[ricardo]

I had my first experience of servicing/warranty work with Lind's today. I was let down by Lind's sales department when I first ordered my MINI but I was generally very impressed by the service dept. All the staff were very friendly and efficient. The car was ready when it should have been and had been cleaned thoroughly inside and out. The service staff were easy to talk to and seemed positive about the MINI brand and about resolving any issues I had with the car. There's more work to be done so I'll post more feedback over time.

[ricardo]

Further feedback on Lind in Norwich: I recently had a second service and some warranty work done and was again impressed with the efficiency and friendliness. In particular, when the car went back for a new steering column to be fitted, the service dept spotted that the heater inlet/grille filters had deteriorated and they changed them without having being asked.

[MUK]

Had a couple of warranty claims; slight delay for one (but that was BMWs fault not Lind) very good service always offer you a good courtesy car (last one was a brand new 3 series tourer £24k with 250 miles on the clock!!).

Good service, can't fault them..

[Mandalay]

Lind in Norwich sales service is appalling, I decided to buy from Sorensons Kings Lynn 40 miles away than put my faith in Lind who are a couple of miles from me.
They looked at me like I'd crawled out from under a stone when I was first lookining at MINIs. And since then I have made a call to the sales department who never bothered to ring back.
I wouldn't touch them with an extremely large bargepole.

[justicejonny]

Hey Guys,

Just bought a 54 plate pepper white/black Cooper s. Beautiful car; however today (2nd day into ownership) noticed that one of the xenon headlights has condensation inside it?

Can anyone tell me if this is a problem that requires fixing? i know from umpteen other bmw/mini forums that it shouldnt happen but i need to know the score?

Many Thanks,

This site is helping me learn stuff already!!

Jon

[gIzzE]

Intersting thread.

Liind opened there new multimillion pound showroom 2 weeks ago, I went in to buy a couple of cars, a 535d M-Sport Touring with approx. £10k's worth of options and a Mini One D as an economical run around.

I leftmy details with the guy to call me back about the 535d and then went over to the Mini showroom. I explained that I would prefer an exdemo or up to a year old one and told him the colurs and essentials I was after, however I then spent 15 minutes arguing with him that I wanted a diesel, he was trying to tell me that unless I do 20k miles a year it wasn't worth it, when I sat him down and showed him the figures and proved that a petrol car would cost me £160 a month more he replied "Fair enough, but unfortunately we have not got any diesels to sell you." That's more like it.

I left my details with him as his system was down and he said he would call.
I waited a week and then got a call to say he had a blue car on an 03 plate with salt pack, I pointed out that I wanted black, silver or grey, with pepper, part leather and 05 plate or newer. He said he would look again and call me back.
Anyway I decided to go down yetserday and order a new one, and chase BMW up over the 535d sport touring, however, we got there and they were closed!!
There were about a dozen other couples all walking round, and all amazed that they were closed on a Sunday, it is one of the only days people have together to go to car dealerships these days, and to close seems crazy to me and obviously others.

I am going down there again now to see what they say, if I can get a deal on a new one I will give them an order, if not I will call round elsewhere and order over the phone, there are loads of dealers out there that want to do deals.

Oh, bought a 535d over the phone from someone else as well and collect that on Thursday, that could have been another £50,000 in their till over the weekend!!

[Mandalay]

[quote=gIzzE]Intersting thread.

I would recommend Sorensons at Kings Lynn if you don't go through Lind. Far and away better customer relations than Lind - in my experience. Good luck in whatever you buy.

[Mandalay]

Quote: Originally Posted by justicejonny

Hey Guys,

Just bought a 54 plate pepper white/black Cooper s. Beautiful car; however today (2nd day into ownership) noticed that one of the xenon headlights has condensation inside it?

Can anyone tell me if this is a problem that requires fixing? i know from umpteen other bmw/mini forums that it shouldnt happen but i need to know the score?

Many Thanks,

This site is helping me learn stuff already!!

Jon

Sorry - I think you need the technical forum.

[gIzzE]

I tried calling Lind again with the spec I want but couldn't get an answer, so called Sorensons, seemed much more on the ball.
Gave him the details, told him what I want to pay and said I would leave it with him to get back to me, he is going to call tomorrow.
I know discounts are hard to come buy, but I have never bought a car and not got at least 10%, the car came in at £15,400 and I said I wanted to pay £14500 + them throw in TLC, that is 6% dscount and £150 for the TLC, think I stand a chance???
It is a run out model pretty much with the new one out next year!

[Blagman]

You should get some sort of deal, I did, but they only have 6% max in the car from the manufacturer.

John

[gIzzE]

So I guess it comes down to how much they need to sell another car? If they need to sell another 5 cars to get a £10k bonus I guess they get more flexible.

Lind said that they only have one mini one D allocated to them this year, when that has been ordered that is it, sounds like bollox to me! I know you have to twist the truth a little to get a sale, but I can't stand itt when someone tries to mug you off, they guy just sounded like a prick!!!

[Blagman]

Quote: Originally Posted by gIzzE

So I guess it comes down to how much they need to sell another car? If they need to sell another 5 cars to get a £10k bonus I guess they get more flexible.

Lind said that they only have one mini one D allocated to them this year, when that has been ordered that is it, sounds like bollox to me! I know you have to twist the truth a little to get a sale, but I can't stand itt when someone tries to mug you off, they guy just sounded like a prick!!!

