[kpowell9]

So I took delivery about 10 days ago and started getting survey requests from BMW a couple of days later and reminders every couple of days. The salesman was aggressive about the survey, telling me how important it is that I fill it out and that I give him all 10s. He said if I give him anything less than a 10 on any item, including the cleanliness of the dealership or anything, that he fails. He said giving him less than 10 is like given a 1, even if it's a 9. When I went in a few days after delivery to do a walkthrough with the BMW Genius, he told me the same thing. That's plain stupid, and as a result I'm not inclined to take the survey. I certainly don't think he should get 10s across the board, but he did a pretty good job. But now I'm afraid if I give him less than a 10 and he actually gets a "fail", the dealership will be pissed and not take care of my maintenance or future business as well as they should. Anyone else get this kind of line from your salespeople? Do you take the survey, and do you give all 10s just to make them happy?

['Cane]

My CA deserved all 10s, so that's what he got.

[jpdchicago]

Gave all 10 as well but they deserved it. I can see your point otherwise. It is annoying that dealers always go through the same thing. 9 is like a 1 etc....Not just BMW...

[Halewafa]

Yeah, same for me. For the most part it was 10's all around, but on a couple of things I do feel like a 8 or 9 was deserved or a "no" instead of a "yes". I just put 10's and "yes" for everything and explained in the box some things I didn't like. Had the same experience a few months ago at the Kia dealership, so not just BMW. I agree, it's lame

[oolas3]

I refuse to take any "survey" that is a sham like this.

[pz619]

The survey honestly is garbage. At this point might as well have the CA fill it out. If BMW ever wants honest feedback they need to make it anonymous and not tie it back to the CAs bonus pay.

Don't get me wrong, my CA was great, but I like giving authentic feedback without having to hit the guy's wallet.

[Tflong24]

The survey is a sham. It is true they get slammed for anything but 10s. When I bought my 15 M3 I gave them a 9 for one category. Salesman didn't get bonus for the entire quarter or something like that and dealership lost money as well. I just purchased a 16 and my experience wasn't that good but they gave a good discount and good money for my trade. The rest of the experience Pretty bad. But I gave them 10s this time as I didn't want to hear them bitch again. It's all a false picture that BMW is getting when the dealers almost beg you to give 10s, especially if it's going to be your service dealership. It's sad.

[BeEmVe]

I used to get those types of surveys. My simple response in the survey was that there is a level of service expected and if one does that they are average. If they go above or below it then I will adjust appropriately. I should add on a couple occasions I have called the business and let them know that these surveys are worthless.

Or as one airline recently said "When everyone is elite, no one is"

[bueller]

They don't send me surveys...

I have a suspicion my surveys are going elsewhere.

It's BS anyway, I would just give them all 10s so I don't have to deal with any nonesesnse later and I would fear that I would not get decent service if I didn't.

B.

[zx10guy]

I've said her in different threads how I slammed my CA when I got the survey from BMW. I didn't just give him a 9...on average he got a 4 (if I remember correctly) and I felt I was being a bit generous when I did. I also didn't hold back in the comments section about his conduct either. I did praise the FI person I had some follow up dealings which was the only bright spot with my horrid experience with this dealership. It actually gives me great satisfaction my survey answers had some financial consequence for this CA.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other BMW dealerships in my area. I haven't been back to that dealership since buying my car.

[Sassicaia]

The survey is a joke. Be "coached" before it comes completely tarnishes any integrity or purpose it has. It should be anonymous, and you shouldnt be asked anything, but to please take it and be honest.

[TheGermanTroll]

Give your honest opinion. If they are worried about a bonus they should be concerned about the service they provide.

[m_thompson]

I got a survey from my Service Adviser. I told the SA that he could fill out the survey if they actually fixed everything that I had complained about. For me, it was a valuable tool.

[Outlaw 06]

We live in an era of participation trophies and rampant grade inflation that's gotten to the point where an "A" is the most common grade earned by undergraduate college students. This type of dishonest and unmerited praise just encourages a sense of entitlement and mediocrity.

Therefore it really doesn’t surprise me to see the prevalence of these types of customer satisfaction surveys where everything is expected to be graded “perfect” and honest customer feedback is discouraged. However, as a businessman, I don’t see how these types of contrived surveys help any business to provide better products and services to its customers.

This has all turned out to be a lot worse than Lake Wobegon, because at least there, all of the children were only above average, not perfect.

