Unlit 70mph trunk road, no barrier, no hard shoulder, freezing temp small child in tow? No problem we'll leave you there for 6 hours!!!!
Left my husband and young son on the side of a 70mph trunk road which had no lights, no crash barrier, no safe place to wait in freezing temperatures. Contacted approx 10pm told 1.5 hour wait, 11.30pm husband called back and the initial person had failed to find a recovery truck so had "cancelled the call out", next person was told of the urgency, they arranged assistance by 1am. Whilst this fiasco was ongoing the police stopped on two occasions, once just before the first deadline that the car was to be moved, as support was due by 11.30pm they agreed to leave it. At around midnight they returned, this time again stressing the risk and that it must be moved asap, police present when my husband spoke to BMW again who reiterated yes will be picked up by 1am. BMW also agreed due to the high risk of physical harm to my son and husband if they remained there in sub zero temperatures that the key could be left on the seat of the car and that they could accept a lift from the police to a safe location where they could get a taxi home.
At 4am Speedy Recovery a private company contracted by BMW rang to ask for further clarity on where the car was as they couldn't find it. After providing more details we heard nothing from anyone and woke up a couple of hours later to see that the car was not outside our house as arranged. After failing to get through to BMW I called Speedy who advised me the car was in a police compound.
The compound advised that the police after waiting until 3am felt the car must be moved (and understandably as by this point it was 2 hours past the second agreed pick up time).
I raised issue with the roadside after care team who were very apologetic and advised me that BMW were recovering the car from impound, in fact they were already on their way and would recover the vehicle to our local Sytner. The car was to be fitted with a new tyre following the blow out and returned to us on Monday.
Monday morning... No sign of the car at Sytner in fact they had no knowledge of it. Contact roadside after care again and this time advised to "call the impound lot, pay all fees and then call us to recover". After much toing and froing BMW have apparently paid the fees as it was their catalogue of errors and my car is apparently on route to Sytner. I shall wait with baited breath to see if it turns up.
Word of caution take additional roadside out if you have BMW cover, we would never ever have been left in this position by the AA. We made the mistake of believing that BMW roadside would operate like Ford and other companies and just have a linked up service with one of the breakdown providers, they don't. BMW will just make a few half baked attempts to ring private recovery companies and give up. They also won't call you to advise of any updates/ issues and will have 0 priority... Small child, sub zero temps, national speed limit trunk road, no hard shoulder, no crash barrier, no way of getting to safety without crossing four lanes of traffic... No problem we'll pick you up in 6 hours by which point you may have been hit by a truck or ended up with hypothermia.
Formal complaint and probably subsequent one to the ombudsman in process, highly likely to progress to the ombudsman as the service from BMW has been a shocker so I won't hold my breath that I'll get a response to the complaint.
