Brecht BMW

Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
I have a 2004 330XI that is well maintained and in very good condition with all recomended services performed. About six months ago my A/C began to act funny, ie - blow hot air out of one vent and cold air out of the others. I took it to Brecht 4 times to try to solve the problem and each time a Brecht service writer said "oh . . we know what that is" and made repairs and charged me for the repairs and each time when I drove away the problem was still there. When I complained to the service manager James Baumer he was unproffesional and rude to me, and refused to take any responsibility for the fact that they had charged me lots of money for repairs that were not required, and yet made anyway but did not solve the problem. I was shocked that the "best engineered car in the world" was willing to allow a problem go unchecked.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
I wonder why there is no choice for a ZERO rating for a dealer like Brecht.

I took my car for few repairs and a strange issue of black soot like deposits on my pepper white mini. The service advisor told me that they will contact a sales engineer from Mini customer relations and will get back to me. In the mean time they will just clean the car thoroughly to get those deposits off and asked me to drive it and see if the deposits come back.

1. The deposits didn't even come off completely,
2. They did come back within 15 days.
3.

When I went to pick up the car, I noticed that while cleaning the car, they also made scratches on the driver side door (which is what I was afraid of given the stubborn deposits) and the service advisor agreed to the scratches which were not on the car before Brecht cleaned it. She said I should go ahead and drive it and come back to them for a pending issue of tire replacement which is when they will take care of everything at the same time. Also, they would have heard back from the Mini Sales Engineer by then.


Note that they dont give you a loaner if you didnt buy your car from them. I do understand that providing a loaner is a courtesy service from the dealer and therefore, I asked them is there a way I can get Brecht to be my primary dealer since Brecht is my only option for the closest dealership in the San Diego area. I also told them that I did want to buy my car in the first place from Brecht but that time they were not selling convertibles (only hard tops) and that's why I had to go to another dealer. The service advisor told me if I keep coming to them, I will get the loaner previlages. Brecht is itself about 40 miles from the metro city and the closest car rental which is enterprise is swamped due to lack of staff as well as cars. Had already wasted two hours at that car rental during this visit.

So, when the paint deposits came back and when the few issues which Brecht fixed during my first visit also came back (service engine light, gas cap light, coolant leak, brake pads), I went back to Brecht after a long wait for a loaner (month and a half). They said they still haven't heard from the Mini customer relations and this time all they did was take pictures of those deposits and said they will call me in a week. I had other service issues in addition to the above, such as bad regulator for window glasses and yet another thing that Brecht had already fixed earlier for me regarding the compressor. The service advisor assigned to me - Brian, didn't wait for me to tell him what services are required and just called the body shop specialist and dissed me for another customer without a word. I kept waiting for him after talking to the body shop specialist. When I finally found him inside, he didn't even bother to acknowledge that he is supposed to clear me first before just going about his other business but just said, "I will tell you what, why don't you bring your car back once we have heard back from Mini customer relations and we can take care of all the issues at the same time." wasted yet another two hours and gallons of gas to hear this. I didn't get any call from Brecht as they had promised, so I called Brian after 3 weeks, and he said yes we have actually heard from the mini customer assistance and they have said they cant do anything about it. I just have to keep cleaning my car. I reminded him about what happened when they cleaned my car earlier, made scratches and thats what will continue to happen more and more, besides Brecht still has to fix those scratches for me regardless, and he said at this point I will just have to talk to Mini customer relations.

So I called Mini customer relations and they told me that they will contact the service Manager at Brecht mini and get back to me. The service Manager James Baumer told Mini that he would be happy to look at my car and work with me on the paint issue but at MY cost. Mini customer relations clarified to me that since the deposits are not seen as paint defect, it won't be covered under warranty. I asked them about the scratches that resulted from the dealer trying to get rid of the deposits has made on my car while cleaning it and they said they will make sure to call the dealership and speak to them about it again.

I get a call back from Mini in 24 hours and they said that James Baumer - Brecht Mini service manager will call me on this. When James called me, I explained to him the scratches issue, told him that his service advisors Stacey and the Body shop specialist Ralf have acknowledged that these scratches are due to cleaning, but all I heard from James was that he would like me to set up an appointment to bring my car in so he can look at it. He won't guarantee fixing any scratches and won't be able to provide me a loaner. I told him I don't see a point in driving all the way there for him to just tell me they can't do anything about it. I asked him to

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Reason for Visit: Sales (Used)

