Review: Stevens Creek BMW in San Jose, CA (an n52 lifter tick story)

[setthedog]

Avoid like the plague. I have a car under warranty with a known issue (a 2006 Z4 with n52 lifter tick), for which BWW North America pays the dealers to perform the change out of parts. I live in Humboldt and came down specifically to have my car worked on at Stevens Creek (a seven hour drive this time), after having them recommended by Edge Motorworks. It took three days of my time. I had the BMW service advisement and all necessary numbers, pictures, as well as copies of BMW North America's service advisement. I had a service agent at BMW NA call and make arrangement to do the work, and had email and phone records to prove it. After noting all of this, and saying that I was going to write this review here, at bimmerforums and at BMW CCA and showing them my BMW club card so they knew I was actually a member, did they do the work? No. Did they waste three days of my time and hundred of dollars? Yes. It ended with their 'service advisor' Ken Evan shouting at me 'WE AREN'T GOING TO FIX YOUR CAR!' while other people in to have their cars repaired watched.

[jragan]

So did they say they did the work but didn't actually do it? What was their reasoning?

[RobMCoupe]

You go to Edge to get work done too. Why didn't you go to East Bay BMW? They are a few miles from Edge. I take my car there for warranty work all the time.

I know a SA from Stevens Creek BMW as well. He always get me in the next day to do what I need.

[The HACK]

I never mention any of my credentials* when I talk to SAs and reps. Why? Because they immediately get defensive. Sure, if they find out and wanted to do jump through hoops, fine by me. But if I walk in and start ticking off my credentials and carry the "do you know who I am" attitude, I can almost guarantee that it will result in a bad experience.

SAs are people too. Just as I don't want people coming to me to tell me how I should do my work, I'm pretty sure they get offended when you walk in with letters and documentations showing how THEY should do their work. Whenever I have a problem on the car I need resolved, I show up at my appointed time, present the problem to the SA, tell him there's a box of cream-puffs/donuts in the trunk for his techs and that they are to enjoy them either before OR after they work on my car, not during...And they are not to wash my car. And that's it. 99.95% of the time my problem gets resolved to my satisfaction and then some. The .05% it doesn't, is when I whip out the documentations and my credentials. I at least give them a shot to do their job before I tell them how they should do their jobs.

Unless they specifically ask "how do you want to do this" I leave it up to them and give them the professional courtesy that's usually afforded me in what I do. That and I don't EVER threaten to write anything negative in my column or say anything (good or bad) about them on the intarweb. Because doing so raises red flags for them. I don't know if any of you have ever worked in customer service, but when a customer tells you they're going to say something about this experience on the internet, you KNOW it is not going to end well. So if I was in the SA's shoes, I'd walk away and, as politely as possible, ask YOU to take your business elsewhere because that is the proper way to minimize damage, because no matter what, you're going to be offended, and even if they had taken on the job you will not be happy with the work no matter what they do. At least, with this they 1) lose a customer and 2) get a couple of nasty emails and phone-calls. They don't have to spend hundreds of hours chasing a wild goose only to be ripped on the internet for their "incompetence" and get a couple of nasty emails and phone-calls a day for the next 3 months.

* Let's just say people "know" me in the industry. Especially locally in the BMW circle. We'll just leave it at that.

[trsbmw]

Originally Posted by The HACK

I never mention any of my credentials* when I talk to SAs and reps. Why? Because they immediately get defensive. Sure, if they find out and wanted to do jump through hoops, fine by me. But if I walk in and start ticking off my credentials and carry the "do you know who I am" attitude, I can almost guarantee that it will result in a bad experience.

SAs are people too. Just as I don't want people coming to me to tell me how I should do my work, I'm pretty sure they get offended when you walk in with letters and documentations showing how THEY should do their work. Whenever I have a problem on the car I need resolved, I show up at my appointed time, present the problem to the SA, tell him there's a box of cream-puffs/donuts in the trunk for his techs and that they are to enjoy them either before OR after they work on my car, not during...And they are not to wash my car. And that's it. 99.95% of the time my problem gets resolved to my satisfaction and then some. The .05% it doesn't, is when I whip out the documentations and my credentials. I at least give them a shot to do their job before I tell them how they should do their jobs.

Unless they specifically ask "how do you want to do this" I leave it up to them and give them the professional courtesy that's usually afforded me in what I do. That and I don't EVER threaten to write anything negative in my column or say anything (good or bad) about them on the intarweb. Because doing so raises red flags for them. I don't know if any of you have ever worked in customer service, but when a customer tells you they're going to say something about this experience on the internet, you KNOW it is not going to end well. So if I was in the SA's shoes, I'd walk away and, as politely as possible, ask YOU to take your business elsewhere because that is the proper way to minimize damage, because no matter what, you're going to be offended, and even if they had taken on the job you will not be happy with the work no matter what they do. At least, with this they 1) lose a customer and 2) get a couple of nasty emails and phone-calls. They don't have to spend hundreds of hours chasing a wild goose only to be ripped on the internet for their "incompetence" and get a couple of nasty emails and phone-calls a day for the next 3 months.

* Let's just say people "know" me in the industry. Especially locally in the BMW circle. We'll just leave it at that.

My thoughts exactly. Whenever I have work done, I use only one tech, and one service adviser. Over time, the relationship has grown to one in which I primarily deal with the tech, and the SA just takes care of the paper work. This relationship developed because of exactly the things you mention above, which all pretty much boils down to being nice, yet firm when appropriate.

[setthedog]

What a strange response. - never say do you know who I am, b/c afterall do you know who I am?

Showing up with the appropriate data - numbers, emails, appointment number and logs is usually referred to as helpful. Not insulting. Who would show up with a how-to manual?

Posting negative things when people don't do work, and saying you are going to is part of helping others in a club environment (or in this case) just being a human being so others don't get screwed.

Also, while you are being so helpful I'm noting that you have not pointed out, as I found out later, that the regional service manager is the only person who can ok work of the kind that I needed. And neither Steven's Creek, nor the BMW NA rep I had (Elaine Young), got them involved.

Along with this, there was also a little matter I have also posted up where the airbag array in my car had been tampered with - put back together without a proper BST.

And BMW NA, when they found out about this, I alerted them b/c I found it because of digging into the car because of the lifters, tried to deny warranty and CPO on the car, which is not within their ability to do. And told me I couldn't prove I didn't do it - and of course when I provided them with a complete car log from BMW Assist proving exactly that, they no longer had anything to say. Not that I'm complaining considering done their way they would have allowed my wife or me to burn to death in an electrical fire because the BST would not disconnect in a crash properly... but that's another story.

So it's all good now - I'll do the work myself; at least I'll know it's done right.

Maybe you are a big deal. It's interesting to me you came in here to post this response - maybe the sort of 'big deal' you are has an interest in seeing people not post things like this. Which maybe you are, I'm thinking.