[Choccy]

Hi,

I’m leasing a 2002 Cooper from Long Beach Mini. I’m a San Diego resident, but after a couple of bad experiences with the Brecht sales people I elected to drive the hundred + miles up the freeway to Long Beach to buy from them rather than giving my business to Brecht. LB were also selling their cars at sticker, rather than the 5k odd markup at Brecht.

Nevertheles Brecht are my nearest dealer, so after talking with Mini of North America I took the car to them for servicing/maintenance issues. Big mistake.

The first problem was that the car started overheating at around 25k miles. Got it towed in to Brecht, who took note of a couple of other smaller issues (rattles here and there, slight problem with a window seal) and provided me with a rental car until they'd fixed the problem.

Car comes back a few days later - overheating problem ‘fixed’, rattles fixed (or so they said) window seal not fixed. Utterly disinterested service guy said they had to order a part, and that they'd get in touch when it was in stock. Not without a fair bit of pushing from me, might I add. They initially made no mention of the seal problem, then they tried to tell me that the seal would sort itself out if the car was 'left out in the sun for a bit'. Incredible, but I was relieved enough to have the overheating problem fixed for the moment.

Now's when it gets ugly. About 20 miles away from the dealer I notice that not only have the original rattles not been adequately fixed, they've actually gotten worse on the freeway. As an added bonus there's now an entirely NEW rattle coming from the now squeaky gearbox. The thought of having to spend any more time in their showroom dealing with them makes me feel physically ill, so I resolve to bring the issues up with them when they call regarding the door seal. A little while later it becomes apparent that they’ve also messed up the air conditioning so it’s now impossible to get full power out of some of the vents.

Astonishingly they’ve returned the car to me with more problems than it had when I dropped it in.

And guess what? They don't call back about the door seal as promised. Unable to face having to deal with them any further, I decide to put up with the minor issues and feel thankful that at least my car’s not going to burst into flames next time I’m on the freeway.

Fast forward a couple of months and about two thousand miles. We’re on the freeway in traffic, and the car starts overheating again. Fantastic. Turn heat on full blast (in 80 degree heat), pull over to side of road, get car towed home. Notice that the front right tire is going bald. So in 25 thousand miles pre-Brecht service the tires were fine, but in the 2k post-Brecht one has started to go severely bald. Interesting.

Call Brecht service department, explain problem to girl who answers phone, confirm loaner car arrangements with her and let her know we’ll be getting the car towed in this morning.

Arrive at Brecht to be greeted with the usual but nevertheless still astonishingly disinterested service personnel. Explain list of issues to the guy (same guy who said they’d phone us back when the part arrived last time) who tells us that it’s absolutely impossible that the tire wear is anything to do with them. He seemed very sure about that. He wouldn’t even agree that it was an extraordinary coincidence that it happened a couple of thousand miles after they’d ‘serviced’ it. Manager takes the same tone, and furthermore tells us that we’re not entitled to a hire car whilst they fix the other problems (again…). Girl I spoke to only yesterday afternoon suffers sudden selective amnesia, and has no recollection of lenghty conversation she had with me only 18 hours or so previously. As the discussion progresses it transpires that because we gave them negative feedback after the last service (you know, when they provided absolutely terrible service) he was not in the slightest bit interested in helping us. At one point he even said ‘you gave us negative feedback, what’s it in for us?’.

Maybe I’m being old fashioned, but if you have an unhappy customer, surely the best way of resolving things is to provide them with a decent service. That way they’ll hopefully turn into a happy satisfied customer, rather than one who resolves to never buy anything from you and tells all their friends and relatives about what a shoddy outfit you are. Case in point: as a direct result of my experiences with Brecht BMW my brother in law just bought an Audi instead of the Beemer he had planned to buy.

Anyhow, I digress: the service manager agrees to have a service guy take a look at the overheating problem there and then (the same one they ‘fixed’ two months ago, remember?) but that the other bits and pieces (all either caused by them, or not properly fixed the first time round) would have to wait. Half an hour or so later he comes back to us with the fan in his hand, and explains that BMW had ordered the part be replaced on our model, as bits of debris were prone to getting stuck in it causing the car to overheat. Of course he offers no suggestion as to why this wasn’t mentioned two months previously when we originally brought it in. He was probably the least helpful, most unpleasant employee of Brecht I have ever had the misfortune to deal with, and that’s saying something.

