New sale from BMW Park Lane

  • Thread starter Thread starter dariusp
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dariusp

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I ordered a new 650GS back at the beginning of January and was told at the time that the release date for these wouldn't be until March 13th. As this is the first BMW I've bought, I thought I'd go directly to Park Lane: it's close to me and I felt that having a dealer was like adding a middle man - this was a wrong assumption.

While other dealers have had their bikes delievered and some customers have even received their bikes, I am informed that because Park Lane have their bikes delivered to a central location before the bike being shipped to the service center in Battersea to be made ready for me, they cannot even give me a date for when it'll be ready. The bike is 'due to arrive' at Battersea on Monday - only then will they give me a pick-up date.

For the last few weeks I have been trying to get a date to no avail. Last week, the salesman suggested that because Battersea were having an open day this weekend, Monday might be a better day for me to pick it up. When I said this was favouring prospective new customers over those who have put their money down, I was then told that actually the bike isn't even at Battersea and I can't even pick it up on Monday.

I have told Park Lane that when I upgrade (and I will!) it will not be with them.

I feel frustrated that BMW's internal processes seem to be more of a middle man than having a third party dealer, and that I seem to have had to coax all this information from them over time.

Meanwhile, I phones South London Motorcycles yesterday and they said they could get a bike on the road for me to pick up on Monday! Suffice to say, Park Lane won't let me cancel my order.

I was planning to get new boots, trousers and a helmet when I picked up my, but now I'm going to drive from Battersea directly to South London Motorcycles and buy them all there. The first of many sales Park Lane has lost from me.

Thanks to the forum for letting me rant - sometimes one needs to get these things off the chest (and my wife's really bored with it!)

In conclusion - in my opinion, don't use Park Lane dealership.
 
Are these places bike only or car and bike dealers??? It seems to make a difference in some areas. EG piss off someone buying a 30k+ beemer car or piss off a 10K biker.? What would you do?
 
Park Lane are an MBW owned car & bike dealership who specialise in armoured high-end MBW's and sell the odd bike to playboys (not that I'm suggesting dariusp is a playboy) - sadly we're not hearing anything new here though we wish we were. :(
 
I have ordered the new (2004) model - but the standard not the Dakar. I found Dakar a little too high for me given most of my riding is in town. I lost my last bike in a crash in October last year so I can't wait to get on it, which is part of the reason my problems with BMW Park Lane are p*ssing me off so much - to me, having to wait even one extra day is agonising.
 
OOOOHHHH shit, who opened his box? and took the jacket off him.
 
Er........

I'm nothing to do with PL and in fact have never been inside the place, but in their defense, all dealers, car or bike, toyota, bwm, audi, you name it, do this.....

Cars and bikes come into the country on containor ships of flat deckers, get a low grade PDI and in the case of cars, are made into english spec etc there...then they're delivered to individual dealers from that central point....so if you buy from SLM's, prestige or Park lane, the likelihood is that your bike would have been sitting next to a bke that went out through Ocean BWM or any other dealers....

Somewhere in this country, right now, there will be a big hall filled with literally hundreds of 1200gs' waiting to be moved on to their dealers and to recieve their full final PDI.

If you think BWM's are expensive now, imagine what they'd cost if the dealers got individual shipments sent across......:rolleyes:
 
That's the annoying thing - my bike was probably sitting next to SLM and SPC dealer bikes. However, while they were delivered directly to the dealer to be prepped (and people like Pondboy on the trevorgeorge site could go and photograph, touch and generally get excited about them) the one's for Park Lane did not get delivered to either Park Lane or the Battersea Service Centre (where they will be prepped.) No, they go to another location from where they get sent to Battersea to be prepped, adding days to the setup time.

This was my point that Park Lane's internal processes add time to the prep time over third party dealers. This is the exact opposite of what I would expect. Park Lane are BMW. Buying from Park Lane means the chain is BMW-me, whereas buying from a dealer means the chain is BMW-Dealer-me - I therefor expected the same (or, perish the thought) faster service. I certainly did not expect slower service.

I know it's only a few days difference (hopefully; I will not be sure until Monday) but I'm really gagging for my bike. I was further irritated by the lack of information I got about this from BMW.

Anyway, I'm in a much better mood today. I just found out that the third party insurance company from my crash in Oct '03 has just accepted liability and so there should be a nice cheque coming my way. More money not to spend at Park Lane :D
 
Darius, have you taken this up with Paul Davies? I've been buying bikes from him for 10 years and always found him to be either fair or downright generous, and never off hand or dismissive or careless. He's a good bloke and working really hard to restore Park Lane to its former glory - yes they've had their share of staff problems in the past but it's a whole new team now. I would have thought Paul would be gutted to hear your story, and would come down pretty hard on whoever has been giving you such a rotten service. Just my two penn'orth.
 
All credit to them, Park Lane came through. They have not managed to get my bike and still do not know if it'll be ready in a couple of days or a week, as they have not taken delivery yet. However, they are managing the situation and have given me an '04 loaner until mine arrives. This and the promise of a good discount on some clothing has somewhat restored my faith in their customer services and I will stick with them for the time being and see how the relationship pans out.
 
Good to hear it. Enjoy your bike(s) - having a free one for a bit isn't such a bad deal really!
 
Did I speak too soon?!

Latest is that the delivery company is trying to find out where my bike is. It was picked up from the prepping center (Thornton, I think) on Tuesday. This is where Park Lane's bikes get prepped at the moment. However, I found out today that this transfer is treated as an inter-dealer transfer and can take up to 4 days :confused:

So, buying from Park Lane at the moment is like buying from one dealer and getting the bike transfered to another dealer before picking it up :mad:

Paul is apparently working on moving the prepping center down to Battersea so that Park Lane will work like any other dealer out there but that doesn't help me.

I liked the way they reacted after I complained (although I don't think I should have had to complain in the first place) but the more I think about this, the more furious I am with the general management of this issue. Surly Park Lane knows how long it takes to get a bike from Thornton to Battersea but I was told it was picked up on Tuesday and it would be in Battersea Wed/Thu. If they didn't know and bearing in mind they had an unhappy customer, they should have been on the phone to the delivery company on Tuesday to get a delivery date.

I cannot truely put into words how utterly dejected and pi**ed off I am about this whole process. This is my first real[/] bike and was meant to be a happy experience. :banghead:
 
Good news/bad news.

Good news. Finally got my bike on Friday - it's great. Fitted out with panniers and topbox, I love it. It also seems to have a smoother ride than the loan bike I had.

Bad news. I've been sent to Canada for a week so I only got a day riding it before having to pack it away in the garage. :(

Can't wait to get back.
 


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