BMW won't repair my car under warranty

BMW won't repair my car under warranty

Author
Discussion

bmwmike

6,918 posts

107 months

Sunday 14th January 2018
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Issues with BMW dealers such as abuse of customer cars, lying about service history when selling cars, lying about work done, and general inability to diagnose issues are frequent on forums and perhaps becoming more common.

Just because they've got the letters BMW over the door doesn't mean they are any better than kwikfit or a generic back street garage for repair work or big motoring world for retail in my experience of two local Sytner. I might be being unfair on kiwkfit and motoring world here. Pity really but it's hugely tainted my opinion of the brand and no doubt others.

Hope you get your issue sorted OP.




stevesingo

4,848 posts

221 months

Sunday 14th January 2018
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jamoor said:
stevesingo said:
Correct, but the dealer is a franchise and not part of BMW UK, so they are not the same entity.
They do have the BMW name above the door though.
But “Blogs BMW” is a company in its own right. BMW UK is a separate company and grants them a franchise to sell new and used cars with a certain set of conditions. One of those conditions is that BMW UK will provide warranty to the used cars if the have a full BMWSH, have been inspected and are not modified.

If Blogs BMW have sold a car which has been modified then BMW UK have no obligation to provide warranty for the affected part. Blogs BMW may or may not have know it was modified. It the did know they should have disclosed it to the buyer and discussed to warranty implications. If they did not know, then Blogs BMW should be responsible as they were not sufficiently diligent in their inspection of the car and sold the car to a buyer who believed the car had a warranty.

Sheepshanks

32,522 posts

118 months

Sunday 14th January 2018
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stevesingo said:
But “Blogs BMW” is a company in its own right. BMW UK is a separate company and grants them a franchise to sell new and used cars with a certain set of conditions. One of those conditions is that BMW UK will provide warranty to the used cars if the have a full BMWSH, have been inspected and are not modified.

If Blogs BMW have sold a car which has been modified then BMW UK have no obligation to provide warranty for the affected part. Blogs BMW may or may not have know it was modified. It the did know they should have disclosed it to the buyer and discussed to warranty implications. If they did not know, then Blogs BMW should be responsible as they were not sufficiently diligent in their inspection of the car and sold the car to a buyer who believed the car had a warranty.
I don't accept any of that - if they're operating in BMWs name then BMW should stand behind them. Otherwise the brand reputation is worthless.

ANIL-4tdkf

72 posts

95 months

Sunday 14th January 2018
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Has the other door been checked for the same?

IMHO, this rests with the dealer.

iSore

4,011 posts

143 months

Sunday 14th January 2018
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Mr Whippy said:
Stratstone

They will try to avoid fulfilling their liability on warranties in my experience.
FTFY. I used to sell cars for this shower (Pendragon) - how they still hold a BMW franchise is a miracle.

jamoor

14,506 posts

214 months

Sunday 14th January 2018
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Sheepshanks said:
I don't accept any of that - if they're operating in BMWs name then BMW should stand behind them. Otherwise the brand reputation is worthless.
Exactly as far as the consumer is concerned they've walked into a shop that says BMW above the door.
Weather it's franchised or not is nothing to do with the consumer.

silverous

1,008 posts

133 months

Monday 15th January 2018
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jamoor said:
Exactly as far as the consumer is concerned they've walked into a shop that says BMW above the door.
Weather it's franchised or not is nothing to do with the consumer.
And under the sale of goods act (or whatever its replacement is now referred to as) isn't it all a bit irrelevant as the car has to function for a reasonable period of time?

E-bmw

9,102 posts

151 months

Monday 15th January 2018
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As has been said before if the OP can ascertain that he was sold something he didn't think he was then he should be able to argue successfully.