Anyhow – has anyone else had similar experiences with them? Obviously enough I’ll not be dealing with them ever again (with the benefit of hindsight the drive up to Longbeach for servicing would have been a small price to pay), but I will be complaining at length both to the owner Tom Brecht and to Mini of North America. I’d be interested to hear if any others on this board have had similar experiences with Brecht. Any advice on how best to handle the complaint would be gratefully received, also. I've had a number of other problems with them too - I've only listed the main ones

[Mini-Hype]

Welcome to mini2.com! I should be receiving my mini within the next few weeks. I too live in Southern California, with Brecht being the closest dealer to me. I've heard soooo many horror stories of most service dept's in the SoCal area. I work in Irvine, so I'll probably give them a try.

Anyone have experience working with Irvine's service department????

You might want to take a look at this thread:
http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthrea...ighlight=socal

Sorry to hear about your bad luck with Brecht!!!!

Gary

[Choccy]

Thanks for the link and welcome

You'll love your car, I'm sure. I certainly do, despite Brecht's best efforts to make me hate everything to do with BMW/Mini. So much fun. It's testament to how much fun the car is to drive that I still like it despite all the rubbish I've put up with from them.

Reading that thread I'm wondering whether dealers treat owners who've bought their cars from different dealerships worse than ones that have bought from theirs, if you see what I mean. It would make sense (in a warped way), I suppose. Either way it's completely unacceptable. I'm thinking about setting up a website for socal mini owners specifically to highlight shoddy service/maintenance issues. By the looks of it there'd be a good few people with stories to tell. It's just ludicrous that people who have spent a good deal of money on a product should get treated so astonishingly badly.

[EBMCS03]

Oh gee that absolutely sucks... I seriously cant believe WHY so cal MINI dealers just cant get their act straight and give customers decent service! As stated in the thread from the above link I have e-mailed MINI NA reguarding these concerns I hope they do somthing about it.


Oh in any case WELCOME to MINI2! I have been a SD resident, in La Jolla for the past 4.5 years and just moved back up to LA.

[tavis1]

Doesn't surprise me bit! Let me know and I will be more than happy to go to your web sight. I am the one that started that thread. When my MCS goes in for some unresolved issues they are going to send out a MINI rep from the factory. Please keep us posted and I am sorry about what happened. I KNOW EXACTLY HOW YOU FEEL!
Tavis1

[Choccy]

Thanks folks.

Does anyone have any advice on the best way to pursue a complaint with Mini of NA?

Anyone got any experience of successfully resolving a situation like this?

I'm writing a letter to Tom Brecht first of all to see where that gets me. My suspicion is it won't get me very far, as generally in business this sort of attitude tends to come from the top. If the big guy is a jerk, it filters down to everyone else and they behave like jerk with the customers. Even so it's worth a shot at least. A good starting point.

[HollisLee3]

Quote: Originally Posted by Choccy

Thanks folks.

Does anyone have any advice on the best way to pursue a complaint with Mini of NA?

Anyone got any experience of successfully resolving a situation like this?

I'm writing a letter to Tom Brecht first of all to see where that gets me. My suspicion is it won't get me very far, as generally in business this sort of attitude tends to come from the top. If the big guy is a jerk, it filters down to everyone else and they behave like jerk with the customers. Even so it's worth a shot at least. A good starting point.

I also bought mine from Brecht. I called to make a service appointment and talked with a disinterested service guy. I would love to participate, as I am fearful of the services to come...

[Choccy]

So earlier today I had a lenghty call with Mini of North America's customer service department. They took note of my complaints, but essentially said they were nothing they could do as the dealerships were independently owned businesses.

Quite what the point of the dealer survey they undertake after you have the car serviced is byond me. Surely the point of a franchise is that the franchise owners demand a certain level of service quality.

I've written a three page letter to fax to Mr Brecht tomorrow morning. Will update when he responds.

[EBMCS03]

Hummm sounds a lot like this e-mail I got from MINI USA... Useless...


"Hi XXXX, thanks for writing MINI.
I'm sorry to read of your concern regarding discourteous treatment at MINI dealers in southern California. On behalf of MINI Division, please accept my apology. We strive for the best customer service possible and we appreciate our customers feedback on how they were treated, whether it be good or bad. The MINI dealers are independently owned and operated and control all aspects of their sales and service. I have documented your complaint here in our records but I would also suggest that you speak to the management at the dealership if you have a complaint in the future so they can address it internally. My sincerest apologies again for the concern this has caused you. Please let us know if you have any questions or additional comments as well.

