BMW Joburg South poor service

My vehicle, a BMW 320D G20. was towed into Auto Glen BMW Joburg South (Auto Glen) on 10 March 2022 by BMW on call.

The reason for this was that I called BMW OnCall & advised them that I noticed a wet surface on the floor of the left rear passenger seat.

BMW OnCall advised that I shouldn't drive the vehicle but rather have it towed to the nearest BMW Dealership to prevent mechanical damage to the vehicle if at all this leak had to do with a mechanical failure on the vehicle.

I obliged. Fast forward to the 23rd of March 2022 when I received a telephone call from a Service Consultant at BMW Joburg South Glen BMW, who informed me that the leak was caused by leaves that had accumulated in the piping of the sunroof drainage system.

She also informed me that clearing these leaves would not be covered by Motorplan and that I had to personally pay about R8000.

I objected vehemently & advised her that there was no way that I could be liable for this as the vehicle is most of the time parked in a locked up garage overnight and the vehicle is still under warranty and is covered by maintenance plan.

To my surprise, the Service Consultant called me at about 15H00 on 24 March 2022 & informed me that the vehicle was in the washbay and would be ready for collection that afternoon. The cleanup seemed to have happened with no payment required from me. I collected the vehicle the following day. The vehicle had been in the BMW Joburg South workshop for 15 days. During this period, BMW OnCall was extremely helpful and provided a rental vehicle at their cost for 5 days. BMW Joburg South provided a loan vehicle for the balance of this period.

On or about the 6th of April 2022, I contacted the Service Consultant but couldn't speak to her as she was unavailable. I left a message for her to return my call. I didn’t receive a call back. I contacted the Service Consultant again on or about the 7th of April 2022. I told her the leak had not been resolved. She asked me when I could bring the vehicle in for checks.

I asked her what available time slots she had and she advised that I should bring the vehicle in on the following Monday, 11 April 2022.

I obliged. She contacted me on the 11th informing me that the service that was almost due on the vehicle would be completed, however, they had not started working on the leak, however, they would start but that would take up quite a bit of time. She said the vehicle would not be ready for collection later.

I asked her to arrange a loan vehicle as I was meant to travel on business for the rest of the week. She apparently enquired with the Workshop Manager, who informed her that loan vehicles weren't available.

She gave me 2 options, either I made alternative arrangements for transport or I fetched the vehicle and returned it on a day that she would advise based on the availability of a loan car. I chose the latter as I was between a rock & a hard place. The unavailability of a loan vehicle was as if I had sprung a surprise & arrived unannounced to drop off the vehicle on the 11th of April 2022 whereas I had made arrangements with the Service Consultant on the 7th of April 2022 to drop off the vehicle on 11 April 2022.

I was extremely disappointed that there had been very little movement and zero communication up to Thursday 14 April 2022 in terms of when I could take the vehicle back to BMW Joburg South (Auto Glen).

I had to improvise and live with a leak that was supposed to be attended to during the 15 days that the vehicle spent at BMW Joburg South (Auto Glen). There is a bad odor in the vehicle as a result of this leak. I am increasingly reluctant to use this vehicle as the bad odor and wet surface now on the floor of both the rear passenger seats is unbearable.

It is completely unacceptable that this vehicle spent 15 days at BMW Joburg South (Auto Glen) and the leak has become worse after the diagnosis & subsequent cleaning of the piping of the drainage system by BMW Joburg South. It seems there is zero urgency by BMW Joburg South to resolve this issue.

The Customer Service Manager at BMW Joburg South contacted me on Thursday 14 April 2022 after I wrote an email to the dealership and cc'd the Dealer Principal expressing my disappointment. She was not pleased with me to say the least. I got the impression that, in her view, the dealership had given me top notch service & I had no basis to express my dissatisfaction.