Horrible experience at BMW Bird Automotive Workshop Gurgaon
Imagine escaping from a life-threatening accident, recovering on bed with internal injuries on chest/shoulder, and then being harassed for 5% estimation charges on a Rs 35 lakh repair bill (1.75 lakh), and Rs 1000/day parking charges, by the workshop where your car was towed.
I was stunned at the behaviour of BMW Bird Automotive workshop, especially their workshop head, Mr. Shariq Zubair, wherein they created a repair estimation bill of almost 35 lakhs, and once Reliance General Insurance declared it as a total loss case, I was asked to pay 5% of 35 lakhs (1.75 lakhs) + Rs 1000/day as parking charges till the time car was parked at their compound. It almost took 120 days for the full payment by insurance, so it would have come around 1.2 lakhs more as parking charges, totalling 2.95 lakhs.
I immediately sent a complaint to BMW India about such charges, expecting a positive response. No response came through for 2 days, and Mr. Shariq got aggressive, telling me that because of this complaint, I’ll have to pay up the full amount, and there’s no room for negotiation. I asked around, and people told me luxury car dealerships usually charge 50000–60000 only for such cases.
Hence, I opened a new channel of communication with him, on more reasonable lines, and it was finally negotiated to be settled at 1.5 lakhs, of which 50000 was to be immediately paid, and the rest can be paid in two installments.
Even Reliance General Insurance had this weird policy wherein they first find a buyer who’ll buy the accidental car, pay the salvage amount, and then after a week, they’ll process the rest of the amount. I asked them why not just take the car, pay in full, and keep finding the buyer in their own time, they said it was a company policy.
Even more shocking behaviour came after 1.5 months, where I was again asked to pay the entire amount of remaining 1 lakh, even though there was not even a single penny paid in insurance. I was then asked by insurance surveryor to cancel the RC of the vehicle as there was no buyer willing to take the car with RC. For this, I needed “chassis number” cut out from the car, and only workshop could provide that. I approached the workshop, where Mr. Shariq told me to pay the amount in full, only then they will give it to me. In good faith, I had to pay the entire amount, and proceeded to cancel the RC.
It took full 45 days after RC Cancellation to get the insurance payment, while Mr. Shariq had told me that insurance will pay the amount after 3–4 days of scrapping the vehicle. All this has been such a disheartening experience by such an aspirational luxury brand like BMW.
While I am grateful that BMW cars are so safe that it saved my life from a life-threatening accident, and the car in itself was fun to drive, dealing with the workshop is where all the experience got ruined. It is incidents like these that shall dissuade people from ever buying and enjoying luxury cars in India. Imagine paying double the cost for a luxury car as compared to other nations, extremely high service/parts and maintenance costs, and then being hit with a punch like this at the end of it’s lifecycle. Buying a luxury car should be a reward for your hard work, and not a punishment to be inflicted on the buyer. I hope BMW India takes a note of this and avoids diluting their brand because of such dealerships looting customers.