[bri1042]

It is nutty. A score of 10? I've gotten service that deserved a perfect score once or twice, but never from a car dealership. I did it anyway, for similar reason stated above. My experience wasn't really even a 6. Some of that was the CA I started with, some of it was others at the dealership that made assumptions or didn't read past the first line in an email, and some it is the unacceptable lack of communication by BMW's logistics (ordering and shipping). A delay at the VPC at the end of the process was nearly the end of BMW buying for me after everything else that had happened. But I gave them 10's. Foolish.

[E91WAG3N]

There are incentives tied to it.

When I worked at a BMW dealership in the early 2000's, salesmen averaging 9.5 at the end of the year would qualify for a 1 year lease that BMWNA paid half of. Our dealership paid half of the remaining half.

IIRC, service advisors got bonuses based on their ratings.

BMW geniuses didn't exist yet.

[bmw1racer]

Local dealership made me pay for a battery replacement that I thought was covered by the warranty, so they didn't earn any 10's from me.

[UPSROD]

In the real world there is almost always room for improvement.....giving all 10's is no way to attain that. BMW is fooling itself if the believe their own surveys!

[SooperGook]

this could affect the salesman's compensation if his average is too low, and all manufacturers have the same approach that anything less than 10 (or 5 if you're honda) is failing on a csi survey. so if you liked your salesman give him 10's so he doesn't get reamed by his manager and potentially take money out of his pocket

[fecurtis]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

I've said her in different threads how I slammed my CA when I got the survey from BMW. I didn't just give him a 9...on average he got a 4 (if I remember correctly) and I felt I was being a bit generous when I did. I also didn't hold back in the comments section about his conduct either. I did praise the FI person I had some follow up dealings which was the only bright spot with my horrid experience with this dealership. It actually gives me great satisfaction my survey answers had some financial consequence for this CA.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other BMW dealerships in my area. I haven't been back to that dealership since buying my car.

Don't mind me asking, which one was it?

I use BMW of Silver Spring, had good experiences every time I come in. I blow through so many of these shitty RFT's that the service department pretty much knows me on a first name basis now.

[davis449]

Originally Posted by bmw1racer

Local dealership made me pay for a battery replacement that I thought was covered by the warranty, so they didn't earn any 10's from me.

Let me see if I understand this. You gave negative reviews to the dealer because you thought something was covered that actually wasn't and got pissed when they charged you for that uncovered item?

Wow...

Here's my story that relates directly to this bullshit above. The day my warranty ended my DMTL pump failed while I was traveling. It was a Saturday at 4:00 PM. There was no way I was going to get to a BMW dealer. Called roadside, they said my warranty was active, offered a flatbed to the dealer for Monday, etc. I declined, the car was more than driveable.

I thought the day your warranty expired was a day covered. I had them document it so my dealer would see it the following week when I took it in, and all would be covered. Well what I thought was wrong. You are no longer covered the day it expires (I interpreted the expiry date to be one of those "do we go on three or 1,2,3 and THEN go types of situations). I didn't pitch a fit and definitely wouldn't have rated them any lower on the survey for informing me my take on their warranty policy wasn't right.

I am always up front with every service adviser that I will always take care of them on the surveys as long as they treat me fairly and will always give them a chance to correct something I feel is wrong before I ever fill the survey out. Up to that point far my dealer had done a good by me (very shocking considering their reputation) so I had rated them as such. Well, surprise surprise, guess what? THEY COVERED IT. Saved me ~$600. Service Adviser (who is now the Service Manager) straight up told me he overrode it and covered it because I had been so good to them on the surveys.

The service adviser he gave me after he became Service Manager is great as well. Always rate him 10's no matter what. Well, when I encountered a wiring issue I hadn't caused while I was way out of warranty my SA knocked off 1.5 hours of labor from my bill for hunting it down. He said "Tech spent 5 hours hunting this down and I know damn well you spent 5 hours on this yourself and you know what you're doing, so consider this me paying you for that effort".

Yeah, sometimes it's better to not be a dick.

[bmw1racer]

Originally Posted by davis449

Let me see if I understand this. You gave negative reviews to the dealer because you thought something was covered that actually wasn't and got pissed when they charged you for that uncovered item?

The car was a little over two years old... Why shouldn't it have been covered by the warranty?

That said, I did get my money back after some considerable complaining.