Share your shop related horror stories

[Kong Sheng Han]

I have plenty.

I went to an Indy shop two years ago. Like a dumbass, I trusted them and gave my car warranty info to them to make a claim about some leaks. They test drove car, and I'm guessing they noticed the infamous but normal M-clunk that E46s have. The manager and the owner of shop called me told me E46 needed a new transmission and diff, plus some other shit totaling like $15k and had already made the claim with warranty company (there was actually nothing wrong with tans and diff. I think they just wanted to bank off the warranty). Told them to fuck themselves and GTFO ASAP. Got a follow up email a few months later asking how they could serve me better. Told them to fuck off.

The email. Yes, immature, but I don't care.


My justification:



The warranty company was another nightmare. All they did was deny claims, even though parts were explicitly covered in their contract, so legal action was taken against them.

[opihi5]

Sucks man....Could've installed a supercharger with that much

[TheYoungConnoisseur]

Can't due to 3 different mind blowing lawsuits....

[BzsBimmer]

What's the rest of the story?
It's a warranty claim. Your warranty should have covered it with a small deductible on your end. From what I've read it looks like the warranty company also denied the claim.

Sucks to hear you had a bad experience. Who's the warranty company?

Funny response to the company though.

[EJT86]

No horror stories from service shops but had one from a (hopefully) former vendor on here a year ago that I wrote about

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1122396

[Helmsman]

Here's one for you: Took my 19k miles car to the dealer for a warranty DCT leak fix. After one month in the shop I got it back just to find they used MT fluid. After arguing including met with the mgmt and eventually obtaining BMW Sweden support they finally admitt it was wrong. Wanted to flush which I rejected at that point due to frustration and lack of trust it would be done right. Forced them to change the complete DCT+ cooling system which took another month. Parts only was like $18k (on their pocket).

In the end it came out fine but the frustration and in fact worry wasn't worth a brand box as the original obviously was perfect at that mileage. Got some service compensation which saved me a few buck.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by Helmsman

Here's one for you: Took my 19k miles car to the dealer for a warranty DCT leak fix. After one month in the shop I got it back just to find they used MT fluid. After arguing including met with the mgmt and eventually obtaining BMW Sweden support they finally admitt it was wrong. Wanted to flush which I rejected at that point due to frustration and lack of trust it would be done right. Forced them to change the complete DCT+ cooling system which took another month. Parts only was like $18k (on their pocket).

In the end it came out fine but the frustration and in fact worry wasn't worth a brand box as the original obviously was perfect at that mileage. Got some service compensation which saved me a few buck.

Indeed Nik , I remember your horror story and thread .
I also remember that I posted a pic for you of the Pentosin oil for our DCT and I said to you that your BMW/Dealer was wrong with using 6MT oil in your DCT trans.
I saw it took a few months and I was glad to read it was finally a happy end of your horror story.

[Kong Sheng Han]

Originally Posted by opihi5

Sucks man....Could've installed a supercharger with that much

I don't need a supercharger.

Originally Posted by BzsBimmer

What's the rest of the story?
It's a warranty claim. Your warranty should have covered it with a small deductible on your end. From what I've read it looks like the warranty company also denied the claim.

Sucks to hear you had a bad experience. Who's the warranty company?

Funny response to the company though.

I should've made it clear that trans and diff were actually fine, and they just lied, likely in attempt to make money off warranty company. It's obvious when you read their diagnosis email I posted. Two years later, and both are running fine. I told the warranty company to cancel the trans/diff claim. But for previous and future claims at other shops, all they would do is decline parts that were clearly covered.

The warranty company got fucked. There was a class-action lawsuit, and they got shut down. Looks like they don't exist anymore.

http://legalnewsline.com/stories/510...-down-in-state

[BzsBimmer]

Interested read. Well it looks like the warranty company got what was coming to them. I'm sure they still made money off of people.

Hopefully others will avoid Euro Care Imports

[IIAp3x]

Had a local indy shop in Pensacola install a full SuperSprint exhaust system, including SuperSprint headers on my E46 M3 last year because I just did not have the time to work on it myself... Car was mechanically flawless!

Fairfield Imports, Pensacola-

I took my car to them along with the full exhaust system and all the parts still in the boxes; they installed it for $1000 labor...

When I picked the car up the motor was running like it was on 3 cylinders and the check engine light was on- skipping and sputtering... I could not even drive it across the parking lot...

The owner tells me that they are not responsible for the car because I asked them to install aftermarket racing parts, which is why the car was running terribly... I argued with him for a minute telling him that the only thing they could have possibly fucked up was the O2 sensors getting put in backwards, and he assured me that they would not make a mistake like that... He told me it was my responsibility and their not liable!

So I brought the car up to my shop here at the auction and swapped the O2 sensors from bank 1 and 2 and the car ran perfect... Idiots! I usually do my own repairs and installs but I did not have time for this one... Hard to find trustworthy shops...