[macncheese]

I bought my car at Princeton and I'm afraid to have it serviced there. I'm looking to have my car serviced at one of the other dealerships in NJ but they're going to have to have a loaner car policy. Any suggestions? Thanks!



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Dave

[ArcAngel]

I presume that you are hesitant on getting your car serviced @ Princeton Mini because of the recent negative posts. I'm bringing my MCS in on Friday to have the drivers side door lock fixed, I'll let you know how it goes. I'm sure that most people have a good experience with the service department so I'm not worried in the least. I do plan on sticking around and watch them work on it though.

[macncheese]

No. My concern is somewhat more personal. I was told when I purchased my car (@ Princeton) that if I didnt score them high on the survey I'd recieve in the mail that they'd "do bad things to my car"

[ArcAngel]

Did they really say that!?!

They did mention that survey to me and asked that I mark them high so they will continue to get a larger allotment of Minis. If they had threatened me like that I would have dragged them out into the lot a give them a "What fer"!

I will definitely keep my eye out when I go on Friday.

[stryder]

Quote:

Originally posted by macncheese
No. My concern is somewhat more personal. I was told when I purchased my car (@ Princeton) that if I didnt score them high on the survey I'd recieve in the mail that they'd "do bad things to my car"

Did you tell MINIUSA this? seems like a rather scuzzy thing to say to a customer. My dealer just said please, please, give us good marks, if there's something wrong, let us fix it now so we get good marks.

[minimum_wage]

My salesman asked me to give them good marks also. I tried but when the question was "how well was the service program explained?" and they didn't mention it all, it was kind of hard.

[macncheese]

Yes, I'm not kidding. This was after the salesman showed me how to fill out the internal evalution form where he proceeded to give himself all "10s". I thought this was a "demonstration" but just about choked when he then turned the form towards me and had me sign it. I was so excited to get the car I just did as I was told. I've been hesitant to admit this publicly, fearing the "bad things" that might happen to my car if service was required. Princeton is the closest dealership to me by a decent margin.

[macncheese]

Quote:

Originally posted by stryder


Did you tell MINIUSA this? seems like a rather scuzzy thing to say to a customer. My dealer just said please, please, give us good marks, if there's something wrong, let us fix it now so we get good marks.

My dealer had no interest in fixing my seat. I showed my dealer the poor quality of my leather seat to which they responded "thats the same leather they use in BMWs" I wont be buying a BMW anytime soon if its the same quality as the seat in my MINI.

I've heard good things about Morristown, I was just wondering if they (or anyone else in NJ) have a loaner car program as all the dealerships are just too far away to justify bumming a ride home and then back there from a friend. Thanks.

[Jos986]

Quote:

Originally posted by ArcAngel
I presume that you are hesitant on getting your car serviced @ Princeton Mini because of the recent negative posts. I'm bringing my MCS in on Friday to have the drivers side door lock fixed, I'll let you know how it goes. I'm sure that most people have a good experience with the service department so I'm not worried in the least. I do plan on sticking around and watch them work on it though.

ArcAngel-

Did you purchase your MINI from Princeton MINI?
You live fairly close to me and Princeton is not far although I really like the folks at Don Rosen where I chose to purchase my MINI for various reasons.
DR is farther for me so I'm always interested in hearing reports re.Princeton MINI service.
I'll probably stick with DR.
Keep us informed.

[ArcAngel]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jos986


ArcAngel-

Did you purchase your MINI from Princeton MINI?
You live fairly close to me and Princeton is not far although I really like the folks at Don Rosen where I chose to purchase my MINI for various reasons.
DR is farther for me so I'm always interested in hearing reports re.Princeton MINI service.
I'll probably stick with DR.
Keep us informed.

Yeah, I bought my MCS from Princeton and have nothing but good things to say about them. That's why I'm a little perplexed at the bad stories other people have had. I dealt with John Nelson originally and he was a great help then I was passed to Debbie Franks and I was impressed by her responsiveness to emails and voice mail. When I picked up the MCS Alan Causing did the paperwork and gave a very detailed run over of my new car. I guess at one time or another I dealt with the whole Mini sales team. They even tried to match a great finance rate that I got online, they came up a little short but at least they tried.

So all that said, I hope my dealings with the service department will mirror the sales experience.

[ArcAngel]

Quote:

Originally posted by macncheese
Yes, I'm not kidding. This was after the salesman showed me how to fill out the internal evalution form where he proceeded to give himself all "10s". I thought this was a "demonstration" but just about choked when he then turned the form towards me and had me sign it. I was so excited to get the car I just did as I was told. I've been hesitant to admit this publicly, fearing the "bad things" that might happen to my car if service was required. Princeton is the closest dealership to me by a decent margin.

