engine and drivetrain Repair Shop Advice(Rear Main Oil Leak)

[Timo02]

Some of you may have seen what follows below under my other post regarding a Rear Main Seal Leak. I am re-posting the contents here, slightly edited, and in the hopes of getting some good advice.

Background:

My'71 '02 has been back in the repair shop for over 6 business days now and a rear main seal oil leak still has not been repaired. I have not been by the shop to see the car as they close before I can make to their location after work( it is about 40 miles away from my office).

I am now starting to doubt if they have even started on the job yet and today when I called them I was told that they "do not have any answers for me" and are "waiting to get everything ready" i.e. the rear seal installed into a new rear cover so when they drop the transmission out they can replace it.

IMHO this is getting more than a bit excessive as most other repair shops I've dealt with (on BMW's and brand-X cars as well) give return repair work (aka "come backs") top priority. When I first told them about the excessive oil leak after I had had the car back for only two days from the 1st visit (after they replaced the rear main seal the first time) one of the shop owners told me that "he has my number and will call me when he can fit me in". I called back in the very next day and spoke with the other owner and he told me to bring the car right down which I in turn did and it has been there ever since. Every-time I call in I reach only the one shop owner, the 1st one mentioned above, who seems to try to give me the brush off. I have called them a total of four times since the car has been brought back into them, twice last week and twice so far this week.

As stated above the purpose of this post is to get advice and ideas from fellow '02 owners on which way I should proceed from here: BAR/Dept of Consumer Affairs...ect...ect...? I don't want to make threats or bad mouth this repair shop in anyway as they have done some good work for me in the past. However there are some basic facts that I simply can't ignore any longer:

1)The shop has my money, over $1,000.00 for all/other repair work done.

2)The shop has my car and it is still not fixed after nearly a month.

The original date I took the car into the shop for the 1st visit was on 01/30/06. Yes, I am taking into consideration that this is 35 year old vintage car and some parts may be hard to get a hold of however I still believe their slowness, *poor communication* and general lack of service is un-acceptable. This said shop in question advertises themselves as local independent BMW and Mercedes Specialist.

At this point I know one thing for sure, after I get my '02 back from them I will never recommend any BMW owner to them ever again. All advice and comments on this topic are very welcome.

Thank you.

[Zenon]

That sucks. You have a good right to be pissed - they made the problem they were supposed to fix much worse! My guess is that they buggered the pan gasket when they replaced the rear seal since the bottom of the seal holder is against the pan. Or did they also replace the pan gasket? Other than for curiousity it actually does not matter to you - it is their problem.

A raging oil leak is an obvious sort of problem - not like a subtle or intermittent running fault that only occurs when the moon is full and you are driving to a Taco Bell but not a Jack in the Box. They should be able to figure it out as soon as they get in there, and they should be making fixing it a priority since you already paid for the job to have been done.

Regardless of your moral ground, you still must interact carefully since short of legal action or firearms you cannot really force them to do anything, can you? All you have over them is the fact you may still be their repeat customer and not bad-mouth them so if it is obvious you will never go back and will trash them to whoever will listen, they won't have much incentive, will they?

The key is to express your dismay firmly, dispassionately articulate exactly what will make you happy, and not make it personal. Don't push them into a corner by casting aspersions on their workmanship - say "stuff happens" and give them a chance to save face but still do what you want. If you make them hate you, they may just write you off - especially if you are dealing with the proprietor. Showing an understanding of their situation may also help - maybe they really are busy and booked and the guys are already burned out. Not that it excuses them brushing you off, of course, just show that you are willing to work with them as long as they work with you.

Most businesses don't realize what a great thing a problem can be for them, despite the initial hassle, cost, and disappointment for both sides. When I worked in technical support, I found that the customers with serious problems - even ones that were completely our mistake - would often become our most loyal, hard-core supporters IF they were treated fairly and with respect. The problem truly became an opportunity to bond with the customer in a way that a "perfect" transaction would never allow.

On the other side of the coin, though, if a customer's very first post-sale interaction with me started with insults, threats of legal action, or general pissy-ness before I had a chance to do anything to fix things, then you can bet they would not be getting the VIP treatment from me, either. And yet... more often than not, after everyone calmed down, some of those guys became loyal supporters as well!

Good luck man. Your story is one of many reasons why I am so hardcore with the DIY repairs. I have only myself to blame for problems, but then I can solve them myself or take the extra time and care to avoid them, too.

regards,

Zenon

[Timo02]

Hi Zenon,

Thanks for the moral support and great advice. You sound just like my friend who claims the only way to get anything done correctly in this day and age is to DIY all the way. He owns several cars, including a few exotics, that he does all the work on. It takes a lot of his time to do this work but he can rest assured at the end of the day that the job is done correctly. There is a lot to be said for this and I am starting to fall into this camp.

At any rate I am planning on giving them a little more time, like a few more days to bring it up to two full calender weeks since they have had the car back for the 2nd go around. If the work is not completed by that time I will take some time off of work and pull the car out of their shop, in a peaceful manner, and either do the job myself on a weekend or have another shop complete job. Of course if it should come to this I will then at that point file a claim with the BAR/Dept of Consumer Affairs. My goal here is not to bad mouth anyone but to recover what is rightfully mine and to let the folks at Consumer Affairs know that this repair shop does not provide good service an d are very poor at communication with the client.

I have never had to do anything like this before and hopefully it will not come to this.

Some of my clients and friends have advised me it is a good idea to pay for large repair jobs using a credit card that way if the shop (or any merchant for that matter) does not do good work or fails to deliver as promised then the cc company can intercede and hopefully at least some dollars can be recovered. At best it sounds like a long shot to me. Does anyone on the board have experience with this?

At this point all I want is my '02 back in running order and leak free just as it was running for the past five years.

All the best,

[Guest Anonymous]

Good luck man. Your story is one of many reasons why I am so hardcore with the DIY repairs. I have only myself to blame for problems, but then I can solve them myself or take the extra time and care to avoid them, too.

regards,

Zenon

I totally agree man. In my town the VW dealer was the place to take BMWs. They even had a tech who had a 2002 at one time. They were honest, fast and never messed with me. They even gave me a deal when I was a college student

That was then, this is now.. they no longer service anything but VWs and their labour costs and quality has apparentlly changed as well!

I dont trust any other shops in our redneck town, as they all only serve domestic, and they get $$$ in the eyes when you say BMW. soo.. like you, i've learnt to DIY.

By the way, the last pro labour I had done on my E28 messed up. I had a hgue driveline vibration, and thought that the center bearing went on the driveshaft!!!! nope. what happened was that the !@$!@! shop replaced my driveshaft and didn't torque/locktite the bolts holding the front of the driveshaft on. I lost a bolt! bah.

one thin im doing when i get into the house market.. i'm buying a 4 post lift. That alone would make things MUCH easier.