Serious Complaints about Mini Crowfoot in Calgary - Looking for Mini Canada contacts

[rb905678]

Good Day,

I am looking for Mini Canada contact names to cc my complaints about Mini Crowfoot in Calgary - Mini International names would also be helpful.

Thank you,

Russell.

[SugarBelly]

I haven't found MINI Canada contacts as of yet.... still looking.
It may make you feel better to rant a bit at them herein.

-s.b.

[rb905678]

July 27, 2003
Mini Crowfoot
Andrew Baker
New Vehicle Sales Manager
650 Crowfoot Crescent N.W.
Calgary. Alberta
T3G 3W3
Andrew,
It is with regret that I write this letter. I am extremely disappointed with the service department. Their attitude, integrity, and competence are all in serious question. My car will never again be brought to your dealership for anything other than warranty work, and even then, if major warranty work is required I will consider taking the car to Vancouver.
Let me explain the events that have caused me to write this letter.
Car Delivery
I ordered the Aero Kit and requested that the arches be painted and 35% tint on all windows with the exception of the front. The install of the kit ,painting and tinting was subcontracted out to Concours Collision. I stopped off at Concours to check up on the status of the work and began discussing the % of tint to confirm that what I wanted was in fact 35%. During this discussion I asked for pricing and was quoted $375.00, $120.00 cheaper than the $495.00 hat your dealership had quoted. A 35% markup is excessive and I felt that I was being ripped off, especially after paying full list, $52,216.00, for the car and options. I elected to have the tinting done by Concours directly.
After Market Spring Install
In early June 2003 I purchased a set of H-Sport after market springs for my 2003 Mini Copper S. I called your dealership to inquire on the cost of install and to arrange a time for this work to be completed. Rob Wiebe quoted me 6 hours plus a $129.95 for a four wheel alignment. I could not understand how it could take 6 hours to install four springs. To verify that this was indeed the required time I called Mini Richmond and spoke with Derek, who quoted 3 ½ hours, book time, and $95.00 for a four wheel alignment. I subsequently called Mini Yaletown and was quoted 3 hours, they felt the book time was excessive, and $95.00 for the alignment. Mini Crowfoot was obviously trying to gouge the customer. I called back and explained what I had learned to Dave Maitland who agreed to perform the work using a flat 3 ½ hours labour charge. I still paid $129.95 for the alignment (invoice # 1MCS 12226). The integrity of your dealership, in my mind, is in question.
After Market Adjustable table Lower Control Arms Install
In order to correct the rear camber after the spring install I purchased H-Sport adjustable lower control arms. I called you dealership and spoke with Brian Delong who quoted 1.2 hours per side plus $129.95 for a four wheel alignment. Again, I felt this was excessive for the re and re of control arms, all of four bolts with easy access!. As I was going away on vacation and extremely busy I did not have a chance to confirm this time estimate with other Mini dealerships. I elected to go ahead with this work on Friday July 25th. In addition to the lower control arms install I asked to an oil change and to check the balance on all four wheels as the car had a shake – these are after market wheels.
I dropped the car off at 7:00am and again had a discussion with Brian about how it could take 2.4 hours to re and re control arms. Brian’s attitude and response left me extremely upset. At no time did he offer to show me the “book”, just it is what is, take it or leave it……
I called Brian at 11:30 to inquire on the progress and was told “they are working on it and I will call you back at 1:30pm. Brian did call back, at 3:00pm and told me that they were unable to get to the lower control arms and could I leave the car until Monday. Brian was fully aware that I was going away on vacation on Saturday and that this work was required in order to save the tires.
I picked up the car at the end of the day, the oil had been changed and the wheels had been re-balanced. Other warranty problems had been confirmed and parts ordered. On the drive home the car was shaking much worse than it did before it arrived in the dealership. Three kilometers into the drive home the low tire indicator came on. I pulled over to ensure that no tire was flat, they were not, and I proceeded on home where I checked the air pressure. Granted the tires were warm, however the pressure variations between the tires were so great, ranging from 45 psi to 32 psi that sensor thought a tire was going down. Obviously your dealership does not have the expertise to fill four times with the same air pressure. I corrected the air pressure issue next morning, re-initialized the system and the light went out.
As to the shake I was told that “found wheel spacers have play and this is the cause of vibration. Need to install correct wheel spacers to fix vibration” (invoice 1MCS 13016). Having serious doubts about the demonstrated level of expertise present in the service department I took the car to Harpers who have road force balancing equipment. I stood right by the machine and asked the technician, before you do anything can you please comment on the current balance – this is done without wheel spacers so it eliminates this variable. All four wheels were seriously out of balance – which explained the increased shake after the car had been at your dealership. It did not however explain the initial shake that was present when the car was brought into Mini Crowfoot. The reason the car had a shake is that all four wheels were bent. These bends were easily visible to the naked eye and spotted right away by the Harpers technician – he was shocked that the technicians at Mini Crowfoot did not spot this and was amazed, even with the bends, how out of balance the wheels were. We checked the wheel spacers and Harpers confirmed no problem with the spacers, the problem was damaged wheels. I had Harpers do the best they could with the bent wheels and the took it for a test drive. The shake was significantly reduced from the symptoms that caused me to ask Mini Crowfoot to check the balancing. I can only conclude that Mini Crowfoot does not know how to balance wheels, fill four tires with equal air pressure, or have technicians that can spot significant bends in a wheel. They also provided a totally incorrect resolution – thank god I no longer trust any work or feedback from this dealership as I might have gone out and spent more money and time on wheel spacers.
As to the control arms. I took the car to Shaw GMC as their service department is open on Saturdays. Not having any expertise with the Mini they asked to take a look at the car to access the time it world take to re and re the lower control arms. Being cautious because they have no expertise or service manuals they quoted me 1 hour – FOR BOTH and $85.00 for the four wheel alignment. The service technician was completely finished, including alignment in 1 ½ hours. I told the technician about my experiences with Mini Crowfoot and he brought the shop foreman, Dave Tookey, down to share in the laughs. Dave could not believe the story, probably because Shaw GMC is in a competitive situation in Calgary and have to deliver expertise and customer service to survive. I asked for the bill and Dave said “don’t worry about it – please consider us for your truck service”. I definitely will.
I have a John Copper Works Kit on order and have placed a $1000.00 deposit in order to maintain my place in the line. How do you think I feel about having the work done at Mini Crowfoot? I am considering asking Mini Canada if my kit can be sent to Vancouver for installation. For expertise, customer service and a positive attitude I will gladly incur the expense and time to drive to Vancouver.
Other than small warranty work I will never again deal with Mini Crowfoot.
Thank you for taking the time to read this rather long letter.
Sincerely,