I was shown the evaluation form but was not asked to sign it because I was told that MiniUSA will give me a call to do the evaluation with them. The rating system is 1 to 5, and 5 being the best, I told him that it would be very difficult to get a 5 out of me. Even though I was happy with the Mini experience, it wasn't perfect.

[captnjoe]

You have me worried.

We put our order in for a IB/BLK MCS in September at Princeton MINI. We have been pleased with the transaction so far and a friend has had his MCS from Princeton MINI for a while and hasn't complained. Princeton MINI is very convenient for me so I don't want to have to go looking elsewhere for service.

ArcAngel, I saw a BLK MCS on Province Line Rd a couple of weeks ago. Was that you?

[paulgraz]

I work about a mile from Princeton Mini. I tried to buy my car there, but I couldn't wait until next summer. The only cars they were selling "off the lot" were loaded up with dealer options costing $1000's. I also tried Don Rosen, but they would not return my calls or e-mails. I ended up buying the car through a new dealer in Long Island (Habberstad), and they were great for the ordering process, but there's no way I can return there for service, it's just too far away. I can only hope that Princeton will turn out to be a good place for service...

Seeing as I don't even have the car yet, all I can do is watch these threads in the meantime...

[ArcAngel]

Quote:

Originally posted by captnjoe
You have me worried.

We put our order in for a IB/BLK MCS in September at Princeton MINI. We have been pleased with the transaction so far and a friend has had his MCS from Princeton MINI for a while and hasn't complained. Princeton MINI is very convenient for me so I don't want to have to go looking elsewhere for service.

ArcAngel, I saw a BLK MCS on Province Line Rd a couple of weeks ago. Was that you?

I picked up my MCS last week so it wasn't me.

[johnny36]

Dave,

It's a bit of a drive but I had nothing but great service from Morristown BMW. I was in a fender bender that damage the wheel sensor and caused in the tire warning light coming on intermittently. Although it took three visits to the service dept. to locate and fix, they never changed me a dime even though the damage was my fault and not a production flaw.

I live close to Princeton, but they turned me off when they want $1000 to be on the list last Nov., car unseen.

I visited Don Rosen MINI, they seem like great folks (confirmed by others on this site). Can't attest to their service though.

Good luck,
Johnny BRG

[johnny36]

I don't think you'll have much luck with loaner policies. There were some posts a few months ago about getting loaners. If memory serves, a loaner was a service-option you had to pay for. But, NJ Transit stops in Morristown, if you need a ride home. Also, there's a Starbucks and Century 21 in walking distance from the Morristown show room ; )

[macncheese]

Seems my thread got hijacked.... This was supposed to find me a new place to get my car serviced Well anyways... Princeton was exceptionally helpful prior to the car coming in and they sold the car to me at sticker.

When the car was in transit, I was told I qualified for 6.9% financing and there was no negotiating on the rate. When I showed up with a secured loan for 5.9%, they immediately offered 5.9%. My how things change.

I'm not sure why they've attempted to take such advantage of me. I imagine they dont get to many 24 year olds in the BMW dealer and thought I was an easy target? I honestly have no idea, Im just speculating.

[wingedsheep]

not to hijack your thread -- but to quell your fears -- I bought my S from Pinceton (Alan Clausing was great) -- I brought it in a few weeks ago to have it serviced (AirBag light was on). I got the car back an hour or so later and everything went fine. I've been happy with them so far. But I definitely noticed the Wheel Curbing thread you're talking about, hopefully its an isolated incident. Also, check out this positive thread about the service there.

[macncheese]

Quote:

Originally posted by wingedsheep
not to hijack your thread -- but to quell your fears -- I bought my S from Pinceton (Alan Clausing was great) -- I brought it in a few weeks ago to have it serviced (AirBag light was on). I got the car back an hour or so later and everything went fine. I've been happy with them so far. But I definitely noticed the Wheel Curbing thread you're talking about, hopefully its an isolated incident. Also, check out this positive thread about the service there.

My fears stem from direct threats of harm to my MINI, not from the wheel curbing thread. The positive thread you provided has also been hijacked by unhappy patrons! Best of luck.

--
Dave

[macncheese]

The saga continues. Last night I came out of work to find my windshield cracked. I drove it home, called roadside assistance and told them it was cracked. They said "we'll send a truck" which they did. I made the call at 6:10, at 6:30 the towtruck shows up (yes towtruck). he says "oh i need to go get the flatbed, I'll be back in 2 minutes..." At 8:10 I call roadside back and say "Where is this guy?" and they call the towtruck and he says "I'll be there in 20 minutes." At 9:10 he shows up and take my baby away. So it took 3 hours for all of this to be resolved. I did learn that BMW roadside is just AAA and they answer the phone "BMW roadside" instead of "AAA".

So not the greatest circumstances, but I've managed to get my mini to morristown without bumming a 1.5 hour ride each way from a friend. Roadside said they wont bring the car back to me as it wasnt a recall issue. Wish me luck.


--
Dave