Problem Solved

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by BMWDavid

Sorry about the steering wheel issue. You let my assistant know you were not satisfied with the outcome of your experience at another dealership when you took it to them for service. The "they" in your post should be clarified. It's not fair to say we didn't provide good customer service when it wasn't our service department who indicated BMW would deny the claim.

Additionally your first contact to us at all about the steering wheel arrived as a text on 5/29 - almost a full month after you picked up the BMW. We really do our best to assist when it comes to helping out the forum community, but in this scenario we didn't have much of a chance to support you given your first communication about the issue was almost a full month later.

The floor mats arrived to our parts department as my assistant mentioned they would. They had to be ordered for you as we didn't have them in stock. They are being mailed and being paid for out of my own pocket. I hope this makes you feel better about your experience. My assistant will provide a tracking number for the mats.

Originally Posted by ex o

Hey OP. David responded to your accusations with a clear timeline of what happened. Looks like you left a bunch of details out of your story.

Folks, I see plenty of opportunity here to pile onto the OP, but we would be missing the bottom line if we continued to do so.

To me, the situation is far simpler:
1). There is damage to the airbag cover on top of the steering wheel. It probably came from being cut with a sharp object (e.g.: knife), which is not something one is expected to inflict in the course of normal car operation. We don't really know how or when it was incurred. The damage is not mechanical, and likely is not covered under warranty unless dealer gets creative.
2). OP missed it on delivery. I can not really hold that against him - I was overly excited when I was picking up my F80 during ED in Munich, and haven't set in, or looked at the rear seats until a few weeks after the car was re-delivered state-side. My rear seats could have been missing altogether, or cut into ribbons, and I would not have noticed it until weeks after I had driven off the dealership lot in the US. Nor would I have necessarily went to the original dealer to trouble shoot the damage if another one was closer.
3). There is plenty of room for the dealer to disclaim ownership of the problem, and blame the owner of the car. There even more room for the dealer to step-up and help the OP get the damage repaired. The former would be par for the course. The latter would fall under exceptional customer service.
4). It is pretty clear that Steve Thomas/David are displaying zero indication that they are interested in stepping-up to the plate for the OP. Timeline references are just an excuse to wash their hands off the problem. Which they legally can do. But if I had bought a $91K car from them, I would have expected more. I really would.
5). This sucks for the OP.

a

P.S.: Blaming SA's assistant and parts department for mats arriving a month late is classless. Mats are not on any kind of back order. The SA plainly forgot to order them in a timely fashion, and is failing to own up to it.
P.P.S.: Reference to SA paying for mats "out of my own pocket" is just petty. Whatever I may feel about the handling of the cut airbag situation, David's story and excuses about mats leaves me with a deeply sleazy feeling...

[SakhirM4]

Originally Posted by afadeev

Folks, I see plenty of opportunity here to pile onto the OP, but we would be missing the bottom line if we continued to do so.

To me, the situation is far simpler:
1). There is damage to the airbag cover on top of the steering wheel. It probably came from being cut with a sharp object (e.g.: knife), which is not something one is expected to inflict in the course of normal car operation. We don't really know how or when it was incurred. The damage is not mechanical, and likely is not covered under warranty unless dealer gets creative.
2). OP missed it on delivery. I can not really hold that against him - I was overly excited when I was picking up my F80 during ED in Munich, and haven't set in, or looked at the rear seats until a few weeks after the car was re-delivered state-side. My rear seats could have been missing altogether, or cut into ribbons, and I would not have noticed it until weeks after I had driven off the dealership lot in the US. Nor would I have necessarily went to the original dealer to trouble shoot the damage if another one was closer.
3). There is plenty of room for the dealer to disclaim ownership of the problem, and blame the owner of the car. There even more room for the dealer to step-up and help the OP get the damage repaired. The former would be par for the course. The latter would fall under exceptional customer service.
4). It is pretty clear that Steve Thomas/David are displaying zero indication that they are interested in stepping-up to the plate for the OP. Timeline references are just an excuse to wash their hands off the problem. Which they legally can do. But if I had bought a $91K car from them, I would have expected more. I really would.
5). This sucks for the OP.