[Click here and type job title]

[2cati]

Don't waste your time with the local dealer.

Call BMW Canada (905)683-1200 customer service & get the correct person to send your letter to.

email: customer.service@bmw.ca

I've sent email via the Mini.ca site with no response.

It's almost as if the Mini sales team members are in training to eventually graduate into selling BMWs...

I have to say I've been disappointed by the limited technical knowledge of the sales staff on the Cooper S.

[mikkol]

Sorry to hear you got such a bad experience I heard here in Vancouver some dealers' service centers do really bad job as well but luckily from what I heard the MINI service centers here are giving out good service.

[thegrommit]

It might be a good idea to remove your personal information from that post.

[2cati]

Any updates as to feed back from Mini/BMW or your next course of action?

[GBMINI]

I think that your issues with the prices charged (the first few items) and your other issues should be separated.
You might not like the prices, but you had the choice to ring around BEFORE ordering the work.

Your issues with competence of the service dept are what your should be addressing - IMGO the other complaints will just muddy the water.
It certainly sounds like you might want to get the Works package installed by a different dealer and you should be able to do that. Try to find good reports of whichever dealer you do choose, so you don't have any more unpleasant service experiences.

Sorry to read of your troubles.

[Mini M!]

sorry to hear that you are feeling you are being ripped off. however, like iancull mentioned, you should have researched the pricing prior to order and ask them for the service.

MINI yaletown and richmond will be more than welcome to take care of you; just to let you know they have quite a few JCW's waiting in line already as well.

[rb905678]

Good Day,

Thanks for your comments. I did research the cost for the lower control arms, but as far as choice, this is the only Mini dealer in the province. The confirmation that the hours are excessive ( GM dealer 40 mintues ) just made it even more frustrating.

Russell

[rb905678]

Quote:

Originally posted by 2cati
Any updates as to feed back from Mini/BMW or your next course of action?

