Who's right here? (slight damage to car)

[tranquility]

I take my car for servicing and they always have a complimentary carwash, which, personally, I don't really care either way. Anyway, it always goes uneventful until this time, when see you the rear trunk emblem all blasted to crap. They claim to always use powerwashers w/o any prbs and assume "oh, cuz your car's 14 years old, over 300,000kms, etc, there must be some microtear on the badge, so any kind of water getting into it would make it disintegrate like that". I call bs because I always come in contact w my badge since I open the trunk often and if there was pre-existing damage, I'd notice it, unless we are talking about micro-damage that the naked eye can't see.

Anyway, the dude first offers to 'subsidize' 50% of a new badge+free labor and so I'd have to fork out CAD50+tax or whatever. I started to get heated and so he relented and said, alright, it's gonna be free.

When ppl get PPF, they rarely get it in the back as nothing really happens there, and also for a spray to do that, they must've left it there for ages spraying like crazy...not as if it was covered in mud or something smh. Never mind, if the car was undamaged and when handed back to the client, it was, shouldn't the dealer be responsible? They don't see these pts and almost made it sound like I boobytrapped them, like I wanted a new freaking badge when it was perfectly fine as-is.

I'm heading to the dealer rn. Wish me luck that nothing stupid happens. Just like that over a measly ~50CAD they lost goodwill and may potentially lose a client. I really don't get the general level of POOR customer service in North America and lack of decency, manners and common sense and failing to placate a justifiably upset customer unless there is some pushback. The FIRST thing they do is to DENY, and, if caught, they will try to STIFF YOU every penny. Is business that bad they gotta penny-pinch and not treat ppl properly? They dunno the concept of goodwill? JFC.

/rant

[Gossypiboma]

The car in question is 14 yrs old with over 300km?????

[KevinC]

You can't be serious

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by Gossypiboma

The car in question is 14 yrs old with over 300km?????

Ya, over 300*K*.

Originally Posted by KevinC

You can't be serious

Which part?


You guys need to write better man.

[Nuckle]

The roundel failed due to age and not due to the dealer’s negligence. Dealer shouldn’t have to pay but is because they don’t want to lose your business. You are being petty in my opinion. What happens in 5-6 more years when the paint starts blowing off when going through a car wash? Nothing lasts forever.

[Portimao Blue M440ix]

Not taking any sides here but my 2007 335i that I just sold recently, the badges were getting rough and I'm sure a good blast from a pressure washer would have did some damage.

[2000cs]

I never let them wash my car for this exact reason. I’ve had BMW wheels lose some of their clear coat because of aggressive power washing, I mean the chemicals I must have used to clean them myself. Just get that nozzle a little too close, and damage gets started. It doesn’t matter how old it is, they damaged it.

A new roundel isn’t very expensive and is easy to put on yourself. I’d chalk it up to lesson learned, and move on. And never let them wash it again.

[FrankMstein]

Someone sounds like the typical profile of a BMW owner. Human better man.

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by FrankMstein

Someone sounds like the typical profile of a BMW owner. Human better man.

Typical why, cuz I don't wanna be ripped off? I didn't say anything wrong. You definitely need to work on yourself and not insult ppl outta nowhere.

As for that guy saying I'm petty, does it matter if the car is 50 yrs old? The roundel was perfectly fine. W your logic, don't service any old cars or else the techs can just treat them like crap and get away w anything smh.

Ppl need to be reasonable, if there was no prior damage, why should I foot the bill? All due to the car/roundel being old and supposedly susceptible? Then take extra care. I don't buy the so-called arguments for the dealer.

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by Portimao Blue M440ix

Not taking any sides here but my 2007 335i that I just sold recently, the badges were getting rough and I'm sure a good blast from a pressure washer would have did some damage.

That's all good, I mean, if they are aware of this prb, maybe they shouldn't blast the emblems like crazy.

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by 2000cs

I never let them wash my car for this exact reason. I’ve had BMW wheels lose some of their clear coat because of aggressive power washing, I mean the chemicals I must have used to clean them myself. Just get that nozzle a little too close, and damage gets started. It doesn’t matter how old it is, they damaged it.

A new roundel isn’t very expensive and is easy to put on yourself. I’d chalk it up to lesson learned, and move on. And never let them wash it again.

It's ok, they finally decided to give me a freebie but it was annoying arguing w them for something that should've been automatically given.

I'm not ocd w my car at all and there was fading in some other emblems but this one was crazy like they took a sander to it.

[vreihen16]

Where I come from, we call that patina.....

[NikMN]

[Nuckle]

That car wash probably has 40-50 cars go through it a day with no issue. Your 14 year old car finally had the roundel deteriorate while going through it. Dealer made a reasonable compromise and you brusseled up threatening to not use them anymore. They must be hard up, I would have told you to bounce.

You come to the interwebs asking for opinions then dismiss any that don’t coincide with your own. My opinion is you are a cheapskate. Roundel failed due to age period. You do you though.

[tranquility]

So I guess a lot of ppl will just take the L. Alrighty then.