Aside of that look in the terms & conditions of any warranty/guarantee and you will see that any modifications/tempering etc that was not approved will void the warranty so it is all dependant on what can/can't be proven/admitted.

silverous

1,008 posts

133 months

Monday 15th January 2018
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I think we are over complicating it. He bought a car, he hasn't modified it, it has an issue, the organisation that sold it to him need to sort it. The rest is just noise. I would send them a legal "letter before action" and would be happy to supply the one I used to get my alloy wheels fixed when my beemer was about 4+ years old and dealer and BMW had said they could do more. 4 shiney wheels later suggests otherwise.

Herbs

4,912 posts

228 months

Monday 15th January 2018
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silverous said:
I think we are over complicating it. He bought a car, he hasn't modified it, it has an issue, the organisation that sold it to him need to sort it. The rest is just noise. I would send them a legal "letter before action" and would be happy to supply the one I used to get my alloy wheels fixed when my beemer was about 4+ years old and dealer and BMW had said they could do more. 4 shiney wheels later suggests otherwise.
I hope the OP gets it sorted but have a feeling it isn't going to be as straightforward as it appears.

The facts mean that it is BMW's problem to sort apart from one major element - when were the speakers fitted. If the OP cannot prove that they were already there then he may have a hard time proving it wasn't him that installed them after purchasing the car thereby voiding the warranty.

It's a st situation to be in.

lip13

Original Poster:

9 posts

74 months

Monday 15th January 2018
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Hi all, so I have an update from today. On Thursday I sent an email to the branch business manager detailing my issue and the response I had from the service department. I copied in a few other members of staff as well as customer services for BMW and Graeme Grieve (MD for BMW UK). I used several of the arguments given by you guys and insisted that I wanted the issue fixed and any other remedial work carried out to put the doors back to stock.

This morning I received an email from a customer service representative who was asked to look into it by Graeme. She subsequently chased the branch manager and told me it was being looked into and she would keep an eye on the progress. Before I received this email, I had also chased via Stratstone's Facebook page to see whether my email had been received. So inadvertently the business manager would have been prodded from a couple of sources this morning.

This afternoon I received a call from the branch assistant manager apologising for the mix up as he said it was strange that this shouldn't have been fixed in the first place under warranty. So the car is now booked in for next week to fix the door issue as well as put right anything that the previous owner might have messed up. So both doors should be looked at now.

Thanks for all your replies backing up my position! It definitely gave more more confidence in asking for the issues to be put right. I don't know how much difference it might have made copying in the MD but it certainly didn't do any harm!

silverous

1,008 posts

133 months

Monday 15th January 2018
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Great news. Just got to keep on at these guys, reasonableness and the law should prevail but they will be happy to fob you off earlier especially if there is any grey area. I had the excuse that my wheels had already been replaced by another dealership during the warranty therefore the original warranty was not valid, the issue should be taken up with the dealer that replaced the wheels under warranty.... like its ok that they've failed once and shouldn't then have to be replaced under warranty !

Herbs

4,912 posts

228 months

Monday 15th January 2018
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Great news, really pleased for you.

If they had taken this stance first time round, they could have been receiving praise for how well they handled it and great customer service - cost to them is the same either way if they a free e going to back down.

bmwmike

6,918 posts

107 months

Tuesday 16th January 2018
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Well done OP.

Pity the BMW dealer tried to act more like Arthur Daley and wriggle out than actually do the right thing first time.

5678

6,146 posts

226 months

Wednesday 17th January 2018
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Glad to see this ended well!

My experience of BMW AUC warranties are generally good. I've only ever had one instance when I had to stand my ground on a claim, that was with a 650i. The headlights were misting badly and water would pool at the bottom. The car was only 5 years old and had always been worked on by BMW.
I put it in for them to look at, asking for them to be replaced. Their initial response was that a seal had failed and that seals were not covered on the warranty.
To this, I asked for the cost of supplying two new seals and fitting them. "Sorry sir, we don't have that as a separate part, the headlight comes as a unit." Hmmm... I then checked if headlight units were covered on the warranty and they were!
After stating my view that it was actually the headlight unit that had failed and not the seal, they went back to the warranty side who agreed and authorised the claim! Over £1800 for the two lights!