F80 M3 Steering Wheel Column Issue?

[Auroraz]

Hi all,
I have an issue with one on the BMW dealerships and this is a little rant. I'd just love to know if anyone else has had this issue as me and what they did to fix it so I can tell these incompetent "mechanic's" what to look for.



[SCROLL DOWN TO TLDR IF NOT INTERESTED IN STORY/RANT]
(I'm based in AUS, but I'd like to see if anyone has gone through this before)

Backstory: I bought this car 5/5/21 and as I adjusted the steering wheel to suit my driving style, the wipers would stay on and the indicators wouldn't work. I tried to do everything to get the wipers to stop, but nothing worked, as for the indicators they didn't work on the steering wheel column but the hazards did. The car now not roadworthy, I called BMW Roadside Assistance and they sent out a technician to resolve the issue. The technician came out, and played around with the steering wheel until he put it back in that 'magic' position and everything started working again. He told me that it was a steering wheel column issue and went on his way.

After a few months go buy, I upgrade my headlights on the car as part of a promotion for my business and didn't think anything of it...

Present: After many busy months of working double shifts and pouring my soul into my business, I finally had the time to bring the car into the Southbank dealership to get my scheduled maintenance done. I thought I'd explain the issue to them so they could get it fixed as the car is still under warranty until 12/12/21. After leaving the car there for no more than 4 hours, they call me to tell me that the car is ready to collect, which I thought was strange. I asked to speak with a service advisor and asked whether they actually looked into my issue and did anything about it.

The response I got was "Our technician has written in the notes that he was unable to diagnose the problem, because of the modified headlights". I instantly got furious and asked how the steering wheel had anything to do with the headlights. I continued to give example after example that this was a safety issue and that if I get into an accident on the road, I shouldn't be held liable.

After he advised me that he'd go and talk to the technician, I called back the next day. I got a different service advisor as the first advisor was away. The second advisor told me the exact same thing as the first advisor and said my car was ready for pick up. I asked the same question "Have you fixed the steering wheel column issue?" and the response was "Our technician was unable to diagnose anything because of some modified headlights that you have". Again, furious, I asked to speak to the Service Manager.
After repeating myself again for the 3rd time, he assured me that he himself would go and talk to the Technician about the issue...

I call back to following day and the second advisor answers and once again says the car is ready.... I feel like a broken record typing the same thing over and over again, so the long story short, I end up talking to the Service manager (again) and he says that they can't do anything. After asking him who was 'higher' up than him so I could take this issue further, he told me to contact BMW Group Australia.

So I contact BMW Group Australia and they tell me they'll get in contact with the Southbank dealership and told me to sit back, relax and wait 2 days. As I didn't hear anything from then, I called back on the 3rd day to find out that my issue wasn't even lodged... So after furiously explaining myself over and over again like I was a dementia patient, the person helping me said that they'd get the dealership to write back to them, so they know exactly, EXACTLY, why they couldn't fix/diagnose this issue under warranty and that they'd handball this situation to the Customer Relations Team.

I have yet to hear from them and will probably have to contact them myself the next upcoming 4 days (weekend).
My next plan of action is to take them to consumer affairs if BMW Group Australia is unable to help. If Consumer affairs is unable to do anything, I'll pay my trusted mechanic and take Southbank to VCAT and claim the money back.

I would love to know if anyone has a solution to this issue... Has this happened to you before? How did you get it resolved? Anyone else hate dealerships as much as me? Lol

Thank you for listening, any kind of advice is greatly appreciated.


TLDR; When adjusting the steering wheel (up, down, towards you or away from you) the windshield wipers come on and stay on and the indicators don't work (the hazard button still works). This issue only happens sometimes.
BMW refuse to fix this issue under warranty because they're blaming my modified headlights. I bought the car 5th of May 2021, the headlights were modded on the 13th of August 2021...

I didn't bring the car in earlier because I've been working a lot (double shifts) and been running my business on the side and I only had the time recently to bring it in for a scheduled maintenance.

Has anyone else gone through this issue or knows what needs to be replaced? Anything helps, appreciate it guys