Sincerely,

XXXXXX XXXXXXX

MINI Customer Relations and Services

Representative

866.ASK.MINI (275-6464)"

[tavis1]

We are partly to blame ourselves..............
Since I've been coming to this site for over a year and a half I have read hundreds of complaints about So Cal dealers. I tried to get people fired up and group together and do something. It starts out good then dies off quick. I guess people are not tired of it yet. I know I am. MINI won't listen too a couple of complaints here and there. The only way to get a change is for a mass of owners get together and get the press/ news involved or a law suit going. That is the only way. Sucks I know.
Tavis1

[GTmini]

Kinda worries me...I gave a Brecht a low mark or two on the last survey, so I wonder if I've made their blacklist. However the reason I finally got fed up and gave them a low mark was because of the inattentiveness to certain problems after many visits. Some things they've done well, while others they've dropped the ball on. In the meantime, I'm waiting until my 25K service before I go in for anymore service visits...they're not something I every look forward to much. I've got an annoying dash rattle now, but I already decided that I'm going to tell them to leave it alone. I'll take care of that one myself b/c I'm more afraid of them creating more rattles in the process of trying to fix it. Unfortunately Brecht is the only dealer anywhere near where I work, so I'm pretty stuck.

I remember with my last car (different make/model), I had taken it in for a small recall repair and they starting with that initial visit, they broke something different during EVERY visit. After 4 or 5 visits, I was pretty persuaded that it was some sort of warranty repair milking scheme they must have been doing because it was unfathomable that any service dept could be that naturally incompetent. Fortunately I found another dealer that actually knew what they were doing who fixed everything with my first visit to them.

[EBMCS03]

Quote: Originally Posted by GTmini

Fortunately I found another dealer that actually knew what they were doing who fixed everything with my first visit to them.

Wait so which dealer was that?

[onekirkfan]

I was at Brecht this past Saturday and overheard a young couple speaking to a service person or persons that sounds similar to your story. Were you there Saturday? I was waiting for my husband to pick me up because I could not get a loaner either.

[Choccy]

Quote: Originally Posted by onekirkfan

I was at Brecht this past Saturday and overheard a young couple speaking to a service person or persons that sounds similar to your story. Were you there Saturday? I was waiting for my husband to pick me up because I could not get a loaner either.

Hi,

Yeah, that was us. I was the tall English bloke in a baseball cap looking rather grumpy Small world, eh?

We were particularly irritated because the girl had confirmed loaner arrangements with us on the phone the previous day so the pair of us drove out Saturday morning in the Mini. That added to the fact that they absolutely ruled out any responsibility for the tire wearing down so soon after they 'serviced' it made for an extremely irritating Saturday indeed.

I faxed a three page letter to Tom Brecht on Tuesday. Will be interesting to see if he bothers to respond because Mini of North America were no use at all.

[onekirkfan]

Yeah, very small world indeed.

From my perspective, you were more than grumpy. With due respect, I thought you were a bit out of line.

I was also unable to get a loaner car but it was because the rental car agencies were closed. In you letter you say you told the service girl you would be in in the morning. You and your companion arrived well after noon. I got there about 12:30 - just before you.

I have had my MCS serviced at Brecht several times and have been pretty satisfied. It sounds like you had some legitimate problems with your car and maybe with repairs. However, the readers of your letter should know that the service people at Brecht treated you professionally and never raised their voice. From what I could hear from my vantage point, I thought you were were rude and argumentative. There are two sides to every story.

It sounds from your letter that they at least got your car back on the road pretty quickly and made the best of a bad situation. I own a exclusive retail store in La Jolla and we pride ourselves on excellent service. If you would have acted the way you did in my store, I would have asked you to leave. I would not anyone to speak to my sales staff the way you did - under any circumstance.

Again, you may have some legitimate gripes, but I think you could have handled the situation much better. Going all the way to Long Beach is certainly going to be a hassle but I don't blame you - I would be embarrassed to return to Brecht. Doesn't Kearny Mesa BMW service MINI's?

This is just my opinion, of course. I wish you the best of luck with your MINI and hope you have better luck with service!

[Choccy]

Wow.

It's interesting that you can have such a comprehensive opinion on a conversation took place in a private room, over a very extended period. We arrived before noon, so you're getting confused. The truck picked us up around 10am. Having been there for well over an hour with not even the merest sense of an admission of culpability from Brecht, I was indeed more than grumpy, borne out of a sense of complete helplessness and frustration at the way we were being treated.

