[Mangelo]

Here's my story:mad: .. Last Tuesday I took my car in to get detailed at 930am because they told me to bring it in that early in order to have same day service.
I also told them about my gas gauge being inaccurate and they told me they would check it out and fix it. So I leave w/my loaner car (chevy impala) and a few hours later they told me that my gas gauge just had to be reprogrammed but due to the heat they wouldnt have it ready until the next day. I didnt mind since I had nowhere important to go to that day.

The next day comes (Wednesday) and I pick up my car.. they tell me the gas gauge is accurate now. I TAKE THEIR WORD... Sunday comes I still have half a tank of gas (supposedly) so after church I take my girl out to the movies ... MY CAR DIES ON ME close to the entrance to the movie theatres. I start causing traffic... people at either staring at me (06 bmw w/hazards on apparantly it broke down, great advertisement huh?!?:rocks: ) or honking. IT WAS SO FREAKIN HOT THAT DAY I'm all looking stupid trying to push my car out of the way.. but i ran into a sloped part of the parking lot and I couldnt move it then... no one offered to help.. then finally I just asked the guy behind me to push it w/his car (as stupid as that sounds, put yourself in my situation and imagine all those pissed off at your because they're gonna be late for their movie) I was so desperate that it didnt even bother me to see his bumper hit mines...

Now I have scratches on my rear bumper and Im about to complain my @$$ off at the dealership. Service was good... but I'm so shocked that they claimed to have fixed something they didnt fix.

Please offer advice on what I should do/ say to the service manager at the dealership... and what do you think they can do(if anything) to compensate for my troubles... DONT GET ME WRONG, east bay bmw is a great dearlership w/great service... but this incident sucked big time

[larryn]

Never heard of a cellphone? If I were in a parking lot, and didn't have a cellphone, I would've either asked to borrow a cellphone, or would have gone into the theatre and made a call to roadside assistance from a pay phone.

No way in hell would I let people push my car with theirs. That damage is your fault, imo.

As far as asking what you should do with the dealership, they didn't get to actually fix your problem though they tried to fix it. It's happened lot of times before, and stinks, but happens.

[NaTuReB0Y]

next time use the mileage gauge in correlation with your gas gauge.......

i usually pump after 350 miles regardless of how much the gas gauge reads..........

[drake23]

Hey man bad things happen. I have friends that took their car in for fixing because their tire presrosure reader is broken. It keeps on going off even after they brought it in to the dealership (the dealership is Assael BMW in MOnrovia). Sometimes you just have to bring your car in a couple times before they can really fix the problem. Plus its undr warranty anyway right...

[rpiopio]

Originally Posted by NaTuReB0Y

next time use the mileage gauge in correlation with your gas gauge.......

i usually pump after 350 miles regardless of how much the gas gauge reads..........

I'd use the same advice. I taught my wife about it too. The gas gauge should be accurate and that's a real problem, BUT the foolproof plan is to reset the trip odometer every time you pump. It becomes second nature.

Sorry to hear all that happened.


To answer your question though, they should at least give you another full tank of gas!!

[remmib]

Originally Posted by rpiopio

BUT the foolproof plan is to reset the trip odometer every time you pump. It becomes second nature.

Good advice, I do that too!

[shimshimhada]

Sue them for pain and suffering.

[larryn]

Originally Posted by shimshimhada

Sue them for pain and suffering.

Seriously, he drove around from Wednesday thru Sunday after picking it up for broken gas guage repair. The guage didn't move at all in 5 days(!!), and he had no clue?

Maybe he did notice, and thought they gave him the secret 300mpg software reprogram. This just makes no sense at all.

[NaTuReB0Y]

try taking it to a different dealer........

my dealer didn't take care of the problem.......

and i drove an extra 20 miles to a different dealer - problem solved!

actually.....my car is still there - 6 days and counting......

i'm driving a chrysler 300.........oh....i miss my car very much!

[ward]

east bay is a class dealership, they've always taken good care of me. Eric the service manager takes all my issues very seriously.


sometimes the problem is on the other side of the desk


they'll fix your gas gauge, and that's really all you're entitled to

you could have left the car dead in the street and called a tow truck

[Mangelo]

Originally Posted by lni

Never heard of a cellphone? If I were in a parking lot, and didn't have a cellphone, I would've either asked to borrow a cellphone, or would have gone into the theatre and made a call to roadside assistance from a pay phone.

No way in hell would I let people push my car with theirs. That damage is your fault, imo.

As far as asking what you should do with the dealership, they didn't get to actually fix your problem though they tried to fix it. It's happened lot of times before, and stinks, but happens.

i had a cell.. i called roadside.. only takes em 1 hr to get there

[Mangelo]

Originally Posted by lni

Seriously, he drove around from Wednesday thru Sunday after picking it up for broken gas guage repair. The guage didn't move at all in 5 days(!!), and he had no clue?

Maybe he did notice, and thought they gave him the secret 300mpg software reprogram. This just makes no sense at all.

I didnt go into details of what I did from Wednesday through sunday... I mostly stayed home since it was so hot I was lazy to go out. I got my gas tank at 3/4 and it was moving down... that is why I thought it was fixed. Hope that helps your confusion.

And btw... I do use my odometer to have an estimate on how many more miles I can go w/out relying on my gas gauge. I know I can go 400-450 miles depending on my driving habits for that tank of gas. But THEY RESETED everything when I got my car back. (ok you can say, I should of filled up my tank upon receiving my car back) BUT like I said its was really hot... I'm really sensitive to heat... so I was very comfortable in my home and figured that since it was reading 3/4 tank... I DONT NEED GAS YET.

