some of you have been asking what has come of my car and MINI of hawaii...

17 days passed before i heard anything back from MINI of Hawaii after Kevin initially told me that MINI NA was "reviewing" my car's file. on monday, 2/23/04, i had to take my mps in for the dsc/tire light problem which was corrected today, 3/4/04 -- see NAM post, https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...forum=23&0.
after i dropped my car off on 2/23/04, i left the dealership as they didn't know how long it would take to diagnose and/or fix the problem. later in the afternoon, i received a phone call from both Darrell (mini sales mgr) & Kevin Keppel (new car manager) that Claude Bruni, area mgr western region/MINI NA was in town and they wanted to set up a meeting with me.

so i went down to the dealership to have a meeting with the 4 men -- Darrel, Kevin, Al Roberts (service mgr), and Claude. we all sit down and then kevin asks me to talk about "everything" i want to say. i replied that they called me to the meeting so they must've had an agenda. he then says that they wanted to follow-up with the issues i've had with my car and the letter i sent them (with info on the raced MINI from the dealership, the auto-x excerpts in official MINI publications, MINI USA's desire to award those who win in national auto-x events, and my intent to file my car as a lemon). i told them that there are 2 major issues at hand: 1. unprofessionalism and inadequate service by the dealership and 2. the technical issues with my MINI pooper.

Claude basically said that he doesnt see anything "majorly" wrong with my car. so if that was the case, why didnt they just tell me over the phone or send me a letter? being there in person didn't make a difference.

on a better note, darrel mentioned that they now have a QC person dedicated to making sure that cars are ok after service, before being returned to their owners. not sure if anyone has seen the difference since this sop has been in place.

an interesting thing happened during this meeting...i also mentioned how i was upset about the alignment issue and how Al told me that he would reimburse me out of "goodwill for good CSI ratings." darrel mentioned something about how the sales side doesnt force CSI ratings and then kevin and al got all defensive saying that there's nothing wrong with begging for good CSI ratings as they work in a CSI driven industry. it was interesting to see the power trip.

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another interesting tidbit:

last week, i called the dealership service dept to ask for a faxed copy of my car's service history. the receptionist said that she would send it right away. i actually received it 3 hours later, with scratched out words and comments written on it, signed by Al Roberts. i called the receptionist to tell her that i just received it and asked for a clean copy of the summary. she was a little surprised that i received it 3 hours later and said that it was a clean copy. i told her no, it had remarks on it, etc and she guessed that perhaps Al intercepted it at the fax machine and decided to make those comments and then sent it to me. IT WAS NEVER MEANT FOR HIM AND I THINK IT WAS VERY UNETHICAL OF HIM TO INTERCEPT A DOCUMENT THAT WAS INTENDED FOR ME. this adds to a handful of very unprofessional things he has done. (the receptionist sent me a clean copy afterwards)

uh, MINI of hawaii continues to show me that they are an unprofessional dealership with no integrity.

we were a 2 MINI household....we're now down to 1. the dealership may think it's fine and dandy that the MINI has the "highest resale value" so why don't i sell it if i don't like it, but that's not the case....i would never try to sell this problem car to some unassuming person...knowing what you know about my mps, would you buy it?



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for reference, the prelude to this post is found at:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...c=22026&38

 

mini-t....sorry to hear all of this. I can feel your pain! Let us know if there is anything we can do to support you.

I wonder if they're just trying to drag this out to see if you'll back down?

 

if anyone else would like to sport custom-made color window coverings (like tint signs), please let me know.

 

update: some of this info is in my other post but MINI NA told me that they randomly choose customers who receive CSI surveys following their service. i guess i have never been randomly chosen despite how many times my car has been in service.

also, i dunno if the surveys are confidential (or if there is a checkbox that allows the info to be shared with a name on it)...but when i told the MINI NA gal that i've only been contacted once via email following my very first service, she was able to pull up the survey and started reading off the stuff i wrote on it (i was pissed that the lot tech dropped my antenna on the car so i commented on that).

 

>>if anyone else would like to sport custom-made color window coverings (like tint signs), please let me know.

I'm curious to see 'em. Saturday?

 

unfortunately, i dont think they'll be ready by saturday. but i'll keep you guys updated.