[Reborn_]

Neither party is right. You are both wrong

Seriously, though, both sides make a valid point. If I were in your shoes, I would have brought it up to see what they say, but not push past that. At 50% discount, I would have said no thanks and it's all good and walk away. As someone said, this is a cheap part and i probably would just leave it or cover it with vinyl or something.

That said, I have an 07 z4 (granted way less miles and mostly sitting in a garage) and the roundels are perfect. I don't see age or miles causing much deterioration on these unless your car sits in the sun all day every day.

[tranquility]

Originally Posted by Reborn_

Neither party is right. You are both wrong

Seriously, though, both sides make a valid point. If I were in your shoes, I would have brought it up to see what they say, but not push past that. At 50% discount, I would have said no thanks and it's all good and walk away. As someone said, this is a cheap part and i probably would just leave it or cover it with vinyl or something.

That said, I have an 07 z4 (granted way less miles and mostly sitting in a garage) and the roundels are perfect. I don't see age or miles causing much deterioration on these unless your car sits in the sun all day every day.

I guess both sides have pts, but something doesn't feel right when my roundel was in good condition and then it's blasted to hell when I get it back. If I'm petty, then what does that make the dealership, which I assume has a net worth greater than me, arguing over a silly 50 bucks? If not apparently obvious, I would've done it for free if I was in their shoes because I damaged the roundel, period, none of this assuming nonsense; right is right. They would only have a good argument if there was pre-existing damage, but there wasn't any. I don't buy their 'logic' because it's a ridiculous blanket statement that gives them the right to do whatever w/o any liability just because my car is older and not even considering the condition it's in.

The replacement part (just the cover roundel plastic piece) is cheap if I buy it myself but through the dealer it's freaking CAD100. Anyway, it's not the cost but the principle.

There you go, your roundels are good too in your Z. Mine were fine until the rear one got blasted. To those who said "meh", riiiiiight, if that happened to you, you'd be complaining as well as I *know* many ppl on this forum are WAAAAY more ocd w their cars, unless you are meek/passive/a pushover.

EDIT: I'd also like to add that I powerwash my car and nothing happened at all through my 14 years thus far, so they must have some crazy industrial strength power setting that they shouldn't have used and aren't washing the cars properly as evidenced by the damage (e.g. would you powerspray your windshield at MAX setting using the thinnest stream? Hell no! Same/similar thing spraying the roundels esp since they know of this prb already. It's just laziness/carelessness).

[2000cs]

If they offered to sell you the part at 50% off, then that is probably their cost. So on the part they’re not out anything. On the labor, what, 5 minutes worth? Big generosity there.

[Esteban]

It's a small thing. If you are a regular client I think they should just cover it for you.

You might think twice about letting them wash your car in the future. Many people don't like them to, for reasons like this.

[zx10guy]

My dealer does a walk around inspection when I bring my car in for service. The porter walks the car and notes any damage on a checkout sheet. Once the porter is done and parks my car for the mechanic to bring in for service, the checkout sheet is brought over to me for review. Any noted damage is listed and I either agree or disagree with what the porter found. In my case, there's been nothing they could note as pre-existing damage/cosmetic issues. If I agree with the findings on the checkout sheet, I sign it.

Doing it this way eliminates all the finger pointing that happens. Don't understand why all dealers of this level don't do this walk around inspection when taking in cars.

The other thing that I do and the two SAs I've worked with at my dealership all know....Don't wash my car. This also eliminates the other variable for damage.

That said, my dealer has stepped up and never harassed me on cosmetic issues I've brought up. One service, the mechanic was messing around in the dash area. I got the car home and noticed the plastic lens covering the gauges was cracked in the corner. I certainly didn't do that and could I just have let it go. Maybe. But it wasn't damaged when I brought it in. Contacted my SA immediately and sent some pics. He told me to bring the car in. They inspected the lens over the gauge cluster and said they would take care of it. I didn't have to raise a fuss. They just did it. They ended up having to put in a whole new gauge cluster and have it coded to my car. All covered by the dealer.

Second incident was when the wiper blades were replaced as a courtesy to me. Drove the car off and when I got out of my car after parking it, I saw a pretty long scratch across the hood of the car that lines up with a wiper blade being dragged over it. Contacted my SA again. Brought the car in and again didn't have to raise a fuss. They took the car back to their detailer to buff out the scratch.

Third incident was when they had to do some work in the trunk area. So I guess they had to drop the bumper. Got the car home and later found out the tow hook cover was all scratched to hell. Contacted my SA and again, they took care of it without any fuss. SA took the tow hitch cover over to their in house body shop and had the cover re-sprayed.

With this situation and had a walk around inspection been done by the dealer, the dealer should have just covered it without having tensions being raised over such a minor thing.

[Esteban]

Don't all BMW dealers do the walk around? tranquility, does yours?

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by Esteban

Don't all BMW dealers do the walk around? tranquility, does yours?

My dealer has done the walk around with checklist for 20 years. They now video everything.