Gabe Bridgers MotoringFile reported yesterday about the JD Powers Customer Service Index Study, where MINI service was ranked very low – 8th from bottom!
There has been some active discussion in the comments revealing horror stories from some MINI owners …
It is clear from the comments that combined MINI/BMW service departments can be bad for MINI owners – when MINI came to USA I thought their intent was to clearly separate MINI and BMW; obviously this has not always happened and perhaps it should have.
I am very pleased to have MINI Peabody as my local dealership. Their separation from BMW is almost 100% and their customer responsiveness is excellent.
When I bought my (second) MINI from them I had zero issues with the sales people – Joel made sure I was kept aware of status at all times, and even found time to photograph the delivery of my MINI to the dealership!
My service experiences have always been perfect; Gary (lead technician) cares to make sure the customer remains happy and strives to have all issues resolved. The other service techs, including Brian who did my JCW upgrade all do excellent work. There have been a few different Service Advisors (first contact for most service customers) including Kevin, Dave and now Chris – all great at their job!
Also helping to make my MINI experience such a pleasure are the Parts people, Scott & Tom, quick to obtain any part needed (even the obscure parts that only MINI fanatics know about!) – I believe they will even ship parts across country for a MINI owner who suffers from a less responsive dealership.
I cannot imagine suffering a bad MINI dealership as described in some of the comments on Gabes site – I am certain it could make the experience miserable and I expect I would not still own GBMINI in that case.
MINI USA needs to actively respond to the service suffering of some MINI owners and strive to bring their experiences up to the level of dealerships like MINI Peabody. I wonder if they are listening …
M&I / GBMINI 
I was shocked when seeing that report. Sadly the Herb Chambers Experience must be the norm…if all dealers were like MINI of Peabody, MINI would surely top the list!!
I guess we who have Peabody are the exception…
My Experiance with them has been stelar all the way fromm Keith my MA to service to the nice ladies out front…
though I was well treated by MINI of Orlando for my Oil change which was another Sole ZMINI dealer… I had more trouble at the Combo MINI BMW dealer near Dulles Airport outside DC .I was bumped at the parts counter for a “more important” BMW owner Who Was “in a Hurry” also something I needed was only in a locked display in the small MINI ghetto at at one end of the dealership the only 2 MINI personal in that area were too busy to unlock it for me for 10 min and BMW personal on the other side said it was not their dept… I had the feeling that the folks selling MINIs there wanted to be selling the BIG BUCKZ toys on the other side and that I was not realy welcome on the BMW side as I attempted to buy a few things at the parts counter
I too wonder how that report breaks down between Sole dealers and combo dealers