a

P.S.: Blaming SA's assistant and parts department for mats arriving a month late is classless. Mats are not on any kind of back order. The SA plainly forgot to order them in a timely fashion, and is failing to own up to it.
P.P.S.: Reference to SA paying for mats "out of my own pocket" is just petty. Whatever I may feel about the handling of the cut airbag situation, David's story and excuses about mats leaves me with a deeply sleazy feeling...

You really need to re-read the thread. OP left out many details that are pertinent to the problem. Yes, the OP has put the onus on the dealership to step up to the plate and claim responsibility for something that they may have had no responsibility for. If they don't they look like the villain in this. The OP put them in a no win situation. Even if they totally take care of him, it will be defined as "too little, too late", even though OP didn't inform them until a month after "he noticed it".

[N55]

OP shouldn't of waited a month before he contacted ST BMW. If I would have noticed anything wrong with the car within the first few days of ownership, I would have sent a detailed email with pictures immediately. That way, the dealer knows about it, so they can fix it the next time i'm there.

[Mark's M]

Geez I thought McCarthyism died in the 50's. This thread is entirely inappropriate, sadly based on skewed facts and a questionable chain of events. Mods should lock it and let the OP and ST BMW deal with this privately.

[04RC51]

It's official, OP is "that guy".

[Richy Rich]

I had a good experience with Jimmy when I bought my e92 Akra GT4 x-pipe from him, that's about the extent of my good experiences with ST.

David was helpful at first when I went to get my replacement car for my F80 when Center was trying to bend me over on trade, after pulling back on an offer -- I ended up sorting it out and told him I wouldn't need him for that but needed two other cars...

Never heard back from him, sent a follow up email, still nothing.

Bought the other two cars a week later at Center.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by SakhirM4

Did "nothing wrong" and then you list what you did? I agree with your list.

This is the F80 crowd

Caught me. I was trying to use sarcasm as a way to illustrate just how wrong the OP's post sounded with summarized.

And sorry about the F30 comment. F30Post has had some issues the past few days separating the various models in the Today's Post section. I simply forgot this was the F80 crowd.

With the proper amount of envy, I'll go back to my room now.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by Mark's M

Geez I thought McCarthyism died in the 50's. This thread is entirely inappropriate, sadly based on skewed facts and a questionable chain of events. Mods should lock it and let the OP and ST BMW deal with this privately.

They should wait to lock it to give OP a chance to apologize to the dealer and the salesman and for misleading everybody on the forum. Don't expect that to happen but it would be nice.

[Tarzan]

Afadeev's post is the most appropriate one so far. The selling dealer's attempt at a mild discrediting of OP on here, with less than stellar grammar, wasn't their best PR move IMO. "Out of his pocket" my arse...I am sure it was charged to the new car sales account as most of the "we owe" items do in the typical new car sales cycle.

I would like to have seen some reasonable solution to the problem by the dealer. Maybe a 75/25 split on the cost of a new part or some sort of response other than they gave initially on here.

I would suggest the OP also contact their BMW CCA regional ombudsman to see if he can get involved in the process to assist. This often overlooked resource can be invaluable in a situation like this.

Good luck OP.

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by SakhirM4

You really need to re-read the thread. OP left out many details that are pertinent to the problem. Yes, the OP has put the onus on the dealership to step up to the plate and claim responsibility for something that they may have had no responsibility for. If they don't they look like the villain in this.

Yes, I agree with the above summary.
OP is not blameless, and could have handled things better.

Originally Posted by SakhirM4

The OP put them in a no win situation. Even if they totally take care of him, it will be defined as "too little, too late", even though OP didn't inform them until a month after "he noticed it".

