Connor

SYTNER HIGH WYCOMBE REVIEW

My first experience of buying a premium brand car from a BMW main dealership. How disappointing it is to be so keen to buy a car, only to be let down by the “premium” experience that the dealership gives to you as a buying customer. I say premium because when you buy a BMW, which is a premium brand, you expect a premium experience at the dealership from where you purchase it. Sadly, this has not been the case with Sytner BMW in High Wycombe. The catalogue of events unfolded like this: When presented with the fact that a higher specification vehicle in the same dealer group (but not of the specification I actually wanted) with less miles was at the same price, there was no explanation and no effort to find out why this was. It seems that Sytner, as a group, like to pull their prices out of a magic hat, sometimes pulling a goofy rabbit with their vehicle valuations, the goofy rabbit spreading goofy customer service to some of the staff too. The BMW I was looking to purchase was at a Sytner dealership in Sheffield and I called the High Wycombe dealership, asking if they could transport it to their showroom for me to view and test drive, as this was more convenient to me. They agreed to put the car on a transporter and get it in for me, which was nice of them (and standard practice - no favours being done here). However, when the car was “transported” it was actually driven from Sheffield to High Wycombe, adding extra miles to the car. Not only adding miles to the car but also adding a new scratch too. Further to this messy start, while inspecting the car in the sunlight, it was apparent that there had been some kind of a respray along the whole of the drivers side but mainly the top of the door. When challenged about this, the sales manager, Ben Lear, was adamant that this was “within our standards” and “not a problem”, even though I expressed that it was a terrible respray and should be corrected. At the very least, there should have been offered a correction for this, in the form of a new respray of the areas in question and not just a “shrug” of the shoulders and “that’s it mate, take it or leave it” attitude. So much for customer service, let alone “premium” service from a premium brand. Even further to this, upon my continuing inspection, the car had tragically grown a large scratch on the rear bumper, as clear as day. The scratch was not visible in the photos online, so this was something new. It was also something that, had I not brought it up with the dealership, they would have happily sold the car to me, regardless. To add insult to injury, upon discussing this issue (and the terrible respray along the drivers side), the sales manager, Ben Lear, made out that the dealership would be doing us a favour by respraying the bumper. Maybe this sales manager should go back to BMW management training as this kind of problem is not a favour to the customer, it is essential that any damage should be fixed prior to handover (which could have been avoided if they had transported the car and not driven it). This was always common practice for the premium brand dealership that I had worked for. There was no goodwill at all in this experience, no “feeling valued as a customer”. The sales manager, Ben Lear, could not care less if I bought the car or not, he was not prepared to fix any issues with the car except the “favour” of respraying the bumper. While talking about the finance, we asked the sales person and business manager that maybe a first service could be given as a goodwill gesture because of the bad respray but this was flatly refused by Ben Lear. Even the staff we spoke to were quite shocked by the attitude we were getting. Is this how a premium brand such as BMW is treating its customers now? It seems so, though I have family members who have bought BMW’s from other dealerships and have had amazing experiences, all problems fixed with the car and driven away feeling like they have bought into a great brand with great service behind them. This is not the case at BMW Sytner in High Wycombe. The BMW in question was selling as an approved used car for £27,500. It drove very well and ticked all of the boxes for my purchase. The problems that are in evidence with the car, should not be a problem for any dealership to work out. It seems that Sytner High Wycombe are not the place to buy a car from if you want a premium brand experience. They do not have your best interests at heart, have no goodwill whatsoever and could not care less if you buy a car from them or not. With this attitude, quite frankly they are no better than a back street second-hand car dealer. In the end, I bought the car because this is the car I want. There are so few of these cars for sale with the specification I wanted, that I had no choice. The experience has been severely lacking and I would never recommend BMW Sytner High Wycombe to anybody. BMW head office will receive a copy of my review and I sincerely hope they give this dealership some guidance because they need it badly. A message for Andy Clements, Managing Director of Sytner High Wycombe - on your website it says “As a team, we are totally committed to delivering the highest possible level of customer service” with your name proudly next to this message - my advice to you is to remove this “pledge” of yours and put something a little more accurate. Further reading of your Google reviews tells an interesting story too, especially your replies to disgruntled customers, saying you are “sorry to read that on this occasion we have not delivered upon our pledge”, repeating this same line to customers who have had a bad experience. Where is your effort to actually rectify any of these problems? I don’t see any action at all, just a head held in shame that you are unable to offer good service. You should be spearheading a premium brand and acting as the champion of the customer, not allowing your business to just claw as much money as possible without wanting to give the best experience to your customers. It seems you have forgotten what proper customer service is. A message for Ben Lear, sales manager - go and get some further training with BMW in customer relations. You really need customers to buy into the dealership eco-system and want to have a good experience, make them feel valued and not think that they are your mate buying a car from you. Congratulations on making the whole BMW buying experience so bad from your dealership, let’s hope you get some proper training in your role. Buying a car should be an experience that is not making you feel like you have to fight for things to be right with the car, you need to learn this as it says more about you as a sales manager than it does about me as a customer. Disgusting, disappointing and certainly not a “premium” experience, avoid this place like the plague.