Attached is a letter sent to BMW Canada in August. Since that letter I have had the vehicle back for major repairs twice. BMW Canada has continued to stone wall my requests for a replacement vehicle. BMW continues to advertise the "BMW Experience", don't buy it, they have no interest in satisfying their clients if there is a problem. Not only has the vehicle been a terrible experience, my customer service experience has been worse with both the dealership and BMW Canada.
See letter below.
August 31, 2007
Attn: Lindsay Duffield, President and C.E.O
BMW Canada, Fax 905-666-3672, Phone: 905-683-1200
I recently leased a BMW 530i on June 29th at Performance BMW in St. Catherines on the advice of my business partner Blake Williams, who has leased 3 or 4 vehicles at that location over the past 5 or so years.
In the past eight weeks my vehicle has been returned to be fixed twice for the following repairs:
1. Brakes (twice and still not done properly despite 2 requests in early July and Mid-August.)
2. Sunroof (twice, replaced the motor in August)
3. iDrive was reset because it was not functioning properly
4. Battery - Died and was replaced
5. Speakers were cutting in and out (have been fixed)
Other issues have been regarding the service from Performance including:
1. I had arranged for the car to be picked up while I was on vacation from August 4 to the 10th. The vehicle was to be picked up from my home on Aug 6th, the key was left in the mailbox; they failed to pick up the car and the key sat in my mailbox until I got back from vacation on Aug 10th. I was not pleased because I was not using the car that week and instead had to have the car taken to Performance the following Monday. The car remained there for 10 more days for repairs to the sun roof, iDrive, and the brakes.
2. Asking for brakes to be replaced in July and August only to be told that they were fine. Andy in the service dept assured me that the squealing noise was fixed. When the vehicle was returned to me last Wednesday, August 22nd, the driver returning the car told me I should have the brakes looked at. He did not realize it was in for a brake job. The brakes had not been repaired as promised.
3. On Monday August 27th, I decided to escalate my issue regarding the brakes with Andrew Marchant (Manager) and left 2 messages on Monday and Tuesday. He did not return my calls, but had asked my sales contact John O'Neil to call me Tuesday night. I returned his call on Wednesday morning and left a message to call me back to discuss on-going issues with the brakes and 2 other minor problems that have surfaced since then. I have not heard anything from John or Andrew since.
Lastly, I received a call regarding my service at performance on Wednesday afternoon from a 3rd party survey company about the mid-August repair. I told her the above story and she assured me someone would respond. I have not had that response yet.
I have tried to resolve this directly with Performance but have not had much success. This is my first BMW, I work with 3 other colleagues with BMW's, and I have no doubt of the quality of your cars. That being said, this has been a poor experience for me and has been quite frustrating to continue to have my vehicle in the shop for over 2 weeks since I leased it, and suspect it needs to go back for at least another 3 or 4 days. I have tolerated using the loaner cars. My neighbors, family, and colleagues are aware of what is happening because I have not had the use of my car; and they have asked me why. Since I have had problem after problem with this car, people are referring to my car as the "lemon", this is not good for both of us.
I would like to have this resolved as soon as possible; my first choice would be to return the car for a different vehicle as my confidence is quite low. I'm afraid that I will have continued problems with this car and will have to start paying for it myself. I would recommend that you strongly consider this option, anything less would be a problem for me.
I hope this comes across not as a complaint but means to rectify a very poor product and service experience. John O'Neil at Performance has been outstanding in his efforts but has been limited by the failure of others.
I would appreciate a quick and fair response to this unusual BMW experience.
Sincerely,
Doug Eley.
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