OK, Time to spill the beans.

[marcus]

from my earlier post as a newbie (see below!). The dealer in question is BMW Park Lane.
Summary: Good sales staff with excellent knowledge of BMW and others (touratech, wunderlicht etc) Aftersales a right old mess. A summary of 8,000 miles.


100 miles - gearbox imploded. Very kindly replaced by BMW. No explanations.
Bike still flings itself out of 2nd gear, usually when accellerating round a left hand corner.

Battery - temp. gets frosty, make sure you have the AA on speeddial (maybe this might get fixed as part of the battery recall)

Electrics - where to start.
1. Go off road or over a speed bump, all electrics fail. (happened twice) No ABS, lights, etc etc.
2. Take keys out, bike still runs (quite useful really) Side effect however - might lose keys and not know about it for miles!
3. Gear selection indication bears no resemblance to the actual gear the bike is in - makes starting up even more difficult. The bike won't start in neutral if the elecs. think its in 3rd, 2nd, 4th, whatever.

Luggage - The vario box is basically expensive crap and prone to fly off on rough tough (like roundabounds with pot holes) Also, the locks spring out very easily so are of no use.

Tyres - My bike came with a faulty Metzeler so I had to buy a new one. The garage promised to refund me, but havnt.

Would welcome suggestions to resolve any of the above

 

[BBB61]

One of my old trainees gave me a call today. He passed his test and bought a new F650GS from Sawbridgeworth. He had a lot of problems with the battery not holding its charge. They told him that his 20 mile a day round trip to and from work wasn't enough to keep it charged up! They made 3 attempts to fix it but to no avail.

Having lost faith with SBW, he then went to Park Lane...................

They kept the bike for 8 weeks and did nothing with it and they also managed to lose his topbox and contents!

In the end he resorted to legal action. It was settled before going to court and he now has a R1200GS, having been given an extremely good deal on it. BMW GB got involved in the matter and he is very happy.

You might have to lean on Park Lane a bit, perhaps get BMW GB involved. Trading Standards might also be interested too. It might even be a case of having to start legal action! But I think you need to be assertive with them, perhaps start telling them that you don't consider the bike fit for its purpose because of all the problems you have had with it.

 

[Fanum]

from my earlier post as a newbie (see below!). The dealer in question is BMW Park Lane.
Summary: Good sales staff with excellent knowledge of BMW and others (touratech, wunderlicht etc) Aftersales a right old mess. A summary of 8,000 miles.


100 miles - gearbox imploded. Very kindly replaced by BMW. No explanations.
Bike still flings itself out of 2nd gear, usually when accellerating round a left hand corner.

Battery - temp. gets frosty, make sure you have the AA on speeddial (maybe this might get fixed as part of the battery recall)

Electrics - where to start.
1. Go off road or over a speed bump, all electrics fail. (happened twice) No ABS, lights, etc etc.
2. Take keys out, bike still runs (quite useful really) Side effect however - might lose keys and not know about it for miles!
3. Gear selection indication bears no resemblance to the actual gear the bike is in - makes starting up even more difficult. The bike won't start in neutral if the elecs. think its in 3rd, 2nd, 4th, whatever.

Luggage - The vario box is basically expensive crap and prone to fly off on rough tough (like roundabounds with pot holes) Also, the locks spring out very easily so are of no use.

Tyres - My bike came with a faulty Metzeler so I had to buy a new one. The garage promised to refund me, but havnt.

Would welcome suggestions to resolve any of the above

So let's get this right.......

The first big fault you had, the gearbox, was replaced by them straight away.

Now you've got a whole list of problems with the bike...fair enough, but that's a problem with the bike not any particular dealer isn't it???

What has their response been??
Have you taken it to them yet with this list??

You mentioned the tyre that hasn't been replaced, fine, they should replace it if it's faulty, but unless there'a lot more to this than you're saying, the rest of it isn't down to the dealer, it sounds like it's down to the BWM build quality?

 

[Droopy Dick]

100 miles - gearbox imploded. Very kindly replaced by BMW. No explanations.

What on earth do you mean by 'kindly'/

Kindness isn't involved.

The damned thing broke so they replaced it, as they should, and as you're fully entitled to.

But otherwise, I think you should do as suggested.

Write a polite but firm letter, setting out the defects, and asking for them to repair said defects within, say 14 days, or else you'll reject the bike as unfit for its purpose. Let's face it, the on-board computer is probably going to have a record of these electrical faults.

If it were me, I'd also send a copy to BMW UK.

As for tyres, I have had a couple of dodgy tryes in the past and on each occasion the tyre manufacturer (or its agents) have replaced them very quickly and without problem. U'm surprised that you had to buy a new one rather than just have it replaced FOC.

 

[shready]

Buy a Honda.

 

[Mrs C]

Marcus, if you'd like to give me a call with your bike details and a list of any ongoing issues I will ask that they are addressed as soon as possible.

Sharon
Park Lane

020 7819 2612

 

[Deleted Member I]

Marcus, if you'd like to give me a call with your bike details and a list of any ongoing issues I will ask that they are addressed as soon as possible.

Sharon
Park Lane

020 7819 2612

I am impressed that you have stuck your neck on the line

I hope your colleagues who should be responsible for sorting out the issues don't let you down. I know if they do, it will be you and not them that get a right :argue on this forum.

 

[DavidHale]

I am impressed that you have stuck your neck on the line

I hope your colleagues who should be responsible for sorting out the issues don't let you down. I know if they do, it will be you and not them that get a right :argue on this forum.

Thing is, I ordered some bits from PL_2_and_a_half last week for the first time, and she's so lovely that I don't see how anyone could possibly be nasty to her!

 

[marcus]

a little update

On the way home last night the ABS and speedo packed up.

Bike started first time this morning despite frost & faults - astonishing

I think the best way to get some service is to go via sales. My experience with sales is all good, service nearly all bad.

BMW Park Lane now have my GS and I have one of theirs, so presumably as the sales bods are a bike short they will get onto the repair people sharpish.

Lets see if the aftersales people can break all their bad habits and actually fix stuff without messing about their punters.

Wait and see . . . .

 

[turbine_2]

Personal reccomendation, avoid Park Lane mechanics like the boil on the arse of the world that they are and, as it's a BMW warrante go somewhere else like Vines in Guildford.

I've no personal experience of the sales team and Sharon in parts has really tried to be helpful here in the past but the bunch of shaven monkeys they they employ to 'service' bikes should never have been allowed to enter the gene pool. My personal experiences of Park Lane Battersea have been posted here before and I could become all Sanguine about it, but at the end of the day it's only the 'service' team that I have a problem with and it's now blatently obvious that PL senior management don't care.

 

[marcus]

pps

it's astonishing really, "leftie lightie rightie tightie", I mean, how difficult can it be?

My last BM was through Sawbridgworth, who were always very good in all respects. Might be going back!

I'm going to wait and see with Park Lane and try to avoid throwing a tantrum (again)

 

[marcus]

ppps

I think with a bit of luck the service people are getting an overdue word or two from head office.

I was in Park Lane a few months back thinking of buying a sporty one.
Decided not to at the time due to recurring faults with the GS. I thought that if BMW can show some after sales care, I will get one.

They didn't give a damn down in aftersales so I bought an RSV-R instead.

I haven't had to call the AA yet with 300 miles on the clock. THe GS was on call out no.3!

Park Lane sales now know they lost a new bike sale due to the crappiness of Battersea ops. bwah-hah-hah