This is an excerpt of a letter sent to Mr. Jim O'Donnell's office CEO of BMW North America about a deplorible experence with a BMW dealership.

Some years ago we had a pleasurable experience purchasing a 7 series BMW, which we enjoyed for many years. Recently when we made the decision to purchase a new car we decided to trade our S series Mercedes in for a new 7 series BMW. After researching and shopping around we finally found the vehicle that we felt met our needs and we would like to own.

We located the car in North Jersey at Prestige BMW. We negotiated a price with the salesman, David Kramer. Previously when we purchased cars we had always been able to pay by check drawn on our Fidelity Investment accounts, and were surprised when we were told that this agency did not accept personal checks unless they were certified. In order to accomplish this we had to wire money from our investment account to TD Bank where we have a personal checking account and the agency also has an account so we were told there would be no problem.

Due to many delays on the part of the dealership we were not able to travel the almost 150 miles early in the day and arrived at the dealership around 4:00pm on December 30, 2009. Mr. Kramer was quite specific both on the phone and when we got there that he would have much preferred selling us the car the following day or later. We were not allowed to see much less drive the vehicle before being whisked off to TD Bank to have our check certified. At this point it was after 5:00pm and then we for some unknown reason were removed from the new car showroom and placed in the used car dealership a distance of perhaps 5 miles away.

When we were discussing our trade-in of the S Class Mercedes, Keith Deyoung spent more time reviewing our car than we were allowed to spend looking over the new car. He was very insulting and after driving all that distance, he tried to give us a value that was clearly under what every other dealership had offered, including what his own had offered over the phone. We had the other offers in writing but he insisted that this was all he was doing, I imagine since at that point he felt he had a captive audience and a certified check.

At the used dealership we were made to wait at least an hour for one of two finance officers to speak with us. I must note that there were no other NEW car purchases being transacted in the used car showroom, which made us even more puzzled as to why we were there. I might add that we had never test driven this vehicle and when we asked to drive this to the used dealership the salesman was most reluctant to allow us to do so.

When we were finally allowed to speak to Gary Shapiro, one of the two finance officers, to settle the invoicing for the vehicle, it was then and only then that we were informed about the "run flat" tires that were on our car and could not be repaired should they be damaged. We were corralled into purchasing a "warranty" to the tune of $1, 920.65, an amount we had not anticipated. Mr. Shapiro tried to get us to place that in the financing portion of our deal but we indicated we would prefer to place it on our American Express Charge Card.

A portion of our payment was being made in cash and Michael Morganstein made a very inappropriate and rude remark to Mr. Shapiro that "he had better be careful of the Weisman's as they are drug dealers". Since Mr. Morganstein is not a friend, nor anyone even familiar with our family, we took great offense to this out of place remark.

After we paid for the vehicle we had to return to the new car dealership because Mr. Kramer was most anxious to take possession of our Mercedes. He spent quite some time trying to remove our vanity license plates from the car with little success. He also rudely demanded both sets of keys.

All this time we had not received a proper "delivery" of our new vehicle, which has many features with which we were not familiar. Mr. Kramer got into the back of our vehicle and quickly ran through some of the features, those including how to change the language (of which we have no interest or use); however, he failed to complete the activation of the BMW driver assist feature, which we had to do on our own the next day, from home. He did not familiarize us with all the "bells and whistles" related to driving the vehicle.

Suddenly, he was abruptly informing us that he was not able to spend any more time with us since the dealership had closed already and they needed to lock the lot. The vehicle had not been cleaned properly and he had promised before we left to take it back and have it cleaned, of course this never happened.

We were released to drive about 150 miles with very little idea of how to handle our new car. Mr. Kramer never at any point in time thanked us for our business; however, he made a crude remark, asking us how we intended to pay for the Gas Guzzler Tax…by personal check or cash. We failed to see his humor.

We had been told by David Kramer, that BMW, similar to what Mercedes does, provides a new customer with a gift package which the dealership would provide upon completing the sale. Mercedes gave us stainless steel mugs, caps and a stadium blanket, along with a set of lovely key fobs. Mr. Kramer gave us two key chains with the name of his dealership imprinted on them and told our son the next day that "we were lucky to get that". He did assure us that BMW would be sending us out a great package (which they no longer trusted the dealerships to do since the merchandise was being stolen) and this package for 750I customers included rolling luggage. We would be sure to be pleased. ????

When we got back to our office, we decided that perhaps we should check further into this tire warranty package which had been sprung upon us at the last moment. Upon checking with several BMW dealerships, we found that the price varied from the lowest being somewhere in the $1, 100 range to the highest being Prestige at several hundred dollars more than their fellow dealers charge for the same exact coverage.

We are used to purchasing luxury vehicles over the years and were totally disgusted at the experience provided us by Prestige BMW. Interestingly enough, while we were "shopping" we had the good fortune to visit Boardwalk Automotive (BMW of Atlantic City), which dealership is not far from us, although we couldn't purchase the vehicle from them as Prestige wouldn't release it to them.

Boardwalk was hosting an event, which I understand they do about once a month. They served a lovely dinner in their showroom and we had the opportunity of meeting the staff, all who were most hospitable, as well as being given a tour of their service facility and a chance to speak to service people and learn more about the vehicle, even from current owners of BMW's who came to the event. Prizes were raffled off which included many BMW items such as children's BMW's, televisions and other nice items.

Contrast this with the "experience" we had with Prestige and the difference is remarkable.

To date, we still have not had a proper "delivery" of the vehicle, it was not cleaned properly for us, we do not know how to operate many of the features for which the vehicle is equipped.

We contacted Prestige, spoke to Curtis Aldershof, and informed him of our wish to cancel the tire warranty policy as we knew we were within our rights to do so. We also notified him in writing on January 2, 2010. We also have had to cancel the payment of the fee for the tire warranty, since we are not amenable to being taken advantage of. We never, at any time, I might add, received any document from Prestige indicating that we had even purchased such a warranty. Nothing listing the terms, coverage, etc….nothing at all. The price was "added" into the cost of the vehicle and we never even received a credit card receipt, although the charge appears on our current Amex billing.

We do love the car (as much as we know about it) and want to enjoy it throughout the years we own it, but I feel that BMW has fallen far short of the standard of good customer service.