I took my car to Brecht BMW (closest dealership to my house). I was met by Mike (Sales Associate). He refused to take the car back. He wouldn't give me a reason other than I didn't buy the car from them. I continued to push telling them that I was told by the lender used by Brecht and the dealer I did purchase my car with, that I was doing everything I was told to do by the lender. I was told that I could take it anywhere / anytime and that if I didn't turn it in that day I would be fined. I was told that the process was simple and that I could wait until the last day no problem (I checked with the lender on two seperate ocassions before I turned it in). I also explained to Mike that I lived and worked 45 miles away. The only reason I waited until the last day was because I was trying to sell the car since and had a buyer looking at it that afternoon. I had put $6k down and the blue book was higher then the buyout amount. I was hoping to re-coup some of my down payment. Mike still refused to help me.
All the dealers first question, is always were did you buy the car? That is how they determine what level of treatment you are going to receive. I continued to question why they wouldn't sign the mileage verification form, since I knew it was something they could do. I tried to explain to them all the problems I had in the past, hoping this would make them realize they could provide some good customer care (for BMW as a whole since they do represent the BMW name) and retain me as a customer. Mike (Sales Manager) then came out -- he said my sales associate has already told you we are not taking the car back, leave or I will call the police. I then said, I couldn't believe he was not willing to help me. I said that when I owned my VW in college, they seemed more concerned with treating their customers well then he did. He said, "I should go back to VW because I don't deserve to own a BMW." I asked his name and he THREW his card at me. His threats scared my children. We all left in tears.
The next day my brother and his business partner came to retrieve the car. They again were met with hostility and lack of customer care this time by the GM (it is apparent that poor customer service comes from the top down). If the GM doesn't care about his customers then why would the sales staff? My brother picked up the car, drove it across the street to the Mercedes dealership and they took it, no questions asked. The whole turn in process at Mercedes took literally 3 minutes. Why could Mercedes take back a BMW lease while BMW couldn't/wouldn't??? This doesn't make sense.
During this whole situation, no one at Brecht has ever apologized for treating me so poorly and still to this day no one has given me any reason why the car was not accepted. Brecht even lists "Authorized Lease Turn in Facility" on the front page of their website.
I will say though, my husband has been in contact (for his BMW) with the financial group & has talked to a financial manager there that has apologized and gone out of his way to help us out! He said we should have never been treated like that and he is embarassed any dealer would treat a customer that way -- no matter what the circumstances.
I know all dealers are not bad; but Brecht has an attitude that we as customers are lucky to own a BMW versus they are lucky to have us as customers.