BEWARE: SAN FRANCISO BMW
 

I thought I was going to have the best Xmas ever. Things took a very ugly turn when it came to delivering my X5 35D. I ordered this vehicle on November 1st and patiently waited with great anticipation. I got the word from my SA that the car would be in and ready for pick up Xmas eve. I was elated.
Where I made a big mistake was having them install a trailer hitch before I picked it up at a cost of $1047.83 with no discount on the parts.
My delivery time was supposed to be 12 noon on Thursday 12/24. We arrived at 11am to get the paper work taken care of in advance. Upon arrival, we were told that noon was probably not going to happen. It was taking awhile to finish the trailer hitch install and the vehicle was to be detailed after that.
No big deal we had some time. The SA knew we really wanted to get back on the road (home to Redding 225 miles north of the dealership) because we had Xmas eve dinner plans with my wife's mother at 5:00p.m. We waited and waited and kept getting updates every once in awhile.
At 3:30 the vehicle finally comes around for delivery (3 1/2 hours late). We started our delivery process. During our walk around , we spot several very obvious scratches in the black plastic rear bumper that had been removed to install the hitch. We brought this to the attention of our SA and he went and got the service manager.
They looked it over and said,” yes there were some marks on it, but that kind of thing happens when the bumper is removed.”
I said,” you have to be kidding me! This is a brand new $60K vehicle with scratches on the bumper and I am supposed to be OK with it?” I told them that I was not OK with it and I wanted the bumper to look like new.
Their solution was to take it back to the detail shop and try to cover the marks with some armor all.
They return and said it turned out “PRETTY DECENT”. The scratches looked the same.
We commented that this is a new vehicle and it shouldn't be “PRETTY DECENT” IT SHOULD BE PERFECT! If we wanted “pretty decent” we would buy used vehicles, and said the vehicle wasn't acceptable for delivery.
Then the sales manager was brought out to look things over. She takes a casual look at the bumper.
She said,”it doesn't look too bad.”
I said,” looking not too bad was not the same as looking new”.
She asked,”do you live in the city? All the cars in the city get their bumpers scratched up anyway.”
We told her we live in a small town and were not accustomed to having our bumper's scratched up.
Then she went on trying to justify that we were going to receive scratches on our bumper since we tow. I reassured her that all of our other vehicles that we have used for towing didn't have any scratches on them.
Her solution was we could order another car (wait another two months), get our money back, accept the vehicle as is, or purchase another vehicle on the lot. Problem was they had no other diesels.
I suggested that only the bumper be replaced.
She said,” ABSOLUTLY NOT!”. The deal I got on the car was so low that the dealership couldn't absorb the cost of a replacement bumper. She also informed me that this vehicle was in high demand and that the SA sold it below what he should have.
She later came up with the idea that they had a replacement bumper from the factory, and was going to pull it out of the packaging to show me that they come from the factory all scratched up. Then was later mistaken that they didn't have the same bumper in stock.
She assured me that it is impossible to install a trailer hitch without some scratches to the bumper.
To say I was stunned would be an understatement. I have been driving a borrowed 26 year old VW Vanagon for a month waiting for this vehicle because I sold my Audi Q7 a month ago in anticipation of my new X5 35D.
I then asked her what the cost was of a replacement bumper. I wanted to know exactly how much money the dealership was going to have to absorb, because of their careless tech who did the install. After another extended wait I was told the cost was approx. $600 and that I would have to pay for it. Again I was stunned!
I have bought many new cars in my life and have never been treated the way I was treated by BMW of San Francisco. I made a call to my local dealer in Chico and was told they wouldn't have anything until maybe February. To say I was stuck between a rock and a hard place would be an understatement. I finally decided I more or less had to take the vehicle as is and will be replacing the bumper at my expense myself. I know how to remove and replace plastic bumpers without damaging them because I am not careless. I am going to be contacting BMW of North America first thing Monday morning and informing them of my experience at SFBMW to see if this is acceptable from their point of view. In the mean time I will be letting everybody I know of that might be interested in a new BMW to not patronize BMW of San Francisco because they could care less about their customers.

