I am in receipt of your mail and i must say that you should count yourself extremely lucky to have emerged as one of the winners in this year BMW AUTOMOBILE INTERNATIONAL AWARENESS PROMOTION 2007.

Your email address was randomly selected along with nine others from a database of over 1,000,000 email addresses drawn from the WORLD-WIDE-WEB. A ticket number was attached to each email address and your email address ([email protected]) tagged ticket number: 5647600545188, serial number: BMWP/556543450906 and Reference Number: BMW:2551256003/23emerged as the star ticket email.

Your winning prize has been verified and approved for payment by this Department. Your Profile (Form) has also been received and filed along with other winning documents for Record Purpose.

You have therefore been approved of £750,000.00 GBP (Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British pounds). and NEW BMW 5 SERIES 2007 MODERN CAR.

The car comes with a special BMW Insurance Cover for one whole year, that is, till the next promotion in 2008. It also comes with a one year warranty and FREE repairs at any BMW AUTOMOBILE depot or service station worldwide.

Mr. Thomas Hooper.
Claims Manager,
BMW Claims Department,
THE BMW AUTOMOBILE COMPANY, UK.

Today was the last day of my lease. I called Chase Financial several months prior to find out exactly what I needed to do with the car to prepare it for lease-end. I was informed that any BMW dealership could handle the lease return, so rather than choose the dealership I bought the car (~160 miles roundtrip), I chose the closest one, which was Escondido BMW, which was still 84 miles roundtrip.

My two small children were with me, and when I arrived on the lot, I pleasantly stated I was here to return the car--that the lease was up today, and that Chase Financial instructed me to bring the car into the dealership, fill out some paperwork, and that they (Chase Financial) would then pick the car up from BMW.

The sales managers I spoke with (Michael McCabe and Mike Lewis) immediately became defensive in tone and said that I couldn't bring the car to their dealership, and that I had to go to the one in Irvine, where I bought the car. Things escalated and it got to the point where I felt threatened, and I started to fear for my children's safety, because these two individuals were saying things like "you don't deserve to own a BMW", and literally THREW their business cards at me when I told them I was going to complain to BMW of North America for their lack of customer service. They then proceeded to lock me and my children on their lot, behind a gate. It was at that time my children began to cry. I was starting to panic, wondering what was going to happen to me and my children. Luckily, my brother was coming to pick us up, and he had arrived just in time. I am scared to think what might have happened. They finally unlocked the gate and let my children and me out, and then threatened to call the police for leaving the car (I was returning) on the lot, since it was private property.

I just do not know what to do about this whole situation. Please someone help me. My husband and I do not know where to turn.

Dear Complaints Board, I would like to express my extreme disappointment in the way I have been treated by BMW dealerships and representatives. In 2003 I purchased a BMW Z4 2.5. This car was brand new and had the BMW name. I assumed that this automobile that had a reputation for quality and workmanship would be a reliable piece of transportation. Unfortunately, I have found that this car is a complete piece of junk. Nearly nine months after its purchased I had to replace the engine. While this was supposed to be covered under the warranty, the VOB BMW dealership in Rockville accused me of downshifting prematurely. They stated that this is what caused the engine to die. For two months I was paying for a car that was in a BMW dealership in addition to rental cars. The accusations made by VOB were ridiculous, given the fact that I was driving on the freeway and already in fifth gear when the car stopped running. If anything my life could have been endangered as the car stopped moving on the freeway. I was insulted and deeply hurt by the way I was treated in this situation. I immediately contacted consumer affairs to have their investigator check this automobile. I also had to wait several weeks for BMWs district mechanic to check my car as well. The consumer affairs mechanic suspected a problem with the fuel pump, which by the way, was recalled two months latter to add a resistor of some sort. The issue was finally resolved by VOB who replaced the engine months later after I first had it towed in. Again I expected good service and BMW to back their workmanship. This was only done so after lawyers and consumer affairs investigators. Recently, I was driving my vehicle in July and my car stopped and would not run. The lights and all other functions were on but the engine was not running. I had this vehicle towed to VOB BMW and was called by Mike Lang. I was told the car needed a new battery terminal and that the only cause of this was a possible accident since the ABS light was on. My car was hit by another vehicle but the minor damages were repaired over a year before this incident. The damage was very little and no ABS light was on until Mr. Lang at VOB BMW looked at the car. For Mr. Lang to state that the car was running on the alternator alone for over a year is ridiculous. I had this car taken to an independent mechanic who agreed with me in a statement and suggested I take my car back to a BMW dealership for warranty repair. It was at this time I was told by the independent mechanic that the fog light was busted. I thought that this might have happened when it was being towed since a flat bed truck did not tow it. I called roadside assistance to inform them of this issue. After weeks of messages, the roadside assitance investigator told me, that the tow could not have caused this damaged. Once this car was taken to the independent mechanic it was then running again but with the ABS light on. The car was then towed to tischer to get the ABS light turned off but tischer BMW stated that I needed a new battery terminal along with some other items. Their cost of repairs totaled to $1500.00 while VOB's costs were at $900.00. This led me to be even more suspicious and I requested my auto insurance to have their claims examiner to investigate this issue. The investigator found no significant signs of impact that could have caused this ABS sensor to turn on and suggested I take further action against the dealership. The tischer BMW representative told me that only an accident turns this sensor on and that it's designed to cut power to the vehicle in accidents. A few questions that I constantly ask myself are: If the terminal needs to be replaced because the sensor was set off then why is the car still running? Why is it that the ABS light never came on, until VOB BMW examined the car? Why is my fog light broken when it wasn't broken before the tow? How is it a car can run on the alternator for over a year like Mr. Lang stated? If it was the minor accident from over a year ago then why is it nothing happened for an entire year!!?? These are legitimate questions one asks but since BMW provides such horrible service I cant get any answers!!! My consumer affairs investigator has been looking into this issue and has informed me of VOB BMW's reluctance to do the ethical thing and repair my car. My questions remain unanswered and BMW remains allusive to my demands for ethical treatment. My next step is to have this issue addressed in court, which I am currently preparing. I have every intent of sending this issue to a judge to decide. It seems that I spend more time getting BMW to fix issues with my car than I do driving it. I would appreciate answers and a formal investigation into this issue immediately.

Som Bahrami