I would have thought it is one Mini D a Month not a year, I don't think they get those kind of registration bonuses, but i still think the days are over for full list price also.
Just keep plugging away, i had three dealers on the go in the end and got the deal in the end.

John

[gIzzE]

Cheers John.

It seems they obviously don't want the business anyway, not heard back from Lind or Sorensons, you would have thought when I said to Sorensons "I am calling you because Lind don't call me back...." that they would have made extra effort to keep contact!

[Blagman]

Try asking for the sales manager next time, try explaining that their muppet sales people who they have spent a small fortune on training can't handle the basic's, ie they can't be bothered with the enquirey can you do any better ? that should get you some service.

But don't forget you are dealing with the motor trade so anything could happen

John

[gIzzE]

Haha, too true!

I have started looking at used ones, but to be honest they are too expensive, they hold their value too much still to justify buying used. The finance figures on a 2 year old car works out more expensive than a new one because of residuals.

[Ragamuffin]

I'm hoping to pop to Lind in Norwich on Friday to be nosy at what they have got, though the reports that I have read here don't sound very promising.

I requested some info via the Mini Cherished website at the beginning of last week, and received an email from Lind of Norwich last Thursday asking me to confirm my address even though I filled in the form correctly on the Mini Cherished site I should hopefully have an information pack waiting for me at home today. Here's hoping that they may have improved a little bit.

[gIzzE]

Well I went in again on Friday 3rd Feb and spoke with a girl, told her that I had now spoke with Serensons and a couple of others and they had all got back to me straight away, but I wanted to be fair and give Lind the chance to sell me a car, and in all honesty it would be easier than trying to find a day where both my wife and I can get over to another dealer too.

When I said I had been offered a little discount to tempt me into buying new rather than used she went all funny, I said "If you can't offer me anything don't even bother to call me back!" followed by "not really, give me a call and let me know what you can and can't do."
She said she would pass my details on and get Rory to call me as soon as he was in.

Today is now Wednesday the 8th, so I waited for my call on Friday, nothing! Saturday, nothing!
Sunday we decided to go down and deal with it completely forgetting they don't bother to open, there was a dozen couples all walking round in amazement, that on one of the only days, in this day and age, that couples can do things like this together they are not open.
Monday I was out all day in the car and got no call.
Tuesday, again nothing!
So went in today as we were passing and my wife is hassling me to order a car, showroom empty, girl behind reception, sales girl I spoke with and the manager all standing there.

"Hi, do you remeber me, came in last week not too happy that no one had called me, you were going to get Rory to get in touch straight away?"

"Yeah I do remeber I left your details with him, has he not called you? Let me find him."

"Don't bother to find him, I don't want to deal with him anymore thanks."

"I will just have to ask my manager if I am allowed to deal with his sale."

At the point where I said "..not to happy..." both my wife and I both noticed how her manager had slipped into his office and closed the door, leaving an unhappy customer standing on the shopfloor. ******!!

She came out and said "We understand that you had been offered a bit of discount from another dealer, we don't discount so we didn't bother to call you."

"Would it not have been nice to have at least called me and let me decide if I would rather buy locally or save £400?"

"Also the two cars we had slots for are now gone and the next one will not be until June"

"But you had a slot available when I came in 3 weeks ago, if you had bothered calling me back when you said you would I caould have had one!"


At that point my wife said not to worry about it and we left. Unbelievable service, or lack of to the point we were both laughing about it on the way home, the manager was laughable, what a weak **** he is to leave one of his staff on the floor when he should have been out rectifying the situation. Also had to laugh how there one mini D for the year, had now gone to two in march and another in June, if you are going to lie to customers at least be consistent!!

[Foxy Mini]

Sounds like a real hard time you've been having gIzzE. Unfortunately, a lot of the ECMC members have the same opinion on the Lind Norwich staff!

[ayde_bury]

Quote: Originally Posted by Foxy Mini

Sounds like a real hard time you've been having gIzzE. Unfortunately, a lot of the ECMC members have the same opinion on the Lind Norwich staff!

I had as much luck with Lind when I was hunting for my first MINI, had that we don't really care attitude as the cars sell themselves. Am now purchasing my second car from Elms of Cambridge, helpful, courtious and very customer focused. Living in central Suffolk, it's not the nearest dealer, but hey, a few extra miles in a MINI who am I to complain

I wonder if we listed all the dealers we'd walked away from and the money they'd lost becuase of poor service whether someone would sit up and take note? Personally £34k lost from me at Lind Norwich for starters.

[CWaldie]

Hey guys

Rory - joke
Craig (sales manager) - joke

If they had called me back i would have bought their works cooper s, same day.

BUNCH OF JOKERS!

on test drive i was discussing bits like the new JCW spoiler, not only did they not know what i meant (THE SHOW CAR OUT FRONT HAS ONE) but i had to tell him pricing etc on a number of items, he even told me that JCW don't do a works kit for any age mini.

If i could get a saturday job there i really would.. I could sell more cars than them all put together!!!! (and get a discount for myself )

Not seen this woman, but steer clear of rory and craig. Next time i go in i will be going into the BMW garage to inform them of the bad service. Whats funny tho... REALLY funny is that the family who own lind are good customers of the company i work for hehehe.. few words here and there... bobs your uncle