Lady told off: Told she's better off in a VW than a BMW

I'm not Takumi

I'm not Takumi

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Feb 13, 2007
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Hawaii
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Toyota AE86 Corolla
Dealer tells woman go back to VW, you don't deserve a BMW.

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/10/09/arrogant-much-dealer-tells-woman-go-back-to-vw-you-dont-deser/

Let's dissect this one-sided bitchfest shall we?

Raquel had a 48-month lease on a Bimmer during which she experienced "about 10" service visits, and she just wanted to wash her hands of the German automobile and look elsewhere. She had to turn in the vehicle on the day of her visit or she would be fined for turning it in late. Enter Brecht BMW, a certified lease return location, and not the location Raquel purchased the vehicle.
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So, to rid herself of the Bavarian Iron, she decides to just dump the car at any Bimmer dealership. Any certified dealership would do, right? Not really if you actually bothered to call them first to see if it was okay.

When Raquel attempted to get a mileage signature from a Brecht salesman, he refused. The salesman then got a manager, who threatened to call the police as Raquel stood there dumbfound with her three children by her side. When she asked for the manager's name, he threw a business card at her.
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Never bothered to call first, expect hassle? To a point.

When Raquel contacted BMW North America, she was reportedly told that Brecht was a franchise, and that there was nothing BMW North America could do.
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Huh, learn something new everyday.
 
Probably a load of one-sided bullshit
 
Yeah. Her story sounds very phony to me (especially when she said she and her kids started tearing). She doesn't even have proper grammar (from her letter).
 
My parents had a similar experience back in 1982. My dad just made full-bird Colonel and had promised himself that when he did he would buy a nice car. He and my mom have always been careful with their money and at the time were driving a three year old VW Sirocco. They drove down to BMW to look at the 5 Series and the salesman refused to help them, saying that they couldn't afford the car and that the 5 series was usually sold to companies, not individuals.

They went down the street and paid cash for a brand new Mercedes instead.
 
We do lease returns for people who didn't buy the car at our dealership all the time. People move from other areas, have a bad experience with there original dealer or the original dealer sells the franchise to another company.

A lease return takes five minutes or less to do. almost all the leases are inspected ahead of time by the leasing company and even if they aren't we don't have to do anything.

The leasee signs two things. The first is an odometer statement and the second is an electronic signature ending the lease. We usually take the plates off for the customer but sometimes they do it themselves. Actually I don't think you even have to sign the odometer statement anymore. I thin it is all done electronically on a computer sign pad.


Yeah you should probably call ahead but even if you don't setting everything up takes a couple of minutes and most dealers are very slow in the middle of a week day.
 
When I tried to turn in my lease, it was like the leasing company wasn't planning to still be in business by the time my lease was up, as no one had any idea about how to take the car back.

I contacted the bank: "Contact the dealer."

I contacted the dealer: "Why did they tell you to contact us? Try this different dealer."

I contacted the other dealership: "No, we don't want it. It goes to the bank."

Long story short, I had the car for an additional 3 weeks, I had to call three different branches of the bank, and finally it got picked-up by a tow-truck to take it to a random lot, about which the regional manager of the bank replied "Yeah...I'm not sure what'll happen to it."

As I said...it was like they never planned on being in business long enough to have to know how to term a lease!
 
^ There are some shady leasing companies around which is why it is almost always better to lease through the captive finance arm of the automaker.

Do you remember who the lease was through?
 
