BMW Warranty - CR@P

[swebb]

This will be the first and last BMW I ever own at this rate!!

Having never owned a BMW before, I'd always "aspired" to one. Finally took the plump, spent several thousands more than I really needed to and bought myself the R1200GS back in 2005.

Reasons... always loved the GS Series, BMW renowned for long lasting bikes, warranty, service etc etc....

Well.... 2 years on... the bike has been great, i've had some fantastic times on it, it's never let me down... well once, but thats another story.

With warranty due to expire I took it back to dealer last week for corrosion warranty claim, dealer checked it out, and agreed various parts for replacement, including the rear Diff which had rusted inside the "hole" of the rear wheel.

I rode home, only to be called later that day and told the BMW Warranty had rejected the rear diff claim, unless it's supported by pictures.... ok, so one 80mile round trip later, the dealer has the pics and they wing their way to BMW Warranty. All going smoothly.... I thought!

I get a phone call from the dealer today, "i'm very sorry" BMW Warranty acknowledge the rust, but say it's it's a high tensile steel part, it doesn't really matter and it was "probably my own fault anyway"!!!!

Needless to say i'm NOT happy at all....

I've referred this straight to BMW Customer services who tell me they "may" be able to come to some arrangement and will look into this.....

Watch this space!!!!

If this is resolved fully, without doubt this will be the first and last BMW I ever own... i'm really disgusted at this attitude and it's not the BMW that built brand of the past!!

hmmm rant over... for now....

 

[Andrew Lodge]

Corrosion on rear wheel spindle

Mine had corrosion in exactly the same place and that was after only 2000 miles and 6 months with no winter use.

It was eventually replaced but it took a bit of an argument and they insisted on trying to clean off the rust first. No surprise it did not clean off but it took 3 trips to the dealer and a fairly forceful complaint before they did replace it.

Stick at it, don't take no for an answer

Andrew

 

[MATKAT]

Mountain out of a molehill

Is this thread really making a mountain out of a mole hill....................... rust on rear diff indeed....................big deal

 

[Dahoum]

sorry about that swebb - it seems that dealers can be ar*eholes at times.

fortunately they're not all like that.

change dealer if you love the bike/marque and stick with what you like

Mines my first MBW and will be the first of many I recon.

 

[marcus]

suggest find out how many people here have had this work done under warranty and sock it to 'em

Power of t'web

 

[Yellow Peril]

I know this is red rag but the way you have written your rant, implies you intended to "use" the warranty to get the bike back to original condition instead of agreeing things with the dealer as they occured.

You rant at cr@p warranty but you don't list the items that BMW have picked up the tab for. I for one owning two 12's from new have found that the warranty is far better than a lot of other brands.

 

[Rollin Bone]

Gobsmacked

Sorry if this offends, but the way you started your thread I thought someone had died, Two years without a problem a little bit of corroision and someone needs top pay I suspect youll be looking for compensation as well .

Life's to short

Regards Rollin Bone

 

[Popeye]

Easy Tiger....

Wow, you certainly do sound quite pissed off.

when you say .... "If this is resolved fully, without doubt this will be the first and last BMW I ever own... " it seems whatever BMW may or may not do you have left the impression that you've gone, never to return so why should they go out of their way to look after you as a customer.

A bit of rust on a steel part doesn't sound that bad to me - is it really worth never owning such a great bike ever again, and if so where will you go from here - no bike that I know of is rustproof anyway.

Try and keep the issue in perspective - at a guess I would say there must be other stuff in your life which is hacking you off and the bike situation is providing you with an outlet for your frustration.

Chill out brother

 

[BobJ]

You rant at cr@p warranty but you don't list the items that BMW have picked up the tab for.

Shaun makes a good point - your dealer has obviously agreed to replace some stuff under warranty without reference to BMW GB. I would be interested to hear what this list amounts to?
In fairness, I don't know of many dealers or manufacturers who would honour a claim if you pitch up on the 729th day of a two year warranty and expect them to return your bike to showroom condition for nowt.
Don't get me wrong - I'll be the first to complain about sh*te service but BMW seem to be being reasonable.
How bad is it anyway - can you post a photo?

