BMW Motorrad Servicing - Rip Off ?????

[Matzzon]

1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:

What's your point this a motorcycle a toy in comparison with a car. 

I am very happy that you do not get the point. No worries. Next time you do not need to tell me that. Just post a reply when you found the thread instead. 

[eisfeld]

1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:

Thirdly your naivety in believing the BMW dealership will not try and screw you is laughable.

The dealer would not have screwed him if he paid or not. Either way they get the money because now BMW proper is covering the bill instead of Richard. They just change who to invoice.

 

1 hour ago, richard_smith237 said:

It shouldn’t have needed the ‘push’. I guess  a lot of things are slipping through the gaps. 
 

I’m also at fault for this but consider the responsibility shared and the customer (myself) has been treated in a fair manner.

 

 

Customer: 1 

BMW Motorrad Thailand: 1 

 
A win win, I’d buy another bike in future from this dealership after BWM’s fair response. 

I think it's a great resolution to the situation. Life isn't always perfect and procedures that were defined at some point don't take into account all possible future situations that can arise like a pandemic. You had to contact real humans at the place that can make a decision (the dealership can't just put aside BMW's rules) and a real human being looked into it and made an exception.

 

You analyzed it right, no one lost out. Good stuff. Some people in this thread are blowing it waaaay out of proportion ????

[SteveK]

4 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

A win win, I’d buy another bike in future from this dealership after BWM’s fair response. 

They tried to screw you and were forced to do the honourable thing. I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole, but then with a BMW in Thailand I guess you're between a rock and a hard place. 

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, eisfeld said:

They just change who to invoice.

I hope so because just makes things complicated.

Hope he get what he expects.

[Matzzon]

4 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

UPDATE: 

 

I brought the bike in for its service (expecting to pay). The dealership service manager saw me straight away - BMW Thailand have contacted him.

 

They will Service the motorcycle under BMSI. Considered as a special case due to Covid closures etc 

 

I also received an email response from BMW Germany who forwarded the issue to BMW Thailand. 

 

Two emails: to BMW Thailand & BMW Germany & one phone call this morning to

Motorrad Service manager. 
 

Simple situation resolved, but not before a ‘push’. 

 

BMW are now aware of potential ‘service window’ issues due to lockdown, temporary service center closures etc

 

 

It shouldn’t have needed the ‘push’. I guess  a lot of things are slipping through the gaps. 
 

I’m also at fault for this but consider the responsibility shared and the customer (myself) has been treated in a fair manner.

 

 

Customer: 1 

BMW Motorrad Thailand: 1 

 
A win win, I’d buy another bike in future from this dealership after BWM’s fair response. 
 

Ops! But see, I was totally wrong! Congratulations!

Yes, that was a fair and right result. Just never thought they would do it.

Great win, Richard! ???? 

[eisfeld]

17 minutes ago, SteveK said:

They tried to screw you and were forced to do the honourable thing. I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole, but then with a BMW in Thailand I guess you're between a rock and a hard place. 

They didn't try to screw him on purpose. They have their guidelines (which for motorbikes were unfortunately not clearly enough communicated) and just stuck to those. The dealer doesn't have room to break out of these, they would have to cover the costs out of their own pocket but it is BMW itself that has the cost coverage. They were not forced to do the honourable thing, they were *allowed* to do it by BMW because BMW said they will make an exception and cover the costs anyways. The common term for that in BMW Germany is Kulanz which means goodwill. Now what the dealer if they were really focused on providing a great customer experienced could have done is when they saw the case they could have tried themselves to plead to BMW to cover it under BSMI. But in the end it's always BMW proper that makes the decisions. The dealer has nothing to gain by making the customer pay out of his own pocket, they can only lose because the customer is unhappy.

[SteveK]

2 hours ago, eisfeld said:

They didn't try to screw him on purpose. They have their guidelines (which for motorbikes were unfortunately not clearly enough communicated) and just stuck to those. The dealer doesn't have room to break out of these, they would have to cover the costs out of their own pocket but it is BMW itself that has the cost coverage. They were not forced to do the honourable thing, they were *allowed* to do it by BMW because BMW said they will make an exception and cover the costs anyways. The common term for that in BMW Germany is Kulanz which means goodwill. Now what the dealer if they were really focused on providing a great customer experienced could have done is when they saw the case they could have tried themselves to plead to BMW to cover it under BSMI. But in the end it's always BMW proper that makes the decisions. The dealer has nothing to gain by making the customer pay out of his own pocket, they can only lose because the customer is unhappy.

