Would love for someone to check me on this, to know if this is a fair reason to be stressed / mildly upset.
Ever since the shop that my dad’s gone to for the last 25 years closed down, finding a good, reputable shop in Queens has been a crapshoot. Here’s my current story.
So, to start, I did research and found this shop on google / yelp - they had lots of good reviews, and on their website they list they’re manufacturer certified by BMW. Good things, in my head, and they’re a short walk away. This is important because I don’t drive to work, so no matter what, dropping the car off at a shop is out of my way.
Dropped the BMW off on Wednesday morning, 8AM on my way in to work at the shop that did it’s first oil change, about a 7 minute walk from my apartment to have the rumbling noise looked at. My guess, is it’s either a guibo or the center support bearing, stemming from all the research I’ve found. I explained the issue to the shop, and let them know that this is what I believed the issue may be. They said no problem, we’ll take a look and get it out on the road to check it out. I ask if they have any idea how long it’ll take to get an estimate, and how long to expect them to be to repair, whatever it is, as long as the repair is in reason - the service writer tells me I’ll know by end of day, and that I’ll definitely have the car back before the weekend. Today, as I’m writing this is Friday.
5pm rolls around, and I still haven’t heard anything, so I call the shop. The woman who picks up says that they haven’t gotten to the car yet. I express that I’m a bit surprised by this, as I dropped it off first thing in the morning, and had made an appointment two days earlier to bring it in this time, this day. She says they had a tech not come in, and that the boss had left for the day, but that the tech on staff was instructed to diagnose the car before he left for the night.
I call back 1PM the next day (yesterday), and the service writer that I dropped the car off tells me they haven’t identified the issue yet, but they swapped the wheels front to back to see if that’s the issue. He says don’t worry, we’ll give you a call. I ask again “will this be ready by the weekend?” He says yes, and not to worry.
Today, it’s nearing 1PM, and I still don’t have a repair estimate that I’ve agreed to, much less a diagnosis of what’s wrong with my vehicle. I’m giving them another 20 minutes, and then I’ll call them to see what’s up. We had planned to see some wedding venues tomorrow and over the weekend, which is why I’m fairly upset at this point that I have no update, and was led to expect that I’d have it back by the weekend.
As long as I can pick the car up at 8am when they open tomorrow, Saturday, I’ll be pleased, but the silence really is disturbing. They’re one of the top rated shops in the area, and one of the 2 that I can walk to. There’s one a little bit closer that’s a very small shop, that I may take my business to next time...
I understand repairs and diagnosis take time, but am I wrong to be frustrated?
UPDATE:
I called the shop, and they said they think it’s a bend in one of the other wheels, not something in the driveline like I thought it was. They said they swapped the wheels front to back, which seemed to change the noise & checked the driveline and didn’t find an issue. I’m going to take their word here, and have the other 2 wheels repaired, as well as have an alignment done. Picking the car up tomorrow so I can have it for the weekend, and then dropping it back off on Tuesday.
Fingers crossed.