Yes, this thread was intended to put the dealership on a spot, after no good will was extended to OP by the selling dealership. Whether OP waited a day, a week, or a month to contact the selling or any other dealership requesting help, is a red herring. It is irrelevant. Whether OP called, faxed, or presented his evidence of damage in person, is equally irrelevant.
Based on the facts presented, I do not believe that either Steve Thomas or BMW NA are under a legal obligation to go to bat for OP.

As soon as OP took delivery of the car, he owned it, and all the damage visible or hidden became his responsibility. It is his fault for not declining delivery on the spot if he saw any damage. It is his fault for not spotting the damage if it was present during delivery. But as I had stated earlier, picking up a new car is an exciting moment in one's life, and things can and will be overlooked.

Unless we have evidence that OP is a crook who has nothing better to do than cut up his own car and demand warranty coverage, I am willing to give him a benefit of a doubt. What prompted me to comment further was the response from Steve Thomas / David below:

Originally Posted by BMWDavid

We really do our best to assist when it comes to helping out the forum community, but in this scenario we didn't have much of a chance to support you given your first communication about the issue was almost a full month later.

It is passive aggressive.
It shows zero good will towards the buyer.
It shows zero intend to help him going forward.

I would have expected more, even though nothing is legally required of STBMW ...

a

[Ghetto2315]

This whole thread makes me cringe.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the OP took a month to contact the original dealer about the issue. I get that he could have missed it at the day of delivery due to excitement or poor lighting, etc... but not having the time to take it back to the originating dealer, let alone a simple phone call/text/email, because he "works 7-7" and yet he found the time to take it to another dealer sounds a little fabricated to me. He get's declined by said "other dealer" and then improperly slams ST BMW when ST BMW had no idea until now. When my sales team delivers a car, they all inspect the car inch by inch after the car has been prepped and detailed. Then my delivery coordinator takes exterior and interior pictures on a digital cam and saves the pictures on our external hard drives. ST BMW and David, I suggest you guys start doing that.

This reminds me of my service dept when a customer comes in with their car with known dent, scratch, etc. Has the car serviced and when it comes time to pickup the car, complains to the service dept that the service dept damaged the car while it was being service and "it wasn't like that before I brought it in to you guys". My service dept now also employs the same routine of taking pictures inside and out before we accept the car for servicing.

That cut on the steering wheel should be covered by warranty or if anything, ST BMW can have it good-willed by BMW NA. However, the fact that it's been a month does not help ST BMW file the goodwill claim. And let's be honest here. The non-originating dealer that the OP took it to more than likely did not want to help or get in to the situation and fighting BMW NA to get it covered because OP didn't buy from them.

OP, do you have an RO (repair order) from the other dealer you took it to? If you went to the other dealer and they took you in, you should have an RO. The RO will show the VIN, date, mileage, and explanation of what customer came in for and when service is completed, what was done. An RO ticket is generated any time a customer goes in for service.

Just to make things clear. I am only playing devil's advocate with no bias towards the buyer or dealer. There is nothing that I wish more than for the OP to get this resolved in a timely and efficient manner and I hope everyone involved is telling the god's honest truth but I still find a few glaring holes in this story...

EDIT: I just looked at the picture of the cut on the steering wheel and I find it VERY hard to believe that this would be missed by the dealer at the time of delivery and or the customer when picking up. It's an eye sore and something not easily missed. We forum members here are enthusiasts and the attention to detail is more than your average BMW buyer and for the type of money spent for a $91K car (plus the mods, which only detailed enthusiasts buy for their cars), the OP would have seen that cut at time of delivery had it happened prior to him taking the car home. Just my thoughts...