Just an e-mail from the dealer ship that they are looking into it.....nohting since it has been two weeks

[tntomek]

I am taking my MINI for the 40K service with a long list of faults & fixes with supporting documentation based on this site and others. I will definitely update this thread after the fact.

One thing I hate is their policy on loaner vehicles. Maybe I am not being assholish enough but their shuttle stops at 5:30PM and they will not offer a loaner vehicle for the time mine is in the shop. Should I receive a loaner vehicle or is that only something that happens in large cities where multiple dealers are found who have to excel at service.

Sales:
Mike F, the main sales person at MINI Crowfoot is very friendly and knowledgeable of the vehicles he sells; as for the other staff I cannot say the same.

Service:
My brief phone conversations with the service staff have been confusing as I received different opinions from different staff. I can't say I would trust them with something important.

All in all I think BMW in the west is a little arrogant because they know their customers like BMW/MINI and that they don't have an alternative so there is no pressure to perform. Once the Edmonton MINI dealership opens later this year there might be some extra pressure from the Calgary MINI to outperform their counterparts in Edmonton.

stay tuned...

[Gelly]

The best suggestion I can make to anyone having problems with their dealership is this: as soon as you have any little problem that doesn't get taken care of the way it should, talk to the owner of the dealership. You can talk to shop managers, sales managers, and technicians 'til you're blue in the face. Quite frankly though, for these people it is only a job. If the dealership were to close down the next day, they would simply go find new jobs. The owner on the other hand has loads of money invested in the business. For this reason the owner will be very interested in knowing when their customers' needs are not being taken care of. It doesn't matter if they are the only <enter brand here> dealership in town, and any owner worth their weight in salt knows this.

This was one of those lessons that I had to learn the hard way. But trust me, it's amazing how fast and good a technician can work once the owner lights a fire under their ass.

[tntomek]

Quote: Originally Posted by tntomek

I am taking my MINI for the 40K service with a long list of faults & fixes with supporting documentation based on this site and others. I will definitely update this thread after the fact.

One thing I hate is their policy on loaner vehicles. Maybe I am not being assholish enough but their shuttle stops at 5:30PM and they will not offer a loaner vehicle for the time mine is in the shop. Should I receive a loaner vehicle or is that only something that happens in large cities where multiple dealers are found who have to excel at service.

Sales:
Mike F, the main sales person at MINI Crowfoot is very friendly and knowledgeable of the vehicles he sells; as for the other staff I cannot say the same.

Service:
My brief phone conversations with the service staff have been confusing as I received different opinions from different staff. I can't say I would trust them with something important.

All in all I think BMW in the west is a little arrogant because they know their customers like BMW/MINI and that they don't have an alternative so there is no pressure to perform. Once the Edmonton MINI dealership opens later this year there might be some extra pressure from the Calgary MINI to outperform their counterparts in Edmonton.

stay tuned...

Update:

My car was finally fixed. After owning the vehicle for a while, I had accumulated the following list of issues:
-Windshield crack (replaced)
-Passenger door window not opening (module replaced)
-Loose handbrake plastic (to be replaced, waiting for parts)
-Hard to shift into gears (clutch cable fixed, gears still shift hard...will inquire on my update visit)
-Low coolant (filled)
-Squeaky seats (fixed, not FREE)

Brian, the service consultant was very professional in dealing with the repairs. He was knowledgeable of the vehicle and even took it upon himself to inquire upon a 'one touch up' window featured I had just spurred out.

I have the following conclusions about MINI Crowfoot in Calgary:
Pro:
- Did fix all problems *let's hope" !!!
- Was provided with courtesy vehicle

Con:
- Promptness of repairs and availability of trivial parts was a slightly on the slow side. I had to wait over a week for the trash holder to come in.
- My custom stereo was NOT put in as it was originally installed. I had to take apart the front panels and redo all the work.
- When cleaning the car I noticed that the door clip used to hold in the plastic panel was broken suggesting a rushed assembly of doors.

All in all my complaints are minuscule and bottom line is EVERYTHING I ASKED FOR WAS FIXED.

Till my next MINI service this week.

[miniman marshall]

Quote: Originally Posted by tntomek

-Squeaky seats (fixed, not FREE)

How much did you have to pay them to fix the squeaky seats?! I had squeaky seats, but they were fixed under warranty.