The papers stated "tested and checked - ok" I dont know why it would say that when it wasnt ok

[Mangelo]

Originally Posted by rpiopio

I'd use the same advice. I taught my wife about it too. The gas gauge should be accurate and that's a real problem, BUT the foolproof plan is to reset the trip odometer every time you pump. It becomes second nature.

Sorry to hear all that happened.


To answer your question though, they should at least give you another full tank of gas!!

I always reset when I fill up... thanks for offering your advice

[Mangelo]

Ok guys... so I send my car to the dealership Monday and they said they'll check it again (turns out a "receiver" is messed up) so they have to go order the part... and they said they'll take care of my rear bumper as well. Now they'll keep my car until next Wednesday which is fine because they gave me the same exact car as a rental but in sparkling graphite.

I'll just repeat this again incase anyone misunderstood. East Bay BMW is a great dealership with very good service. I just wanted to share my story incase someone had a similar scenario where they had to face the inconvenience of their car breaking down on them when they just recently took it in for service.

For the person tryin to be a smart ass talkin about cell phones... I was freakin blocking everyone in the parking lot... if I kept my car there, everyone would have been stuck with me in the middle... roadside assistance took 1 hr to get there.. I didnt wanna deal w/the heat and the angry people who missed their movies

[Phila]

When I was shopping for a car, I went to East bay bmw. They initially offered a very high price and told me theres nothing they can do about it. When I told them that their price was too high, they kept trying to sell me cheaper cars so I told them no thank you and left! At this point, they are just doing what salesmen do, so no problems there. However, after I left the dealership they were calling me, begging me to come back. They were saying they'd meet any offer i'd got somewhere else. I said no, i wouldnt do that to the other person who gave me a good deal up front. So they started offering an even BIGGER discount than the competition. When I refused again, he got mad and talked about how he invested time in me and how I wasted it all.

My feeling is, if he would have given me an honest bid/chance to work out a good price in the first place, I would have never left. Blaming me for leaving after trying to play me as a sucker is what really made me mad. At Pleasanton they like to play games with their customers.

Why I refused a better deal? I could have saved a couple hundred dollars going with East Bay, but what would I have to look forward to when I need service? What kind of games would they play then?

[Ascension]

Originally Posted by Philasan

When I was shopping for a car, I went to East bay bmw. They initially offered a very high price and told me theres nothing they can do about it. When I told them that their price was too high, they kept trying to sell me cheaper cars so I told them no thank you and left! At this point, they are just doing what salesmen do, so no problems there. However, after I left the dealership they were calling me, begging me to come back. They were saying they'd meet any offer i'd got somewhere else. I said no, i wouldnt do that to the other person who gave me a good deal up front. So they started offering an even BIGGER discount than the competition. When I refused again, he got mad and talked about how he invested time in me and how I wasted it all.

My feeling is, if he would have given me an honest bid/chance to work out a good price in the first place, I would have never left. Blaming me for leaving after trying to play me as a sucker is what really made me mad. At Pleasanton they like to play games with their customers.

Why I refused a better deal? I could have saved a couple hundred dollars going with East Bay, but what would I have to look forward to when I need service? What kind of games would they play then?

Who did you eventually buy from?

[ahnh77]

i got my car from bmw of sf....no hassle...no phone calls...all emails....no hassle to come into the dealership.....showed me all my options for cars....and as a last resort offered to custom order the car exactly the way i wanted.....(i wanted terra leather with aluminum trim).....located one that was coming to port.....did all the price negotiations over email..did the paperwork via email.....just had to go pick up the car when it arrived....

danny andrade, fleet/internet manager, dandrade@bmwsf.com ...he made my car buying experience the easiest ever........

i did get non-stop phone calls from pleasanton and also from various dealerships all around the bay....they don't stop...keep telling me to come into the dealership to discuss.....even telling me they have it...i go...and it's not even close to what i was looking for.....really wasted my time...i didn't waste any unnecessary time with danny from bmw of sf...

[Phila]

Originally Posted by Ascension

Who did you eventually buy from?

I haven't bought yet, but I've got a car on order from Concord. Theres a story behind that too.

The first time I went to concord, I had this really crappy sales person. I told him I wanted to see the difference betweena sports packaged car and a nonsport car and he tried to tell me its the same. When I told him to get both of them, he kinda threw a fit as he left to retrieve the cars. I walked out on him. This isn't playing games, this is just a bad sales person...
So i went back to concord a second time and found a different person to deal with. The second time was much much better. The sales person was incredibly helpful... helped me try to find the exact specs I wanted without fuss. The negotiation for the price took about 10 minutes and that was it.

I went with Concord because they were actually willing to listen to what I wanted in a car, and they were willing to talk to me about the price.

[ward]

I've had nothing but good things from east bay. I'll continue to buy my cars there even after I move to SJ.

[Phila]

Originally Posted by ward

I've had nothing but good things from east bay. I'll continue to buy my cars there even after I move to SJ.

yea cause the local dealer in SJ is FREMONT BMW, Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[ward]

Originally Posted by Philasan

yea cause the local dealer in SJ is FREMONT BMW, Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

or stevens creek (which doesn't seem nearly as bad as fremont)


but I still don't like that location eithere.

one thing I really do like about east bay is that they are pretty close to some twisty backroads to really show what the cars can do.

[BeeEmDubU]

i understand your frustration, but there is no way that im going to let another car push my car. and what was the car that agreed to push you? some beat up truck?