October 7th, 2015 BMW of Mountain View I purchased my M3 at the end of June 2015 from Tony Helmand and in the beginning he was all about his customer service, being attentive, and great allover. Until he began speaking of lies that the car was not on the property and how they needed to get access to the vehicle’s key a gentlemen had taken with him when he was off of work having no access to get the car. Furthermore, he told me that the spare key was also unavailable, don’t remember exactly why, but after I purchased the car Tony had told me that there was no actual spare key. I did not say anything but kept that noted. After being at the dealership for quit some time all of a sudden he said the car was at the dealership and took me to it. As I was walking up with my family I had told them “This is rude that he is lying to me again and the fact that the car had been here the whole time” Once I saw the car is was covered because it was getting body work done to it, they had scuffed out the scratches on the rims and on the front bumper area. I only got to peek inside the car after pulling the plastic cover, so the rest of the paint wasn’t vulnerable, after looking inside the car for a quick second I was extremely happy and could not wait to sign the paperwork. After coming to an agreement with Tony I signed the paperwork with Candice Wallace in finances. Candice was extremely helpful and loved her personally right from the get go, straight forward, cracking up jokes, giving me advise on the extended warranty, and talking about life. After the paperwork was over she never returned my phone calls and emails that I sent her over a few weeks and the same went for Tony Helmand regarding issues of my car and warranty pricing. My car had issues right from the get go because like I had mentioned earlier I only got to see the inside of the car for a quick second and once I got the keys to the car I was never informed how to start it, drive it, and use the SMG transmission. Tony never walked me outside to my car and did not pull up my car to the front like other salesmen did for their clients, I saw salesmen working with two or more clients, feeling that I was not being taken care of like others have been around me. Once I got to my car these two gentlemen had noticed I was very confused about my new car and came over to help me how to start it, drive it, and open the convertible top. Once I had left I had noticed that the rear view mirror had a huge ink leak causing the ink to move around in different temperatures throughout the day and night causing the mirror to become foggy on the perimeter. Not only was the rear view mirror a huge safety issue, being extremely hard to see at night than the daytime, the trunk buttons were not working at all. The button in the cabin to open the trunk would not work and the actual button on the trunk itself would not work. So any time I had to open the trunk I had to either turn off the car to use the key or use my trunk before I even started the vehicle. You can only image after awhile how annoying this can be let alone take a simple button for granted. Shortly after the trunk mechanisms were not working the convertible top would not work anymore. After never getting one reply from Tony or Candice I decided to drive the 40 miles each way from my house to the dealership to speak with somebody who was in charge and would actually help me. Once I got to the dealership I spoke with Sean Shah, I believe he is the finance director/manager, told him about everything I stated above about my car issues and having Tony or Candice not ever getting back to me. He had me speak with Yong Zhol, I am not quite sure on the spelling of this gentlemen’s name, I believe he is the used car director/manager, Sean me to tell him everything I had spoken with him about. Once I met Yong and after speaking with him he wanted to look at my car himself. After looking at the car he wanted one of his foremen to take a look at the car. So he drove the car around back and assigned me with Robert Flores in the service department to help me. After leaving the car there and getting a loaner car on September 3rd, 2015 I had called and emailed Robert asking, “How long my car would take” never got a phone call or email back from him. I even did the 40-mile drive to and from twice to get answers. By the second time I had enough and spoke with Gary Wilson, the director/manager of the service department. He was very sorry that this had been going on and helped me right away. I had asked him how long would my car be here for and if all the parts had been ordered for my car yet. When I had asked about the rear view mirror he told me the part was just ordered the day before when I had asked them to order the part 5 business days earlier. Now that really upset me because the car had been in the shop long enough to get the parts ordered long ago. I thought that was extremely unprofessional let alone the lack of communications this dealership has overall. Furthermore, Gary had told me that Robert had family issues and had taken some time off, which is fine, I sent prayers there way for whatever problems he was out for, but the fact of the matter is that he did not communicate with one of his other colleagues to help him out with the clients he had, is simply ridiculous, by then it had been two weeks my car was at the dealership. By the time I got my car it was 21 days (3 weeks) to the day. I got my car back on September 21st, 2015. Robert had told me that he had family issues going on and I told him that I would be praying for him and his family. But I did not share with him, the fact of the matter was, that it took 21 days to get my car done, parts were ordered five business days later, and you could have asked your colleagues to help you out, since you did not once go out of your way, excuse me, not go out of your way because it is his job, but the fact that he did not do his job efficiently and effectively. After getting my car back and placing my stuff back in it, I was checking out the new key that I had to purchase since Tony had lied to me about there being a spare key, costing me $270, I checked the convertible top to see if it was working, check the trunk buttons which did not work, and had to get Robert to come take a look. Once he got there the trunk buttons worked, thought that was very odd but was happy they were working. Once I met my parents for dinner and we were leaving the restaurant I had to place the wind deflector into the trunk and when I went to press the cabin trunk button the trunk would not open. So I went to unlock the trunk from the trunk itself with the button that was on it and it still did not open. So I had to turn off my car and open the trunk with the remote control like I did before hand, you can image how annoying this could be after not having your car “serviced” for 21 days and nobody ever getting back to you. I had touched base with Robert to get this issued resolved once and for all and emailed him as if he was a child, feeling bad doing this, but knowing he would not give me this type of information about my car. I wrote him “Send me; the original information when the part is ordered, the date it will be delivered by, and when it is actually received” Now this should not be happening, I do not need to tell someone how to do their job and treat a customer. I was at Lexus of Steven’s Creek for 11 years and not once ever experienced such unprofessionalism. Lexus always took care of my car in a timely matter and always communicated with me on what exactly was going on with it, from parts being ordered, how long the work will take, and when I can come in and pick up my vehicle. But let me tell you Robert sure did answer those questions and kept me up to date. My appointment was scheduled Tuesday, October 6th, 2015 but I had accidently place the day in my iPhone calendar on that Monday, the day before. I had filled out paperwork for an “Early Bird Drop-Off” with Alvin LLaneza, manager of loaner cars I believe was his title, has taken great car of me twice now. Thank you Alvin for being a helping hand, I seriously appreciate it cause it shows. Tuesday, I emailed Robert saying I came in on the wrong day and what is the time frame my car will be in there for? Did not get a reply by the end of the day, so I called him Wednesday to have him give me a call back, never to a reply, and today, Thursday, September 8th, 2015 called him twice and never got a reply by the end of the day. I had also called Yong Zhol about this issue of Robert not returning my phone calls or emails thinking he would help me since I was in his office Monday, October 5th, 2015 talking about everything I had written above and then some, because lets be honest here, there have been way too many wrong things that have happened here. I am leaving plenty of other issues out for the sake of time and energy since this alone is taking up a lot of my time to begin with let alone this entire car has caused me in getting it fixed. Nonetheless, Yong and I had spoken in his office for a good 30 minutes about all these issued and how horrible my experience as been at BMW of Mountain View and in the end what did he tell me “I am sorry for the experience you have had with us, I will be speaking with Robert, and you know what I am going to do for you? Is your gas tank full” I replied “There is less than a fourth of a tank in there” he continued “I am going to fill up your tank for you free of charge” I thought to myself I already told Robert to do so when I get my car back along with Robert telling me he is going to detail my car free of charge, which I had already shared that with him earlier in the conversation. For Yong to not get back to me either after just having this conversation with him Monday is absolutely absurd and extremely frustrating.
Ronnie Mendez
Oct 9, 2015
Certified Center