Should I call and b!tch?

I would bring it to their attention. For starters everyone makes mistakes (I'm not talking about the individual but the company as a whole) the real test is how that problem is handled. Second, it sometimes can take a bit of time to discover you have an employee that is doing a bad job and having it pointed out is a sure way to speed the process up. If nothing is done and the company is only really concerned with the month end report you will know soon enough. If on the other hand they are a quality company with a sense of pride and a real desire to excell (Yes they are out there, you just have to seek them out) you have just done them a service.

Personally I would either meet or phone the service manager and have a polite conversation with him. I bet you will have a pretty good idea of which direction it is going to go within 30 seconds, 1 minute tops. If things don't work out that way write a letter to the General Manager and copy the Owner (if an individual can be identified) and to BMW customer service.

One thing I have to agree with Tom on, I would find out how the mechanics are paid in that or any other repair shop you deal with. As far as I am concerned if it is a flat rate shop I would avoid it like the plague. Flat rate shops mean one thing and one thing only, everyone involved will sell their soul for a dollar and unfortunately it is taking over the industry.
Just say no to flat rate.

 

I fail to understand the reasoning that because the mechanic may or may not be getting paid or paid what it would be worth one of *us* to get paid for that segment of time gives them a reason to do a half ass job?

Please tell me you aren't serious.

If there is a pay problem, they mechanic takes that up with upper management. Its not the customer's responsibility who deals with a half ass job and then has to go back again in order to have it fixed properly the first time and confront the service manager and/or upper management on their own behalf.

You as well as everyone else on this list would pay our mechanics with gold coins if we could, at least if you found and kept a good one.

I was engrossed in a project for my supervisor to complete it before he got out of a meeting to greet his mother who came into the office so he could leave for the day. I was also the only IT technician here, btw. The low class office manager girl and winner of the not-my-job-award here in the office comes over to ask me if I can help move boxes for UPS downstairs. The elevators are closed for renovation and its 3 flights of stairs. I told them 3 minutes I can be over there to help. She leaves and rolls her eyes when she does. For the next day I got dirty looks or scowls because she had to carry 4 6oz boxes along with 2 other co-workers to help the UPS guy.

I will give you the same answer I gave her. If the UPS delivery person doesn't wish to carry a dozen half pound boxes down the stairs and make several trips when making deliveries to corporate buildings than I suggest they speak with their boss or don't work for UPS.

The same applies to mechanics. If you don't want to get paid flat rate, then you find work elsewhere, you don't **** your customer because you don't want to do something.

A co-worker of mine turned over an issue to our supervisor who was out all day. They refused to take responsibility for following up on the issue and I spent 25% of my day taking the issue on myself for the sake of CUSTOMER SERVICE if I could help them OR NOT. If you fail to grasp that, get out of the customer service industry.

/rant

Sunny

 

i feel your pain, my m3 sat at the dealer for over a yr before they decided they couldn't fix it. so the lawwsuits started... i have owned 3 m5's, 2 750il's and a few of the 3series. did bmw care? not a flippin chance. ovecourse the problems i have had are all regulated to the newer models. so i jumped ship and left bmw. yes i still have an e46 but it sits in the garage collecting dust, hasn't been driven in 2yrs and probly will rust in place for all i care. i have thought of loading it with explosives and going out to the desert.

now if only audi can fix the possesed seat in my wifes A8L...

 

WHOA!!! Dude..I wasn't attacking you personaly!!

I was tring to show how the tech in the shop feels about doing such a job..well one that is a flate rate tech anyway.

It is a race in many dealerships for the "gravey" work. The tech must be fast and beable to get to the next job that may pay better then the last one(oil change) before sombody else snags it. And yest fights to happen during the slow times. Some of these guys do not get a base salary. If its not busy, they don't get paid at all. So if all week they did 2 oil changes, their paycheck might be 20 bucks.

Now I'm in no way deffending the tech actions. if he did a lousy job..well he did a lousy job. But there are some reasons behined why he may have missed a few things. It could have been that the washer he needed was not available..he cannot afford to spend 1/2 an hour looking around the shop for a washer. The flap..may well have been installled..but not correctly thus it fell off.

All this is a result of the enviroment he works in. Fast, fast, fast..get it in get it out. The service manager might be a complete idiot to the techs in the shop, and when you are wroking under sombody like this, knowbody wants to put in the extra effort.

From the outside looking in, and compairing how you would do things to sombody else is a bit onesided. You must look at how some of these places are run and by whom.

Like I said..flatrate shops are to be avoided at all costs. If your car is under warrenty..well your kinda at the mercy of the dealership..but your not paying anyway. But once that car is out of warrenty..or even for simple oil changes..take it to an independant non flatrate shop. That way you know the guy will take his time with it, because it does not really matter if he takes an extra 1/2 to find a washer..because he gets paid the same at the end of the week, if he does 1 car or 10 cars.

Being a mechanic, I have worked in one flate rate shop. The money was great when we were busy, but when it slow it was tough. Most of the techs stick around because when its good..its really good and they hold out for that. An hourly tech will make less in a year then a flate rate tech will, but most times the jobs get done better but it may take a bit longer to do. I was in a situation where the manager was a jerk, cars got butched to get the job out, and the techs were more then happy just to swap parts and do "lift and tuck" cylinder head gaskets. A torque wrench in a flate rate shop is a tool of mystery. I left and have never even considered going back to a flaterate shop because of the crap that goes on behined the scens.

I should have worded my post better. It just sems to many times the tech gets the crap because of others poor managment. You never know the guy that sweeps the floor could have been the one that did your oil change.