BMWNA Customer Service

[Mike T]

Thought I'd post an update on my experience with BMWNA customer servcie

 

I had a warranty issue that took 4 trips to the dealer and eventually 5 weeks without my bike waiting for a part to arrive from Germany. I had made the mistake calling BMWNA asking them to pay for a loaner for 2 days to attend a BMW rally which they refused to do.

 

I had pretty much gotten over this event when two weeks ago I got a call to take a survey of my satisfaction with the repair. The person taking down the information was amazed at the story (of course they are a 3rd party service and not part of BMWNA). At the end she asked me if there was anything that BMWNA could do to try to make things right.

 

I said it would be nice if an Executive "who cares" from BMWNA could call me to discuss this. I gave her my cell phone number and some good times to call.

 

Two weeks went by an no word (I know shocking). Finally, yesteday I received a pre-recorded message on my voicemail to call BMWNA if I wanted to discuss the survey I took. It gave me the BMWNA 800 number for customer service.

 

Well because I'm into self punishment, I called the number this morning. Eventualy, I got the same customer representative that was a total Ahole when I delt with him over a month ago to discuss the survey. I didn't waste my time talking to him and now realize how stupid I was thinking that someone at BMWNA might actually "care".

 

I have never been treated so poorly by a manufacture whoes products I have been purchasing for over ten years. I've received beter service from maunfactures of Toaster Ovens!

 

OK, I'm done with this issue and moving on. May there be no more warranty issues on my bike.

[bmw_rider]

Oxymoron.

[ElJay]

You do realize that BMW treats the bikes (all of them!) like 2nd class citizens, right? As with all things, money talks and their car fleet has the loudest voice.

 

If you're truly looking for customer service you might check out the Harleys. If you're looking for great engineering, stay where you are. I'm not really knocking one or the other, that's just the way I see it.

[exwingnut]

I just this week put a Cateye Astrale 8 on the GS to go ride the Norcal Range of Light tour.

 

Last year I found that the odometer of my Gs was off about 9/10th of a mile in 16 miles...makes for a math filled weekend to follow a turn by turn route sheet like they give you on the rol. "go 11.5 miles and turn on the 2nd road to the right" takes on a whole new fun factor when you cannot accurately check your distance.

 

 

I found that at up to 40 mph the BMW speedo was 4 mph off, at 65 it was 5 off, and at 70 it was 7+ off.

 

YMMV.

[RSL]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I have a couple of BMWs, a K-bike and and R-bike.

 

I was pretty happy with them, until I rode my son's Suzuki SV650. It has somewhat less power than either of my BMWs, but a LOT less (~150 lbs. less) weight. It will out-accellerate either of them, and handling is vastly superior. On a recent ~1,000 mile trip, cruising at ~80mph through mountains and across prairie, mileage on the unfaired Suzuki was almost exactly the same as on my faired R1100RSL, but the Suzuki runs on regular gas. In gusting crosswinds, the Suzuki is as good as the faired BMW. Parts for the Suzuki are much cheaper, and dealers and aftermarket sources are everywhere. Insurance is cheaper.

 

Much as I like my BMW bikes, if I had it all to do over again, I'd buy a Suzuki instead, as it's quality is equivalent to BMW. BMW North America needs to know this, but apparently don't.

[exwingnut]

Wow...did this post ever end up in the wrong thread...gotta love computers, they make everything better.

 

 

 

I just this week put a Cateye Astrale 8 on the GS to go ride the Norcal Range of Light tour.

 

Last year I found that the odometer of my Gs was off about 9/10th of a mile in 16 miles...makes for a math filled weekend to follow a turn by turn route sheet like they give you on the rol. "go 11.5 miles and turn on the 2nd road to the right" takes on a whole new fun factor when you cannot accurately check your distance.

 

 

I found that at up to 40 mph the BMW speedo was 4 mph off, at 65 it was 5 off, and at 70 it was 7+ off.

 

YMMV.

[kingpinofdisks]

I called BMWNA regarding my last bike (2004 1150rt). What a horrible group! My bike was in for a warranty repair of the ignition coil, and it took 7 weeks total to get the proper part.

 

When asked about my experience, I laughed and told the nice lady from the survey company that BMW is lucky they don't have a major HQ nearby, or else I would be over there yelling until they threw me out of the building.

 

The bike rocks, the service sucks. And the dealers are MUCH worse than the BMW car dealer I used to deal with, and they are as bad as a Chevy dealer. Now THAT is reallllyyyyy bad in my book.

[bakerzdosen]

I think this is why my local independent BMW shop got shot down when they applied to be a BMW dealer: They're too customer oriented.

[Rob]

This matches my experience with CS of the North American distributor of BMW. First the guy says the right things that they are trained to say but when pushed for a resoltion to the problem, forget it! I asked what to expect for the next step, "what next step?" was his reply.

 

Probably will go with another manufacturer for the next new bike. After 10 years of BMW's both 2 and 4 wheeled ones, 8 total, I'm done.

