Hans Foreign Car Service

Review: 12/30/2013

12/30/13

My experience with Hans BMW was a nightmare - and that's putting it mildly!!!! . After three years dealing with them, 20K later, my car still leaks oil and putters. They don't use original BMW parts, they use Bosh which is good but Bosh also makes BMW parts which Hans does not use that's why their cheaper than going to the dealer. I had a valve job done on my car which cost 8k in 12/2012. The warranty for the valve job is only good until DECEMBER 2013! I kept having problems with my car ( puttering, stalling, oil leaking etc.,,,,,, because it was under warranty I kept taking it back to HANS so I wouldn't have to pay someone else! ...they would often fix other things that was not causing the problem, and telling me the car would be ready on a certain day and it wouldn't be - this went on the entire year of 2013!!! I was exhausted mentally, financially and physically, dealing with mike and [redacted] - they swear about their knowledge and experience working on cars, but their work shows otherwise!!! I finally went to the dealer to get a second opinion and they said my coils were not the original coils for the BMW and that's why the car was not getting a good connection and there was oil leaking into the spark plugs. I had to pay and additional 1600 to get the original BMW coils put in and guess what!! The puttering stopped!! Hans had only replaced 4 coils when I actually needed 8...and during 2012 when I kept taking the car back to Hans for the puttering they couldn't figure that out but they swear by their work!! Only good thing out of that headache was that Hans reimbursed me for the coils they put in my car . Since the car was still under warranty, I told them about the oil leaking into the spark plugs...they assured me they would fix the problem....this was in November 2013! And of course it's now DECEMBER 30 2013 and the warranty will expire tomorrow....and guess what....my car is leaking oil again! They often say their going to fix things when they don't! They don't use original BMW parts for your car so it won't run properly, the things they do fix is usually not the problem which keeps you having to come back because you don't want to have to pay someone else!! They swear by their work which is raggedy and crappy to say the least. I even referred a coworker to them who had the same experience as I did - embarrassing!!! When I told them I looked at the reviews on this site...they blamed it on ONE unhappy person. I told [redacted]....I had never read these reviews and everyone's comments is just like what I'm experiencing with your service. He swore by his work and experience! So I said to him... how is that I'm experience exactly what the reviews are saying about your service and I've never met any of these people posting these comments?? We all can't be lying!!. He swore by his work and experience from working at a BMW dealership again... I said to him....well your services don't match what your saying!!

Proceed at your own risk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Desired Settlement: I'd like a refund for the valve job they performed and oil leak repairs. Paid 8k. My 2 year warranty for the valve job expired December 2013...and my car is still leaking oil!!

Business

Response:

Dear Sir or Madam,

[redacted] was a good customer for 5 years. The "nightmare" she refers to is not at all the way she described our relationship during those years. She was an enthusiastic supporter of our company and happily referred friends to us. Time and again we serviced her car when needed and allowed her to pay for those services later. We always took care of any problems she had and, as we do for all our customers, we always gave her an honest explaination of the services her car needed.

After we performed a valve job on her car to correct excessive exhaust smoke, she came back complaining her car was "puttering". We performed a scan of engine control module and found misfire in cylinder #4. We installed a new ignition coil at no charge to the customer and the car ran normally when it left our shop. Later the car began to "putter" again and she decided to go to BMW of San Diego instead of returning for warranty coverage. She was told by the dealership that her car needed 8 new ignition coils. She elected to come to us for replacement because we were able to do the job for about half of what the dealer quoted. Please note that we were specifically instructed not to perform any diagnosis, just replace the coils as recommended by BMW of SD. Had we performed a diagnosis we would have found that the misfire was again in cylinder #4 and would have begun to look furhter into the cause of the problem.

We installed 6 new coils (we had already installed 1 new coil during the valve job and 1 more at no charge). The car was running normally when it left our shop. The car again began to "putter" and agian she took the car to BMW of SD. Again they told her she needed 8 new ignition coils. She paid them to replace the coils but the problem of "puttering" remained. The dearship technician used a bore scope and found oil leaking into cylinder #4 causing the spark plug to foul. They still charged her for the 8 ignition coils, even though that was not the problem.

[redacted] returned the car to us and we removed the cylinder head to inspect valve guides and seals in an effort to determine the cause of the oil leak. We discovered a crack in the area of the #4 exhaust valve guide causing oil to leak into the combustion chamber. We replaced the cylinder head at no charge for parts or labor. We also refunded the full price of parts and labor for the ignition coils we had replaced.

