My experience with Vista BMW:
ihatevistabmw@gmail.com
My first experience with Vista was in May 2004, when my brother and I went car shopping there. We were ignored the whole time we were there. I guess they thought we looked young and couldn't afford anything there. So that's fine. I bought my car from Lauderdale BMW. And love the service there.
A little over a year ago I dropped off my car at the vista BMW collision
center. M was my service advisor for that incident. about 10 months after the
repairs were done, the wood panel trim fell off... and when I inspected the
piece it looked like someone in the body shop glued the piece back onto the door
that was supposed to have been replaced. so this event prompted me to call M to
bring my car in for repairs because I thought repairs had at least a year
warranty. There were two other issues that bothered me about the repairs too..
but they were sort of out of sight, out of mind.
One of them being the extra clicking the back passenger door handle does when
the door is opened. the other being the noise in the car when traveling at a
high speed.
So M tells me that she would have to call the insurance company and that I
should to expedite this. so I called UNRESPONSIVE insurance co. And the adjuster
advised me to tell BMW to call the claims appraiser, which I did. and for the
last 3 months, I have been playing phone tag with M or when I actually am able
to speak to her, she tells me that she is still waiting for the claims guy to
call her back.
This lack of service is unacceptable. I am just asking for them to fix 3 minor
issues. and I am getting the run around. I would never buy a car from any
division of vista as a result of this experience.
here is the letter I wrote to BMW NA today:
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is XXX and I purchased a new BMW in 2004 from Lauderdale BMW. I loved this car. It is fun to drive and handles very well.
On September 29, 2006, I was involved in a car accident that required my car to be towed to a collision center for repairs. Out of all the collision centers here in South Florida, I decided to have my car towed to Vista BMW’s Collision Center because it was a BMW Certified Center.
My case was assigned to M D. When my car was ready on November 1, 2006, I promptly went to pick up my car. I was so excited to have it because after driving a loaner for about a month. When I got home that day, I noticed that the passenger back door made a weird clicking sound when I opened the door. But I was too busy to bring my car back. I also noticed that the car was really loud when I was driving it on the highway. But about 10 months after that, the wood trim on the inside of the door fell off when I opened the door to put something in the back seat. I looked at the wood strip and saw that it was glued back onto my car instead of replaced. This bothered me, so I called M and left her two messages before she called me back. She told me to bring in my car on October 1, 2007 and they would take a look at it.
When I brought my car in, M asked me if I brought my car into a different collision center since I got my car back because the white composite left from the work that Vista did was still on the door. I told her that I almost never have passengers in my car and don’t really have time to wash it. So it’s leftover from when Vista last worked on it. She says that, that was impossible. Impossible or not, it’s true. And I advised her of this. She then proceeds to tell me that they didn’t get paid to replace the wood trim so they didn’t replace it. Perhaps there was some miscommunication between her and the insurance company, but I was told by the original adjuster who handled this case that it was going to be replaced. She also had the lock adjusted, but it still wasn’t working correctly. My main concern is, if it needed to be replaced, why didn’t Vista submit a supplement instead of gluing the part back? Same with the lock – why wasn’t it replaced?
After this initial meeting, she tells me that the insurance will have to pay for the repairs and that she would call UNRESPONSIVE and suggested that I did as well. So I gave M two weeks before I called her again to see if she was able to get the supplement since I hadn’t heard from her. She said no, but never bothered giving me a status. It took about 3 months of playing phone tag and leaving unreturned messages between me, the insurance company and M before I was finally able to make any progress with this issue.
In the meantime, I got tired of leaving messages that were hardly ever returned that I requested to speak to the Collision Center Manager. C P listened to my story and even called the insurance company to explain the situation while I was in his office. He spoke to the manager at UNRESPONSIVE Insurance Co who said she would call him back. He advised me that he would call me back once he heard from them.
A week goes by when M calls me back and tells me that they will be mailing Vista a supplement check for the wood panel and lock. I waited a week before I called M to see if she received the check, left many messages for her that were never returned. I have left her voice messages in the answering system as well as with the receptionist who answers the phone. I took a note of each call I made to Vista since the beginning of this case. I am appalled by the lack of response from this service advisor. When she finally calls me back a week later, she says that she has the parts and was waiting for the check.
