The Struggle Of Finding A Good Indie Shop [UPDATE]

"sefeing, actually bought an E46" (sefeing90) 02/15/2019 at 12:49 • Filed to: Repairs, BMW

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Would love for someone to check me on this, to know if this is a fair reason to be stressed / mildly upset.

Ever since the shop that my dad’s gone to for the last 25 years closed down, finding a good, reputable shop in Queens has been a crapshoot. Here’s my current story.

So, to start, I did research and found this shop on google / yelp - they had lots of good reviews, and on their website they list they’re manufacturer certified by BMW. Good things, in my head, and they’re a short walk away. This is important because I don’t drive to work, so no matter what, dropping the car off at a shop is out of my way.

Dropped the BMW off on Wednesday morning, 8AM on my way in to work at the shop that did it’s first oil change, about a 7 minute walk from my apartment to have the rumbling noise looked at. My guess, is it’s either a guibo or the center support bearing, stemming from all the research I’ve found. I explained the issue to the shop, and let them know that this is what I believed the issue may be. They said no problem, we’ll take a look and get it out on the road to check it out. I ask if they have any idea how long it’ll take to get an estimate, and how long to expect them to be to repair, whatever it is, as long as the repair is in reason - the service writer tells me I’ll know by end of day, and that I’ll definitely have the car back before the weekend. Today, as I’m writing this is Friday.

5pm rolls around, and I still haven’t heard anything, so I call the shop. The woman who picks up says that they haven’t gotten to the car yet. I express that I’m a bit surprised by this, as I dropped it off first thing in the morning, and had made an appointment two days earlier to bring it in this time, this day. She says they had a tech not come in, and that the boss had left for the day, but that the tech on staff was instructed to diagnose the car before he left for the night.

I call back 1PM the next day (yesterday), and the service writer that I dropped the car off tells me they haven’t identified the issue yet, but they swapped the wheels front to back to see if that’s the issue. He says don’t worry, we’ll give you a call. I ask again “will this be ready by the weekend?” He says yes, and not to worry.

Today, it’s nearing 1PM, and I still don’t have a repair estimate that I’ve agreed to, much less a diagnosis of what’s wrong with my vehicle. I’m giving them another 20 minutes, and then I’ll call them to see what’s up. We had planned to see some wedding venues tomorrow and over the weekend, which is why I’m fairly upset at this point that I have no update, and was led to expect that I’d have it back by the weekend.

As long as I can pick the car up at 8am when they open tomorrow, Saturday, I’ll be pleased, but the silence really is disturbing. They’re one of the top rated shops in the area, and one of the 2 that I can walk to. There’s one a little bit closer that’s a very small shop, that I may take my business to next time...

I understand repairs and diagnosis take time, but am I wrong to be frustrated?

UPDATE:

I called the shop, and they said they think it’s a bend in one of the other wheels, not something in the driveline like I thought it was. They said they swapped the wheels front to back, which seemed to change the noise & checked the driveline and didn’t find an issue. I’m going to take their word here, and have the other 2 wheels repaired, as well as have an alignment done. Picking the car up tomorrow so I can have it for the weekend, and then dropping it back off on Tuesday.

Fingers crossed.

smobgirl > sefeing, actually bought an E46 02/15/2019 at 13:17

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I’d really love to hear from some folks with experience in how they prioritize diagnosis/repairs. I absolutely lost it with a shop once where I’d had an issue halfway across the country, called and confirmed they could look at it ASAP before getting towed there, and then...crickets. They played that game for 2 days while I kept paying for hotel rooms and watching TV. At the very least, they need to be calling and keeping you updated instead of playing dumb.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > smobgirl 02/15/2019 at 13:37

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If they’re doing it right?

- Anyone who is stranded gets immediate top priority
- Waiters (that is: people waiting on their car)
-> Waiters get DIAGNOSIS priority but not repair priority
-> Waiters get REPAIR priority for maintenance (e.g. LOF, tire rotate, etc.)
- Pre-arranged schedule
- Walk-in/Drop-off
- “I have another car, so no rush.”

edit: I neglected to mention, just because you get top priority, does not mean you get fixed that hour. Or that day. Or that week . If the parts are NOT on hand? The parts are not on hand. There is NOTHING that can be done about that. And if the parts are NOT on hand, the mechanic NEEDS to move on to another car that they do have the parts on hand for. (Remember, you are NOT the only customer!)

Any decent shop will do their level best to fix as many cars as they possibly can as quickly as they possibly can. Cars sitting in bays waiting on parts, means cars they aren’t fixing in those bays. They do not want to hang onto your car for any longer than is absolutely necessary, but they are at the mercy of Just In Time (Sometimes) logistics.

smobgirl > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 02/15/2019 at 15:18

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I really appreciate the run-down! I forgot to add, in my situation they were waiting on a part (understandable) but the communication was just horrible. They never called me and the person answering the phone didn’t have that info - I had to walk back to the shop to get someone who could help.

I just never know as a customer when it’s legit to be frustrated if, say, a scheduled oil change suddenly needs 12 hours to complete. I’d rather hear that they had some emergency work come in than have them tell me they needed to order oil for my car (seriously?!?).

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > smobgirl 02/15/2019 at 15:33

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Yeah, in situations like that, a complete lack of communication, well, it depends.

If they already gave you a specific time when they will have the work done , then it’s totally normally to not call you until the car’s done. (They have to juggle a lot of phone calls daily.)

But if the part doesn’t show up or they’re going to need more time than expected and they know it, they should call you to give you an update. As soon as they know that information. Sometimes they can’t because they don’t know it’s going to take longer than expected - or how long - until after the mechanic’s already started digging in. (Remember, they go by the book. The book says how many hours. Just because the book says does not mean it will take that long though.) But if it’s 4:30 and the mechanic says “I’m not gonna be done today” they should be calling you right away.

Routine shit like oil changes, there’s ZERO excuse for needing excessively long. Period. No matter what car. One, oil changes don’t get done by mechanics unless they’re short on real work - they’re done by lube techs and apprentices. Two, oil changes are largely PASSIVE. Remove drain plug, go do something else while it empties. 2+ at a time. The only real exception here is tire rotations and the like - but they should be immediately calling you since you’ll have to pay for the studs and lugs that Iffy Lube fucked up by torquing to ft/lbs.

10-15 minutes over, there’s no reason to freak out (the apprentice may be doing extra hands work for a mechanic or in the bathroom ) but when they say 30 minutes and it’s been an hour, it’s definitely time to politely   ask why it’s taking so long. If they’re scheduling in such a way that they’re backing up like that, they shouldn’t be, simple as that.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > sefeing, actually bought an E46 02/15/2019 at 15:51

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I don't like throwing shops under the bus, but I've never had a bent wheel cause a noise. I'm not there, I haven't heard the noise. But that's my two cents. Does it have a vibration?

sefeing, actually bought an E46 > AMGtech - now with more recalls! 02/17/2019 at 06:49

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It does. - I was skeptical too, but a bent wheel can definitely throw things out of balance. They swapped the tires front to back and let me have the car back for the weekend, and the noise is still there, but worse now, which leads me to believe that it may be the bent wheels. 

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > sefeing, actually bought an E46 02/17/2019 at 13:06

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Gotta start with what you know! Even if it doesn't fix the noise, fixing the wheels will take care of the most obvious issue and check an item off the list.