[am_ver]

so here is the deal - my 335i coupe has a bad fuel pump; they give me a loaner e46 325ci; I drive it for 3 weeks and want something better (atleast a current model car); so after 3 weeks and requesting multiple times, I get an e90 (07 328i). After driving for 4 days; today a malfunction light comes up (dash shows the car raised on a pillar); iDrive says 'Drive Malfunction - drive slowly to the nearest bmw dealer'. So call my SA about this and she suggests replacing the vehicle.

So I walk up to the loaner desk; and the dude is talking to the person at the counter (later I found out that he is the manager 'Patrick') - then rudely turns to me and says 'can I help u with anything'. I tell him about the malfunction error; then says, u must be Mr X; he gets in the car and checks things out; then tells me - "The previous car that we gave you had pine needles on the floor mat when you brought it back"; That was probably the last straw that broke the back. I tell him that its just where I live (woodside) and I am done with this loaner sh1t; and would rather have my car back.
I mean what is he expecting, that I am going to klasse a loaner before I return it back to them?
anyway I got another e90 loaner; but his whole attitude sucked - was he expecting me to apologize and say that it will never happen again?! I'm pissed

[shragon]

man, what a foul from the dealer employee.

[dbtheo]

Nothing personal, but I can understand being upset about your car, but to complain and demand a "better" loaner didn't seem real cool. I would understand if they put you a beater or something, but you had a 325

[am_ver]

Originally Posted by dbtheo

Nothing personal, but I can understand being upset about your car, but to complain and demand a "better" loaner didn't seem real cool. I would understand if they put you a beater or something, but you had a 325

we are not talking about 2-3 days here; 3 weeks is a long time and I am not demanding a 5 series or anything; I don't think that it was unjustified.

[Ray]

Sorry to hear. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about that dealer, but never anything like this.

The dealer may think you are asking for too much, but there is no excuse for rudeness. I recommend you complain.

[KevinC]

What an asswipe. Write a letter to the owner of the stealership, with a cc to Tom what's-his-name (head of BMW USA).

I went to Woodside High myself in the 70's.. lots of pine needles on the mats in my early Beetles.

[John 070]

Personally, I think you have the right to be pissed. What does pine needles have to do with anything, and how does the guy have the time to notice anyway? If you damaged the vehicle that would be one thing, but dirt etc. is ordinary wear and tear.

Actually, it was years ago, but when I got an attitude like that at an Infiniti dealership, I had to dummy it down. I don't like to do that, but I basically said, "Here's what you're going to do. You're going to get me a loaner car, and you're going to pay for it, not me." That was in response to tying up my car for a full day, not performing any work, and telling me with an attitude that they were too busy and I have to leave it another day (btw my car was a Nissan and the dealer serviced both, and it was warranty work which is why they didn't "get to it." I was pissed--they got me the loaner, and when I returned it, I pointed out to the service guy that that was awfully nice of them to rent me a car when I only had to go 4 miles up the road. No joke, it had 8 miles more than when I picked it up. It's been years since I ran into a really rude person in customer service, but sometimes they deserve some karma.

[Pretender]

Well, first of all, most of SA are assholes and I understand you. I just talked to the same dude today about my f.king AT shift knob replacement in which they put the e92 knob which I don't like in my e90. He said BMW is no longer making e90 shift knob, but e92 ones.
Anyway, as a BMW owner, treat the loaner car with cares. I'm not saying that you trash the loaner. I saw bunch of BMW owners putting regular unleaded gas in the loaners. What the f...are they thinking? It's only 20 cents difference...please.

[Fartpimpson]

[ward]

I can't believe you had the nerve to demand a better loaner.

it's the golden rule, if you act like an asshole, they'll treat you like one.

don't get me wrong, stevens creek service is not great but you certainly don't help the situation going in with an attitude like that.

putting miles on someone elses car for free is certainly not a hardship.

I've been in there for brakes/service and been told I they would only give me a shuttle ride back home, but not back.

they treated you a hell of a lot better than they treated me.

[omerfar23]

Originally Posted by ward

putting miles on someone elses car for free is certainly not a hardship.

when you are paying for an 07 model you should get a 07 loaner at least especially when the cars is in for a known issue.