That is unfortunate, getting a new car is supposed to be fun, it seem like there is always something that takes the fun out of it.

Try to enjoy your new ride.

Did you write anywhere on the multiple papers they had you sign:

"Bumper damaged and scratched upon delivery"

So simple, so easy- they cannot prevent you from doing this. All it does is DOCUMENT THE DAMAGE EXISTS. No need to demand they fix it or agree to fix it...just document it. Take the page, turn is sideways, down the side, in between the lines...whereever... just get it in writing at the time the deal closed....

Tomorrow, or the day after, or whenever, you then proceed to make someone fix it! You didn't need to get them, to agree to fix it- just that it was damaged and it was not acceptable to YOU. That you were taking the car with that caveat...


Instead you got into a pointless pissing match with idiots.

BMWNA will do NOTHING. Mark my word. Sorry. They will point you to the dealer, say "work it out with them" and "we are not responsible for dealer damage" or "the dealer tells us there was no damage"

Finally, you gave them too much information- they knew you had no choice.

Really sorry to hear about this- I know it is frustrating. Maybe look at it this way: You've had your first minor scratch ...AND it is neither your fault nor your wifes!!!

:)

Enjoy it- great car

A

PS I write this since it works on ANY transaction, any agreement- after a service visit, etc.

If you're lucky, BMWNA will pay to repair/paint the bumper. I had mine come in with 3 out of 4 damaged wheels at delivery. BMWNA would only pay to repair/paint my new wheels. I raised hell with the dealer, they said BMW would take care of the wheels. In the end, the dealer swapped wheels from another vehicle. It took two trips back to the dealer 120 miles each direction. I will never trust the dealer or BMW to do the right thing. I will never take delivery of a damaged car again... I also sold my other SUV and it was winter, or I would have walked. Next time, I will rent a car and not take delivery...

Craig

Those people at the dealer are a bunch of fools. The Performance Center installed my hitch and the only thing they did to the bumper was to get some wax residue on it from detailing carelessly. 30 minutes later, good as new. I would report SF BMW to the BBB if I was you.

Plus, they overcharged you $500 bucks on the hirch anyway. That profit would have paid for the new bumper.

I lived in SF for 4 years and I would NEVER recommend BMW SF to ANYONE. They have the attitude that if you won't buy their product, the next person will (screw you type of attitude).

I had the trailer hitch installed at my dealer and no scratches. It looks stock and I am very happy with it. So it can be done without scratches!

Sorry to hear about your horrible experience with your BMW dealership. Don't expect much from BMW of NA. In the past when I have called them ( several times ) about issues that I've had, the most common response I've heard is " I don't know, I'll have to look into that and get back to you " and have yet to recieve a return phone call.

I'm sorry to say - especially on this site ( and in light of the fact that I own a 2010 X5 ) that the customer care that I have recieved from Mrecedes both on the dealership level and corporate level, blows away the sorry excuse for customer service that I have recieved from BMW overall. They just don't seem to give much of a damn.

The " service " that you recieved was absoloutely reprehensible and unacceptable. I see some paralells between the arrogance that BMW displays and the way American car companies operated for a long time. No company can get away with treating it's customers like this forever - and that goes from corporate down to the dealerships. BMW needs to get a clue.

The sad thing about all this is that S.F. BMW has reason to be so arrogant.....there are A LOT of Chinese ppl in the S.F. area and they LOVE BMW's. So, the reality is that someone probably will snatch up that car if the OP decided not to buy it.

In my area, it's Mercedes Benz. Viet ppl LOVE their MB's. Hence, MB opened up a new dealership right in the middle of a bad area because it's near the Asian area. And, sure enough, that dealership has issues with customer service because there are still ppl lining up to buy up new MB's.

