[beken]

I'm generally very happy with my dealership's service department (Yaletown MINI in Vancouver BC, Canada - shameless plug) and my last service was not an exception. I had my windshield replaced.

BMW/MINI Canada called me yesterday and did a phone survey asking me to rank 1-5 what I felt about various things. In my opinion, anything 3 and up should be quite satisfactory. A 4 meant I was happy and a 5 means I felt the item in discussion was done in an extremely exceptional manner.

So I gave a 3 for the workmanship of the glass installation because there was small splotches of glue left on my dash, which I had to rub off because I was taking the car to a show n shine the next day. About 10 minutes of my time afterwards. No big deal. I gave mostly 4's and a few 5's otherwise in a rather long survey which took over 10 minutes to get through.

Today, the head of MINI Yaletown's service department called me to address my concerns because, apparently, anything less than a 5 meant he has an unhappy customer on his hands. I explained I wasn't unhappy. I just felt the glue could have been cleaned up a bit better. A I didn't feel the service was way beyond expection. I was still very pleased with them. But that's not how BMW ranks them. So Graham apologized for the glue, even though the glass install was farmed out to an autoglass company.

Wow....I did not know BMW/MINI Canada took customer satisfaction that seriously.

I'm going to have to stick to buying their cars when it's time to replace my other cars.

[MaxaMiniBro]

Motorwerks-Minneapolis Service


While I didn't buy a MINI from Motorwerks, I did buy a BMW from them back in '99. I had warranty coverage for all service up to 36K, and then went back for my first service check after that expired. I had posted this comment a few days ago on another service-related thread. I love those surveys! If you can't rate us highest on all questions, let us know. I let 'em know alright....

"Based on my one experience in MN with BMW service after my warranty cover expired, I'm not sure I'd want to go to a service location associated with them!
The oil change charge was over $90! But the SA said he had found a coupon that brought it down to $80. thanks!
They also did the mandatory warranty check, and handed me a bill for $900. Ouch!
BMW is big on service followup calls to see how their dealers are doing. The guy called and asked "How did you feel about your service experience?" I replied "I felt like I took it up the ***!" He laughed and said that that response wasn't on his survey form. I took the opportunity to fill him in on my feelings, and that was the last time I have used an official BMW dealer for any service. My mechanic does a great job at reasonable rates, and hopefully will have more Mini experience by the time I go to acquire one."

I hope they don't screw you as bad on MINI service as they did me on my 318i.

[electricmini]

Unfortunately for the dealers, BMW/MINI have a different sort of grading system on their survey's (as most manufactorers do actually). In most consumers minds, a 4 or a 5 (in some cases a 9 or a 10) means that things were perfect, so giving a 3, or an 8 isn't a big deal. But any marks LOWER than one point (in some cases 2 points) below a "perfect" mark means a failure for the dealer.

When I am, with a different manufactorer, anything less than an 8 doesn't even count. So I need 9's and 10's on EVERYTHING in order to get a 1/2 decent score on my customer returned survey's.

[katarsis]

I got a letter that someone from BMW would call me to do a survey about my purchase.

Finally they called, and asked me what kind of model of bmw I had, and I told them it was a Mini.. Then they said Mini owners want part of this costumer survey, Somewhat disappointing..