BMW/Rallye Motors Customer Service is NO service

["Ganess, Sean" <sg04537@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Terrible.  If I had to use one word to summarize BMW's customer service and
the dealership that I purchased the car from, that's what I would use.
Some background:

My 1997 ///M3 Sedan was delivered in early February of 1997 from Rallye
Motors of Roslyn, NY (a BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls Royce dealership).  The
car has about 14,000 miles on it now in roughly 21 months of ownership.  I
drive it only on weekends and once or twice a week between Monday and
Friday for work.  At about 7-8000 miles or 8 months ago, my car developed an
intermittent lifter ticking problem.  On my first trip to the dealership,
they were unable to diagnose the problem because they were unable to
recreate it.  Eventually, the ticking became more and more frequent,
usually at startup and then going away after a few minutes.  Shortly
thereafter, a
temporary location switch at my job required me to drive approximately 80
miles roundtrip for one week with about 9.5K on the odometer.  At the end
of that week, the engine was constantly ticking.  I took my car in to the
dealer to have it looked at for a second time and they replaced a lifter
and two spark plugs which took one week.  The problem went away but started
again at around 11.5K on the odometer.  At this time, another problem
surfaced.  The car's Check Engine light came on twice in one week, each
time the car idled roughly and had almost no acceleration (0-30 in about 12
seconds), yet restarting the car cleared up the problem.  This also
happened twice in the past but each incident was never close to each other
and the
problem went away in a few minutes.  When it did happened I took it to the
dealership to have it looked at and both times the OBD recorded "no fault."
I made an appointment and the earliest date they could get me was 5 weeks
away.  After explaining the history, I got an appointment 3 weeks away.  I
called BMW NA customer service for the first time to complain about the
service and to document all the problems I had with this car.  Within these
three weeks, the rough idling got worse and out of frustration, I drove the
car to Rallye Motors on a Friday night after the service department was
closed and left it with a BMW salesperson and demanded that the car be
looked at first thing Monday morning.  I also made this salesperson drive
the car in its "rough idle" mode to prove to them that even though the OBD
might say "no fault" there is a fault.  Monday afternoon, the service
department became aware of my problem.  After over a week and one
crankshaft sensor replaced, I got the car back with no ticking and no "rough
idle"
mode only to find that my aftermarket Sony headunit was damaged and the left
turn signal no longer functioning.  I brought it back the same day to have
the
turn signal fixed and was told it will take 1 hour to do.  Not so.  They
didn't have the right part in stock after I was told on the phone before
bringing it in that they did have the part.  So I left the car there.  They
ordered the part.  They received the wrong part.  After almost a week
later, I got the car back with a working turn signal but with the four
aftermarket
valve caps with the Motorsports logo on my tires stolen.  I complained to
Rallye's customer service with an empty promise that someone will call me
to resolve the problem.  Three weeks have past and now the ticking is back
constantly.  On Sunday, (11/15) I called BMW NA customer service at
approximately 3:30AM to complain and was told someone will call me on
Monday.  Nobody called.  I called again on Tuesday and was told that
someone from Rallye Motors will call in two days.  Nobody called.  I called
again
on Thursday only to find that the person handling my case will not be in
until
the following Tuesday.  The person I spoke to promised that someone will
call on Friday.  Nobody called.  I also called several times after hours
during the week and was told that they would forward my requests to the
daytime staff.  Nobody called.  So here it is almost 1 week later and all
BMW of North America and Rallye Motors has done is record my complaint.
I've requested that my car be repaired.  I also requested that the
corporate office to reimburse the purchase price of the car.  Not a peep
from anyone.

Other things that have gone wrong with my car:

Air conditioner leak - had to bring it in twice for this
SRS sensor in seatbelt buckle failed within the first three weeks of
ownership
Battery holddown clamp not holding - had to bring it in twice for this.
The first time they just screwed the clamp into a different position which
didn't even touch the battery.
Suspension squeak from front driver's side tire
Squeak from steering column - they removed the entire steering column to
fix this.  This is probably when they broke the turn signal
Tire jack clamp in trunk broken

Carelessness of the Rallye Motors technicians:

On the second trip to the dealer, they failed to put the cover over the
bolt for the  engine cover.
Blue pen mark on the front passenger seat.  I keep only one pen it my car
in the glove box and it's black.
They changed the oil twice for me.  The first time the oil filter canister
bolt was not torqued correctly and oil leaked from there.  The second time
was at Inspection I.  I changed the oil myself after that.  The crush
washers were missing on the drain bolt and the oil filter canister.

When the car works, it's great car and I love it.  Unfortunately, it's
nowhere near as reliable as my 1994 Nissan Sentra.  It never went back to
the dealership for anything.  It isn't as fun to drive, though.  I
seriously doubt I'll ever purchase anything from Rallye Motors again.  I'm
not even
sure if I'll even buy a BMW again and I had my heart set on the new ///M5.

One of my major concerns of this is the resale value of my car.  A service
record like this can't be good.  Any comments?

I'll post a follow-up later...

Sean Ganess
BMW Car Club of America #147592

CC:     alt.autos.bmw
        fido7.su.cars.bmw
        rec.autos.makers.bmw
        wiz.bmw
        Rallye Motors
        BMW North America Customer Service
        Roundel
        E36 M3 Mailing List
        BMW Digest
        BMW E36 Digest

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