[theclay]

Been a while guys, good to be back.

I bought a Sirius radio from Santa Monica BMW for $897.90 back in Dec. of 2005. The radio never worked outside of greater Los Angeles because the radio could not see the satellite, only the repeaters. I brought the car in four times to fix the radio. On the third visit I asked for a refund. The manager at the time pleaded to give them one more chance and to leave the car for two full days this time. I was reluctant but he agreed to give me a refund if this attempt failed. So I rented my own replacement vehicle again (they never provided one). When I brought the car in for the fourth time a new manager was in charge. I told him about my agreement and he seemed to understand. I didn't think I would need to get the promise of repair or refund on the fourth try in writing but i was wrong.

Summary:
-No refund, Defective radio still doesn't work outside of the city (at all)
-Out of pocket $897.90 + rental car fees
-New manager says no refunds, only more attempts to fix at my expense. (not letting them touch my car again)
-This is not a flame against BMW, I love my 330 and had no problems with Beverly Hills BMW (where I bought the car). This post is to inform my fellow BMW lovers to beware of the business practices of Santa Monica BMW. I have cases filed with BMW of North America and the Better Business Bureau but neither can make a refund happen.

Don't end up like me. View Santa Monica's score with BBB here http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Bu...ompanyID=45015

[LEDZEP]

If you purchased a product that does not work, and you have documented evidence of multiple attempts by the dealer to correct it - call a lawyer. Pay him $100 to send a letter to them advising of pending civil suit action.

But it's a good head's up to others in the area.

[theclay]

5 lawyers in the family. Small Claims is my only option but I really can't take the time off work. I'm not looking for advice Led (but ty). This is only to inform. =)

[morscode]

For what it's worth, a lawyer will get their Heads out of their rear ends....
Another option is just to file a cheap, small claim against the manager. Once they see the subpoena, they'll budge.

[bmw0perat0r]

what a nightmare

[0asis]

holy crap.. they got an F rating. the next worse grading is an NR which can only happen if the BBB's systems are down haha.. these guys aren't at the bottom of the barrel. they burrowed a hole through the bottom of the barrel and are seeping downward into the ground for which they came.

and it's not like theclay's incident is isolated.. Imagine how furious a customer needs to become before they call the BBB and this has happened to SMBMW 11 times i'm not sure how dealerships in the US are rated by head office but here in Canada, BMW calls the customer to follow up with a 1 minute survey and anything less than 5/5 is considered a failure and that rep/dealer is notified

i guess BMWNA won't bite the hand that feeds them. (SMBMW has been around since 1974.. it's a veteran)

[Robert]

Small Claims is the only way to go. You might want to sue them for loss of wage for court appearance as well. BMW of Santa Monica has always been a douche bag of a dealership. They would mark up a 5th production year e46 M3 for $20,000 above MSRP. BMWSM can afford to piss people off because there are too many affluent folks in that area who don't care about their money.

[BzzzBom]

IMO, Santa Monica BMW getting worse all the time.

[Bostonsfavson]

And Beverly Hills BMW has an AA rating. Worth the drive I'd say.

[dp]

SMBMW is my local dealer but there's no way I'd get a car there. This is the kind of place that gives BMW dealers in general a bad rep (although from what I've seen so far, it's often deserved, at least in the LA area.) "The car sells itself" == "We're gonna make you feel like we're doing you a big favor by letting you buy from us". Not really the way I want to feel buying a car.
:mad:
Here's what dealerrater.com has to say:

"DEALER WARNING: This Dealership has written (7) reviews about themselves which were all removed. All new positive reviews will be delayed from being viewable for a period of (21) Months. An employee at this dealership also wrote a negative review about Century West BMW. The review has been removed. Another 6 months has been added to the Blacklist for writing a fraudulent review about their competitor."

(yeah i know it's probably a multiple repost)

[a burrito]

Originally Posted by dp

SMBMW is my local dealer but there's no way I'd get a car there. This is the kind of place that gives BMW dealers in general a bad rep (although from what I've seen so far, it's often deserved, at least in the LA area.) "The car sells itself" == "We're gonna make you feel like we're doing you a big favor by letting you buy from us". Not really the way I want to feel buying a car.
:mad:
Here's what dealerrater.com has to say:

"DEALER WARNING: This Dealership has written (7) reviews about themselves which were all removed. All new positive reviews will be delayed from being viewable for a period of (21) Months. An employee at this dealership also wrote a negative review about Century West BMW. The review has been removed. Another 6 months has been added to the Blacklist for writing a fraudulent review about their competitor."

(yeah i know it's probably a multiple repost)

wow.. thats just pathetic..

[theclay]

Originally Posted by Bostonsfavson

And Beverly Hills BMW has an AA rating. Worth the drive I'd say.

So true, I bought my car there and they bent over backwards to make me happy. Changed the trim with another car to give me what I wanted and no extra cost. Santa Monica is just closer to me and I figured "anyone can do a simple radio, right?" DOH!

[juanccgg]

My experience with SMBMW was also bad.

My friend and I were both buying new cars. We decided to go to Santa Monica BMW since it is close and we figured we had nothing to lose. We told the guy that we did all the research so here is our price and if you say "yes", you will sell two 325's. After 10 minutes he agreed on the price, we signed papers, we gave him a check for the deposit (They were ordered) and it seemed like the deal is done. All of this took about 2.5 hours. At the end he said that he had to see his manager to get the final approval. After like 20 minutes he comes back with his manager and the managers says he has to add $500 to the price of the car. We said "no", we told him that we signed the papers, we gave the checks but he kept insisting that the price is not final until he approves it. We argued for like 15 minutes, and we just decided to leave. They did agree to only add $100 but we just walked away. We ended up being there for like almost 3 hours. I think their strategy is to make you wait and bore you to death, so you agree on any price.

We ended up getting our original price that we wanted at New Century BMW and it only took 20 minutes. Henry was the sales guy. He was cool.

[theclay]

Originally Posted by juanccgg

My experience with SMBMW was also bad.

My friend and I were both buying new cars. We decided to go to Santa Monica BMW since it is close and we figured we had nothing to lose. We told the guy that we did all the research so here is our price and if you say "yes", you will sell two 325's. After 10 minutes he agreed on the price, we signed papers, we gave him a check for the deposit (They were ordered) and it seemed like the deal is done. All of this took about 2.5 hours. At the end he said that he had to see his manager to get the final approval. After like 20 minutes he comes back with his manager and the managers says he has to add $500 to the price of the car. We said "no", we told him that we signed the papers, we gave the checks but he kept insisting that the price is not final until he approves it. We argued for like 15 minutes, and we just decided to leave. They did agree to only add $100 but we just walked away. We ended up being there for like almost 3 hours. I think their strategy is to make you wait and bore you to death, so you agree on any price.

We ended up getting our original price that we wanted at New Century BMW and it only took 20 minutes. Henry was the sales guy. He was cool.

Thankfully we live in an area where we do have choices, even though some dealers may forget that.

[BMW335icDDS]

LOL I laughed my ass off when I saw that huge F rating.