Whatever the reasons or internal policies are, it still leaves the customer feeling as they are being ripped off. Whether that's the policy of the head office or the dealership is irrelevant, if I'm buying a $20k motorbike I want to be treated properly. As a customer, why should I worry about who is making money where? I've paid already. Give me the product and treat me with respect, or next time I go somewhere else.  

 

I've had my own experiences with BMW and wouldn't touch them again with my neighbour's aunty's giks's bargepole.

Edited September 1, 2020 by SteveK

[eisfeld]

The policies themselves are reasonable. They wont cover if the customer doesn't follow the maintenance schedule. Where the exact cutoff point should be can be debated. 200km is not very generous imho. And it wasn't communcated very well. But it's not a scam, nobody is trying to hurt anyone etc. And BMW when notified corrected the situation. Nothing to blow up imho.

[SteveK]

1 hour ago, eisfeld said:

The policies themselves are reasonable. They wont cover if the customer doesn't follow the maintenance schedule. Where the exact cutoff point should be can be debated. 200km is not very generous imho. And it wasn't communcated very well. But it's not a scam, nobody is trying to hurt anyone etc. And BMW when notified corrected the situation. Nothing to blow up imho.

They tried to charge, then guess what - after some intervention they didn't. It was an attempted scam. They failed. Had they charged him for it and he had paid, they would have put it through as a free service. In my eyes that's basically theft. It is absolutely NOT reasonable.

[eisfeld]

1 hour ago, SteveK said:

They tried to charge, then guess what - after some intervention they didn't. It was an attempted scam. They failed. Had they charged him for it and he had paid, they would have put it through as a free service. In my eyes that's basically theft. It is absolutely NOT reasonable.

The systems of the dealership are connected to BMW. If they perform a service then all data about it is sent to BMW including if it was done for free or not. The dealer tried to charge because according to the rules they should have charged. Richard didn't adhere to the schedule. What's so difficult to understand? There is no attemped scam.

 

The dealer gets paid in either case. They wont care if the bill is covered by Richard or by BMW so they have no incentive to try to somehow not cover under BMSI. It's not even up to the dealer to decide if it is covered or not. BMW sets the system rules and the dealer just executes.

 

The only way it could have gone like you said is if they had filed it in the system as covered by BMSI (which I don't think would be possible as the BMW system knows how many km the bike had and when it should have had service) and then made up their own invoice (not via the BMW system) to charge Richard and BMW at the same time. This *did not happen*.  You are alleging things that you have no evidence for nor imho reason to assume they would have done that.

 

Just to make it clear: BMW paid the cost of the service out of goodwill, they wouldn't have had to. The only point of contention is maybe the communication of these rules to the customer but I'm pretty sure they were in the sales contract at least.

Edited September 1, 2020 by eisfeld

[SteveK]

1 hour ago, eisfeld said:

 The dealer gets paid in either case.  

Like I said, who gets paid and how much is irrelevant. In this case they asked him for 4k baht, thinking that he'd just hand it over. I'm alleging that this is what happened. I wasn't there and didn't witness this in person, however.

Edited September 1, 2020 by SteveK

[eisfeld]

9 hours ago, SteveK said:

Like I said, who gets paid and how much is irrelevant. In this case they asked him for 4k baht, thinking that he'd just hand it over. I'm alleging that this is what happened. I wasn't there and didn't witness this in person, however.

It's not irrelevant, for explanation of why see my last post. I'll try one last time: They asked for 4k baht because that's the price for the service and according to the rules set by BMW that's how much Richard should have paid. The dealer didn't bend any rules, they just followed the guidelines. They have no authority to wave these fees. Richard presented the case to BMW who then decided due to the corona circumstances they'll extend the leeway for kilometers-exceeded over the maintenance schedule. Yes they asked him for 4k baht thinking he'd just hand it over because that's what is supposed to happen! You are alleging that they somehow had bad intentions and were trying to scam him but there is zero evidence for this and hence zero reason to assume it. In dubio pro reo and all that.