Newest, but sadest member

I thought I was the happiest person 33 days ago. You see my husband bought me my first BMW, I was so excited, so were the kids and even our two dogs. That has all turned to nothingness. A thief stole the tires off of my x5 and left my new baby on cynderblocks. After contacting the police, I contaced Roadside Assistance, they dispatched a tow truck who drug my car up the flatbed. I grimaced at the sight. Well after my insurance inspector accessed the damages, the Service Department began their work (at least thats what they said). I needed new tires and rims, dust shields, backing plates, and repair of my left door panel as it was damaged by the vandals.

Twenty days later, yes twenty they tell me my vehicle is now ready. My husband and I go to the shop, make almost an 8k payment, get our keys, to only find out BMW never repaired the door, and there was damage to my front right side bumper. To add insult to ingury, as we were walked to our vehicle, the representative from the service department says, "I just had your car washed for you, but it as you know it rained overnight". A flag flew up and I thought was my vehicle sitting outside in the elements for all of these days? Quickly I noticed that the Rep had lied, my car still showed the black dusting marks (in various locations) that were left by the police who dusted for fingerprints. The Rep even said that my front bumper was like that, so I immediately spoke up and let him know I have clear photos of my vehicle the day it was towed. He then started raising his voice, with other customers and staff present, that despite my payment he did me a favor because they didn't charge me for the hours of labor they did even though they supposedly spent 15 hours taking off and replacing the dust shileds, 6 hrs were only charged.

As you could only imagine we were taken aback, and requested that we speak with his manager. After 40 mins, the Service Director greets us, we recap and then show him the photos, he agrees to fix my front bumper, apologizes for his reps dishonesty, and says we'll send your vehicle off to Body on Monday. Now during this entire time I have been renting a vehicle, my insurance paid up until last Friday, now the charges are on me. After a phone call on Wednesday, Service never sent the car as they said they would, it was going out that day instead and would be ready by Friday. Which brings us to today, Service calls me to give me a courtesy call to say that work has just begun on my vehicle. I wanted to loose my cool, but instead asked why all of the dishonesty and what were they really doing with my vehicle. An hour later the Service Director calls me and says the car will be ready by Monday. I said no way, and recapped our previous visit, when he said my car would be ready by Wednesday. He concurred, but had no explanation. I said, put it in writing, and informed him of my rental charges and that whether the work is completed or not I will pick my vehicle up on Monday morning. He said he'll send me an agreement via email.

I had take off three days from work, all because I was told my vehicle would be ready. You know I think the sadest part of it all is that 27 days later the gift that my husband gave as a thank you/welcome home after completing a my tour in the US Army, has turned into a nightmare and the integrity of BMW is nil to none. Can anyone give me advice on where to g from here? How do I get in contact with the Ombudsmen? Any insight that you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Because I'm about a second short of contacting the local media, and sheriff's department.

Thanks.

Firstly, thank you for your service.
Next, the Ombudsmen are here
Also feel free to contact BMW NA with your problem, but be nice (at first, anyway) since they are not the original cause and can deal with the dealer.
After that, go for newspapers, TV, etc. Make sure you have every scrap of documentation you can get and hold on to it.
Best of luck.

Thanking you dearly, I would have never known who or how to contact the Ombudsmen. Oh and you are very welcome.

~Holding on tightly to my glimmer of hope, the BMW CCA community~

Obviously, the people at that dealership are morons (and you should share the name,so others are aware of these problems). Fortunately, they are an anomaly. You cannot blame BMW for their behavior any more than you can blame the cow because the grocery bagger dropped your milk.

You can do a couple of other things here. The first one would be to contact the owner of the dealership to tell him/her/them about the way their employees lied to you. Don't demand anything immediately. Simply tell them that they should be aware of these issues. They should take the next step in asking you what would make things all right with you. If they don't, then ask if they would like to try. If the answer is 'no', then find another dealership, take your current case through the club Ombudsman and BMW NA and never darken their door again.

