LOL this amuses me

[Greenkirby21]

So, I had to take my car to dealership ~6 times for the AC issue. It was finally fixed.

Today, I got an e-mail from my SA.

Basically, they KNOW I am mad about how the service went, and they emailed me:

I am going to get a customer satisfaction survey about the work done to the car.

Please DO NOT FILL IT OUT. We know you are displeased with your service. A negative score will hurt peoples salary and make the dealership look bad basically.

LOL. Really? The last time I took my car in, they told me the opposite.

"Please fill out the survey and give us 10 on everything as our bonus are based off of it and we appreciate it".

I emailed them back, asking about their ethics LOL. If people are only going to fill out surveys about a good experience, then what is a point of a survey LOL. No wonder this dealership is one of the top in the nation. They just get people to give them good reviews.

First off, NO DEALERSHIP should be telling you to give them a good score. It seems its all they care about : ). The tech who fixed my car on the 6th attempt told me to please give him a good score because he salary was based off of it.

The SA also sent me an e-mail about not doing the essay. They have e-mailed me more times asking about surveys then how my car is LOL.

I e-mailed back that dealership , and he said customer surveys do not care about the customer, but dealerships only care about their score, and that is how it has always been LOL. Times sure have changed.

If they had not e-mailed me at all and I got the survey, I would have probably not trashed on them at all. I understand mistakes happen, they wouldn't have gotten 10's, but definitely not 0's. I understand.

However, my mind is starting to change.

[ken1137]

[spotshooter]

I wish BMW Seattle would send me one of those... i'd give them all zeros.

[1-2MANY]

haha I've always had bad experiences at Classic BMW of Plano (assume that's where you go). I always take mine to Dallas BMW. Top notch service everytime.

[Impervious]

Seriously? No wonder BMW has such a bad rep in customer service. I'm amazed BMW NA would allow stuff like this to go on.

[nickd23]

speaking from the dealership point of view it sucks you had such a bad experiance. he is correct tho in that bmw has revamped their survey requirements and now a bad score or faliure to simply "wash and vacume" the vehicle can result in the dealership losing thousands of dollars. however this is no way to simply coach the customer instead they should try to go a little further to make you satisfied as a customer. you call on what to do on the survey but i would respond that you are upset and would like some sort of consideration based on your six visits... good luck!

[ken1137]

I think it's important to note that not all dealers and SA's are bad. Yes, there are a bunch of bad apples out there as the OP experienced. +1 to getting something in return for the number of visits and what you went through.

[Derek8819]

DUDE!!!

I just had a similar thing happen.

I had a horrible experience with a dealer, but my SA thought things were OK since it took him only 3 times to fix a simple issue. I got the survey in the email and filled it out completely honestly. I got a call about 2 days later from my SA saying he did not appreciate the bad scores because it docks his salary. I told him the call was extremely unprofessional and immedietly called BMW NA.

BMW NA of course just gave the whole talk about how they are going to "coach" the SA on BMW ways, but I think it is all BS.

You just can't trust anyone to do good work these days and I go into all situations with people thinking they will screw it up, because I already know most of the time they will.

[doublevanosrc]

I had a similar issue like this like 10 years ago, i took in my E46 to get a window regulator fixed. When they brought back the car the window would rise higher past the stopping and would pop upon opening the door(frame less windows). So I told the SA and he took the car back again and got it fixed properly. When the survey came i gave them a great score on everything except when it asks, "Was it fixed correct on the first time". I answered no and on the next visit the SA cried about how he almost got fired, i think he was exaggerating but i was just trying to be honest. Anyways after that i got a new SA assigned who has been great til today.

[gwhiz]

I noticed this anomaly immediately when I purchased my car, and at every visit since. My sales guy, finance guy and SA seemed to spend more time on the survey than on some of the rather important parts of the details, paperwork and even functions of the car. Even after I left the dealership with my brand new car, I received no less than 3 emails/phone calls from my sales guy reminding me to give a perfect score when the survey arrived…

In reality though, you have to wonder about BMW NA more so than the dealerships. They are the ones putting this huge pressure on the individual dealerships to attain perfect scores and are clearly aware of the fact that this coaching goes on.

After all of the bad dealership stories I’ve read and heard about, you would think that BMW NA would much rather have honest feedback to ensure true customer satisfaction rather than bloated survey stats that can only lead to more dissatisfaction. This “ostrich syndrome” does no good for anyone involved.

[Wolf]

blackmail for performance parts?

[romak47]

Originally Posted by Wolf

blackmail for performance parts?

+1 awesome idea

[Vigilante375]

I've always had great experiences with BMW of Fife. Maybe you should give them a try spotshooter. I can't believe people cry and whine if you don't give all 10s, if you don't deserve 10s then you're not getting them. If you don't like the way your service went, then give them the score they deserve and next time they'll remember to do the job right.

I was always told to give them a score of 10 and if I couldn't then to please call xxx number for reason's why. But that sounds like a good idea with the blackmail thing. Either I give you all 10s or you give me this part for free and with free install.

Only did a intial survey when I bought my GTO brand new but never did I get one for the 2 trips I made for a clucth issue. I did get a SA guy fired because of a legit problem with the clutch master cylinder when he told me they won't replace a clutch and explained the mechanics of how a clutch works. I guess he was mad a punk 23 year old had a brand new GTO and he didn't......maybe thats why I never got one......