Finally, after waiting for about 3 weeks to hear from anyone regarding the check, on January 30th 2008, I called UNRESPONSIVE myself. This time, I requested to speak to the Supervisor. I was transferred to a woman named Pat who advised me that they never agreed to send a check and that there was no record of a supplement being sent out. I explained the situation to her and she told me that they needed to re-inspect the car because they were sure it was paid for the first time the car was in the shop. She told me to call C Adjusting and ask for T who came to inspect my car. While inspecting my car, T noticed that the inside of my trunk was rusty. I noticed that the screws were rusty too. He explained that whoever did the body work should have painted the part of the quarter panel that was attached to the trunk. The adjuster advised that I bring my car into Vista to have these items corrected and while it was in there, it wanted Vista to try adjusting the door since it was misaligned when he compared it to the driver side. He wanted to know if that was also the cause for the lock not working correctly. So I scheduled an appointment to get the rust fixed and have T inspect the car.
I made the appointment with M on February 11, 2008 at 9am. She asked if I could drop it off in the morning since it will take a few hours of work. When I got there, I was told that she wasn’t going to be coming in that day. So, I asked for C P who advised me that he can have the rust fixed and painted by the end of the day and asked me how I was getting to work and asked if I was going to pay for a loaner. I said no, Vista should, so he agreed. He also had his technician try to adjust the lock who said it was working. When I went to pick up the car after work, I checked to make sure the rust issue had been addressed and checked the passenger side (back) door again. The lock was still making the same sound, so they called out the technician who worked on the car who promptly came out and told me that the lock was fine. That it’s perfectly safe. How can he guarantee this when the lock doesn’t even sound the same as the lock on the other side of the car? Hermes advised me that he has worked on BMWs for over 25 years and has never let a car in the condition my car was in leave his shop. Well, he did because I never brought my car anywhere else. It isn’t like it’s free and feasible to just bring your car into random body shops. I was shocked that instead of taking responsibility for a subpar work, that he will try to accuse me of bringing my car elsewhere for service.
I spoke to M that day who said that I had to call T with C. Adjusting to ask him to submit the supplement and again assured me that she has the lock and the wood trim on hand. So I left him a voicemail on the afternoon of February 11th and called his office the next day. He called me back and advised me that he will submit a supplement to UNRESPONSIVE Insurance to have both the lock and wood trim replaced.
On February 19th, I called M again to ask if she received the check yet. She advised me that the accounting person left for the day and that she would call me back tomorrow whether or not she received the check. She did not call me back. So I decided to give her another 2 weeks in case the check got delayed or whatever, and called her on February 29th and left her a voicemail. She did not bother returning my call. So I called again on March 3rd and left another voicemail. But I did not get a call back.
On March 5th, I decided to give the insurance company another call to check on the status of the check. I left a voicemail for the supervisor there. I also called C P and asked if he could check on the status of the check and see if maybe he has heard something since I wasn’t able to get in touch with M. C called me back the next morning and advised me that he has not received the check but that the parts were still there and was just waiting for me to bring the check in. That same day, P (supervisor at UNRESPONSIVE) called me back and said that she would follow up with the Adjuster and get back to me. She called me later that day and said that she spoke to T and will be mailing a check out to me. She asked if she should mail it to Vista BMW. I asked if she could send it to me instead so I could avoid the phone tag hell I have been in with the service advisor. She said ok.
On March 13th, I received the check from UNRESPONSIVE and called M to schedule an appointment to bring my car in. I left 3 messages – two voicemails and one with a guy there before M finally called me back and told me that she had the parts and to bring the check. I asked if I could bring it in after work at 4:30pm, she told me that it was too late since the guys leave at 5 and they needed an hour and asked me to come in at 3:30pm.
So on March 20th, I left work an hour early so that I could make it to Vista BMW before 3:30pm. When I arrived, M asked me for the key and said that she would have them get started on my car. Half an hour later, she comes to me and tells me that they can’t find the parts - that they will need to be reordered. At this point, I am beyond annoyed. I asked her how that was possible. She told me that the parts were ordered in January and that they probably got returned. So I asked her why she told me that they had the parts each and every time we spoke if that was the case and why wasn’t it verified. She had no answer. About another half and hour later, C P drove my car out and apologized. And that the parts would be reordered and he would personally call me. I told him that I am appalled by the way this entire case was handled and that this would never happen at Lauderdale BMW. He tells me that this isn’t how he runs a business and that he is sorry it happened. But his apologies have yet to enable him to correct this problem.
I hope you understand that I have been more than patient with this company. The run around and the lack of UNRESPONSIVE makes me think that they are not worthy of being a “Certified BMW Collision Center.” Because that certification assures me that I will be getting superior and competent service. But that is not the case. I discovered that Vista does not have the ability to handle such minor issues. I can’t understand why it takes 3-5 voice messages before I get a call back.
This entire experience has really put me off. I know that I would never purchase a BMW from this dealership nor will I ever bring a car there for body work as a result of this experience. I have also advised my family, friends, and colleague of this experience.
* names have been changed
*rusted
screws a year after service
*rusted trunk
*glue
*missing plastic screw
