to pick-up. Unfortunately in the case of valeting, I’ve yet to be swayed from my view that more damage is caused during these complimentary washes than through motorised supermarket car washes. I suggest that if it’s not possible do a job without causing damage, then please do not do it at all, or at least ask the owner up front whether they’re happy to play Russian roulette with their vehicle’s paintwork.
Liverpool
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.You have no idea how ocd i can be about my Z4M.I have worked bloody hard to afford this and am damned if some tit
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