FWIW, I find it hard to believe it can even take as much as six hours to change the brake backing plates.

Not sure about the X5 but the wheel bearings have to come off to change the backing plates on most BMWs. 6 hours, maybe. 15? That guy needs to step away from the crack pipe.

ummm... wow. Sorry to hear of your travail.

1st thing - to echo previous responses; as sad as it is, it's not your fault, or your X5's, or BMW's. However - roadside assistance & the dealer....... (after the vandalism by the original thieves, of course...)

Say what!?! It's almost inconceivable that Roadside Assistance or the towing company wouldn't suggest your dealership LENDING you a set of wheels so you could drive your X5 to the dealer, or so that it wouldn't suffer any further damage after the vandalism to be put on the flatbed. IF your dealership had any word what happened and that it would be coming to them, it's pretty sad they wouldn't make that suggestion or offer.

What happened to your insurance company?!

And the rest of it from the dealer is just a disaster -

There is no excuse for any dealership employee adopting some holier-than-thou attitude about making some false claim about doing you some alleged favor when they're obviously lying to you, and then actually raising their voice enough to draw attention and create a scene. That's ridiculous behavior which is completely unacceptable. The favor bit is also irrelevant, with the door and bumper damage, they obviously didn't fix the car damage that they should have!

Waiting to speak to a manager for 40 minutes is also wholly unacceptable, YOU guys did them the FAVOR of buying the vehicle from them; as a new customer, you should be a an immediate and obvious priority, if they care at all about impressions and customer service!

Once your insurance has stopped paying for your car rental, since it's the dealer's fault they didn't get the car done anywhere near within their promised time frame, I'd say get very insistent that they owe you the use of a loaner car until yours is returned to you, for goodwill's sake, if nothing else.

It's also the dealer's misinformation that's led to you having to take extra days off work. I don't know if I would consider them liable for the first day work you lost, if that was the day that you normally would have lost to pickup the vehicle originally, had it been completed and done as expected. But after that, I'd consider asking the dealer for a credit equivalent to the value of the income you lost for two days of work that you could apply towards any parts or service.

I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect if you talk to one, they might well say you could have an actionable case to sue the dealer for monetary damage at least equivalent to lost wages & rental fees, perhaps more. If you engage a lawyer to talk to the dealer on your behalf, that would at least show you intend to be taken seriously (assuming the lawyer presents themselves forcefully). I doubt the dealer would want even the threat of a lawsuit, much less negative media exposure (assuming you can get that).

I don't know what to say about the shoddy & fraudulent treatment you've received, but it appears that through the whole of this nobody at the dealership from which you recently purchased your vehicle has made you and your vandalized X5 much of any kind of a priority, or cared much.

I hope that your car is repaired up to spec so that you can drive it, own it, and enjoy it in the years ahead after you get it back!

If your X5 is destined to reside outside, consider a set of wheel locks (Mcgard, or maybe these:Gorrilla Wheel Lock System, although I don't have any comment on the effectiveness of the Gorilla locks.)

Downside of wheel-locks is keeping track of the key! Unfortunately, you have to store it somewhere w/ the vehicle in case of a flat (assuming you have a spare), which means determined thieves might ransack the car to find the key to steal the wheels. And if you don't, you have to keep track of it and remember to take it along on trips or to any service shops, etc. If you get wheel locks, despite the extra expense, order an extra key or two right away; if you lose the key and only have one and need to get a wheel off, it's a real problem.

Since you can't control someone actually vandalizing your vehicle, the best you can do is limit temptation; keep _nothing_ in the vehicle that's in view, valuable, or that might give any would-be-thief the impression something valuable could be in the car. I heard a local news report that a car thief was interviewed and commented they would break into a car if they saw only a dime or a nickel in it on the chance that it would be likely to contain more change of something of value.

Thanks for your service to the country, hope that this all ends up w/ a happy ending, and best of luck!

