Since 2000, I've purchased five cars from BMW of Bellevue but no more. Recently, choosing to use the BMW of Bellevue service department both damaged my car and cost me the use of the vehicle for over a month during the holidays. This dealership used to be top-notch; since switching to 'Auto-nation', it's become the lowest common denominator in terms of customer service. I called to schedule service as my 2014 328d was leaking oil I got an appointment almost two week away and, when I arrived, was advised that my warranty had expired the day before. It would've been nice if the person that looked up my car data when making the appointment had mentioned that; especially given the long lead time for the appointment. "We bill at $190 an hour," Aaron Weaver, my 'service rep' promptly informed me. With a leaky car right before Christmas, there wasn't a lot of leeway. He called back three hours later. The leak was due to the oil plug and pan threads being stripped by the oil change I got from them a month earlier. I wouldn't be charged, but the part wouldn't arrive until Monday, so my car would be there until Tuesday. It was very disconcerting to realize that the BMW dealership had screwed up a simple oil change. On Tuesday, I was informed the part was actually in Germany and wouldn't arrive for a week. I was told to come in for a loaner 'to cover [me] for the few days until the part came in.' When picking up the loaner, I also needed my work parking sticker and mailbox key. It took over 90 minutes. The actual hand off the loaner and getting the tag/key only required twenty minutes; the other 80 minutes were spent watching Aaron make telephone calls and listening to Engell Pellumbi tell me that I'd be taken care of. Driving off after wasting over an hour in a dealership the week before Christmas doesn’t really demonstrate care. What followed was three weeks of changing and growing stories. I was told the part would be in on the 26th, maybe the 29th. When the part finally did show up on the January 3rd, almost a month later, I was told my car would be ready on the 4th, 5th, and 6th. When I finally lost patience and told them that all I wanted was a guaranteed date and time that I could pick up my repaired car, I was treated to tales of sick technicians and the scheduling woes of auto service followed by me having to explain the "Should be ready" and "IF x happens, it'll be ready" don't constitute a guarantee. This culminated with five back and forth calls with Aaron that ended with him 'guaranteeing' the car would be ready on Friday the 5th. Then Engell called me an hour later to say it wouldn't and the technician being ill was causing a lot of trouble (apparently, they only have the one guy that can change an oil pan). I took my car to BMW of Bellevue for an oil change. They damaged the car and returned it to me without noticing. When I brought it in to be fixed, they took over a month to do it while giving me a new 'delivery date' every few days or hours. I heard multiple apologies from Engell Pellumbi, the Service Manager, but as far as I can tell nothing was done. I heard very little in terms of apology or sympathy from Aaron Weaver, and it doesn't look like much was done there, either. In any event, it's a month later and I'm still waiting for my car to be returned. I dropped my 3 series off for service on December 16th. As of January 7th, my car is still unrepaired. While I understand being patient in the holidays, that's a hard sell when being told the my car, which the BMW of Bellevue Service center broke in the first place doing a simple oil change would be returned on the 19th, the 28th, the 4th, the 5th, maybe the 6th and then 'we'll get back to you.' And I was stuck driving a station wagon for the holidays. I'm pretty fortunate in that I get to drive a BMW in the first place, but by choosing to get my car serviced at BMW of Bellevue, I got less time and more stress. Next time, I'll buy my BMW from somewhere else and advise everyone I know to do the same. . Quick Follow-up: I (finally) got my car back from BMWofBellevue. When I picked it up, Aaron took my loaner keys and advised that my keys were with the cashier and my car 'is parked right out front.' By "in front" in actually meant "parked in a dark side yard out in the rain and blocked in by another car." Given that he vanished immediately after getting the loaner keys, I couldn't point out his error. After hunting for my car in the dark and rain for several minutes I found it. Then some more hunting time to find a friendly mechanic (again, Aaron was long gone by this point) who moved the blocking car that let me squeeze my car out and away. I'm sure there are better ways to tell a customer "Screw you, we don't give a damn" as they're headed out the door unhappy to begin with, but the hiding the car on the side lot in the rain is an excellent way to make that point. This place used to be really good; it's very disappointing to see how quickly and totally it fell apart.
Douglas M Martin
Jan 7, 2018