[Canada4444]

Here why to never buy a BMW again! I owned a 2013 MW 650i, purchased with only 4500km on it. Last March I dropped the engine out on the highway an hour from home – had it towed to the dealer and that is where the TERRIBLE customer service began!

The car was past it 4 year warranty point but only had 47669km on it – certainly not much for BMW’s high end sport sedan and I learned directly from the service consultant that most of the oil was gone, that the system clearly showed no engine warning lights. Low oil light or information to alert me to the problem and he confirmed that I had followed the recommended service – just not with the dealer. He stated that I would require an entirely new engine, at my cost both for the engine and installation and that BMW Canada would offer a discount on the engine parts only (30%) – not very generous when you consider that I am sure the mark up on engine parts is far above 30% so they in fact we still making money off the replacement of an engine that should have gone 4x times as long as this at least!

But it gets better. At the suggestion of my local dealer, I called BMW Canada myself, spoke to someone who treated my very poorly, told me there was no record of my car in the system and to contact the dealer again. I submitted an online complaint to BMW Canada and after a few more phone calls, I received an email 2 weeks later (April 10, 2018) with a contact number. I called for 4 days with no reply – I left my office number and instructed my staff to interrupt me if anyone called and no call. I emailed again and gave the person the VIN for the car in hopes of getting something moving ahead. I called daily for 3 weeks – finally got another email stating she would be available all morning and would call me every 2 hours but NO calls. We finally spoke (May 3, 2018) and was told I would be contacted by another customer care person and that she would send me their contact name etc but again no email. I should mention that she offered me a $500 credit on a new vehicle as compensation (for an almost $21 000 service repair bill which I found insulting).

Two weeks passed and not a single call or email but then May 16, 2018 – 13 days later I receive an unrelated follow up email (automated) thanking me for contacting BMW – I replied again. I finally received an email on June 19, 2018 – over two months after my first email and almost 3 months after my first web submission, with a name and contact number. Interestingly this followed an online submission to the BMW main website, not the Canadian site I finally spoke to a nice and helpful person who explained that they had been contacted by corporate BMW and ask to look into things but were not given any direction. He also stated that because the car was originally a BMW US vehicle they would not be offering any additional funding or special rates, they only wanted to close the loop on my experience! I had spoken with BMW US early in the problem and had been informed that as my car was in Canada and at a dealer they could not do anything for me.

It really appalling that my business and their reputation for a quality care means so little to BMW. I understand about a warranty but really – an entire engine without warning at 47 000km – I would be very wary of buying one of these vehicles ever. And it is not like I was new to them, I had previously owned a 645 so I was a likely repeat buyer – not now or ever. To make matters worse, early in the repair stages I talked with a salesperson at the local dealer about considering a trade in, something to allow BMW Canada to retain my business (before all this terrible customer service occurred) and keep my in a BMW for a couple more years. After 15 miuntes on the phone outlining my thoughts on a new vehicle, and telling him mine was in their shop right then, he could not even be bothered to call me back! This is the definition of an arrogant car company with no regards for their customers.