 

I'm pushing my dealer to take on another brand, Triumph maybe?

 

Best,

[11101110]

Thought I'd post an update on my experience with BMWNA customer servcie

 

I had a warranty issue that took 4 trips to the dealer and eventually 5 weeks without my bike waiting for a part to arrive from Germany. I had made the mistake calling BMWNA asking them to pay for a loaner for 2 days to attend a BMW rally which they refused to do.

 

 

Have you ever heard of lemon law. In VA at least it is officaly called the new vehicle warranty enforcement act. The warranter has three tried to fix the problem or they have to replace your vehicle with a new vehicle or refund your money. Of coures they get to deduct like $0.17 per mile. If you want your money back they have to reimburse you for any interest that you have paid. The vehicle, when bought back, gets a fatal "Lemon Buy Back" stamped on the title. They get only one try for safety related components, like brakes. if the issue is fixed now you may be out of luck. But should it return you should invesgate your state's laws. Oh My jury duty one time was for a lemon law case. Not bad as jury duties go.

[Richard_D]

I had an 02 RT that was in the shop for over a month. BMWNA at that time compensated me with $300 as if I had a monthly payment on the bike. They said that was their policy after 30 days.The problem was never solved and they bought my bike back and gave me a brand new 04 RT. They only charged me 10 cents a mile as if the Florida lemon law applied to motorcycles when it doesn't. I communicated with BMWNA for a month and was nice as could be but firm on my stance. My mother was in collections for over 20 years with a bank and every month won awards in her dept. She did it by being nice to the people. I'm proud of my acomplishment with BMWNA and glad I got the ability to do so from taking after that good quality from my mother.

[tallman]

Lemon Laws, as Richard stated, don't always apply to motorcycles.

Being nice doesn't hurt as your dealer can get BMW to goodwill things more easily than you can.

Not all BMW dealers are ill mannered.

But, all BMW dealers are limited by what parts BMWNA makes available, and when.

This is not an exclusive BMW problem.

Other marques have parts issues also, even with new bikes.

 

Try getting parts for a 30 year old HonYamKawSuzMotoTriDucdahasakizukiGuzziumph.

At least w/BMW you can.

There are times that new bikes have parts on back order, and that is a pain. Ideally, that wouldn't happen.

Best wishes.

[Mike T]

I thought about the lemmon law but figured it would not apply to me since I bought the bike used (10 months old). I actuall like the bike and it runs great. I actually got frustrated enough to go look a Yamahas but came to my senses before doing anything rash.

 

The thing that ticked me off the most was the bike was running fine except the cruise did not work. But once they tore the bike apart I had to wait 5 weeks for the part to fix the cruise. I figured that one phone call to BMWNA would be all it would take to get them to pay the dealer to assemble the bike until the part came in. Instead what I got was an offer to pay for the labor myself (8 hours @ $90/hr) if I wanted to use the bike until the part came in. I'm still in disbelief how bad their service really was. They made it personal. I drive an Audi and was going to consider a BMW car for my next purchase but rest assured that will not be the case anymore.

[H C Edwards]

In my lone contact with BMW customer service, they lied to me. I questioned the "tool kit" that came with my 1200GS, and they told me they had to downsize the toolkit due to space considerations. I might have accepted that, had the early 1200GS's not came with the full tool kit, in the same space as my joke tool kit. I told the young man I was very grateful not to have a job that required me to lie to people, and that I felt sorry for him having to make a living doing that.

[SHOman]

My experience over the last year with my local "marquee" BMW dealer has been nothing but negative.

 

They have not serviced my bike correctly in over 12,000 miles and could care less.

 

Today I find that they cannot even fill a tire to the proper PSI. As my front tire was bouncing around a corner because it was at 47.5 PSI, I thought to myself, I could have wrecked due to their lameness.

 

All they seem to want to do is take my money and then make excuses about their mistakes, or completely ignore their mistakes.

 

Only dealer within 90 miles. Absolutely lovely.

 

I love the bike but cannot continue to deal with this magnitude of ineptness.

 

From what I can gather from the service manager, they get a lot of complaints. So many he cannot keep the issues straight in his mind.

 

Absolutely pathetic.

 

I found a private mechanic (unfortunately some distance away), now need to find a local place to do my tires, and maybe a mechanic closer to home.

 

That Ducati ST4 is looking better every day.

[WestWind]

I agree completely with the comments in this topic. I have had my first BMW for a year and a half now and my local BMW dealer experiences have been very good (except one). The BMW Canada experience has not been good.

 

About a month after my purchase I received a letter, key chain, and roadside assistance card from BMW Canada. That was a nice touch but it was all for a completely different bike, not even close. Contacting them by email got one short reply that they would fix the mistake. Never heard from them again. A few more emails and one surface mail letter never got a reply.

 

A failed sensor on the bike left me without a bike for several weeks while a new part was shipped from Germany. Although they covered the cost of repair and shipping the bike to the closest dealer, I was never contacted by the dealer about the progress of the repair.

