I've been taking both of my MINI's to MINI of Stevens Creek over the years for service and repairs on a regular basis. Was getting great service every time. Service advisers were always very courteous, accommodating and professional. No complaints whatsoever. All that great experience got completely ruined when I ended up dealing with their sales department. The ordeal started when, after getting a quote for fixing my broken down MINI Countryman 2012, I asked if they are willing to buy a car from me instead. They quickly got back to me with a quote of $3000 which I considered fair and decided to go ahead with the deal. A saleswoman Solmaz got in touch with me to schedule an appointment giving me an impression that after signing the paperwork I'll pick up the check the same day. When I came, the first thing that struck me was her complete incompetence. For example on a standard DMV form she asked me to sign in places where I knew I didn't need to sign (like power of attorney section), but she insisted, so I just went along just to get done with it. Then she asked me to have some coffee while they are finalizing the paperwork. After an hour of waiting watching them staring into their computers with a blank face I became a bit impatient. When asked why it takes so long she started saying something about some new process they just started following this same day (what a luck!), and what used to take days now takes just an hour, but it has been an hour already and nothing has happened! When I asked if they can mail me the check, they said "No problem!". So I left. But some uneasy feeling inside me prompted me to come back that day after a couple hours just to make sure. When I came they said that the car is not registered. The truth is that I did pay for the registration in due course but didn't submit the smog check yet to the DMV since my car was broken down and wasn't drivable at all. I would assume such place as a dealership would be resourceful enough to help me solve such a minor issue. Instead when asked if they can help me with this I was told "we dont know" meaning "we don't care". To say the least this unhelpful attitude was a bit upsetting. After quite a bit of back and forth, and getting slightly irritated by their pushback, I asked them if they can perform the smogcheck at the dealership. Turns out they can! So why didn't they offer that to me in the first place, but only after wasting a good deal of my time until I suggested that myself?!!! The smog check was scheduled for Monday next week and as soon as it was done I ran to the DMV to get the registration and the tabs (even though I am pretty sure it was not really necessary since they were going to reregister the car in their name anyway). When I came back with the registration hoping that this all they need now in order to cut me a check, the same scene repeated itself: them staring at their computers and me waiting in the waiting area. After another hour of waiting and getting the same "new process" excuse that didn't make sense any more, I had to leave relying on their earlier promise that mailing me the check would be "no problem". When I called Solmaz the next day she told me that actually the amount I'll be getting will be lower because of something owed to the DMV. I knew I didn't owe anything, this made no sense. I asked Solmaz to send me the print out from the DMV or whatever they have that shows the amount owed. She said "of course" but that never happened. When I asked what else is outstanding I was told that I have to come back to sign something in person. This would have been the 4th time and by then it was already a week since we started the process. There was no way I could come back this time around because I had to go on a planned trip, so I said I will finalize it when I am back in a week form now and was told OK. On coming back from my trip I texted Solmaz when can we meet again to finalize the deal and got the text back "the value for your car is $500". What?!!!! When I asked to explain why such a change I was told that it's been more than 7 days from the original quote, so the original quote is no longer valid and this is a new one. First of all nobody ever told me that the quote may expire. And second, what changed? The car was just sitting their at their parking lot, it can't possibly drop $2500 in value in a week just by sitting there. I knew this whole thing didn't smell right from the beginning, with all that run around I was given and all the time I wasted waiting, and now my worst suspicions started to materialize. This whole scheme started looking to me nothing short of a scam. I called general manager Rob Stuban. I left 3 messages for him, he never called me back that day. The next day I called several times until someone finally connected me to him. He said he will look into it and for a moment I started to feel better...until he called back. What I could gather from his incoherent explanation there was a "misunderstanding". Turns out, considering the cost of the repairs, they can't pay me $3000, $500 is all they can do. Why the hell then they didn't bring it up earlier, once they realized they made a mistake? I would be disappointed but I would not have wasted all that time, I would have just taken the car and deal with it in a different way. Instead they chose to purposely drag it out beyond the "magic" 7 days taking me though hell of waiting, leaving, coming back and getting all kinds of bogus explanations, with the only purpose of getting a "legitimate" reason to revise their quote. Needless to say, once I realized what their scheme was, my conversation with Rob didn't proceed on the friendliest terms, and eventually he hung up on me. Over the next couple days I was figuring out the logistics of how to get my car out of there. Solmaz had both the car keys (she asked me to bring the keys when we started) and I asked her how do I get the keys back. Her response was that because I wasn't very nice to her General Manager who is an "awesome" man, she's not talking to me any more. Uh? I said I'll be there tomorrow at 10:00 AM and if I have any problem recovering the keys I'll call the cops. I left a voice mail with the same message on the General Manager's phone. Neither of them responded. The next morning, ready for the confrontation and dreading to be given run around the dealership in search for the keys, I called the service department ahead of time asking for their help with locating them. Luckily I ended up talking to Trent, one of the service advisers who was actually the one taking the first look at the car when it was towed in. Trent came through for me - he went to the General Manager's office, got the keys and made sure they'll be ready for me the at the Cashier desk when I come, sparing me the pain of dealing with these scambags. Kudos to their Service department again! This bizarre, maddening, shocking experience is the worst I ever had at any of the dealerships, even at the ones when you don't expect much courtesy. They are total idiots, they didn't get anything out of this, just lost a loyal customer and hopefully a few more who is reading this.
Va Di
Nov 17, 2018
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