EDIT 2: The whole not having time to bring it back to the originating dealer after a whole month but bringing it to a different dealer is really the part that jumps out. I'm no rocket scientist but this leads me to believe that the cut on the steering wheel was done by the OP and not by ST BMW. Cut occurred and brought it to different dealer because that different dealer would not be able to verify if the cut did indeed happened at the originating dealer at time of delivery or if the OP did it. So the OP took a shot to see if the different dealer would fix it without getting ST BMW involved. When different dealer rejected, OP took a different path of trying to get his cut taken care of by pointing the finger at ST BMW. Like I said above. There are too many holes in the OP's story and with all the forum members piecing it together (with the OP's voluntary edit of his posts), this could be the only logical explanation.

[chris s]

[//M]

I'm not buying it.
1. That scratch is on the top of the wheel? If so I have a hard time believing you wouldn't see it with the back light of the gauges at all until the next day... it's possible
2. Busy is one thing but there's no way I wouldnt call them about it for a month.

My conclusion due the sketchy way he worded the first post to try and pin blame... it probably not the dealers fault. Cmon no one buys a 100k car with a major flaw that you can see the entire time your driving and not leave a voicemail/text/email.

I'd call them while I was driving the car.

[Stilakazam]

Originally Posted by AM4ZING

Car has warranty, went to a local dealer and said they couldn't help as i did not buy from them.. So i contacted ST, who i bought the car from... but am 60+miles away and they said they couldn't do anything when they in all reality can... hence the thread

Thanks for the clarification. So let's go over the order of events (based on your posts. Not taking ST BMW's post into account):

You took delivery of the car, was not sure if the slice was there or not because of delivery excitement.

Noticed the slice the next day, determined that you could not have caused it and that it must have been delivered that way.

Took car to local dealer, who denied claim because you did not buy from them.

You then waited 3 weeks to contact ST BMW by your own post at which point they said they could not help you as well.

At that point, wrote post on forums for guidance and help.

Various posts by forum members and by Dealer occurred.

Dealer indicated that they will deal with this offline through PM.

Thread continues.

So based on those events, there's one thing that is not clear. You mentioned that the reason you delayed calling ST BMW is that the car was under warranty and you felt that it would be a no brainer for them to cover this. However, prior to your waiting period, the last dealer just told you that they would not cover it. If I was in your shoes, I would be worried at that point since the claim was denied. I would make all haste to call the selling dealership to get the issue resolved.

Usually the longer you wait on an issue the less chance a dealer will be willing to help.

A dealer is a business not only serving customers, but also to make a profit so they stay in business. While good customer service is important, the best customer service in the world won't help you stay in business if you don't make money.

As a business, especially making sales and service, you also have the unfortunate side of having to deal with fraud or customers that are trying to get as much free stuff from them as possible. Not saying you are being fraudulent, but just being in the Dealer's shoes for a minute.

Imagine if you sold something to someone that is expensive, you go through a full delivery process (and they are supposed to check for blemishes on the car while doing prep), the customer drives off. Suddenly, 3 weeks later, said customer texts saying that his car was damaged during delivery with a huge slice in the steering wheel.

What would you be thinking at this time? You are responsible for your business and you also need to protect yourself and your company.

You can either eat the cost, potentially setting a precedent, you could deny the claim since you truthfully have no legal obligation (the whole drive off the lot you own it thing), attempt to submit to BMWNA for a warranty fix. Unfortunately, 3 week waiting BMWNA may be less willing than if it was 1 day.

I can see both sides having an argument here. You have a car that is damaged that you are sure you did not do (or if you did, are trying to get a free fix). For a 91k car, that is distressing. My recommendation in the future is regardless of whether something has a warranty, earlier is better for notification. It can only help your cause, even if it gets denied and you post on a forum. Also, would be good to post all relevant info. You never know when it will come back to bite you later.

From the Dealer side, the long wait does have an impact on willingness to repair. Let's exaggerate a bit and say you waited 1 day before warranty runs out to repair, do you think it's tougher to get that through? probably would be. Now compare 1 day to 3 weeks, 1 day wait probably much much easier to get a favorable response w/o public shaming. From a dealer's perspective, 3 weeks is not considered reasonable, otherwise the dealer would not point it out in their rebuttal. While publicly posting might help you get this resolved due to forcing the dealer's hand, it can burn bridges later, not just for dealers, but on social media as well (like this forum).

