MINI Seattle Returned My Car Like This
When I picked up my new MINI on October 10th, there were 2 small areas with a couple very small paint chips. One was on the edge of the driver’s door. The other you can barely see in the photos, was on the very bottom edge of the hood below the passenger side headlight. It was about a half inch long, but right on the very edge of the hood. As part of the sale, MINI Seattle agreed to have these small chips repaired for me.
I dropped the car off to have the chips repaired this past Monday morning at about 8:30am, and got a nice Red Cooper S loaner (automatic, but still nicely equipped). The service advisor told me it might be the next day, which surprised me since the chips were so small, but I agreed that in the interest of getting a flawless repair, they could have my car overnight. At 3pm on Tuesday, after nearly 2 full days, I went to pick up my car. Let’s say that I was shocked at what I saw when I got there. The photos attached tell the whole story (click for the full size images to see the exent of the scratches).
My car only has 1300 miles on it. I’ve only washed it about 3 times since it seems to never stop raining here. As you can see in the photos, the entire passenger side of the hood, and the passenger side A pillar were covered in swirl marks. It looked like someone took a shop rag, dropped it on the garage floor, and then wiped my car off with it. Shocking.
MINI Seattle told me they were sending my car to a paint specialist to do the repair. I don’t know who did the work but I am baffled how my car ever left their facility in this condition. Why on earth did they need to wipe the A pillar for a touch up below the front headlight? Why the entire passenger side of the hood? Why did MINI Seattle accept this work? Why did they return the car to me in this condition?
To their credit, Kyle (the service manager) offered to fix this mess for me. Since they’d already had my car for 2 days, and this was the shape it was in, I was in no position to give them permission to have anyone else touch my car. Thus, I spent 4 hours today washing, prepping, polishing, and waxing to bring the paintwork back to about 95% of new condition. I should have used a slightly more aggressive polish on some of the deeper swirl marks, but didn’t have any on hand. For now, this will do till spring when I can do another thorough detailing.
I have to say that my first experience with MINI Seattle’s service department has left a pretty bad taste in my mouth…