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
I went to buy a certified car that they told me was very clean and in great shape. When I got there, after driving 2 hours, I found out the car had a ton of damage. The paint was in horrible shape, the door handle on the driver's side was broken, the cup holder popped off when I pushed it and one of the headlights was in really bad shape. The Sales manager took no responsibility and told me that "apparently we don't have a deal." be careful when dealing with this dealership.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
Customer service is awful. The service department takes no responsibility for anything that they do wrong. We were delivered a car with damage and when the service dept was to fix the damage it took 10 days longer than we were told. They did not apologize and we were not compensated at all. We were also given a loaner car that broke down and they did not help us get a new car or give any assistance to us the day it broke down on the freeway. In fact, they even charged our credit card for gas without our consent.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
Don't use BMW financial for your financing needs. They are the most unprofessional company I have ever dealt with. The folks at Brecht did not help at all with my issues. Very arrogant!
I financed a part of my recent purchase though BMW financial, signed up for auto debit for my monthly payment. BMW kept calling me telling me that my bank account was closed...it isn't. I repeatedly gave them the account info every day when they called and was still told that the account was closed. Every day I got calls saying that my payment was late, sometimes twice a day! Terrible customer service and folow-up. Brecht management wouldn't do anything to help. I never got a return call from BMW Financial after repeated messages left. All in all a very stressful experience.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
I was looking at the new 1 series BMW cars i was told by the manager Mike Lewis in a derogatory way : “Maybe BMW is not a car for you; maybe a Mini is more for you.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
I took my car to Brecht BMW (closest dealership to my house). I was met by Mike (Sales Associate). He refused to take the car back. He wouldn't give me a reason other than I didn't buy the car from them. I continued to push telling them that I was told by the lender used by Brecht and the dealer I did purchase my car with, that I was doing everything I was told to do by the lender. I was told that I could take it anywhere / anytime and that if I didn't turn it in that day I would be fined. I was told that the process was simple and that I could wait until the last day no problem (I checked with the lender on two seperate ocassions before I turned it in). I also explained to Mike that I lived and worked 45 miles away. The only reason I waited until the last day was because I was trying to sell the car since and had a buyer looking at it that afternoon. I had put $6k down and the blue book was higher then the buyout amount. I was hoping to re-coup some of my down payment. Mike still refused to help me.

All the dealers first question, is always were did you buy the car? That is how they determine what level of treatment you are going to receive. I continued to question why they wouldn't sign the mileage verification form, since I knew it was something they could do. I tried to explain to them all the problems I had in the past, hoping this would make them realize they could provide some good customer care (for BMW as a whole since they do represent the BMW name) and retain me as a customer. Mike (Sales Manager) then came out -- he said my sales associate has already told you we are not taking the car back, leave or I will call the police. I then said, I couldn't believe he was not willing to help me. I said that when I owned my VW in college, they seemed more concerned with treating their customers well then he did. He said, "I should go back to VW because I don't deserve to own a BMW." I asked his name and he THREW his card at me. His threats scared my children. We all left in tears.

The next day my brother and his business partner came to retrieve the car. They again were met with hostility and lack of customer care this time by the GM (it is apparent that poor customer service comes from the top down). If the GM doesn't care about his customers then why would the sales staff? My brother picked up the car, drove it across the street to the Mercedes dealership and they took it, no questions asked. The whole turn in process at Mercedes took literally 3 minutes. Why could Mercedes take back a BMW lease while BMW couldn't/wouldn't??? This doesn't make sense.

During this whole situation, no one at Brecht has ever apologized for treating me so poorly and still to this day no one has given me any reason why the car was not accepted. Brecht even lists "Authorized Lease Turn in Facility" on the front page of their website.

I will say though, my husband has been in contact (for his BMW) with the financial group & has talked to a financial manager there that has apologized and gone out of his way to help us out! He said we should have never been treated like that and he is embarassed any dealer would treat a customer that way -- no matter what the circumstances.

I know all dealers are not bad; but Brecht has an attitude that we as customers are lucky to own a BMW versus they are lucky to have us as customers.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
Needed 3 things fixed on my car. Lock, window, and molding. Brecht had fixed all three of these items before. I was told that everything would be covered under the warrenty. After going through a few steps, I was also told that I would be rented a car.

I drive 30 minutes to the dealership and spoke with Kenji. His first attempt at "helping" me was, "I don't think that any of this will be covered under your warrenty and I can't rent you a car."

Luckily I still had the name and number of the girl who said that I could get a rental. I called her and she was able to get him to do his job, something that he's not so good at on his own. So I got the rental and left.

Get a call on Tuesday from Kenji saying they had fixed the window and needed a week to order the lock from Germany. Then, he asked me to pick up the car, which doesn't lock mind you. When I replied he wasn't finished with the car, he said, "Well, I can't rent you a car while we're waiting for the part to arrive."

I replied, "So you're giving me a car that won't lock?" He said, "Well, you BROUGHT me a car that won't lock."

At that point, I asked to speak to his manager, James Baumer. Now, remember that I have had all of these items fixed at Brecht before, a little over two years ago. The last time that I was there, the service dude took pity on me (I related all of the bad experiances with Brecht I'd had) and let me have a loaner while I was waiting for the lock to ship from Germany. James said, "I know that the last guy let you have the loaner and his heart was in the right place but I can't rent you a car while we're waiting for the key."

So I go to pick up my car and they DEMAND that I pay a $50 detucatable to release my car. I didn't have $50 on me. I asked them, "You're not finished with the work on the car. Can't you just give me my car and I'll pay you the $50 next week when you're finished?"

They wouldn't do this for me. It was 7:00pm and here I am, no money and no car. They called the service manager who, again, would not allow me to take the car without paying them the money. I had to call a friend to give them their credit card over the phone. I was so frustrated and humiliated, I left very upset.

Bottom Line: Brecht BMW wouldn't spit on their customers if they were on FIRE!!!!

I would NEVER, NEVER, NEVER buy a car from or use this dealership in anyway, ever again. The people at the rental place said that Brecht customers are ALWAYS upset and angry when they see them.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
Sold me a ertified Pre-Owned With SALVAGE Title And said it was my problem know.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
Do not do business with this dealership! My sister and I went to this dealership to return her lease as directed by BMW North America and the leasing company. We were told that if we did not lease from that particular dealership they would not accept it until the following day because they wanted to go home. we were there 35 minutes before closing. One of the managers threw his business card at my sister and told us to leave. The doors were locked and the gate to the exit was locked also. we were trapped until the manager finally unlocked the gate 20 minutes later and threatened us. Terrible Terrible experience!

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