what is being implied is that BMW dealerships generally do not let sales people charge customers a fee (“kickback”), and one workaround is getting your girlfriend to be a broker and send the deals to you… you get your sales commission (usually volume based) and a fee…
Definitely interesting if so.
or just a random on a leasing forum…
Well that certainly would explain this…
Man. Stuff got spicy while I was hacking Jeeps…
Coulda left the smooth operation in place if they refunded fees in time 
Double dipping
The dealership was very accommodating regarding the final numbers on the deal, scheduling delivery and actually finishing the transaction. There was minimal post sale activity at all. They asked, we answered no and the papers were signed. The sales manager and the salesman who delivered and demonstrated the car couldn’t be nicer.
The broker pressured to have accolades posted to Yelp, Edmunds, etc all mentioning he who will not be named and what a great job he did. Service on the deal evaporated after reviews were posted. My wife sniffed a foul odor much faster than I did. Turns out she was right.
that arrangement doesn’t seem to be in the best interest of the buyer. Yikes.
Wow! That’s really on another level. How unprofessional, not to mention unethical! I never planned to do business with these two hacks anyway, but it’s becoming more apparent that this sham brokerage is a well thought out scheme to backdoor kickbacks with zero regard for the customer. Their idea to create an unnecessary refund request form is further proof of the lengths these fools will go to avoid taking accountability. How about just doing an honest job, communicating with your customers, and quickly refunding when necessary? The excuses offered (no internet, ongoing banking issues, etc.) might have worked in 2005, but not today. More people keep coming out of the woodwork, all with similar experiences. Attempting to strong arm an undeserved broker fee is bad enough, but encouraging glowing reviews and then ghosting is reprehensible.
I am glad that you secured the deal, enjoy the ride!
I paid the broker fee, waited for a month, and was finally told the dealer would not honor the discount. Maybe I will try again some time later.
Ashleigh, although the OP’s experience is very similar to mine, I was going to refrain from participating in this thread since I have no interest in harming your business. In fact, I previously went out of my way to keep your identity hidden, and I even sprinkled in some compliments even though the cons of dealing with you severely outweighed pros. However, you decided to drag me into this thread by commenting on my previous post so here we are.
Your representation about your delay in returning the broker fee I paid you is FALSE and it says more about your character, or lack thereof, than the terrible service that you’ve provided myself and others.
Really??? I verbally asked you for a refund on Saturday, June 12th which is when David (not you) told me that our deal for X7 would not be honored. During our conversation you advised that you might not be able to refund the money until Monday morning because you were having issues with your Zelle account (aka “banking issues”). As can be seen by the attached screen shot of our texts, I then kindly reminded you to issue the refund at 5:47 PM on June 14th. You once again referenced issues with your account (aka “banking issues”). Three (3) days went by with absolutely no word from you so I sent you another message on Thursday, June 17th at 5:24 PM. This time I didn’t even get the courtesy of a reply. An additional four (4) days went by without hearing anything from you so I called you on Monday, June 21st. You didn’t answer so I left you a voice message. You didn’t call me back so, frustrated and unsure about what to do, I came to the forum for advice. I didn’t mention you by name and I certainly didn’t bash you. I simply provided the LH community with 100% FACTS about what had transpired between an unnamed broker and I. I had no idea that the LH community would or could go back and see what threads I had commented on in the past and thereby realize that you were the broker in question.
In any event, I did not hear from you until AFTER my post on LH. You also did not attempt to refund me the money until AFTER my post on LH. And yes, when you FINALLY decided to refund my money you had an issue locating me on Zelle. But do you know why you didn’t know that my Zelle is registered under my cell instead of my email…because you never contacted me to ask. You completely “ghosted” me until news of your unprofessional behavior began to spread on this forum. And please show where you “alerted me immediately AND sent me screenshots” prior to me posting on LH. Your own attachment shows that you’re attempted refund wasn’t until June 22nd. Also, I have do Venmo, Paypal, and Cash App. But again, how would you know that if you were ignoring me?
So please, don’t talk about me omitting things from my retelling of the events. Its ridiculous. Get your house in order before coming at me with fake “receipts” because I have the real ones.
Shit just got real thick, can’t believe this is what has been going on, I can’t believe I almost tried getting a car from that broker. Thanks @aronchi for arguing with me on her thread and causing me to go with NYClife lol.
My man came with the stone cold receipts. Wow, what a kill shot.
So that’s what “BMW specialists” means…
^^^ This is why we need a better system. People don’t want to leave bad reviews for someone.
Hell - 173 posts deep into a thread that is not the review thread for that broker to see some shady stuff goes on.
Unfortunately we need some type of regulation/policies from the LH management so this stuff is easier to combat. Trust me it will be better for us in the long run.
Let’s set a date, say January 1st for it all to come to fruition? New Year, better LH?!?!
How it started :
How it’s going :
Now, this may not apply to anyone on this thread. I literally only read the first and last page… That said, to the people with excuses. Nobody cares. Just do the right thing and apologize if you made a mistake. We all have stuff going on in our lives, own it when you eff up. Mistakes happen, but we can see when things could have been handled more professionally. That, or risk becoming a meme and watching your business slowly being lowered into its grave over a couple hundred measly bucks. RIP
I’m only a spectator who stumbled across this thread, and I have no dog in this particular fight.
When I first started reading, I actually dismissed the complaints from other brokers on this thread that the behavior of one rogue broker/actor hurts everyone on LH. But now I’ve come to agree with this opinion. Why? Because I routinely send friends/family to brokers/dealers on this site without bothering to check reviews or do any research on them. I assume that if they are doing business on LH, they have been thoroughly vetted by the community to be good.
People come to this site to avoid this type of BS that shady dealers routinely engage in. Hence, LH becomes completely worthless if brokers who do the same are permitted to conduct business here with impunity.
I’m here to correct this assumption now.
There is no vetting process. In fact, it is not LH’s responsibility to vet who wants to be a broker.
This is why we’ve increased the entrance fees to be a broker multiple times. The point was to discourage “fly-by-night” brokers who sell dealer phone numbers for 500 dollars each.
Even then, it is not our place to decide who should or should not broker.