 

Recently I have received some nameless computer generated forms from BMW Financial Services and they say there is something wrong with my insurance. Round and round I went to fix that problem but it was the tone and character of their contact with me that I didn't like.

 

Well that's my rant for now. Great bike, terrible customer service.

[Twisties]

Well, we've had our bikes since May now and fortunately have not required warranty service, but still we have noticed that in many ways there is a disconnect between BMWNA and their dealers. Just one example:

 

The low seat option on an RT is supposed to be no charge. I guess if your willing to order a bike a from Germany and wait an indeterminate number of months for it, it is. But try to get a low seat on a bike that is already here and it is a an extra purchase.

 

So, the disconnect: BMWNA creates in their advertising the expectation that the low seat is free. The dealer to meet that expectation, must buy the low seat, in our case grumbling and moaning all along the way.

 

More: BMWNA must know when they've shipped a part. They must know how they shipped it and when it is likely to arrive. If they don't know they've shipped it, they would just keep shipping more and more right (maybe that would solve some problems). How come the dealer doesn't know? All the dealer can say is well they generally take two weeks if they in BMWNA stock.

 

Then, our sole dealer doesn't seem to track when they've received something. They call you when it comes off the truck... if they get around to it. But have lost it by the time you come to get it, and have no record that they called you, no record of the part arriving, and just tell you you dreamed the call.

 

All in all, the system just doesn't work.

[tallman]

Not all dealerships charge for the low seat if the bike didn't come with it.

A shame you were told this.

BMW parts shipping?

Sometimes they magically appear overnite.

Sometimes...

If you get frustrated, imagine how a dealer, who cares about customer service feels when they are waiting on multiple bikes.

Even worse, imagine all of your benches are full of torn down bikes waiting for parts....

Hopefully BMW will improve in this area to meet the needs of the customer.

But, in today's world, there is a geat reliance on central stock part wharehousing with fast delivery. Works most of the time. PITA when it doesn't.

Best wishes.

[motorman587]

What could the dealer have done for you to make you happy????

[WURTY]

You know in the last 9 months or 11000 miles I have had zero trouble with my Suzuki Vstrom dealer.

Oh yea, I forgot, I haven't had to take it into the dealer for nothing.

4 oil changes and 3 sets of tires done at home.

 

Just reminding you that you have options available.

[Marty Hill]

Dealers so far.

20 good.

1 bad.

[Stan Walker]

Would you split that up between the sales department and the service department for us?

 

 

Stan

[Mike T]

What could the dealer have done for you to make you happy????

 

This is a very fair question John. In my case I asked BMWNA if they could do one of two things:

 

1) Pay for the dealer's labor to reassemble my bike without the crusie control working and then repair it when the part finally arrived (3 weeks later).

 

or 2) Pay for a loaner for two days that I really needed the bike.

 

The resposne I got back was

 

1) "The bike cannot be reassembled without the part." This was a lie as I spoke to the service manage the day before who said it COULD be reassembled but that I would have to pay for the labor 4 hours.

 

2) After telling the BMWNA Customer Relations Rep that the service manage said it could be reassembled he then agreed that it could but I would have to pay for it. He said it would be 8 hours. He also said that there was no escalation process beyond him and there was nobody else I could speak to.

 

Again, the issue was not with the dealer but BMWNA's policy of saving the most money possible on warranty repairs at the expense of the customer (and at times the dealer).

[Marty Hill]

Stan,

 

I've needed service 2 times. 1 good/1 bad.

11 600 mile services/all good.

Buying the bikes/all good with one small bump.

Guess thats more than 21.

[GregsARed]

I agree completely with the comments in this topic.

 

I too have had similar negative experiences, perhaps not as bad though. Anyway, no need to repeat things.

 

But...

I once needed immediate major repairs, peak season. Long established, well respected dealer, I asked him when I could get my bike in? -- 4 weeks.

 

It was then that I realized why many of you have more than 1 B'mer in the garage.

 

So until my present ride (99 RT) shows signs of wear and becomes my backup, I picked up a used scooter. OK, it's not a scooter, it's a moped.

 

You'll still wave, won't Ya ?

 

BTW that long established, well respected dealer, He also sells a lot of HD's. I wonder if that had anything to do w/ my having to wait4 weeks

[Boffin]

I agree completely with the comments in this topic.

 

I too have had similar negative experiences, perhaps not as bad though. Anyway, no need to repeat things.

 

But...

I once needed immediate major repairs, peak season. Long established, well respected dealer , I asked him when I could get my bike in? -- 4 weeks.

 

It was then that I realized why many of you have more than 1 B'mer in the garage.

 

So until my present ride (99 RT) shows signs of wear and becomes my backup, I picked up a used scooter. OK, it's not a scooter, it's a moped.

 

You'll still wave, won't Ya ?

 

BTW that long established, well respected dealer, He also sells a lot of HD's. I wonder if that had anything to do w/ my having to wait4 weeks

 

So you do not think it may have just been that a well respected dealer may have been busy in the peak season? Sheesh.

 

Andy