In short we have worked very hard to satisfy [redacted] at every step of our relationship. We have provided warranty coverage without question or cost. We have provided interest free financing. We would have been more than happy to repair whatever was wrong with her car, regardless of warranty time or mileage, if she had brought the car to us. Instead though, she elected to trash us on Yelp, and complain to your organization. We take great offense at being treated this way and are no longer willing to work with [redacted] in any way.

We stand by our work and honor the terms of our expressed warranty. At this time Ms. [redacted]'s warranty has expired and she is no longer welcome in our business. We have given her all we are willing to give.

Sincerly,

[redacted], Shop Manager

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Regards,

I had a valve job done on my car that cost $8000.00 the warranty period for the work was 11/2012- 11/2013. Throughtout the warranty period my car kept puttering, stalling, misfiring causing the "check engine" symbol to come on. During the warranty period I took my car back to Hans more than 15 times for them to fix it. Each time I took the car in for it to be repaired, during the warranty period, they would tell me there was a different issue with the car which would cost me more money to repair - and after paying them $8000.00 for the valve job, I didn't have extra money to pay them for more repairs UNRELATED TO THE WARRANTY. So trusting their word, I allowed them to fix what they said was the problem. This went on for the ENTIRE DURATION of the warranty period of 11/2012 - 11/2013 and always resulted in me paying them more money.

I took my BMW to the dealership to get a second opinion between late November and early December because I was very dissatisfied, frustrated, stressed and mentally worn out from having payed Hans so much money to fix my car within the warranty period and THEY DIDN"T. I made constant trips, phone calls, left work early, had to arrange to get rides to and from home and work to pick up my car MANY TIMES JUST TO ENDING UP HAVING TO TAKE IT RIGHT BACK WITHIN A DAY TO A WEEK because he same problem still existed!

While my car was at the BMW dealership, I was told the reason the car was misfiring was because the coils Hans Repair shop put on were not original BMW parts and the car was misfiring because there wasn't a good connection. I asked if I could have the parts they removed off my car that Hans put on, they said yes. The BMW dealership gave me the parts put on by Hans Repair shop. I was shown the part number on the coils Hans used and the part number of the coils BMW dealership used. The part number from Hans and from BMW dealership matched but the physical parts themselves were totally different. Hans used Bosch parts and BMW dealership used original BMW parts. The service repairman at the BMW dealership also explained and showed me how the Bosch parts were loose, and did not fit properly, resulting in them making a bad connection and causing the misfiring. He also explained how the spark plugs had not been changed as I was told they had been by Hans and also that there was still oil leaking in the spark plugs which Hans said they fixed. During the valve job, Hans Repair shop replace two coils and one spark plug.

The fact that they allowed me to pay them later was because I couldn't keep up with having to pay them for new issues EVERYTIME they claimed the problem was fixed! This experience for me was mentally and financially draining and a complete disaster. I even referred a co-worker to them which I found out later he experienced the same problem with Hans Repair shop. There are several comments on YELP I read after I had spent $8K plus dollars to Hans to repair my car. I was shocked to see that other people had the same experience!!!! I mentioned this to [redacted] and he excused away saying some customer was just unhappy about something minor.

They know this experience for me was frustrating and stressful for me! I was always down there, they heard and seen the stressfullness and frustration in my voice, seen it on my face, I showed it in my actions by asking to be able to make payments because every trip was costing me more and more money! I held on to their WORD for as long as I could afford to that each time the car would be fixed only to be dissapointed! One one ocassion I even came down to see what they said the problem was and was shown a coolant leak from underneath the car of some sort that THEY SAID WAS THE PROBLEM! Within the warranty period I paid two or three times for a coolant issue, two to three times for various oil leaks. So here I am two months after the warranty expires and I had to pay for the same coolant leak and oil leak!!!

I don't know the people who posted the comments on YELP and they don't know me, so why is that we all had the same bad experience? We all can't be making up the same comments about our experience!

The comment about me not being welcome back is NO PROBLEM for me... I never intented to go back to Hans Repair shop and neither does my coworker.

This complaint is my honest experience with Hans Repair shop, and I hope that it will remain on this website and aid others in deciding whether to take their car to Hans Foreign Car Repair.

Respectfully submitted,

Business

Response:

First of all let's get the facts on the table.