The two BMW dealers I really do not recommend the BMW dealerships in Berkeley, and San Francisco. I've had relatives lease a few Bimmers, and these two offered okay deals (relatively the same) but they acted like they had a customer waiting for the deal they offered to you when you reject it.
Concord isn't too bad, its actually one of the better ones in the Bay Area. Customer service after purchasing the car is a lot better than the San Francisco dealership. Almost day and night imo.

I disagree with your stereotype regarding which cars each race likes. However, I did notice that the dealership in SF does offers their prices slightly less (a few bucks less :rofl:) than other dealerships in the neighborhood.

Call up the S. F. BMW and find out the name of the general manager. Then write a nice but firm letter explaining exactly what happened and ask that they pay for the bumper replacement. This is your best avenue get satisfaction at this point.

The general manager has the power to get this fixed. The general manager can make heads roll. I once got almost $600 from a dealer using this method.

Chuck

It's not really a "stereotype". It's more of a general observation. I'm not trying to be racist, if that's what you're thinking. For example, Asians don't buy American or VW's....for the most part. Why do I say Chinese love BMW's? Because all my Chinese friends and acquaintances all have and love BMW's. Why do I say that Viet ppl love Mercedes Benz? Because I'm Vietnamese and know my ppl's mentality......Movado/Cartier = best watchmakers, Yamaha = best pianos, and Mercedes = best cars and sign of success. Is it correct? Of course not. I'm just the messenger.:D

Response to Beware BMWSF
 

Thanks for all of the support and advice on my situation at BMWSF. I will be sending a letter to the general manager about the travesty that occured xmas eve as well as to BMWNA. I am not holding my breath that anything will come of it but want to leave no stone unturned for the way I was treated by this shyster dealership! If this post helps lose even one sale to BMWSF I will have at least gotten some revenge for their horrible customer service and total lack of respect for their cutomers.

From now on, you need to frequent BMW of Humboldt Bay. In fact, they are probably closer than chico! Anyhow, they're the best....I'm in sacramento, and I've still bought 2 cars from them, including my X5.

I recommend that EVERYONE buys from BMW of Humboldt Bay....

Thanks for the info on Humbolt Bay BMW. I looked at there web site but never talked to them becasue they had no diesels in stock. By the size of their inventory they are a very small dealership which is fine but the smaller dealers don't seem to be able to get vehicles ordered as quickly as the larger dealers do. This is due to allocations by the factory. I was able to get my X5 from BMWSF about 5 weeks sooner than my dealer in Chico was able to otherwise I would have bought from them. In hind sight I wish I would have now. Another few weeks of waiting would have been much better then what I went through xmas eve for sure.

Regarding BMW of HB....I have had 2 VERY difficult to find cars for them to go after and find....and they've actually gone out and found them both times!

1st was a fully loaded, year old 5 series wagon, second was the X5 I just bought--they found me the right one, at the right price.

Next time I will deal much closer to home. Dealing with big city car dealers is a thing of the past for me. I thought by going to an area with many dealers that the competition would have made for a more competitve market which translates to lower prices. In this case smaller would have been better. In SF I was just a little fish in a large pond that got swallowed up and spit out.

The message as of late is pretty clear to those of us who live in the Bay Area.

AVOID LOCAL BMW DEALERSHIPS LIKE THE PLAUGE.

There's one dealership where I've had a semi-positive experience and that was in Pleasanton.

The rest of them are for the birds. I took delivery of my 35d 8-days ago.

Worst buying experience of my life.

It appears the positive experiences that BMW owners have had, locally, are few and far between here.

There must be a regional manager for our local. If a few of you would like to join in, I'm up for writing a group letter with a summary of short snippets we've each experienced.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I've had better experiences purchasing a Hyundai at the age of 18, than working with these jokers.

They've become too "fat" off of all the business to care about individual customers. We obviously live in BMW Central. Drive through any semi-nice neighborhood in the region and you'll see 10 to 15% of the cars are made by BMW. Some places like Piedmont or Noe Valley probably have 30 to 40% BMWs.