[ward]

Originally Posted by omerfar23

when you are paying for an 07 model you should get a 07 loaner at least especially when the cars is in for a known issue.

not true, if you knew the size of this dealer you might change your mind.

if this dealer had enough 07's to do that they would have more loaners than most dealers have new cars to sell.

there is no contract or policy to give you a loaner that's the same as the car you brought in, they don't have to give you a loaner car at all.
many dealers just give you a crummy rental Kia, getting a BMW (even one that's a couple years old) is a sweet deal.

[Pretender]

Originally Posted by ward

not true, if you knew the size of this dealer you might change your mind.

if this dealer had enough 07's to do that they would have more loaners than most dealers have new cars to sell.

there is no contract or policy to give you a loaner that's the same as the car you brought in, they don't have to give you a loaner car at all.
many dealers just give you a crummy rental Kia, getting a BMW (even one that's a couple years old) is a sweet deal.

Ward, I got a bmw loaner every time at Steven Creek. They just require you to make an appointment 2 weeks before to be able get a bmw loaner. Believe it or not, they have around 60 bmw loaners and most of them are e90 325/328.
I realize some problems with bmw owners too, they think owing a bmw will put them on top of the world. We know 3 series are just another regular car in Bay Area. With $10k down, $500/mo, everyone can drive brand new 3er...

[Pretender]

Originally Posted by omerfar23

when you are paying for an 07 model you should get a 07 loaner at least especially when the cars is in for a known issue.

Go to Honda dealer and ask them to do that...I remember the guy at the Lexus dealer got a bus ticket to get home...please, be happy if you get a loaner...

[itsbrokeagain]

yep not all car companies do the loaner thing....BMW is lucky to give out their own cars for people to beat the crap out of. I just hate to see who buys one of those at an auction or CPO. Those things must burn so much oil

[RWiller]

Here is a copy of the email I sent to both the General manager and BMW USA!.

Customer Service,

I recently received a survey about my recent experience at Stevens Creek BMW... it is very difficult to give a rating of a 5... I have decided to share my experience with you. I hope you can see my point. I buy a "high end" car, I am expecting some really good service!



BMW experience like you never expected.



I ordered a 335i convertible with the iPod option (6FL). When I picked up the new car form Stevens Creek BMW, (7/25/07) it was clear that the iPod was only working thru one speaker on the right side of the car. The new car delivery person had me drive around to the service department, he thought that there maybe an issue with the supplied cable and went off to look for a new one. He finally returned with another cable, it produced the same results. Audio was only coming out of one speaker on the right side of the car. He (new car delivery person) stated that it was probably just an issue with programming.



If it was just an issue with programming something in the computer, why not bring out a tech right there and see if it was a quick fix?



That didn’t happen, but I had to schedule an appointment to bring my car back to be repaired.



On 8/6/07 I brought the car into the service department. I was assigned Steve Bertolacci as my service advisor. When I told him I had a problem with the ipod he cut me off to state the following…



“BMW is aware of the problem and the engineers are working on it”



He said this prior to me stating that there was a problem with the audio.



“I said what? Are you saying that everyone that has this option that it is only working from one speaker???”



A new car owner doesn’t want to hear this! All they want to hear is that the Dealership will take care of it!



Steve also looked over my car and said it looked pretty clean and saw no reason to wash it while it was there!



I made one very clear statement to Steve, please fix it the first time, and do not make me keep bringing it back and YOU will wash it! This guy had so much attitude! What a Jerk!





So they kept my car for 3 days… bummer.



When I picked up the car, I plugged in the iPod. Hey great all of the speakers are working! I was about half way home and for some reason the iPod stopped working and switched over to FM radio. I didn’t think much about it and started up the iPod again. Well, within a few minutes the same thing happened, for no apparent reason my iPod stopped playing and switched back to the FM radio. Wow this is annoying!



I looked at my work order from the repair; they did do a lot of work to fix the original issue. The work order makes mentioned that they had to take apart the center console.



