Pathetic Service Experience with Auto Bavaria and BMW

Hi Members,
I need to vent out my frustration and disappointment with the service level quality of Auto Bavaria (i.e extends to BMW as their principal). I don't think other BMW authorised dealers are any better unless you guys have a better experience.

I own a two-year-old F30 320i, with current mileage about 35k.

I have been having water leakage from rain etc coming in from the front passenger door. The water drips in from the "door trim" (this is the term for the inside part of the car door) and flows into the floor carpet every time it rains. And we know how heavy it rains practically every day the last two months.

I sent in the car for repair work with AB Glenmarie somewhere early to mid-November this year. And you know, I have to drive there and wait for sometime before I can get their personnel to come and inspect. Their SOP is then to advise you to leave the car for them to arrange the inspection. An immediate inspection by a technician is something that is not quite easy to forth come from them.

Each time you leave the car with them, it takes a few hours of your time and costs a lot for alternative transport costs during the period the car is tended to.

Coming back, the Service Advisor informed that my door problem is most likely from the vapour barrier sealing inside the door. In any event, he promised that they will need to do a thorough inspection. If it is the vapour barrier seal issue they will re-do the sealant, which is for them a simple work. The car was kept by them for 2 days. During those 2 days, I had to endure daily rain and public transport for my routine. Ok, that is acceptable. since my expectation is the issue is getting solved.

I collected the car. As usual, their SOP is to hand over the car from the yard and the keys. Thereafter you will exit after handing over the gate pass to the security. So far in my experience, they don't get the attending SA or a technician to meet the customer for an inspection and to explain or show the parts repaired or changed etc.

Two days later it rained in the evening on my way back home from the office and after I reached home, I inspected the passenger door and the carpet. To my shock, it was leaking even worse than before. The water was dripping in so much. The carpet was so wet. Naturally, anyone would be so annoyed. I was thinking what the hell these guys were doing for the two days they were keeping my car. Do they, first of all, know what they are doing. It brings so much question on their work culture and quality of the SOP.

So the next day, I had to take my time off again from work and go all the way to Glenmarie from KL to show the problem. This time around the front desk guy just told me to leave the car there and they will attend. I was so angry with their attitude. I told NO! I demanded to see the SA who handled my car and the mechanic. I had to wait. Next, a new guy came over and asked me to explain and show me the problem. He claimed he is from the technical side. I showed him the leak and the photos I took the evening before. He said someone from their customer service will meet me. I told him to arrange a curtsey car for me before I leave the car there again. Or to allow me to bring the car to an outside body paint shop and they reimburse the bills. Obviously he told they will do the repair.

Then finally the attending SA came to meet me after I had waited almost 2 hours. He told he will arrange a courtesy car and fix an appointment for me to bring the car back. So I said Ok. He told he needs about two to three days to arrange a car. Nothing happened. A week passed. By that time they had moved their Glenmarie operation to Ara Damansara (i.e 25th November).

On 25th November I called and asked him again what has he done. He called back about an hour later and told me to bring the car the next day and their workshop will attend to the sealing on the same day and I can collect the car in the evening. So the next day (26th November) again I had to drive all the way again to now their GRAND NEW ARA DAMANSARA centre. Again, I had to endure the crap all over again. After leaving the car, I had to take a cab from there to an LRT nearby and back to my office in KL. The next morning (27th November) I had to repeat the same cycle again to Ara Damansara centre to collect the car. The SA assured me that he was there when their team fixed the seal and they did a lot of water testing. There is no leak.

This time around, the same evening after back home, I did my own water hose testing and repeated again the next morning. I found the leak was there again!! The water leak HAS NOT BEEN SOLVED. IT WAS SO CLEARLY VISIBLE!

I messaged the SA on 29th November and he replied to me, again apologising. And later he asked me to email to video/pic I took for him to forward to his superiors etc. He told he will arrange the repair work and contact me to send in the car again.

Till today 5th December, I have not anything again!

Actually, for me, this is repair is only a minor issue. Unfortunately, this is a repeat of my series of bad experiences with these guys.

This car is actually a new replacement car given by Auto Bavaria/BMW in exchange for my earlier car of the same model which was defective from day one. TALK ABOUT BAD LUCK!!

That car had a serious problem with the engine dying off while driving. It won't start after that and the warning will display "DRIVE TERRAIN MALFUNCTION". The car will stall on the road and will have to be towed. They completed took me for a ride. Similarly like these episodes, they will assure that they have repaired and diagnosed the problem. That car they initially diagnosed the issue as fuel pump failure. They changed the fuel pump twice and some sensors. I refused to take the car back after the 2nd incident. Finally, BMW itself issued a letter assuring the car has been fixed in accordance with their high engineering standard. 500km later the car died again. That third time around, they had to bite their own tongue. Finally, after much negotiation, they offered to take back that car and replaced with this car. This was in late 2017. I had to endure that car for about 8 months for a series of poor workmanship and misdiagnosis and extremely bad customer service experience.