I have no idea what you think you heard but I certainly didn't use offensive language. And of course I was being argumentative - I was being completely stonewalled, again. I'm hardly going to sit back and go 'yeah, fair enough. none of this is your fault, never mind that you told us yesterday that we could have a loaner. we'll walk home 40 miles whilst you have another bash at fixing what you were supposed to have fixed last time and the other problems you caused. Take as long as you like, eh?'

As I put in my letter to Brecht, the issue of the loaner was neither here nor there, really. What was annoying was to be told they would provide one when we called (meaning the two of us went out with the truck), and for that to change on arrival.

If your sales staff repeatedly sold faulty product, then absolved themselves all all blame you'd be out of business within three months as your customers would go elsewhere. Most people in and around San Diego don't have any option when it comes to Brecht, as they've got a monopoly on Mini servicing in the area.

[BlueCS]

Sorry about the bad experience Choccy. There are too many of these bad service experience stories running about. Unfortunately don't bother to post the sincere happiness when something actually goes well...

Anyway, my recommendation would be to try a different service advisor (if you do decide to go back - or for others who give Brecht a try). I'm appalled that they would blacklist you based on your survey responses. Did you tell them that the problems were worsened after you got the car the first time. If they sincerely thought they'd fixed the problems and got a horrid survey they would be ed, but if they realized that things weren't completely taken care of... Let us know what Tom Brecht has to say.

I'm at a different dealership, and its tough to see how much the advisors have to deal with (as they are basically the middleman between customers and techs), but part of their job is to provide excellent service to customers. Make sure you let Tom Brecht know which advisor it was, maybe there's a history with him that will result in an improvement to the dealer's service department.

[Choccy]

Quote: Originally Posted by BlueCS

Let us know what Tom Brecht has to say.

I will indeed.

I do understand the position the service advisors are in, however I still expect to receive (at the very least) acceptable service from them, and if I don't I'll complain. It's the responsibility of the dealership to ensure effective communication between the various departments, so there's no excuse for being told something is fixed when its not, or for one person to tell me one thing only for another to tell me something different.

As for them not raising their voices at me... I don't believe I ever said they did. I said that they provided absolutely terrible customer service, which is exactly what they did. Comical, even.

I expect more from a dealership than them not shouting at me, I'm afraid.

[twofastmini]

My sister and I both own MINI's and service them both at Brecht. My brother has a new 5 series BMW (525?) that he bought and services at Brecht. We have had nothing but wonderful service at Esondido. They provide free rentals for us but maybe that's because we bought the car there. I gave an average survey one time because it took so long for an appointment but the manager called and apologized.

I feel bad that you have been having a difficult time there. I read you post twice. Kept scratching my head -

Maybe you just caught them on bad days. But when you write things like: having to deal with the rattles again makes you physically ill, or, thankful that my car's not going to burst into flames..., it makes it sound like you are exagerating a bit.

Creveir MINI is also excellent. They are much bigger. But maybe you should try to start fresh with Brecht. It sounds like you got off on a bad foot and have never gotten past it. Maybe another write up person would be a idea.

[tavis1]

Quote: Originally Posted by BlueCS

Sorry about the bad experience Choccy. There are too many of these bad service experience stories running about. Unfortunately don't bother to post the sincere happiness when something actually goes well...

Anyway, my recommendation would be to try a different service advisor (if you do decide to go back - or for others who give Brecht a try). I'm appalled that they would blacklist you based on your survey responses. Did you tell them that the problems were worsened after you got the car the first time. If they sincerely thought they'd fixed the problems and got a horrid survey they would be ed, but if they realized that things weren't completely taken care of... Let us know what Tom Brecht has to say.

I'm at a different dealership, and its tough to see how much the advisors have to deal with (as they are basically the middleman between customers and techs), but part of their job is to provide excellent service to customers. Make sure you let Tom Brecht know which advisor it was, maybe there's a history with him that will result in an improvement to the dealer's service department.

Hello,
What dealer do you work for? I've had problems with three dealers in LA. I caused such a ruckus that MINI USA tracked me down. I will be going in for service to have a problem fixed that has not been resolved since February. They are going to have a MINI rep there to make sure things are taking care of. The only great service I've found was in Las Vegas.
Tavis1