While this incident didn’t happen to me personally, my father was a victim of useless BMW service. This post serves as something of an experiment to see whether anyone from BMW will respond and make amends for arguably the worst service ever.
My father is an owner of an E46, 318i BMW. It’s certainly not the flashiest or most expensive BMW but a client is a client and everything should be done to retain that client surely?
Needless to say, my father drove into a pavement, popped his front tyre and came home with a good part of his undercarriage on his backseat. Needless to say, repairs were needed since he was going away today (11th of October). The accident happened roughly a week and a half ago. The car was picked up yesterday from BMW after repairs were completed. Not only did we have to pay for the car and claim from insurance (rather than BMW claiming from insurance) but had to wait an hour at BMW Bedfordview for the car to be prepared despite them saying the car was waiting.
This morning, when packing the car my father noticed a minor, yet relevant detail; no spare wheel. Now this would have been a hapless error had he not specifically asked for them to make sure there was a spare wheel as he was going to be driving to Durban today. I’m more than happy to admit that mistakes can happen and that things can be forgotten if handled correctly.
When my father phoned BMW he was informed that there was no tyre available and that the manager was not available to talk. Ultimately he was met with indifference and derision by the lady at the call centre. Amazingly in the whole of BMW Bedfordview there was not a single 16-inch tyre and no one was willing to make the effort to go find out. This is arguably the worst customer service I’ve heard of in a while.
At the end of the day we all make mistakes and as long as one admits that mistake and at least attempts to rectify them customers are willing to forgive and forget. BMW Bedfordview has shown they don’t care about their customers despite the mistakes being purely theirs. I have a feeling this is the last BMW my family will ever buy. Negative product evangelism is never a good idea and frankly something that should be avoided like the plague, something BMW does not understand.
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This is certainly not an isolated incidence of shocking service by BMW. After a petrol attendant put diesel in my brothers petrol BMW, he waited 8 working days to get his car back! Afterwards he was told by another BMW service centre that solving this problem should not have been more than a days work.
Next time, buy Audi!
The worst is their indifference. I make mistakes, they make mistakes, it happens. I am willing to apologise when I’m wrong. BMW hasn’t even bothered to send me an email about this.
Audi here we come!
I totally agree, Audi’s are awesome! Plus Audi drivers are not nearly as obnoxious as BM drivers… Ok, maybe nearly
As CRM Manager of Bruma Auto, I would very much like to investigate the situation pertaining to your fathers vehicle. Please email me the details of your fathers vehicle so we can respond accordingly. Kind Regards
Debbie D’Aguanno
CRM Manager