So, guys, you can decide for your selves. This is the level of service expertise these guys are capable off and made available by BMW in Malaysia. And mind you I have always dealt with their main distributors, not some small-time service centres.

We pay so much money to buy one of these machines. The problem is not so much the machines, but it is actually the level of expertise and reliability these service centres are offering. BMW's don't really rank high up in terms of quality and reliability compared to lots of the Japenese counterparts. But at least their human capital at their service centres should be of high calibre and reliability. This is unfortunately what they don't have.

But I do find the Japanese counterparts do definitely have better service culture and reliability. And they do sell more vehicles but they are able to cope better. I never had major reliability and trust issues with any of my Japanese cars I have owned all these years.

So, this is my long story today. I seriously don't know who can carry forward this type of news to the general public or to bring to the right channel so these type problems we as consumer's face can be addressed and be addressed seriously.

Anyone had such water leak issues and is there any place you can recommend. I can't endure this for so long with these clowns.

 

Hei Bro,
Sorry, I just saw your message that there is a reply last week. Thanks, brother.

To reply to you:-
1. the water drips from the bottom of the door trim. It's not from the rubber seals surrounding the door or body frame;
2. Only front passenger @ the front side of carpet gets wet. It doesn't wet the entire floorboard. I have checked repeatedly- the water is seeping/dripping from the bottom of the door trim;
3. Very seldom I park under sun. I almost always cover park.
4. I am really not sure what the guys @ Auto Bavaria did. I have sent into them twice.

Just to update the current status.
I wrote in here on 5 Dec. After that on 6 Dec I tried contacting the SA @ AB to remind him to revert with his solution. He just said they need time to look for curtesy car to attend o my mobility issue.

Since this was going on wiothout any promt action through AB and as I have given them ample time already since end November, I lodged an official complaint with BMW Malaysia via phone and after that. I received an email from BMW MY acknowledging the report. Nothing happend after that.
On 11 Dec I sent another email to BMW MY requesting for an update on the status.

Today is 17 December. Till now there has been no word either from AB or BMW My!

Complete silence.

I told you guys right. This is the kind of SHIT service these guys give us. Totally atrocious.

We need better laws in Malaysia. We need a governing body/land transport commission that is established under laws to regulate the issues relating to the consumers of the motor vehicle. We need a governing body to protect the public from manufacturing defects, poor or non-service issues, warranty issues, safety standards etc.

We need a system similar to how the finance industry is regulated under the purview of Bank Negara and under various laws. The aviation industry has a governing commission regulating the laws and systems and the interest of the consumers. But for motor vehicle issues (apart from the finance part) we practically have no governing body. We are left to fend for ourselves, like my situation now. This is something that has to change.

I am going through this all over again with this car as with my previous F30 in 2016. That's why I dread went anything goes wrong with a BMW. A nightmare if your BMW breaks down during warranty period guys!

I have no choice but to look for alternatives. I am arranging to send in the car with Quill through a friend to see if they can fix this.

Really shit after-sales system currently we have in Malaysia!

Thanks again.

 

.... welcome to the world-class after-sales service experience, curtsey of BMW!. My sympathies. Sorry to hear your extreme agony bro.. I had to endure 8 months of agony and frustration before they were practically forced to eat their own black and white guarantee letter from BMW that my car has been fully repaired when it failed again.

How old is your car? If it is still new and low mileage you should initiate a claim for a buyback. You really have to build a good case. You have to record all the episode in written form and get them to acknowledge. It is really really tough with these guys as they are masters in their game. In my case, they eventually ran out of excuses and had to replace with another new car.

My door issue still has not been resolved. I had it repaired recently at Quill PJ just before year-end. It is better now but not completely resolved. I have to ask them to re-look at the interior parts of the door panel. Now I have a new issue triggering at my screen with some ABS, Stability tracking and Run Flat Sensors etc.

As for AB Ara Damanara (Glenmarie previously) or BMW even with my official complaint, they did not revert at all !!

I am not sure if NCCC can resolve these. You can try, hopefully they have some clout. Legally speaking, we have poor protection to consumers as far as issues like these are concerned in Malaysia, especially so involving issues related to motor vehicle. We should make more noises to have the government legislate to have a body like National Transport Safety Board in US which is a specialised government body empowered to handle issues like what you and I are facing. Motor vehicles are a huge investment for the public like houses. And these guys in motor car industry knows it is really hard for consumers to fight them and they get away.

Regards.