But conversely, the dealer could have responded better than a "cannot help you" response if it was made. That will lead to customers having a bad taste in their mouths with a large purchase. Waiting until a post is made on a public forum could be too late, especially if the OP posted a more complete story at the outset to make his case. Again this is only based on the OPs post of dealer saying they could not help. Once/If dealer responds, then we might get a fuller story.

[Who's on first]

Originally Posted by Never Convicted

This is sounding more and more like the guy who was bitching about the dealer putting orange wax on his engine cover bolts. Turned out to be a whole different story once all the facts came out. And totally irresponsible to make loudmouth accusations affecting people's reputations while twisting the facts.

I remember that.

That was a good one!

[hussington]

I'm with OP on this. I had a similar issue when I took delivery of my car, a cut on driver side door that I didn't notice until few days later. Mentioned it to dealer at the 1200 mile service and they replaced it with no questions asked.

[pfl]

I purchased 2 BMWs from Steve Thomas and unfortunately my experience was the same as you regarding the care before vs. after sale. I hope you get this issue resolved.

[Richy Rich]

Originally Posted by I hate picking user names

I remember that.

That was a good one!

What ended up being real reason for orange? Remember thread, too lazy to find a way to search for "orange shit on bolts" and pray.

[Bluex]

Originally Posted by Richy Rich

What ended up being real reason for orange? Remember thread, too lazy to find a way to search for "orange shit on bolts" and pray.

I believe, and i'm too lazy to look as well, that the OP of that thread actually had a JB4 and was running a very aggressive map that ended up destroying a spark plug. He brought his car to the dealership for them to repair under warranty, which they did, but immediately knew something was up, so they marked the car after warning him that they were pretty much on to him.

OP never mentioned that in his initial post, he simply stated that he was in for service and the dealership marked up his pristine car for no reason whatsoever. The horror!

That was how I recollect that thread went.

[Richy Rich]

Originally Posted by Bluex

I believe, and i'm too lazy to look as well, that the OP of that thread actually had a JB4 and was running a very aggressive map that ended up destroying a spark plug. He brought his car to the dealership for them to repair under warranty, which they did, but immediately knew something was up, so they marked the car after warning him that they were pretty much on to him.

OP never mentioned that in his initial post, he simply stated that he was in for service and the dealership marked up his pristine car for no reason whatsoever. The horror!

That was how I recollect that thread went.

Bahahaha of course. What an idiot to even start a thread on it.

[Never Convicted]

Originally Posted by Bluex

I believe, and i'm too lazy to look as well, that the OP of that thread actually had a JB4 and was running a very aggressive map that ended up destroying a spark plug. He brought his car to the dealership for them to repair under warranty, which they did, but immediately knew something was up, so they marked the car after warning him that they were pretty much on to him.

OP never mentioned that in his initial post, he simply stated that he was in for service and the dealership marked up his pristine car for no reason whatsoever. The horror!

That was how I recollect that thread went.

Originally Posted by Richy Rich

Bahahaha of course. What an idiot to even start a thread on it.

And virtually the same thing happened. First, the enraged villagers all ranted about how all dealers are looking to screw you, then one member here posted a bunch of the guy's own posts about running an aggressive JB4. And as soon as the pitchforks were pointed in the OP's direction...*poof*...he was gone. Hey, I wonder where this OP has gone?

[GOLFFRR]

UPDATE:

Steve Thomas BMW really values and respects everyone on the forums. We are very appreciative of all the support the forum has shown and gives us over all these years.

With this in mind we are going to give OP the benefit of the doubt and replace the wheel no questions asked.

Thank you everyone for you comments and input on the this thread.

OP David will be contacting you here shortly and getting you all dialed in. Thank you again for you business we really appreciate it!