Prior to getting the Collie, I had a few BMWs and used BMW dealerships, even though in the back of my mind I had a suspicion that it was a rip off.
So when I initially got the Collie, and as it was around 5 years old and had a full MDSH, thought I would try and maintain that (if I knew I was going to keep the truck for 20 years, I probably wouldn't have made that mistake).
My eyes were opened when a couple of years later, I took it in to Watford Toyota for a recall on the rear axle (can't remember exactly what but involved taking the rear brakes off, something to do with the hub I think).
Got the call to say it was ready and when I reported at reception they bought the truck from the back round to the front customer parking area. I heard the truck before I saw it, a loud metallic "tuk, tuk, tuk..." sound of metal on metal. Went outside to see, mechanic's parked the car with engine running (no noise now) handed me the keys. Ok, I thought, must have been something else. Got in and started to drive off - didn't get more than the the length of the car "tuk, tuk, tuk..." - noise was coming from rear axle, like a industrial version of playing cards in bicycle spokes IYKWIM.
Told the "mechanic" something's not right - what's that noise. Mechanic looks at me dumbly and says he can't hear anything unusual. At this point I was a mixture of incredulous and irritated. Asked for the service manager - he arrived outside 5 mins later. I told him something is not right - he says all recall work was done, checked and passed. I told him to drive the car 10 yards - which he did (actually less than 5) before he admitted there was something wrong!
Anyway they took the car back and had to keep it overnight to resolve. What was meant to be a 4hr job ended up with me without the car for nearly 48hrs and perhaps the car in worse shape than it went in!
Moral of that story is that I have never used a main dealer since for any of my cars. I now always look for a local independent specialist or just a reliable local mechanic.