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dealer woes

shymes

New member
I'm joining the ranks of you who have to travel a long distance to visit a BMW dealer! l live 5 miles from one in Denver, and 20 miles across town is the dealer I've patronized for about 30 years. But only in dire emergency will I give either of them my business. Today my long-time dealer treated me quite poorly in several ways: They replaced my battery with one that is different than what was on my bike and what I asked for; one that's more expensive, larger and heavier. Which negates the reason I spent the extra money in the first place! They failed to replace the protective cover over the battery, and I had to ask four times to get replacement covered under PIAA's warranty. Still not as bad as the one I'm close to, but now I'm going to ride for hours to find a dealer who shows they care about their customers.
I'll focus on enjoying the ride while I look for good service.
 
??
What battery there and what did they put in?

What PIAA warranty item? Does PIAA make anything beside lights and similar?
 
dealer woes, continued

I had a Shorai LFX18L1-BS12, and they replaced it with a lfx21a6-bs12.
THe dealer is tired of having to ask PIAA to replace my CrossCountry's: Almost every time i ride in the rain they fog up, and after drying out the clouded lenses remain. The last time the dealer replaced them they gave me one that started out black, but quickly turned to gold - unlike the other one which remained black, as I've had all along.
Steve
 
I think in the long run you will better off to try to resolve your issues with your local dealers; at least to the point where you can do business with them. May be a big pill to swallow, but in the long run having a local dealer is a blessing.
 
Battery woes

I think in the long run you will better off to try to resolve your issues with your local dealers; at least to the point where you can do business with them. May be a big pill to swallow, but in the long run having a local dealer is a blessing.

I went to my local dealer, 30 miles, and was told that they did not have a replacement battery
in stock. Worse, that none were available nationwide. They directed me to "Batteries Plus"
and I found an IDENTICAL one and it was thirty $$ less. Interstate battery would have taken
10-15 days to get one for me. This may help out a lot of folks. Try Batteries Plus next time.
 
I think in the long run you will better off to try to resolve your issues with your local dealers; at least to the point where you can do business with them. May be a big pill to swallow, but in the long run having a local dealer is a blessing.

My local dealer is one of the most deceitful human beings I've ever met. Only OEM parts will work with BMWs, you know. My Jesse bags will break my legs. My Stebel horn will short out the entire electrical system. My Pivotpegz will snap off if I stand on them, etc. And when I sourced those accessories elsewhere and installed them myself his comments were among the most vulgar and dismissive I've ever heard!

Lord Farquaad can keep his attitude. I ride three hours south to Max BMW where customers actually matter. Come to think of it, from New Brunswick to down to South Carolina, and west out to Oregon I've always been treated well at Beemer dealers, with the one local exception...
 
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My local dealer is one of the most deceitful human beings I've ever met. Only OEM parts will work with BMWs, you know. My Jesse bags will break my legs. My Stebel horn will short out the entire electrical system. My Pivotpegz will snap off if I stand on them, etc. And when I sourced those accessories elsewhere and installed them myself his comments were among the most vulgar and dismissive I've ever heard!
For the group's consideration, when I look at an establishment that I am thinking of doing business with, I like to size 'em up. It would seem older (much older) have a way of doing business and because "this is the way we do it"- that's all your going to get- whether right, wrong, or indifferent. The modern consumer has too many choices so the clientele of the older business's will continue to shrink- and fade away.
Real aggressive operations will do anything to take care of a customers bike and therefore generate income for their shop. Pete mentioned Max BMW and if IRRC, and Pete hits it right, and Pete is not in a hurry- Max will pick up for free.
Most shops are under a lot of pressure from the changes in the way a customer spends their money...and unfortunately, the closed, narrow-minded ones frequently go bitter rather than chose to adapt.
How about the first pizza shop that started to deliver? It forced all the rest in that shops area to start delivering- or really suffer.
IMO, there is nothing easy about retail or keeping customers happy. It's good to figure out what is really going on, clear it up and move forward. YMMV
OM
 
My local dealer is one of the most deceitful human beings I've ever met. Only OEM parts will work with BMWs, you know. My Jesse bags will break my legs. My Stebel horn will short out the entire electrical system. My Pivotpegz will snap off if I stand on them, etc. And when I sourced those accessories elsewhere and installed them myself his comments were among the most vulgar and dismissive I've ever heard!

Lord Farquaad can keep his attitude. I ride three hours south to Max BMW where customers actually matter.

I don't know, but I think I may have heard that Strebel horns do cause Pitoy Pegs to fail. Maybe Little Lord "Farquaad" is on to something.
 
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Sorry to hear of your problems.

BMW dealers vary across the country.

I live in S. Illinois and have two fantastic dealers available: Gateway in St. Louis and Grass Roots in Cape Girardeau, MO.

