General topics » Dealer gripe

I just received an email from the dealership I had taken my bike to be repaired at. It was an invitation to rate their service on Trustpilot with the incentive that if their staff was mentioned by name they would be paid extra.

I’ve cut and pasted my review below for Park Lane Motorrad Battersea and was motivated to share.

“Not a good experience; poor communication, little customer consideration and slow. I gave up on trying to phone through and they are avoidant of making phone calls. While they responded fairly promptly to my emails, not once did they call or email spontaneously although I had asked to be called with updates.
After 5 weeks they informed that due to delays receiving parts I would have to wait a further 2-3 weeks for repairs. All my plans for biking to Europe were scrapped. Then their next working day they sent me an email saying that my bike was ready.
Other gripes include taking a week to estimate repair cost, listing a £300 part needing replacement when it did not need replacing, offering apologies for bad service but not offering restitution (ie courtesy bike, discount or anything meaningful.
To be fair they are always courteous and friendly but it just feels corporate fake after this experience.
My bike was stolen and it was pure luck and good policing that I got it back. These guys fitted the tracker lazily and the thieves found it and ripped it out within seconds, and then when I took my bike in for theft damage repairs their poor responsiveness left me feeling almost as frustrated as when I knew my bike was being stolen.”

To be absolutely fair there are more good reviews than bad for these guys, but from my experience that just shows that corporate smarm works on folks.

Good to know about it.

Sorry for your hassles.

I’m sick and tired of companies asking for feedback.

For every trivial product or service.

I simply hit the Delete button.

Without prompting, I’ll soon let someone know if I’m not happy.

Conversely, if anyone simply “does their job” properly, then I’m not particularly impressed.

Maybe I just grew up in a stricter environment.

Zitat von Boxerboy55 im Beitrag #3

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I’m sick and tired of companies asking for feedback.

For every trivial product or service.

…

Maybe I just grew up in a stricter environment.

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Zitat von Boxerboy55 im Beitrag #3

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Sorry for your hassles.
I’m sick and tired of companies asking for feedback.

For every trivial product or service.

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Sadly social media and reviews can rightly or wrongly easily destroy a business or make it look fantastic, so I tend to only rely on word of mouth from people I know and trust and rarely rely on the so called social media review.
Apart from that if I like them I’ll continue to use them if not I’ll go elsewhere.

Whoops and apologies.
Just realised that my reply, is missing “and forums”

So should read

I tend to only rely on word of mouth from people and forums that I know and trust and rarely rely on the so called social media reviews.

And to add.
My R125RS came from Park Lane, found the dealership very good and easy to deal with, but have never used the Battersea workshop, but thanks for the information, I am going to check my tracker installation has been done correctly and get it sorted by one of my local dealers if not.

"Who do we blame?"

Now retired after nearly 35 years on telecommunication repair services (Post Office BT etc.)
I cannot recall any time anyone ever called our repair station or service desk to say "thanks for the continued service on 99.9% of our systems"
Pretty sure we were only called "when something went wrong" ie undersea cable cut, satelite off line, international services failure etc
And that is the problem with 'problem forum reports' as they trawl the 1% and we all like a moan sometime!

I could say that twice the bmw support desk (cars not bikes) mis quoted an MOT price and this year later failed to pass a request to get the garage to call me as they are " a remote support desk, not at the site" Whether the message failed to launch or was not responded too I have no knowledge and could make a big deal off poor service. I needed a service, MOT and a safety recall and wanted to delay the recall to make it all on one day so 'out of scope' for a call centre confirmation on time required due to overlap of work required.
Second call another day and all sorted, maybe that original person was having a bad day or needed more training?
Maybe the first person was overruled and sent to do something else 'more important' in the eyes of someone else!
Still waiting for that call back from the email message they were sending!

What I do know but never bother relating until now is that both Ocean BMW Plymouth bikes/Paington cars and BMW Westerley Exeter cars have done great service for my family since early 2000 and I feel safe when a vehicle has been there for a service, giving me roadworthy vehicle back to me or my family.
Like most businesses they must have had a complaint or few between them over the years although only they know if these were justified.
I have advised a few friends they are good to deal with but probably only when I hear them complaint about somewhere else.

No doubt most dealerships do give the BMW perceived level of service OR they soon loose out once the bean counters get too many complaints.

With BT is was often a case on highlighted 'special faults investigations' that the error started early on, misreported with misdirection followed to oblivion.

We all put our lives in the hands of others, more especially on two wheels, and I can overlook the occasional admin error but have full faith in my local dealership's mechanics.