BMW Warranty Issue

wmat983

My partner bought a used BMW 7 weeks ago with 12 months warranty. She was driving and BOTH dipped headlights failed. She brought car into local BMW garage and as they said she could bring it in to be looked at as under warranty.

The guy at BMW said she's going to have to book the car in as looks like a problem with the electrics somewhere, if it was just the bulbs we could replace them today he said. 

Anyway, they have now phones her up and said it was not under warranty saying it was wear and tear and that she had to pay for new bulbs and hours labour also.

Do you think she should have to pay baring in mind she took car in and they said it wasn't faulty bulbs and there was a fault elsewhere. She never gave the go ahead also for the work as she believed it was getting covered under the warranty as there was an electrical fault?

victor2

It sounds like they replaced the bulbs, it didn't fix it, so they followed "the computer says" instructions until they fixed it. Now they want to charge for everything they've done. Complain to the dealer manager for a start, then escalate it to BMW if you don't get a satisfactory result.

On-the-coast

Both at same time?
that would be very unlikely as wear&tear in my opinion.   

Mildly_Miffed

On-the-coast said:

Both at same time?
that would be very unlikely as wear&tear in my opinion.   

I've had it before.

Both dip working on journey to destination.
Get in the car to come home, turn lights on... Bright, dim, bright, out.
Neither dip was working. And, yes, it was both bulbs...
I owned that car for 100k miles over seven years, and never had a problem with the dip any other time, before or after.

But I'd question how old this BMW is to have "bulbs"...

Also - she took it into the main dealer to have the headlights fixed, and is now complaining about the cost of two bulbs and an hour's labour...? Bulbs are never going to be covered by any warranty...

born_again

welshmatt983 said:

My partner bought a used BMW 7 weeks ago with 12 months warranty. She was driving and BOTH dipped headlights failed. She brought car into local BMW garage and as they said she could bring it in to be looked at as under warranty.

The guy at BMW said she's going to have to book the car in as looks like a problem with the electrics somewhere, if it was just the bulbs we could replace them today he said. 

Anyway, they have now phones her up and said it was not under warranty saying it was wear and tear and that she had to pay for new bulbs and hours labour also.

Do you think she should have to pay baring in mind she took car in and they said it wasn't faulty bulbs and there was a fault elsewhere. She never gave the go ahead also for the work as she believed it was getting covered under the warranty as there was an electrical fault?

Warranty often will not cover lights.
You would need to check the T/C on warranty. Especially if it was a 3rd party warranty. Which it sounds like it is given no mention of purchasing from a BMW dealer.

wmat983

born_again said:

welshmatt983 said:

My partner bought a used BMW 7 weeks ago with 12 months warranty. She was driving and BOTH dipped headlights failed. She brought car into local BMW garage and as they said she could bring it in to be looked at as under warranty.

The guy at BMW said she's going to have to book the car in as looks like a problem with the electrics somewhere, if it was just the bulbs we could replace them today he said. 

Anyway, they have now phones her up and said it was not under warranty saying it was wear and tear and that she had to pay for new bulbs and hours labour also.

Do you think she should have to pay baring in mind she took car in and they said it wasn't faulty bulbs and there was a fault elsewhere. She never gave the go ahead also for the work as she believed it was getting covered under the warranty as there was an electrical fault?

Warranty often will not cover lights.
You would need to check the T/C on warranty. Especially if it was a 3rd party warranty. Which it sounds like it is given no mention of purchasing from a BMW dealer.

Yes it was bought from main BMW dealership.

Yes I know if it was bulbs then this would be wear and tear but was told it wasn't bulbs when she brought it in and might be an electrical fault or something. Due to this she believed it was going to be done under warranty. However, she got a call back saying it was bulbs (after being told it wasn't) and was not covered. They never asked if she would like them to carry on with the job either.

born_again

Many dealers charge a diagnostic fee. Which is only refunded if a warranty claim.

wmat983

born_again said:

Many dealers charge a diagnostic fee. Which is only refunded if a warranty claim.

But again she took car in and they told her it wasn't bulbs otherwise they would have done it there and then and that was the reason why it had to be booked in as fault elsewhere. 

As far as she was aware it wasn't bulbs as that's what she got told by BMW initially. 

Should they notify you before carrying out any chargeable work to give you a choice if you want to pay to have work done there or take to another garage etc? Obviously if you think there is a fault and cars under main dealer warranty you would take it there first.

Mildly_Miffed

welshmatt983 said:

Should they notify you before carrying out any chargeable work to give you a choice if you want to pay to have work done there or take to another garage etc? Obviously if you think there is a fault and cars under main dealer warranty you would take it there first.

They've spent time diagnosing whether it's a warranty fault or not. They found out it isn't, because it's a consumable that's failed through age and wear.

They could have put the dead bulbs back in and charge you an hour's labour for that diagnosis. Would you have preferred that?

wmat983

Mildly_Miffed said:

welshmatt983 said:

Should they notify you before carrying out any chargeable work to give you a choice if you want to pay to have work done there or take to another garage etc? Obviously if you think there is a fault and cars under main dealer warranty you would take it there first.

They've spent time diagnosing whether it's a warranty fault or not. They found out it isn't, because it's a consumable that's failed through age and wear.

They could have put the dead bulbs back in and charge you an hour's labour for that diagnosis. Would you have preferred that?

Maybe they shouldn't have said it wasn't your bulbs gone and that your car will be booked in and covered under warranty?

400ixl

She would get charged an hours labour minimum for diagnostics regardless if it is not a warranty issue. Which she has authorised by having them do the diagnostics.

So if they have just charged for that and the price of the bulbs then I don't see the issue. If she had refused the bulbs being changed she would still have to pay for the diagnostics.

So unless she believes she could have gone elsewhere to buy the bulbs and fitted them herself (or had them fitted by whoever supplied them) for less than they charged for the bulbs only, then there isn't much to complain about.