Back to the story of the dealer reaction, i have had some pretty bad run in with BMW dealerships.
When i was shopping for th S-Class (which in truth we where looking at a Sedan at the time like an A6, 5-Series, E and etc) we went to an out of city BMW dealer. The salesman was totally rude and did not take us seriously at all. When I started talking about option on the 5-Series (like the SMG and etc) he was acting like I was asking a lot of trouble and keep saying "what we have on the lot is what we have". And what really got me was when i noticed a mark up on a 550i over MSRP and i just made a comment (in the way you do to get a price lower) that this car should not have a mark up, its nothing special. He balked and said "Maybe you should look at used car, or a 3-Series". Pissed me off, and I walked to a Merc dealer and ended up getting a S-Class.
There lost, my gain. Its not the first time, a few BMW dealers have that rep around here that if you try to act like you want to move the price, they will look at you like they are selling Gold. When I got my GTI I went to the SF BMW as they had the other car I wanted, a used 330i with M Kit. And this was less painful. He did not like my offer at first and denied it. But then 2 weeks later called and asked if iw as going to buy at that price. Told me I had already picked up my GTI.
 
one sided bullshit i rekon, BMW is known for one of the best customer service around in SA. I dunno how its like around the rest of the world, but id expect a big car manufacturer like BMW would throw in some serious money on customer service.
 
I've heard some similar stories from Land Rover dealers too. Mostly they're just issues with crappy customer service when it comes to repairs but there are a few I've heard that involve the entire dealership being uncooperative. One of the big factors seems to be where you got your vehicle. If you bought it from that dealer they'll likely bend over backwards to help you. But if you bought it somewhere else or, gasp, from a private seller then I've heard they tend to look down on you like you're scum off the street. Fortunately I've never experienced anything like this but that's probably because the closest dealer to me doesn't do much business and they're just happy someone came in to ease the boredom. :lol: Heck the last time I went in the guy, probably out of sheer boredom, offered me a test drive in a brand new Range Rover Sport as soon as I walked in the door. I knew that he knew there was not a sliver of a chance I would actually buy the vehicle. I would have been all over that had I not been strapped for time that day. :(
 
MadCow809 said:
one sided bullshit i rekon, BMW is known for one of the best customer service around in SA.
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I think it's just North America since BMW has very good customer service over here too.
 
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Well, there is only one BMW dealer in our area and everytime I went there to drool and sit on the cars, the treatment was a gazillion times better than any other "cheap" brands (FIAT, VW, Ford, GM, Renault and Peugeot).
The funny thing is, those other brands have cars I might actually buy (about US$20,000) where the cheapest BMW is about US$50,000, so it's pretty clear to the salesmen I can't afford the BMW's but they give me a royal treatment anyway.
The Honda dealerships come a close second place.
 
British_Rover said:
^ Do you remember who the lease was through?
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It was originally through AEA Credit Union, then they went out of business, and it was turned over to Keypoint Credit Union.

The worst part, though, was dealing with a bank that didn't have an online bill-pay option. Pain in the ass. :p
 
LeMans GTR said:
So it's settled then. it's just the US of A
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Thanks for the thorough analysis of every BMW dealer in the US.
The BMW dealership that's about 15 minutes away from where I live has great service as far as I can tell. They don't treat you like you are some sort of lower organism like some MB dealers do.
 
LeMans GTR said:
So it's settled then. it's just the US of A
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did you learn this in one of your classes in primary school? or was that in after school day care?

:rolleyes:
shitty dealers aren't just for some makes, there are crappy salespeople and managers everywhere. A friend of mine and his father went into a chevy dealer to test drive a C5 z06(I think) when they first came out and had a bad experience. they were both dressed in casual clothes, t-shirt and jeans and t-shirt and cargo shorts, and the salesman told them they weren't letting anyone test drive them. after some attempts to convince him to let them drive one, they got back in his dad's NSX and as they turned around to exit, the salesman RAN up to them, in front of their car, and said he "talked to the manager" and that they could drive one. He just hadn't seen the car they drove in with and assumed they weren't well off enough to afford it. So they flipped him off and did a burn out as they left. :lol:

even dealers with excellent reputations for customer service have the odd bad apple dealership or just some shitty people working for them. they don't usually last very long.
 
According to Top Gear surveys it really is a company wide, in a given country, problem of bad customer service. Mercedes continually had horrible survey results.

But I wouldn't be at all surprised if her account is completely accurate, I have seen enough bad customer service in other industries that it is very believable.
 
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