My son lives in Highlands Ranch and I know both of the dealers of which you speak.

The service department can be somewhat different than the overall dealership.

Good luck in finding a new service provider.
 
dealer woes, continued

AKBeemer has it right: resolving disputes is best, even though hard. I'm faced with a strong lack of trust in mine, so I'll take extra effort to make sure we communicate clearly.
or; I'll just have to travel so much that all my service is done on the road - as one of those travelers that most dealers tend to try hard to accommodate! ;-) Which raises the issue of familiarity leading to, if not contempt, then taking the patronage of local, loyal customers for granted.
 
After reading DEALER WOWS,
I consider myself fortunate to have Long Beach BMW nearby, Parts, Service and Sales will go out of their way in helping
When you find a good dealer stick with them
 
THe dealer is tired of having to ask PIAA to replace my CrossCountry's: Almost every time i ride in the rain they fog up, and after drying out the clouded lenses remain. The last time the dealer replaced them they gave me one that started out black, but quickly turned to gold - unlike the other one which remained black, as I've had all along.

Sounds like they not suitable for their intended use. I'd look for a refund from PIAA and move on to a better product.

As for the battery, it's pretty hard to think that the extra 0.7 pounds negates the whole reason you bought bought the Shorai in the first place.
 
...I had a Shorai LFX18L1-BS12, and they replaced it with a lfx21a6-bs12.
...

Just curious, what's the history of your Shorai LFX18L1? What bike did you put it in, how long did it last, cost vs the lfx21a6, etc. ? Thanks. I put a Shori in my '08 R1200GS last year and have ~20,000 miles with it, I ordered it from one of the motorcycle web stores. No problems.
 
I've solved this problem by not dealing with any local dealers. I buy parts online from the dealers who care (but aren't on my side of the country), and do the work myself.

My local dealer has near-zero interest in taking care of my small parts needs - nothing in stock, reluctant to order, doesn't bother to call if a part arrives. When I went to order a set of K75 water pump seals, they claimed "with all the parts changes in those pumps over the years, the rebuild never really works" -- recommended a new pump, at $400. Notwithstanding, the parts in the new pump, including the housing, are the same effing part numbers as the pump on the bike. They clearly don't want my business, and as a result, I've sent thousands of $$ to dealers across the country instead.

I just marvel at how some businesses treat people who want to buy things from them.
 
My local dealer is one of the most deceitful human beings I've ever met. Only OEM parts will work with BMWs, you know. My Jesse bags will break my legs. My Stebel horn will short out the entire electrical system. My Pivotpegz will snap off if I stand on them, etc. And when I sourced those accessories elsewhere and installed them myself his comments were among the most vulgar and dismissive I've ever heard!

Lord Farquaad can keep his attitude. I ride three hours south to Max BMW where customers actually matter. Come to think of it, from New Brunswick to down to South Carolina, and west out to Oregon I've always been treated well at Beemer dealers, with the one local exception...

I have the same problem with my local dealer and I've found sending an email to the lovely service "mangler" and cc'ing his boss helps quite a bit. You wouldn't believe the crap that comes out of this guys mouth. Warranty means nothing, they try to weasel out of repairing for free as hard as they can. His famous line is " we must do all the mandatory BMW service first , as a base, then look at the warranty issue" He doesn't trust that I do the work myself. I tell him the bottom of that invoice better have a zero on it or we're going to have an issue. You have to be as big a bully as they are, unfortunately.
 
Some dealers are unquestionably bad, but it's useful to remember that life's a self-fulfilling prophecy, i.e. if you expect them to treat you badly, they will.
 
Some dealers are unquestionably bad, but it's useful to remember that life's a self-fulfilling prophecy, i.e. if you expect them to treat you badly, they will.

In general , and in the normal world, I agree with you. People tend to treat you the way you treat them. BMW has a whole micro culture of their own. The dealer is not entirely to blame as the head office provides them with resistance on warranty claims. I know this for a fact. On top of that, they make less money on warranty work than out of warranty work. If BMW was smart, they would be very lenient and supportive during the warranty period. Makes for good future business. Due to experiences with their car division, I will never, ever buy another one of their cars.
 
Regardless of dealer performance and whether you like them or not or how far they are away....there are a few items that I will never buy at a BMW dealer. Tires and batteries are definitely among them. In today's time of heavy competition brought on by the internet, there are a huge amount of different sources for these products and they don't have to be on-line, necessarily.

Are you buying your batteries and tires for your car at the dealership you bought the vehicle from??

I do agree with a previous poster about the perceived advantages of a Shorei Lithium-Iron-Phosphate over a premium battery, like an AGM, and their significantly higher price. I have not found a way to justify it.
 
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