If I had the money to buy a new BMW, I would severely hesitate because of the area I live in. It's okay, don't get me wrong, but my car has been broken into once before, and stolen items around here aren't exactly a new deal. But a new BMW, nevermind my 23-year-old one? Wheel locks, alarms, you-name-it, get it. You won't for a second regret getting extra security on a new vehicle, especially one as valuable as the X5.

+1 to what Marshall said regarding how to proceed. It all sounds more than reasonable to me, and quite honestly, negative attention to a dealer could lead to its downfall. Depending on how bad a situation is and how the dealer reacts, you could put them in a serious pickle if they refuse to cooperate. That gives you power and/or leverage to use to get your vehicle repaired properly and hopefully (from now on) in a very timely manner.
But, as the others have said, being firm but reasonable (and not coming off as agitated) helps quite a bit, especially if you're willing to show them who really has the power in a situation like this. It seems they have forgotten the #1 rule; the customer is ALWAYS right.




(Especially a customer who purchases one of their higher-priced models)

Goodness be, thanks to all who sounded off (by the way that's a good thing, military jargon). Yes, I do agree whole heartily, BMW NA is not the to blame, its the dealership who carries all of this. Having said that, the dealership still operates under their logo, and thus represents them. You see in the military, I was taught that whether I was in uniform or not, I must always conduct myself in a manner that best represented the integrity and professionalism of the Army.

While I am angry and agitated, I have not, nor will I stoop to their level and become indignant. Yes, this time around I had wheel locks installed. I will take all of this advice and put it to great use. Thanks again.



~Taking a break to inhale a deep breath, then exhaling a sigh....because there will be sunshine after all of this rain~

So sorry this happened to you

Wow I am stunned by what all happened to you. Since I just bought my first new BMW hearing what happened to you really hit home. I am so glad so many people here have given you good advice.

It is horrible that there are people in the world who do such things and especially to someone who gave to our country serving in the military.

My heart and warm wishes go out to you. Hopefully this event will fade into the past and you will find lots of fun time with the car.

Thank you so much for your service to our contry. Here's to happy times in the near future.

Update

Today I received the umteenth phone call from the service director at Life Quality BMW and he says to me my car is finally ready AGAIN, after one month and four days, phew. I didn't jump for joy just yet because of the previous false alarms, but I called my husband and we once again made the trip.

FINALLY, my car looked like the day I bought it. I sat in it for a few, started "him" up and then closed my eyes, relaxed my seat a little, took a deep breath in and listened to 96.3FM, NY, all while my husband did his inspections. My feelings were...well you can just imagine.

I said thank you, shook hands, and in exchange for all of my stresses, I receive a discount of 10% off in the parts department, and an offer good for a $199.00 spa treatment for the car, all to redeem at their location. Ahhh, how bittersweet, they know my patronage would never grace their facility. But all in all I'm okay with that because now I can jump for joy and begin to learn,love and enjoy my gift.

Happy Easter and Happy Passover to all.


~One Yellow Rose...pass it on~

Wow I am so happy you got your car back finally. How crazy!

Dont ya just love it, "Here is a coupon so you come back to us." Yeah right!!!!

Well best wishes to you as well for the upcoming holiday weekend.

As soon as I get home I'm getting wheel locks.

Bob
Hou. TX
E93 335i convertible
Space Gray - Black Dakota Leather
Sport Package and Premium Package

Redeem the spa treatment if you trust them enough. Forget about the 10% parts discount. Few, if any, BMW dealers will not give you at least that much simply for being a member of this august group (BMW CCA). Even 20% off of parts and labor is not uncommon. Look around for your new service dealer and don't forget to ask about that.

Thanks. I will definately ask before I choose another dealer. Spa treatment I will keep in the back of my mind, I still have a sour taste in my mouth.

Hey Blondie, have you been active yet with your local chapter. I have been posting on my local chapter board now and they seem a fun bunch. I am dropping in to meet some of them for Autox this Sunday till I have to catch a flight out. I hope your local group is fun as well.