BMW Canceled My Deal & Broker Won't Refund Broker Fee

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I’ve dealt with this broker last year to secure an M8 convertible and had a very good experience with her. After I didn’t get the initial approval from BMW FS through another popular broker on here, he was very dismissive and rude about it. Her and her dealer on the other hand spent hours on the phone with BMW FS for me, and clarified things to get the approval and secure the vehicle, which I am very grateful for.

I am also currently in the process of getting another car with her but haven’t spoken to her in a few days until this morning. As a matter of fact, when I called her earlier I could hear another call in the background and she told me that she was on hold with her bank to fix some issues she is having.

While it’s not my place or intention to make excuses for anyone, I do hate to see this internet mob mentality of grilling someone without knowing the full picture. This platform is not designed for every random user to become judge, jury and executioner. Especially when the targeted individual is someone with an overwhelmingly good track record on here and when people’s livelihood is at stake. This isn’t a game.

This issue should be resolved between the broker and OP and if it can’t be, then it can be escalated to the mods.

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@alondori respectfully you should have left her a positive review if that was the case or IAC if that was your broker when you did the deal.

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That’s true this is wrong, a lot of times people like to stir up sh*t and shouldn’t comment, it’s not the peanut gallery’s place to speculate what situation somebody is in.

I don’t agree with the woman part though. Man,woman, alien, etc etc, You are running a business, sh*tty customer service whether you are a man or woman is unacceptable and we shouldn’t treat women with kid gloves.

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I can remove the woman part but in a male dominated forumn and industry its fair to call out lets give her the benefit of the doubt. I was not referring to specific genders get a pass to ripoff. Im sure shes not ripping anyone off…i will happily refund the $500 so we can end the pile on.

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Read the other comments here. There are already speculations of the broker’s “excuses” which already seem unforgivable. The broker needs to apologize to
OP without questions.

You think the broker should provide an apology to the Lh community and post here, yet you’re listing a list of unacceptable excuses. I’m happy that you said “You cannot think” of situation. I would like to politely inform you even if you don’t care to agree.

I use Zelle across 6 different banks and when I fill out an application, I am not thinking through which bank I use to determine the email. OP could’ve provided information that was not affiliated with Zelle and broker could’ve easily sent the money there. From my experience, my account was debited, however the money never made it to the receiver. The receiver, if they constantly check whatever email would get a notification of incoming funds. At the point, I assumed that the money went through. (The broker & OP knows more about their communication gap than I do) The broker has to do better if the Op’s messages were lost amount other texts etc. If the OP rightfully decide to not set up another Zelle, which can be an inconvenient, the sender needs to cancel the transaction. This has also caused me to have issues immediately sending money and even had my Zelle access restricted for suspicious activities.

( Again, communication is the key between OP and broker so I can’t say much there)

As mentioned, from my experience, this further affected my account from even sending the money immediately to the right account.

How about my funds are currently frozen and it might take 7-10 business days. Would that be acceptable to you?

See above comment. I thought it would’ve been a simple fix but my account was frozen for suspicious activity and I had no idea what’s suspicious.

Maybe it is bank specific, I don’t know. I use Chase and it was a 2 minute simple fix.

What most likely happened is that OP sent correspondence to the broker from the email address she tried to refund. She obviously didn’t pull it out of thin air.

Again - this is between the two parties as the broker is obviously not refusing to refund OP

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I didnt miss it. And maybe im not a frequent Zelle user - but that “effort” is not enough. If i owe someone $, i try relentlessly to pay it back ASAP. I do not know the broker and have nothing against them at all. IMO the benefit of the doubt went out the window when she has time to talk to new prospects but not people she owes money to. Its not that she didnt pay it back, its that she couldnt even talk to the OP about it until OP posted here. We are not attacking their character, they are showing it off.

Well the broker was MIA, hence why OP posted here. It had proven futile.

You know what happens when a complain like this arises on Amazon? Amazon will delist you and ask you to verify all the information. The you can go back to selling. This is not just a bad experience or a disputed fact - until broker pays the $ back (or within reasonable time), its a scam.

Imagine the OP had not posted. Another user with the same experience might have gone longer without posting.

Unforgiveable to some and understandable to others. Some minds you cannot change, but it is not to their benefit. It is to the benefit of the broker’s reputation and the community.

100%. And I do not even care why they are frozen. But broker didn’t say that to OP, for 10 days. How about also providing a timeline for payment. Or telling OP to chargeback or dispute charges as that may be fastest way to get back.

Bad communication is not an oopsie. It is a character trait. Not good or bad, but a trait anyone should evaluate when doing business. I wouldn’t hire a contractor, mechanic, plumber, accountant, lawyer, etc that has bad communication. Just excusing this behavior as “bad communication” is not a good way to brush it off.

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I’m really not defending anyone.

I just don’t think any of the brokers I know are stupid enough to jeopardize their entire business over $500 especially when there is no arguable point from their end (not being able to deliver the car as is required by their job).

I think OP handled this beautifully.

I think the broker can learn from this re communication and prioritization based on the feedback received here.

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That’s as much of a speculation from the broker’s side of things as everything else from customer’s side.

There are a few distinct threads happening here. There is piling on thread, there is trying to make a point thread, there is a blind defense thread.