 

[BBB61]

Just out of interest, how long ago did you notice this corrosion in the read diff "hole"? Has it just cropped up or did you notice it some time ago and did nothing about it when you first noticed it?

 

[terayon]

A bit of rust
Go buy yourself a suzuki, it'll be rusting 30 seconds after you get it out of the shop.
Got rid of my 1 year old Vstrom for my GS. The strom needed a new loom due to corrosion, and (ok I'd done 36,000 miles on it) but it was falling to bits even though it was well looked after and had all the services

 

[Pukmeister]

Even once out of warranty, BMW paid for a replacement final drive as mine developed a leak. The dealers (SPC) spoke to BMW and as I was a good customer and with FSH, there was a repair offered without any argument or hassle. Now thats what I call customer service, and the reason why BMW will be getting my repeat business.

Sorry to hear you didn't get the result you wanted.

 

[Garfieldus]

Even once out of warranty, BMW paid for a replacement final drive as mine developed a leak. The dealers (SPC) spoke to BMW and as I was a good customer and with FSH, there was a repair offered without any argument or hassle. Now thats what I call customer service, and the reason why BMW will be getting my repeat business.

Sorry to hear you didn't get the result you wanted.

you did better than i did. i was on my 7th oilhead (5 of them new) and had a corrosion problem on the rear subframe on an 04 1150gsa. i was told it was stone chips EVEN UNDER THE SEAT!! the dealer was backed up by the Irish Mororrad manager and was consequently rejected by bmw warranty. said i was trying to refurbish by bike at the end of warranty.

i considered myself a good customer and had fsh but it didn't do any good.

Should have said - Joe Duffy Motorrad, Dublin

 

[Silver Rat]

Centre Stand

I noticed last week that the centre stand on my year old GS was only starting to rust as a result of stone chips from the back wheel probably. I went in, the mechanic was out, the Service Manager was busy but he authorised a replacement without even looking at the bike!

I can't complain, apart from the obviously poor paint finish in the first place!!

Should have said, John Clarks, Aberdeen.

 

[swebb]

Mixed bag...

Certainly a mixed bag of responses there then...

I am rather annoyed yes... and wether it's on the first or the last day of warranty, the fact remains that it's still within the warranty period and as such should be treated no differently. ( Either that or I missed the part that describes the warranty as "level of cover deteriorates with time")

I noticed it about 4 weeks ago, and took it to the dealer about 2 weeks ago, so no, there was no long standing issue that i was aware of. And i'm sorry if i gave the wrong impression, getting the bike back to new condition was, is and has never been the aim.

Frankly i'm quite surprised at the number of "ah, forget it" replies, clearly some people seem less bothered than others. And i'm sorry, but I could have had almost two suzuki's for the price i paid for the BMW, so yes, i do expect to get a little more for what I paid! I paid the best part of £11k, i've only done 7,000 miles and of them appx 6,000 have been dry miles, so yes I take umbridge to large amounts of rust appearing and i make no apologies for my expectation.

The quote earlier of "If fully repaired, it'll be my first and last BMW" was mis-typed in my moment of rant. I meant to say "If NOT fully repaired".

When I pay top dollar for something, be it the bike or other things, I expect a level of service above the "standard" you get elsewhere. What i'm saying here is, I don't feel i've got it. I agree i'd have been turned away for a warranty claim by most other manufacturers, but then i'd also have paid considerably less too, so wouldn't be expecting the same level of service.

You get what you pay for... or at least that's something i believe in.... so far my experience with this has not met that belief.

As i said in the original post, it may be that customer services step in and resolve this issue, I'll have to wait and see. At the end of the day, my belief in BMW has been rocked, and I think i'm right to question wether i'd go the same route again if i'm not reassured in the mean time.

I don't believe in brand loyalty, i think you judge on what you find... this is what i've found... end of.

 

[Wapping]

Did you get a lot of help finding the rusty bits? It's taken you a while. Since before Christmas to be exact.

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91723

There again, as you said you were:

'....Then giving my bike a good inspection to pick out anything and everything i can get replaced under warranty....' I guess it's understandably taken you some time, particularly if you had to be told where to look. You even had to chase up some help, five days after your initial plea for guidance. Shame you didn't get any pictures though, makes things so much easier. Were you surprised to find the rust spots in the 'hole' on your own?

