Anon B

Liars, charlatans and thieves

Was my title a bit too ambiguous? So I think I'm one of the lucky ones. This episode of dealing with Stratstone Leeds only left me out of pocket by £250 which all things considered, could have been far far worse. What sticks in my craw the most though, is it was totally unnecessary. I got a vehicle recall on my older BMW. It was for a loose battery connection. The problem was I got the same vehicle recall, I mean identical, the year before. But it is listed on your MOT history and the person at Stratstone reassured me that although it looked 'exactly' the same, it was somehow...different. So I booked my car in. And they did a health check recommending £3400 of repairs. This included £1200 for 3 new tyres when I could have got 4 for £700 fitted. And other things which I declined since I have a good independent that I trust to do the work. Key word, 'Trust'. And the battery connection was not an issue. I knew that as I'd inspected the car several times myself as I'm an engineer by trade. However, when I got the car back, all clean and shiny (the valeting was decent and free) I found the dash cam had been unplugged. And when I tried to plug it back in I found I could not. On closer inspection I found the central pin in the 12V DC socket had been bent to one side. So I took it back to the dealer and they recentered it. Unfortunately, it still did not work afterwards. So I went back in. They told me they'd have to speak to the technician to see what they'd done. They admitted that they would have unplugged it because of 'security' issues with the car being around other expensive BMWs in the workshop. But that hadn't stopped them from leaving another customer's expensive BMW keys in my car when I'd picked it up. Luckily for that customer I returned said keys to the dealership rather than returning to steal it later that evening. When I phoned back the next day to find out what the technician had admitted to, which was a clear 'we never touched it guv'. I had to explain that they'd broken my previously perfectly working dashcam. The customer service agent told me that it was impossible as they'd never touched the dashcam until I reminded them that they'd told me they'd unplugged it for security issues the day before. 'But how do you know it was even working when you brought the car in?' Because I had footage of their technicians driving it around the dealer compound... Proving it was fully working until they got their hands on it. The customer service agent who insisted I give them a 9 out of 10 on the customer satisfaction survey then talked over me and made it clear that Stratstone were not going accept liability for the broken dashcam. Then when I asked to speak to the manager they followed up many hours later with more 'it wasn't us' denials. So I'm just going to have to accept that I took my car in for a needless check-up and ended up with a broken dashcam. Obviously, I needed a backup camera to watch the main dashcam being destroyed. Lesson learned Now I got off lucky. Because I was looking to buy a new car in the new year and it would have been a BMW but now I know for sure that it will not be from Stratstone Leeds. So for £250 they have saved me a great deal of future trouble. And judging by the reviews on here I am not alone.