The "$8000.00 valve job" is not accurate. When [redacted] brought her car in there were several issues she wanted us to address. First was exhaust smoke. Also there were malfunctions of the seat extension motors, the dynamic stability control system was malfunctioning and the SRS warning light was on. For $7868.79 we perfomed a valve job, replaced the passenger seat occupancy detector, replaced the seat extension motors, replaced a faulty wheel bearing and damaged wheel speed sensor. While performing the valve job we found coolant leaking from an internal coolant pipe (a very common problem on this model) and we also repaired that problem.

[redacted] did return seven times in the following year NOT the fifteen she alledges. The first time she returned she complained of an oil leak which we determined to be from a plug on one cylinder head that had not been properly tightened by the machine shop who had resurfaced the heads. We repaired this leak at no charge.

Six weeks later [redacted] had the car towed in complaining of rough running. We found 2 hydraulic valve lash adjusters had failed and since we had not replaced any lash adjusters during the previous repair, we charged her for the parts and a small portion of the labor required to replace them.

Three months later [redacted] came in complaining of a coolant leak. We located the leak as comming from the galley plate on the rear of the cylinder block and not even close to the area we had worked on previously and so this leak was not covered by warranty. I showed [redacted] the leaking cover while we had the transmission out to perform the repairs. She seemed unable to grasp the fact that we could not have detected this leak while working on her car previously, (even though it was not leaking at that time) but thanked me for staying late and taking the time to show her what was wrong.

The following month (now 6 months after the valve job) [redacted] came in complaining of check engine light and rough running. We found a missfire in cylinder #4 and installed a new ignion coil at no charge for parts or labor. The car left our shop running properly. We also found the rear brake pads worn to minimum thickness and, with her authorization, installed new rear brake pads and sensor. We did charge her for the brakes.

A month later [redacted] returned complaing of rough running and a coolant leak. We found a fouled spark plug in Cylinder #4 and replaced the plug at no charge. We also found the upper radiator hose leaking and replaced the hose at no charge for parts or labor. We pointed out our concern about the fouled spark plug and agreed that we would follow up if the problem returned.

The problem did occur again but rather than return the car to us so we could follow up with our diagnosis, she took the car to BMW of San Diego where she was told the problem was 8 faulty ignition coils. [redacted] then brought the car to us for coil replacement as our prices are considerably less expensive than the dealership. I explained that I did not believe that replacing the coils would fix her problem but she requested that we replace the coils without further diagnosis, so we did. The car was running properly when it left our shop.

Again the problem returned and again she took the car to BMW of San Diego. Again they told her she needed 8 new ignition coils. She paid them to replace the brand new coils but that did not fix the problem. On further examination their technician found that the #4 spark plug was fouling (as we had already discovered) and so he used a bore scope to inspect the cylinder (as we would have done if she had brought the car to us). He found oil leaking into the #4 cylinder causing the spark plug to foul. They still charged her for the coils even though these parts clearly did not fix the problem. They recommended she return the car to us so we could repair the problem under warranty.

When [redacted] brought the car to us we removed the right cylinder head and found a crack in the area of one of the #4 exhaust valve guides. We replaced the cylinder head at no charge for parts or labor. We also refunded the charge for the ignition coils (which she had not yet fully paid for). It seems ironic that after we fixed the problem for free, she complained about our shop rather than complaining about the shop which charged her $1600.00 for parts that did not fix the problem!

At every step of this process we have stood behind our warranty and have extended every possible consideration to [redacted]. We have given her parts that we really weren't required to under the terms of our warranty. We would have been more than happy to continue to address any complaints she had even beyond the terms of our expressed warranty. If she had come back and said she had another oil leak we would have been happy to fix it.

Because I had considerd [redacted] to be my friend (after serving her for 5 years) I allowed her to pay for services later with no security other than her word. I always looked forward to talking with her and enjoyed watching the videos she shared with me of her grandaughter. I respected her for going back to school to get her degree now that her kids are grown and I enjoyed the stories she shared with me about being the pop warner mom of a now famous football player. Imagine my shock when I read the hateful lies she posted on yelp and in her complaint to your organization. How she could suddenly refer to our long time relationship as a "nightmare" is beyond comprehension. After the years of respect I have shown her it is truly painful to be treated with such disrespect.

If [redacted] would be willing to remove the vicious review from Yelp and retract her complaint with your organization we would be willing to address her oil leak complaint. We are not willing to refund the requested $8000.00 as we have acted in good faith at every point of our transaction and have performed all of the services we charged for. However we are not willing to work with her in any way as long as these complaints continue.

Sincerly,

[redacted], Shop Manager