The point I was trying to make, and I still stand by it, is that it seems that the broker in question is floating the money they don’t have from client to client while resorting to “tricks” to seem like they are trying to solve the issue. My theory is based purely on the fact that they sent a refund to the wrong place and then disappeared again. I understand your point that it would be stupid for a broker to tank their business over $500, but it seems that there are at least 2 people, so we are up to $1000, and we don’t know how many more are involved. There is a good chance that the broker is looking at a long line of refunds and they just don’t have the funds to clear all of them.

Again, complete speculation on my part. However, had the broker, if they are even remotely concerned with their reputation on the site, came in here and said guys, everyone is getting refunds, I’ll talk to each customer separately. Great. Under normal circumstances, that wouldn’t be required and would be handled broker to customer, but since it did get out of hand and made it into public forum, addressing said forum becomes the requirement, IF the reputation is important.

Even if they do this now, I’m sure that there are people here who are literally just want to participate in the torches and pitch-forks mob, and nothing the broker can do will calm them down, but to me personally, and that’s the only person I can speak for, that would be completely enough. And to head off the question of “who the f are you to matter”, no one, but seeing how this is a public forum I’m sure other people read it as well.

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Are you alleging a Ponzi scheme? Are you OK man?

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Oh man, this thread has totally derailed at this point. I think OP and the broker should handle things as between themselves from this point forward. OP has received plenty of information he can use to resolve this for himself, and the broker is (I’m sure) well aware of this thread and can respond if they need/want to. There is zero benefit to anyone speculating any further anymore. We are making assumptions upon assumptions, which is totally unproductive and useless at this point. OP - good luck!

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I just want to reply to this specifically and this is not about anyone in this thread, nor their business.

A surety bond is to protect the customer against the insolvency of the broker/brokerage.

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UPDATE

I received my refund at 2:29 PM today.

A lot of opinions have been expressed on this thread so I just want to clarify a few things to the broker as well as fellow members. At no point have I implied that the broker is a crook or is having financial issues. The truth is that I had a great experience with the broker up until June 12th. He/she seemed to work very hard to get me a better deal than any other broker was able to get me. He/she also seemed to really try to get me the exact features I wanted once it appeared as BMW was removing them from my build. Even then, the issue I had on June 12th was that I felt that the broker should have told me her/himself that my deal was canceled instead of having me call the dealership to receive the information from someone else.

At that time, I had absolutely no concern that I wouldn’t receive my refund. I accepted the broker’s representation that he/she was having banking issues that may require a few days to resolve. I sent a reminder text a couple of days later and broker repeated the banking issue. I will admit that I was a bit annoyed at that point because had the roles been reversed, I would have found a way other than Zelle to refund the money, or at a minimum, initiated all communication to ensure that it was clear that I was working towards a resolution.

It wasn’t until another 3 days went by without word that I thought that I might have a problem on my hands. That concern increased when I sent another text reminding the broker about my refund and I didn’t get a response. I waited another 4 days before contacting the broker again. This time I called, left a message, and still didn’t get a response. I didn’t know what else to do other than to post here for some guidance. I was aware of my option to post directly on one of the broker’s threads but I didn’t want to out them. Even until now, I haven’t said who the broker is and have even tried to hide their gender.

As previously stated, the broker has refunded my money. An explanation was provided about continued banking issues. I’m going to accept that explanation as true. However, it does not excuse the lack of communication. I’m a patient man when I need to be. A simple, “hey I haven’t forgotten about you” would have avoided this entire conversation.

The worst part about this entire experience is that it completely defeated the whole point behind using a broker…CONVENIENCE. I hope that others have a better experience than me when dealing with this broker and other brokers in the future. I expected better service when attempting to purchase a $95k vehicle.

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You must have missed the part where he says this is a typical tactic of crooks trying to make it appear as though they are attempting to return the money. Moreover, the broker became a crook when she failed to return the money after the deal fell through and went AWOL refusing to respond to the opie’s messages. If I rob a store then get caught and try to return the money it doesn’t make me any less of a crook.

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That’s fair it is male dominated, my point was what’s wrong is wrong and what’s right is right, I have no dog in the fight so I’m not gonna jump in and speculate, just wanted to point out that all brokers should be treated the same. On the other hand there are some scumbag customers too so I get it. (Speaking in general not referring to OP, seems like he’s very transparent and has gone about this as carefully as possible)

At this point this thread is…

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Which doesn’t do anyone any favors.

This thread was a dumpster fire inside of a train wreck. Not posting a review for the broker denies the next potential customer information that could be important to their decision as to which broker to use. The broker acknowledged seeing this thread. Not posting the review gives her a free pass to ignore it.

I’m glad you got your money back.

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this is linked in the review thread, so nothing to be concerned about in that regard.

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He’s a crook, she’s a crook, everyone’s a crook!

You have no idea, and neither do I, nor does anyone else, as to the broker’s intention when she attempted to send the money. So stop speculating and trying to tarnish the name/reputation of someone you don’t know regarding a matter to which you have no vested interest.

EDIT:

@hd908 so what do you have to say now.
@Rafael it seems you handled this with true professionalism. I am glad this was resolved for you.

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I wouldn’t think you would go through a broker for a custom order? Is there a point to that?