The thought below is not representative of how I would handle it personally. I am not taking sides with the below statement or justifying what he did. I’m just taking a guess as to his thought process.
He’s probably looking at his numbers for the month/year and thinking, “how can I hit my unit bonus? I will do whatever it takes. This person is coming in for a test drive. May take me off the floor for a few hours when I could be selling and he has no intention of buying today. I am willing to lose a relationship and his future business in order to try and snag another unit or two today.” If he’s a couple away, he’s willing to take that risk.
Your point is a good one. You provided a weeks notice. He chose an appointment at the end of the month/year. It’s not like you strolled in on 12/31 and said you wanted to test drive with no intention of buying. That would be a different story.
Based on what you’ve described above, I think you were very respectful and did everything right. It sounds like you provided ample time and flexibility. This was on them and not handled well.
I appreciate the feedback, but trust me, I understand the reasoning completely. Both my wife and myself are experienced professionals, working at at the highest level of biopharma. I know how business works, and what customer relations mean. He also didn’t know me before. For all he knew I could have waltzed in and bought a $160K B7 Alpina on a whim. Yet he didn’t even come out to apologize.
Maybe if I was more “enlightened and zen” I would have let it go, but I am not I also felt really sorry for my wife and 19 year old son, who I dragged along - only to be treated in an awful manner and leave with nothing. I have now described my experience on both Yelp and DealerRater - so BMW Encinitas could not just be losing my business, but potentially dozens of other customers, for whom the bottom line is not the only criteria when buying a luxury car. Not that they really care apparently, since they are ranked #34 out of 38 BMW dealerships within 250 miles of me, according to DealerRater (1.5 our of 5 stars, with 170 reviews - lowest in San Diego). My only mistake was to go for a test drive close to the end of the year, I will give you that. Still, it wasn’t a problem at all for the other dealership, so even that is a poor excuse.
I very much sympathise with you. It was very unprofessional of them, regardless of if it is the way I would have approached it, they should not be wasting your time like that. Another dealer will be lucky to have your business, I am sure.
Your experience doesn’t even add up to mine. The sales rep didn’t want to bother let me test drive the car, then told me to wait by the shop and proceeded to walk through service writers bay. So, when I graduated from nursing school went to the competition and bought me an X5.
If I were you I would buy a car from a competitor, drive it to that dealer, go in and call the manager and tell him your ahole sales rep is what took me to another dealer to buy this car. And, friends and acquaintances will hear about the experience.
I was a sales rep at a Ford dealer. Asian gentleman walked in with holes in his sweater vest and barely spoke English. No sales rep will assist him. I did. Got the sale. Took out his check and paid it in full.
Thanks for your compassion, everybody. I am sure I will find a nice place to order my BMW from, when the time comes. Dave at Murrietta dealership is only 40 miles away, and they are ranked number 1 in SoCal I don’t mind driving up to LA either - my last three new cars (all Volvo’s) were from Pasadena and OC dealerships. Many luxury brand dealers in San Diego suck for one reason or another, unfortunately.
What exactly is the VIP rebate? I have a rather large network myself, however, I haven’t heard of that, so I would love to work my own deal with that one in mind as a possible extra discount.
I have heard the same from another salesman at this dealership (years ago). Not surprising, since they are located very close to one of the most affluent areas in CA (Rancho Santa Fe). Some of these salesmen get $10-20K commissions from a single sale like that, which must really help to develop a superiority complex quickly.
So i’ve been coming to this site for months now in search of a steal of a deal… i’ve always been a benz guy but when i saw Ed’s post of this deal, i was really interested. I recently went to irvine bmw last week to test drive the M550 and i loved. I have a buddy in finance there and he worked up a deal but all they would give me was 10% off and they didnt have the color combo i was going for… they tried giving me a white one, msrp was $79325 for 0 down, 0 drives, 0 msd’s for 885 a month including tax. I kept checking back here and then saw that Ed got his from an autonation store… so my search progressed and i checked auto nation bmw stores in orange county and LA… no luck. Then ed was kind enough to post he got his from encintas and a sales person named Ardy. So i contacted Ardy and he had a dark graphite with black interior with the options i wanted. I signed yesterday at the following.
msrp $83010
sale price $73049 (12% off)
money factor .00128
only rebates were $2000 lease credit and $1000 conquest
absolutely $0 out of pocket
payment $882 including tax with 12k per year
I know Ed got more of a savings and i’m ok with that. I’m in the car business myself, so I don’t have to get the absolute best, but I need to get close!
Def happy with my deal and Ardy was great and a pleasure to work with. The dealership is outdated but I was treated right and got a deal I was happy with. I’ll be referring people.
what are the odds, 3 years ago I had got a hellcat when you had gotten one, now we are both in BMWs lol i got a m5 last year since that hellcat end up being a lemon, now you scored this beautiful m550i, congrats on this deal !
ps exhaust is a must
Well I’m gonna avoid him for a little bit lol. His store didn’t have the colors I liked and I knew they wouldn’t dealer trade for a sale like this anyways. Once I tell him what I got and for how much, he’ll understand lol.
I also felt really sorry for my wife and 19 year old son, who I dragged along - only to be treated in an awful manner and leave with nothing. I have now described my experience on both Yelp and DealerRater - so BMW Encinitas could not just be losing my business, but potentially dozens of other customers, for whom the bottom line is not the only criteria when buying a luxury car. Not that they really care apparently, since they are ranked 
I don’t mind driving up to LA either - my last three new cars (all Volvo’s) were from Pasadena and OC dealerships. Many luxury brand dealers in San Diego suck for one reason or another, unfortunately.
.
I just built one 89k. Still tossing the idea whether to get a RR sport, an X5 or 550.