If you work on the center console and take the time to wash the outside of the car, someone should have taken the time to wipe all of the smudges and finger prints off of the trim on the inside of the car that was removed during the repair.



When I got home, I did some research on this problem with the iPod switching back to the FM radio for no reason and sure enough there are a lot of owners having the same problem.



I composed an email explaining the issue I was having with the iPod and sent it on the morning of 8/10/07 to Steve B. Included in the email were both PUMA case numbers, recall information, and recommended fixes that other dealers had done that would ‘fix’ this problem.



On the afternoon of the 10th, I called Steve, only to receive voice mail stating that is wasn’t available and was away from his desk. I call the service desk and asked if Steve was in, I was told yes… but still did not hear from Steve.



On the morning of the 13th, I call and left a voice mail message for Steve and asked him to review the email I sent him and to call me back. I called the service desk to confirm he was in and I was told yes he was working that day. Late that afternoon, I called the service desk, they told me this time that he was on vacation. At that point, I was speaking with Katie, I explained the problem and she scheduled me appointment on the 21st. She was very sympathetic to my problems and was very professional, thank you!



If you are on vacation, I would hope that you could at least update your voice mail greeting to reflect this.





On the afternoon of the 14th, I received a call from Steve. I explained what was going on with my car. He told me that probably a software upgrade would fix the problem. Hum, I’m thinking that he doesn’t have the last work order up in from of him, if he did he would know that just the week before, the software was updated! Once again, he said that they knew of the issue and would have to work with the engineers at BMW to resolve it. I explained that I sent him an email with all of this information in it. He said ever since he got a new computer his email has been down and to bring a copy of the email in when I come in next week.



So, here I am…. Paid for this option, and it doesn’t work. THIS IS VERY FRUSTRATING!



I attended a new car forum and during that time I took the time to discuss these issues with Patrick Minnehan(service manager) He was very apologetic and promised to make sure it wouldn’t happen again! I also explained that I was not comfortable working with my original SA (Steve B.) and would like another one. He offer to take me car that night, but I told him I have an appointment on the 20th, so we left it that way.



So lets talk about the 20th..



When I brought in the car in the afternoon, I was greeted and was told that the Service Advisor would call me first thing in the morning. So, I got my loaner car and off I went.



I didn't hear anything until the afternoon of the 21st…



If you tell a customer that you are going to call them in the morning, well you should call them in the morning!



I was assigned a new SA, a gentlemen by the name of Eric Diamond. He said he would be taking care of me and would keep me updated.



I called Eric on the afternoon of the 22nd and was told they would need it one more day. OK… no problem here.



On the 23rd, I was told that the car was fixed. Around 4:15 I went to pick up my car. When the car was driven up to me, then first thing I noticed was bird crap on the fender and the wheels were dirty, so I guess they didn't bother washing it. Then I looked inside to see there were once again fingerprints and smudges all over the center console. I was getting very upset at this time, so much for the promised that the Service Manager Patrick made to me the week before. I then opened the door, to notice that the black leather had been pulled away from the seat cushion and you could see the white foam.



Ok.. So I am very pissed and asked for Patrick Minnehan immediately. He was at best speechless… so .. It was decided that they would keep my car another day to now fix the seat. I was offered a hat / or shirt from the gift shop.. Ha ha.. I said, all I wanted was my car fixed. Patrick did put me in a Z4, fun to drive, but glad I didn't buy one of them.



On the afternoon of the 24th, I received a call from Patrick and was told that they needed a part to complete the repair and offered to give me back my car for the weekend or leave it there. I decided to pull my car out.. I was told the part would be in on Wednesday the 29th. Well, the 29th has come and gone, no calls about the part.



However I did receive a call from Scott Fuller (service manager, I guess they have two) to confront me on why I gave his SA Steve a poor rating on the survey form. I asked him if he ever read the email I sent to him, of course not… he was confrontational and not apologetic, and lets just say the conversation when down hill from here.



Will I never go back to Steven Creek BMW … Will I make sure all of my co-workers and friends and anyone who will listen, I will tell them about the poor service.



I never really felt it would every get to this point, but after Scott Fuller (service manager) call me and was such a prick, you betch ya.



thank you for your time,



Regards