What a shame. I'm sorry you had this experience. It's a great SUV, and there are MANY consumer laws that will assist you. If you need help, feel free to contact me and I'll point you in the right direction, legally.

You know. One letter form an uphappy customer doesn't carry the weight of a bunch of responeses from a group of BMW enthusiasts. Perhaps emails from such a group. polite, yet to the point about customer satisfaction, might go a bit further.

According to their website, the Schmitt familty has been owners for over 40 years. I'm sure they'd like to offer a remedy for their screw up by an employee (not the technician, the sales manager).

Sorry to hear, do you have any pictures of your scratch? SFBMW has the worst service, I live in San Francisco and will never take my car there.

I recently bought my X5 from the Fremont dealership and everything went pretty well. My SA was pretty cool, helpful, responded to my emails promptly, and gave me a great deal.

The only snag (albeit, minor) was with the finance dept which wouldn't take my business check as payment. So, I had to transfer funds from my business acct to my personal acct. With all the fraud going on these days, the banks make high-amount transfers a hassle. And, the BMW finance guy didn't know much and do much to accommodate the bank's delay. He basically just said that's not his problem despite my concerns originally that it would take longer for the transfer to process.

This general statement is incorrect.
Not everyone has the same experience with dealers
and painting them all with the broad brush of ridicule
imo isn't fair.

Having said that SFBMW has had many complaints
on this board and for that reason I would most likely
go elsewhere to purchase and for service.

Nowhere in my thread did I suggest that everyone has has had a bad experience. But I am suggesting that there has been a large enough population to suggest that buyers go elsewhere, when possible.

You're free to disagree, naturally, and I respect your opinion. I'm aware that a majority of buyers have had positive experiences.

But, there exists a large enough population of buyers who have had negative experiences AT ALL local BMW dealerships for a letter to be written.

Many of these negative experiences are material in nature and are above and beyond the normal gripes and jabs that are commonplace in the car buying process.

Having owned nearly every brand of car sold in the United States, save for a few exotic brands, I've rarely come across the frequency of incompetence displayed by local BMW dealers to SOME (not all) buyers.

In my opinion, if only SOME of us are experiencing horrendous experiences, that more than justifies a complaint. There need not be 20 or 30% of buyers who are having negative experiences for my post to be valid.

If you search this forum, you'll see that no local dealer is immune, and this is quite rare when compared to other large cities. This does not exist with New York, Los Angeles, or San Diego Dealers.

Are Bay Area owners more apt to complain, than those living in other large cities? I doubt it...

But, again, each is entitled to their own opinion.

I respect your opinion as well but when you say............

"The message as of late is pretty clear to those of us who live in the Bay Area. AVOID LOCAL BMW DEALERSHIPS LIKE THE PLAUGE."

When you make that kind of statement then in my opinion you're painting all dealers with a
broad brush assuming that everyone has had the same experience and will receive the
same treatment and therefore local BMW dealerships need to be avoided.
That reaction and conclusion imo is incorrect.

None of us have the complete picture when we read complaints
from drivers and their issues.

Since I've been a member of this forum I have read how some BMW owners
express complaints that show they don't have a clue about how to deal with people in service dept's.
That said I believe the percentage of complaints about the product may have credibility
but complaints about how dealers resolve issues may not be all they are cracked up to be.

As far as letters are concerned dealers have more than enough of
them posted from customers who are satisfied.

Finally if you want to talk about frequency of incompetence
displayed by local BMW dealers to SOME (not all) buyers.
Then I guess I would have to say try finding an independent shop that has
the technology training or the experience for service. If one has found
such a shop then that's a good thing. Until then
AVOIDING LOCAL BMW DEALERSHIPS LIKE THE PLAUGE
imo would not be a reasonable answer.

Here's why!!! High-tech vehicles pose trouble for some mechanics - Yahoo! News

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