It has come to my conclusion that BMW of Sterling is the last place I will ever take my BMW for warranty service. Back in March, the seat heater in my 2009 128i convertible stopped working on the drivers side. I took it in in mid April when I had to get a state inspection and a few and possibly an oil change. The service advisor Mark Kwon started out ok, but when it came to my extended warranty (EZ Care Total Care bought from BMW of Fairfax when I bought the car used), he said that there were issues with how much the warranty company was willing to pay and that I would have to pay the difference. On top of that, I was told that the heating element was built into the leather and had to be special ordered from Germany. Ok I can understand having to order it from Germany but I was curious about the difference. When I bought the warranty I was told I would only have to pay my deductible which is $250. So I called EZ Care and they said there was a discrepancy in the labor charges. BMW of Sterling was stating it would take 3.9 hours, but the national times that EZ Care was stating was 2.2 hours. They said if BMW could provide documentation (The KSD report) for the labor times they would take that into consideration and most likely adjust to fit the allocated times. Contacted Mark Kwon again back at Sterling BMW and he said he was trying to work on getting it lowered as much as possible. I did get my car back after the inspection and fluid changes but was charged a $150 diagnostic feel which I was told would not be included until the work was done. In the mean time I got an email to rate my service at Sterling BMW. I wrote a negative review to them and got their so called Customer Advocate Louis Lee to contact me. I explained everything including sending him copies of the warranty that I bought through a BMW dealership. Days went by and got no response to my phone calls, and when I did was told lies about how he had been in touch with EZ Care but have not heard anything back. I called EZ Care again and said the last contact was an email out to Mark Kwon on April 14th for the KSD report. BY now it was already the end of April. After finding out that Mr. Lee has been lying to me I tried going to the Service Manager Mike Choung. It took multiple attempts to get him to return my calls and basically got a "I'll look into it". I finally heard back from Mark Kwon back on May 15th that the seat had arrived and scheduled. I asked if they had gotten anywhere with the warranty issue and he said no. I told him I was not going to pay anything other than the deductible and if they were not going to honor it, then I wanted a refund for the diagnostic fee that I was charged and asked to speak to Mike Choung the service manager. After multiple voicemails left for Mike Choung, he finally said that BMW would absolve the difference and my only charge would be the $250 deductible. I told him that I would drop off my car on May 20th so they could fix it on the 21st. I was told I would get my car back on the 21st and I was happy until I called at 2pm on the 21st to find out the status of my car. Mark told me the car was done but they were waiting on payment from the warranty company. He said it would take a few days and I told him that it was unacceptable since I was told I would get my car back on the 21st. He said he couldn't release the car without payment so I hung up and called EZ Care again. They said as long as Sterling BMW was just asking for the approved amount they were willing to pay, the process was to pay the dealer by credit card and be done within an hour. I called them at 2:30p. By 5pm EZ Care had not received any type of payment request from BMW of Sterling. I called EZ Care again this morning at 9:30am and they said they will push the payment through for the amount they approved. I called BMW of Sterling and still have not heard back from them. I have left messages with the service advisor Mark Kown, the service manager Mike Choung and the service and parts director Dan Sheehan (who has yet to return any of my calls over the past few weeks). It is obvious that BMW of Sterling is out to take as much money as they can from us. When I asked Mark Kwon about the KSD report, he said he couldn't send it to them because it listed the labor times for the BMW warranty, not 3rd party warranties. Does that mean the repair technicians work harder when it's the BMW warranty and not as hard so it takes longer for 3rd party warranties? It should take the same amount of time regardless, as well as the cost of labor.
I am trying to find out who is above Dan Sheehan on the management chain, if anyone knows, it would be appreciated if you could forward his name and contact info if possible.
I honestly hope that others have not had this experience with BMW dealerships. I am however going to go to BMW of Fairfax for my next service as they actually sold me the warranty and I won't have to hear the crap from BMW of Sterling how it's a 3rd party warranty and not the BMW warranty.
Robert
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by pseto
Bookmarks