BMW CD Ripoff!

zuutroy

My mate just bought an 2002 BMW 318 (E46) which came with a minidisc player which is obviously completely useless to most people. He went to Joe Duffy and asked how much for a CD player to be installed and was quoted €1000!!!!! They wanted €720 for the unit, and 2 hours labour @€;140 an hour!!!! 2 bloody hours!
I got him a 2nd hand one off ebay for €190 and we fitted it in literally 10 minutes. Is there any kind of watchdog you can ring about this blatant theft!?

ambro25

zuutroy wrote:

I got him a 2nd hand one off ebay for €190

Ah, yes, but... is it BMW-badged?

Guy:Incognito

He could have bought a mindisc recorder off ebay for about €50. OMG you ripped him off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!eleven. Joke, before anyone goes ape.


On another note, while €720 seems steep you cant really give out about the price while comparing it to a 2nd hand unit you got off ebay. My car was €50,000 new but I got it for €4,000 2nd hand. Now if I got a brand new one for €4,000 that would be a different story.

jhegarty

zuutroy wrote:

My mate just bought an 2002 BMW 318 (E46) which came with a minidisc player which is obviously completely useless to most people. He went to Joe Duffy and asked how much for a CD player to be installed and was quoted €1000!!!!! They wanted €720 for the unit, and 2 hours labour @€;140 an hour!!!! 2 bloody hours!
I got him a 2nd hand one off ebay for €190 and we fitted it in literally 10 minutes. Is there any kind of watchdog you can ring about this blatant theft!?

its all grand and legal... he can try to rip you off and you can tell him where to shove it...

i am sure it was €100 for the streo + €900 for the bmw badge on it...

zuutroy

Stekelly wrote:

On another note, while €720 seems steep you cant really give out about the price while comparing it to a 2nd hand unit you got off ebay. My car was €50,000 new but I got it for €4,000 2nd hand. Now if I got a brand new one for €4,000 that would be a different story.

Whatever about the price, my point was the labour costs.....charging 2 hours for what would be for them, maybe a 5 minute job. Remove one piece of trim, open two screws, unplug stereo, and then vice versa with the other one.

Lex Luthor

zuutroy wrote:

Whatever about the price, my point was the labour costs.....charging 2 hours for what would be for them, maybe a 5 minute job. Remove one piece of trim, open two screws, unplug stereo, and then vice versa with the other one.

2 hrs sounds about reasonable.
They wouldn't just charge you for 10 min. Admin charge for booking the car in & out etc. Taking the car for the obligatory test drive;)
They probably have a min. charge of 2hrs.

crosstownk

Lex Luthor wrote:

2 hrs sounds about reasonable.
They wouldn't just charge you for 10 min. Admin charge for booking the car in & out etc. Taking the car for the obligatory test drive;)
They probably have a min. charge of 2hrs.

This is most likely the case but a 2hr min charge is a bit steep - 1hr or 0.5hrs would be more reasonable. The real sting is the €140/hr. This is what they need to repay the loan on those fancy showrooms!

kdevitt

Alot of BMW dealers now have a fixed price scheme - each job takes a certain amount of units , each one representing 15 minutes. So your headunit replacement takes 8 units - or 2 hours. If it takes longer to do, you still only get charged for 2 hours. Bit daft in my opinion as its highly unlikely that any job will take more time than they've estimated.

Only way the headunit would take that amount of time to fit is if someone had butchered the loom.

528i

Yes, if some muppet (your friend) had made a balls of the wiring loom, it would be reasonable to charge €140/hr to untangle or have an expert sort out the mess, 318i drivers tend to cut corners and thus need to be charged accordingly

kc66

Mr. 528i mocks the measly 318i drivers? Peasants.