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Watchdog: Two-month wait for door handle

Peter Matthews ordered a door handle for his BMW in November. He waited months for it to arrive

Peter Matthews

By Jon Morgan

08th February 2012

When you buy a car from a premium marque, you expect the build quality to be almost as good as if it were hand-crafted. And given the time it’s taken BMW to supply a replacement driver’s side door handle for reader Peter Matthews’ 2011 5 Series, we assumed it was being carved by hand at the Munich factory.

An order was placed for the part on 15 November last year. By mid-January, there was still no sign of it. What’s more, nobody at BMW was able to give Peter, from Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, an idea of when he could expect to get the part, nor why it had already taken two months.

“BMW is supposed to be the largest manufacturer of premium vehicles in the world,” said an incredulous Peter. “How can it take two months to get such a basic part?” Even more galling, Peter put in some calls to rival premium brands, posing as a customer and asking how long it would take each to supply a handle. All of them said it would take a matter of days.

“The guy I spoke to at Lexus said that, as they had to order the part from Japan, it would take 48 hours,” Peter told us. “But then he said as it was Christmas, and a little quieter than usual, they might be able to do it in 24 hours. Unbelievable!”

A BMW spokeswoman told us that, typically, a 5 Series owner should expect to only wait for around 48 hours for a new door handle. And the reason why Peter had faced such a lengthy delay? “The initial order got lost in the system, and this wasn’t picked up until December,” she confessed. “This is much longer than expected should an order fall off the dealer’s system.” She added that the part had now been sent out to Peter’s dealer.

We asked the spokeswoman how BMW intended to make amends for its shoddy service. “Customer services have not yet discussed compensation with Mr Matthews,” was all she was prepared to say.


The problem
An absurdly long wait for a door handle. Peter was at his wit’s end after being without his 5 Series for two months while BMW tried to find one for him.

BMW response
BMW admitted it had lost the order. It did eventually provide Peter with a courtesy car, but hasn’t offered any compensation for his lost time.

Legal advice
Peter could have tried to reject the car, but there’s no guarantee of success. Motor Codes can intervene with makers to get deliveries prioritised. It can also help to secure a courtesy car if one hasn’t been provided.

Our verdict
Buy a premium car, and you expect quality service. You deserve it, too. BMW messed up, which can happen from time to time, but doesn’t seem too keen to make amends – and that’s particularly disappointing.

Do you have a motoring problem that needs investigating? We're here to help… E-mail mail@autoexpress.co.uk or Tweet us @AutoExpress.

For an alternative review of the latest BMW 5-Series visit our sister site carbuyer.co.uk

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7 Comments

When are people going to learn!

BMW are not a premium brand, they have just done very well through clever advertising to make you believe that.

The are no more special than Ford or Vauxhall, infact take the RWD out of the equation and the Ford and Vauxhall surpass the BM in every single way.

By AndyG on 8 February, 2012, 12:46pm

door handle? what about a stolen car in a dealership ....

here in Belgium my friend's car was stolen from the official bmw dealership .... the approach taken by the dealer was shocking ... after long delays and incurring substantial loss, my friend got a compensation. so next time I bring my car for maintenance I am really afraid if I get it back.

By mooney058 on 9 February, 2012, 7:38am

One cock up, out of potentially hundreds of thousands, does not constitute to them being a bad brand.

Human error falls into play in every industry. Because of this, some people die, and other don't get their door handle as soon as they would expect. It's life!

Geez, talk about taking it out of proportion.

By wingman on 9 February, 2012, 8:55am

What did the driver do?

I agree to a large degree with wingman s sentiments.

I run a vehicle leasing business and so get involved in a wide range of issues with most of the manufacturers to resolve client problems.

1. I have never owned a BMW and have no desire to own one just because it is a 'premium' brand - in fact aside from Jaguar no other premium brand holds any real allure for me, and that is partly beause it is a British brand (ignore the ownership issue). BUT I have to say that in my dealings with BMW they have mostly been very customer focussed and usually very efficient. So I would say this is the exception rather than the rule for them

2. Is the vehicle leased? If so is it on a maintained contract? If so why wasn't the leasing company involved in getting the issue resolved?

3. Was this a Warranty issue? If so then there is usually a requirement for the manufacturer to provide a vehicle until the affected vehicle is back on the road should a part be unavailable or on back order. The dealer should have been much more proactive in this regard. I suspect that the real problem in this issue lies with the dealer rather than BMW.

4. Why didn't the driver take the matter into his own hands and contact the BMW Customer Services dept, asking them to raise this as a query and requesting a response within 48hrs?

5. I agree with the comment above about Ford in particular. If the so called 'premium' brands aren't careful there are going to be a lot of their current customers looking at Ford again. Why? Because they produce an excellent and mostly desirable product (once driven). The current Mondeo is superb - just wait for the new one! The new Focus is a driving revelation. The S-Max is possibly the best vehicle £ for £ on the market. The new C-Max has shed it's dowdy image and should be attracting a much wider audience. Even the likes of Citroen are producing a desirable range of cars, in particular with the DS4 and DS5.

The 'premium' brands are going to have to fight a lot harder to justify their position over the next couple of years.

By Chizzy57 on 9 February, 2012, 9:51am

BMW v Ford

Having been a very satisfied Ford owner for the last 17 yrs. Last February 2011 I ordered a new Focus estate with all the options. However after placing the order Ford delayed one of the options and by the start of 2012 still could not give me a delivery date so I cancelled the order and placed an order on BMW for a 5 series (with even more options than the ford) 4 weeks later the BMW had been build and shipped and delivered to me. So even if they could not deliver a door handle they could build a complete car and deliver it. But I do agree that generally a high spec Ford will compete with BMW especially when you consider price. My only let down with the BMW is they haven't fitted the active radiator grill (for improved economy and emissions) which I was lead to believe it would come with. And for all its supposed technology is not returning any more mpg than my 4.5 yr old Galaxy even though on paper it should.

By eskdale on 9 February, 2012, 10:57am

Premium?

Premium? I consider them the modern successor to the Cortina and Granada. RWD saloons that are everywhere.

By SirWiggum2 on 9 February, 2012, 5:47pm

6 months for new car?


I ordered a new Cmax 2.0 TDCI Titanium Auto on 18 July 2011 and took delivery on 13 January 2012. In the intrim period I was informed in December that it would be a 2012 build and that it no longer would include power fold mirrors. Since taking delivery I have noticed that the BLIS (blind spot information) is also missing from the mirrors. AND THE BIGGEST OMMISSION was that the fold down aircraft style trays fitted to the rear of the front seats as per brochure and spec. at the time were missing. Here I am stilli waitibng for an explaination from my dealer four weeks later.
Bad show by Ford and its agents........

By dodgee on 10 February, 2012, 3:29pm

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