[Greenkirby21]

Originally Posted by Wolf

blackmail for performance parts?

Lol how would one even go about doing that?

Gimme a performance part and I won't trash u?

[tankus]

Originally Posted by 1-2MANY

haha I've always had bad experiences at Classic BMW of Plano (assume that's where you go). I always take mine to Dallas BMW. Top notch service everytime.

REALLY? I have never had a bad experience there. Been going there for years.. Surprising..

[dry_heat]

The dealer I bought my car from was horrible.

The dealer I had my car services at after getting a SEL inside 20 miles was amazing.


To not make this extreme disparity in service evident to BMW NA and the dealer managers would be a betrayal of the basic priciples of business, customer service, and overall capitalism.

Bad service deserves to be rewarded with bad reviews and internal consequences. Why there is such a wild difference in the type of service people get get at different BMW dealers is shocking and disappointing. The only way for that kind of thing to change is through critical survey reviews and people taking a non-passive approach when they feel taken advantage of or shorted by bad service.

[nickd23]

Originally Posted by gwhiz

I noticed this anomaly immediately when I purchased my car, and at every visit since. My sales guy, finance guy and SA seemed to spend more time on the survey than on some of the rather important parts of the details, paperwork and even functions of the car. Even after I left the dealership with my brand new car, I received no less than 3 emails/phone calls from my sales guy reminding me to give a perfect score when the survey arrived…

In reality though, you have to wonder about BMW NA more so than the dealerships. They are the ones putting this huge pressure on the individual dealerships to attain perfect scores and are clearly aware of the fact that this coaching goes on.

After all of the bad dealership stories I’ve read and heard about, you would think that BMW NA would much rather have honest feedback to ensure true customer satisfaction rather than bloated survey stats that can only lead to more dissatisfaction. This “ostrich syndrome” does no good for anyone involved.

this year BMW has changed the way they grade the dealer and it will cost the dealer tons of money if not given good scores. For service the major concern is "was your car washed and vacumed prior the being picked up" and for the sales side the big question is "has your client advisor contacted you by phone or email after you took delivery". if either of the questions is answered with a no it will automaticly trigger a "issue" and will directly affect the way the manufactor pays the dealer. it seems quite miror and petty but literaly this can cause the whole dealership to lose out of thousands of dollars. take into consideration things do happen and in most cases this is going to affect the pay of the individuals involved. certainly honestly and good service is key but at the same token consider this could take food of the plate of someones family. how would you feel if someone did the same to you?

[BuddhaPilot]

Copy and paste the entire email or add it as a pic on the BMW NA Facebook page. You'll have someone from Customer Relations calling you and the dealer within 24 hours. This is how I finally got them moving on my transmission problems, broken seat heater, etc after multiple visits to that failed to correct them.

[Diver]

If they are polite and treat you with respect, you should give them all 10's. They will be willing to go out of their way for you if you do that. If your car has a problem that is not easily solved, it probably is not about competence. Some things are hard to fix.

[Greenkirby21]

Originally Posted by nickd23

this year BMW has changed the way they grade the dealer and it will cost the dealer tons of money if not given good scores. For service the major concern is "was your car washed and vacumed prior the being picked up" and for the sales side the big question is "has your client advisor contacted you by phone or email after you took delivery". if either of the questions is answered with a no it will automaticly trigger a "issue" and will directly affect the way the manufactor pays the dealer. it seems quite miror and petty but literaly this can cause the whole dealership to lose out of thousands of dollars. take into consideration things do happen and in most cases this is going to affect the pay of the individuals involved. certainly honestly and good service is key but at the same token consider this could take food of the plate of someones family. how would you feel if someone did the same to you?

isn't it their job to do things right the first time? I know if at my work if it took me 6 times to get something done my boss would get my ass fired and he could care less about my family because I failed to do my job correct.

Like I said, I am not going to hate on them or anything. My problem did finally get fixed after all. My problem is more with them not telling to fill it out. That defeats the whole point of the surveys.

I am going to be truthful, but not mean or disrespectful. They did do many things right such as always reply quickly to my e-mails, and I will definitely take note of that.

However, I will also take note that after my car was finally fixed and the A/C was perfect, the receipt says it was taken on a test drive to ensure everything was ok. I did not even have to drive 1 mile before I had to return because my steering wheel column was loose and was not put in correctly. How the person who test drove it did not notice is beyond me, as it was VERY obvious.

[ptack]

Ha, I wonder what their giving me a Dodge Caravan for a loaner will do to their survey? I guess it depends on whether they can get actually get the parts to upgrade my car which they still have.

[nickd23]

having to come back multiple times for something is never fun. the thing that really sucks for service advisors is nearly 70% of the time the customers they are dealing with are upset becuase their car is not working properly. BMW does not always make this easy as they advise the facility to do certain things before the obvious fix or the replacement of the part. this is what leads to multiple visits. prime example of this is the high pressure fuel pumps. Cant tell you how many upset customers i had in my offfice after the pump went and BMW only did reprograming instead of just replacing the pump right away.