Either way, it probably doesn't fit too well with your latest protestation that, 'Getting the bike back to new condition was, is and has never been the aim'.

What else was it you said? Ah yes, 'I'm an oscar winning bike knowledge numpty... wash it and ride it, thats me, and not too much of the former either!!!!'

Try a little less moaning and a bit more of the former and maybe the replacement part / parts (if you get some) will last a bit longer.

 

[swebb]

Did you get a lot of help finding the rusty bits? It's taken you a while. There again, you were looking for, 'Anything and everything' you could get replaced.

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91723


What else was it you said? Ah yes, 'I'm an oscar winning bike knowledge numpty... wash it and ride it, thats me, and not too much of the former either!!!!'

Try a bit of the former and maybe the replacement (if you get one) will last a bit longer.

Assuming you read the quoted post, you'll see that no, there was not the a "lot" of help... the areas covered in the post were the standard obvious presentation points of the bike. (Even a bike numpty like me figured checking the front facing areas would be a good starting point)

I didn't realise that being a bike knowledge numpty invalidated my warranty? Am I to apologise for asking this forum for help in where to look for known corrosion spots? I thought the aim of forums such as these were to share knowledge? And as a self confessed bike numpty, I see nothing wrong in asking for pointers of where I should look for corrosion, or are you suggesting that because of my lack of knowledge i "deserve" to not have parts replace that should not have corroded?

Clearly without seeing the bike you feel better positioned to comment on the state of my bike than the dealer that agreed the parts should not have corroded and should be replaced under said warranty. Don't be offended if I trust the main dealer opinion over your less than accurate appraisal.

Your comments would have been far more valid had I been complaining about the dealer rejecting my claims, however, if you read the original post correctly, you'll see the dealer agreed that this should be a warranty claim, and that BMW Warranty over-ruled them.

 

[Wapping]

Assuming you read the quoted post, you'll see that no, there was not the a "lot" of help... the areas covered in the post were the standard obvious presentation points of the bike. (Even a bike numpty like me figured checking the front facing areas would be a good starting point)

I didn't realise that being a bike knowledge numpty invalidated my warranty? Am I to apologise for asking this forum for help in where to look for known corrosion spots? I thought the aim of forums such as these were to share knowledge? And as a self confessed bike numpty, I see nothing wrong in asking for pointers of where I should look for corrosion, or are you suggesting that because of my lack of knowledge i "deserve" to not have parts replace that should not have corroded?

Clearly without seeing the bike you feel better positioned to comment on the state of my bike than the dealer that agreed the parts should not have corroded and should be replaced under said warranty. Don't be offended if I trust the main dealer opinion over your less than accurate appraisal.

Your comments would have been far more valid had I been complaining about the dealer rejecting my claims, however, if you read the original post correctly, you'll see the dealer agreed that this should be a warranty claim, and that BMW Warranty over-ruled them.

Shame you didn't start at the back then. Would have found the rust earlier.

You December post made it clear that, as your warranty was due to expire in three months, you intended to search out as many faults as possible (with whatever help you could muster) and get them all sorted out. What faults the dealer did fix you do not say. However, the dealer has, apparently, fixed them all, we assume under warranty or out of goodwill and BuMW rejected one. Not too much to moan about, surely?

 

[swebb]

If anybody has anything else useful to say.......

 

[araspitfire]

I see this from a couple of perspectives...

ON the one hand, we have the "stick BMW for everything we can" attitude being shown.. (not saying that's what you are doing, but some see it that way)... This has the potential of making an expensive bike, even more expensive... I promise BMW will not accept a loss on the sales of.... well anything really....

On the other hand I see the "BMW sell themselves as being a cut above the rest, and they have the nerve to produce motorcycles that rust..." attitude...
I myself do believe in making companies produce a bit of substance to back up all the hot air that the carpetbaggers (apologies to any in sales who take offense =) spend all that effort to create... Not sure if rust is my way... every old BMW I've ever seen is well corroded (like any bike).. not like they've suddenly started making them worse in that regard...

Personally I'll be fixing my own rust (off warantee ... only one year in The Netherlands)... But then I don't expect something made of steel and aluminum not to corrode if ridden in the wet...


Al...