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Mr. Douglas J. Morgan
100 Park Center Plaza
San Jose, Ca. 95113


Dear Mr. Morgan:

\JThings have been going quite well lately until in had to take my car
for servicing at a BMW dealer. That is where things started going wrong
and that is why I am writing you. Someone is, at least, guilty of
incompetence. Let me dexribe the cronology of events.

I have a 1970 BMW 2800. I bought it new and in now has about 94,000 miles.
Originally i had the car serviced by factory authorized dealers, but found
their service to be outrageously overpriced and the quality of their work
below standard. Once they neglected to tighten the condensor; the car 
stopped abruptly the next day. I fixed it. Once they set a valve clearance
at 0.15 rather than the specified 0.10-0.12. Neither of these incidents
have much to do with the current situation. They simply point out the
quality of the service I have experienced. Indeed several of my friends
are totally unimpressed with BMW service. 

When I purchased the car, I also purchased the official workshop manual.
This was done in Germany since the American distributor will not supply
these manuals. I have worked on automobiles including foreign cars,
and supplied with the manual and tools was able to maintain my car
quite well for about 60,000 miles. In that time I have replaced
the water pump, a drive shaft bearing, and rebuilt the master cylinder, besides
doing the valve adjustments, timing and tuning. I am not an incompetent
mechanic. 

This spring the car started overheating. Since it was about 90,000 miles
and the first water pump when bad about 45,000, I surmised that the water pump
was bad. Closer inspection confirmed this. I  also noticed that the "fan clutch"
did not appear to be engaging. This device is supposed to let the fan
free-wheel until the engine warms up; at that time it is to engage and
draw air through the radiator. I replaced the bad water pump, and the fan
clutch. All BWM parts are waranteed for 6 months; the parts were bought
at Allison BMW
on April 19,1976. The fan clutch cost $90.18; when installed, it worked.

The car continued to overhead in traffic, but the driving I was doing did not
perturb things too badly. I moved to the Santa Cruz mountains and summer arrived;
the combination of events soon made driving impossible. I bought a new thermostat
and flushed the radiator. The problem continued. In disgust, I took the car to
H&E in Palo Alto. I told them exactly what I had replaced and what the problem
was. Since it had been over 60,000 miles since a factory authorized dealer
had inspected the car, I asked them to perform such for me. They said
they would, and said the car would be ready  that same evening. That was
Sept 1, 1976. The car was not ready that night; they mumbled something
about "needing parts". Indeed I suspect that they didn't even look at the car.
The next day I called and they said the car was ready, and that they had found the
problem. They claimed that the fan clutch was bad and their solution was to freeze
it up by replacing one bolt. The factory manual says "never" replace one
bolt; replace them in pairs (see enclosure).
They said that I should talk to Allison BMW about the warrantee.
They said that they ran a "block check" and they was nothing wrong with the
head gasket. Their tune-up cost $150.93; the mileage on the
car was 93,384. They found noisy  rocker arm shafts, but didn't notice
that the clutch  and shock absorbers were quite bad. 
Driving move, the car still overheated. Not much of a tune up
for $150.93. 

Since Monday was
Labor Day I had to wait until Tuesday to do anything.
I called Allison BMW on Tuesday. I told them I had overheating problems
and wanted the valve job done. They said it would be done in two days.
I didn't have the car with me, but since I was sceptical of their estimate
I drove back to Los Gatos, got the car, and delivered it. 
I explained carefully what the problem was and what H&E had said. I gave
them copies of the H&E receipt and the sales slip on the fan clutch.
It was not
ready in 3 1/2 days. I blew up, and they got a loaner for me. That was
a plesant suprise. They told me the head gasket was bad, that the fan clutch
wasn't  the problem, and that the radiator should be boiled out. I aquieced


Since they seemed to be competent and since I had a loan car, thought it would be
a good time to get the shock absorbers installed. I asked for an estimate
of what the current bill was and what the cost of installing the shocks would be.
They said the radiator, valves, and valve guides were about $600, and the shock
absorbers would run about $400 installed. 
I explained that I had a 2800 and therefore had self-leveling devices on  the rear
but they said the standard shocks would fit. I said I didn't believe it, 
I asked them to install the shocks.
A few days later they discovered that the rear shocks wouldn't fit, and only
installed the front ones: estimated cost $244.
They also discovered the weak clutch. I asked them to replace it; estimated
cost: $286.

My conception of the current bill was about $1200; their bill was $1642.55.
I was unhappy, but willing to pay for quality work. The first glance at the
bill told me I was in trouble. They had replaced  the points, condensor, oil filter,
and spark plugs which H&E has installed 92 miles before. They claimed that the
spark plugs had been so fouled that they had to be replaced. The only answer
to that is "bullshit!". The worst was yet to come.

On checking the parts list I found all kinds of things which H&E should have 
replaced if they were indeed doing a quality inspection.  list'em
What I didn't find, sent me out to the parking lot: I didn't find a 
bill for the bolt which H&E removed from the fan clutch. The cost of every
part is always quite explicit, right to te last $0.30 washer.

I checked the fan clutch; it was still frozen as H&E had installed it.
I immediately called Allison. They said that since H&E doctored the part
that Allison would not stand behind the warrantee and indeed not replace it.
They said that I should talk to H&E. I know where that will lead. That's
why I'm writing to you.

I feel most strongly that there is a responsible agent somewhere in BMW.
I want my car fixed correctly without further expense and want a refund
of the cost of my tune-up at H&E. It would seem that H&E owe me the
money for the labor since they charged for a service not adequately
provided; and it seems to me that Allison owes me for the parts
from that tuneup, the fan cluth, the labor involved in replacing that
fan clutch; and BMW in general owes me for the parts and labor 
involved in replacing the water pump which has been misused since
H&E installed the bolt improperly and Allison did not follow my directions
and remove that bolt.
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Yours sincerely,



John R. Allen
Research Associate
Computer Science Dept
Artificial Intelligence Lab

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