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Found myself in a bit of a strange situation and not really sure whats the best way forward, so thought I'd see what others have to say. The post is rather long and most of it gives the background to help understand what happened this past week, which starts at the red text.
Bought a BMW September last year, was a pretty big decision having only ever owned a Golf (which never caused a single issue in over 9 years) and being back at University again its not like I had lots of spare cash around. As the car had under 100K miles, I was advised by a close friend to take out the comprehensive BMW insured warranty on a monthly basis, which worked out at around £100ish a month.
Around December time last year the car started to make a sound from the engine bay, so I took it into a BMW dealership near me and they confirmed it was a timing chain issue, they contacted the warranty company who confirmed they'll cover the repairs under warranty. The guy handling all this, lets just call him Bob for now, at the dealership called me to give me the news, and at the same time told me there was an oil leak which needed fixing and would cost me £400ish, I was so relieved that the timing chain repair was going to be covered that I was happy for them to sort the oil leak out even though I knew that they were charging a ridiculous amount. The next day I went in to sort out the paper work before the repairs went ahead, at this time I was offered to have the clutch replaced at my own expense and would only be charged for the part since the rest of the work was being covered by the warranty. I asked Bob if the clutch actually needed replacing and was told "the clutch plate has signs of wear but still has around 20K miles left" at the time the clutch felt perfectly fine and it just felt like they wanted to get extra money from me, since its widely known the repairs covered by warranty are barely profitable for dealerships, so I refused.
Anyway, I went to pick the car up a week later, when I sat in the car it wouldn't start. Went back into the dealership to tell Bob. He went out with another guy and they managed to get the car started and said my floor mat was stuck behind the clutch pedal which is why it wouldn't start. I drove the car back home in rush our and the clutch pedal felt completely off, it sunk to the floor a few times and the biting point was all over the place. I called in the next day to tell Bob that it wasn't like this before I took the car in for the timing chain replacement, he said give it a few days to bed in and it should go back to normal. The following day, whilst I was driving smoke started to appear from the engine bay. BMW road side assistance picked me up and took me back to the same Dealership at my own request (even though the guy advised me to go to a different dealership, which was closer, as they would possibly do a better job). I explained the car was in for repair only 3 days ago and I wasnt happy with it when I picked it up, as it was late I was sent away with a courtesy car. The next day another woman from the dealership called to explain that Bob had advised me that the clutch was gone and needed replacing the previous week and I would need to pay £900 to get this fixed. At this point I got pretty annoyed and drove straight there as this was basically lie and not what had happened. She told me that this is what Bob had told her before he left that day and that I would need to speak to him when he got back in to work.
Called in the next day to confront Bob about all this (at this point I decided I would record all the conversations between us as things didn't feel right), he was the absolute opposite of what his colleague had said the day before and agreed with what we discussed in our previous conversation about the clutch and that it shouldn't have felt like this straight after the repair. He said they'd investigate the the clutch issue and the smoke issue and get back to me. I then get a call from Bob explaining he had 'good news', the flywheel was going to be replaced under warranty and all the work would be covered, the smoke/leak in the engine bay was there fault and it was all sorted now
- BUT-
the warranty company had refused to cover the clutch as it was wear and tear and that I would need to pay for this, which worked out at £439. I reluctantly agreed as I didn't see any other way forward really, and felt I would eventually need to replace the clutch so it wasn't the end of the world. Sorted this all out, and that was that. I asked Bob for invoice's for the work carried out, he gave me the invoices for the clutch replacement and the previous oil leak both of which I paid for, but no invoices for work they carried out under warranty for which he simply sent an email confirming what they did.
Now comes the interesting part. The cars been running great and I was looking to cancel my warranty. I called the company last week (4/5 months on from all the repairs being carried out) to see how I would go about cancelling this, and I have had this nagging feeling in the back of my head for ages so I just asked if she could tell me what work had been claimed on my car on the warranty: she then confirmed that the dealership had claimed for the timing chain, flywheel and the CLUTCH KIT!! I told her that I needed to speak the claims department to confirm this, because the dealership had made me pay for the clutch. The guys in the claims department told me that this made no sense, I shouldn't have been charged as they had accepted the dealerships claims for the flywheel/clutch replacement and that I should get on the phone to them. I contacted the dealership, went straight to the customer relations manager and had a huge rant, he said he could see the fact I had paid for it, but could not see them having claimed from BMW warranty and it wasnt on there system. I then called the warranty company back, they advised that as they use the same system as all the dealerships, and that they could see all the claims/repairs on the system so the dealership should be able to see them too. I was then told to check my invoice to compare the clutch kit serial number to the one they had sent to the dealership, and guess what- the invoice had no serial number on it for the clutch kit! When comparing this too my other invoice for the oil leak, the part used there has a serial number written on it.
Bob then called me last week, explaining that he had 'missed' the fact that claim had been accepted and that I would receive a refund for the amount I paid. I was at a friends wedding and not in a good state  , so told him I would come in this week. He tried to insist on giving me a refund over the phone if I had my card present but I refused.
I'll be going in tomorrow to see them, what do you guys make of this? To me there just seems to be too many coincidental mistakes for it just to be human error. |
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24-11-2019 23:59:14
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