On October 11, 2021, I had my car towed from my residence at 8700 Appomattox Drive to their location, which is on the frontage road before you enter my housing community at Emerald Forest, in College Station (1.2 miles from my home). When we purchased our BMW X7 at BMW of Austin at 7011 McNeil Drive, Austin, TX 78729 we purchased the following options on 12/13/2019:
• Service/Maintenance Contract: $3049 (48 months or 50K miles): all service
• IAS Windshield Protection: $1215
• IAS Tire & Wheel Replacement: $3538
BMW of College Station provides no advertising to notify anyone that they are not a standard BMW dealership. I had to get them added to the Better Business Bureau so I can try to file a complaint publicly, but I am having difficulty because they work so hard to keep their identity a secret. After I left a negative review on their website that I finally tracked down via my bank statement, they changed the site to make it appear that they focus on Hyundai vehicles. I do believe that is a very deceptive business practice, but it is NOT my primary concern.
As I believed that this was a normal BMW dealership, even found on my BMW app as a BMW service location, I had my car towed when two of the tires were destroyed when they ripped up the roads to install fiberoptic internet in our neighborhood. I knew that we had all the extended coverages when I brought my car in and that the contract was in the glove box. My service was handled by both Jason Patek and the service manager. I had provided them with both sets of keys as my husband’s set was not connecting with car correctly. Both sets of keys have the name and phone number of the dealership with which we purchased the car.
Mr. Patek first approached me in the waiting room and stated that they could not verify that our tires were covered under the tire and wheel contract, and I told him that the contract was in the glove box, and, since he had both sets of my keys, he volunteered to look in the glove box for me. He waited a period of time and then returned and told me that he was unable to locate the contract (this entire exchange was a lie as he later put, in writing, that he “would never make such an offer as he would not go through a client’s personal items” and I also had the glove box locked because it needed to be replaced and Mr. Patek did not even know how to unlock it). Every other reputable service department will bring your car around and allow you to access it.
I then, believing Mr. Patek had indeed looked in my glove box and for some reason the contract had been moved, directed them to contact the sales rep who sold me the BMW (he had handled two BMW transactions for me and we have a close relationship), Mike Hanaway of BMW of Austin (they checked their incoming calls and nothing came from a BCS exchange at any point that month). Mr. Patek returned to me and claimed he spoke directly with Mr. Hanaway; I even clarified with him, “you spoke directly with Mr. Hanaway” to which he answered in the affirmative, which I knew to be untrue. I knew Mike would have to send them to the service department and I would have left had my tire not been blown out and a second tire damaged.
They actually, even though they were in possession of both sets of original keys with the phone numbers, name and address of the dealership where the BMW was purchased, called the service department of the “BMW of South Austin” dealership which only had my old BMW X1 on file (I don’t even know why they had that information as we have NEVER BEEN THERE, especially since they did not even have a location when I bought either BMW). I was charged $1211.62 for the 2 tires, which they refused to reimburse and is still a balance that is outstanding. I even returned today with all the evidence in hand and a College Station police offer, and they refused to reimburse me.
As soon as I returned from dropping off my car, I reached out to where I had purchased it to verify the information that I was provided. It took them a couple days to research everything, send me all contracts, and go through their call logs. The service manager at BMW of Austin is Andy Hathaway (512-898-7685) and he knows about this entire situation.
I reached out to BMW College Station and Mr. Patek started back-tracking and trying to cover his mistakes. When the service manager contacted me, I could have used many choice words to review my experience, but I simply asked him if it was customary for the service team to lie to customers. He then told me that he refused to adhere to my contract that I paid thousands of dollars for and that he would not service my car, he refused to refund the money I was charged that, had he contacted the correct dealership and provided the VIN, would have never been assessed. I posted my feedback onto his website when I was finally able to locate it. My husband took the vehicle in when the oil change was required and they refused to service the car because I told the truth about my experience there.*
My contract is with BMW, if they are going to be permitted to act as a BMW dealership and not honor contracts because of their own ineptitude, then they should not be permitted to use the BMW charter. Just the fact that I reached out to the sales manager and even the owner and no one has seen fit to return my call, apologize to me for the way that I was treated, further they have never reimbursed me the $1211.62 that they took fraudulently. They also refuse to provide me with an invoice from the service. They were so rude to me today, knowing that there was a police officer at the ready should they try to strong arm me like they did my husband; my husband brought the car in for an oil change and they surrounded him with everyone who refused to return a call to me, trying to intimidate him because I filed a factual public complaint on their website, which is illegal.
As an aside, when I returned the loaner car, which my home cameras, all around the house had tracked upon coming and going, which I drove very little and nowhere where there were red curbs, there was no damage to the wheels on the loaner vehicle. I drive a BMW X7, and I NEVER hug the curbs out of habit from driving such a large car. Having been on doctor ordered rest after significant jaw surgery and subsequent oral surgery, I would only help my husband out in the morning and take my children to private school (highway, no red curbs) and took the car out for no other reason. In fact, the date that I left to return the loaner car and pick up my own, my cameras captured me leaving and there was no damage to that car. I parked it away from any other vehicle and did not even come close to the curbs when I returned to the dealership. Mysteriously, after I parked the car to return it, they later drove it up and claimed that I had damaged the wheels and charged me an additional $330, red paint on the wheels, which I am fairly certain that they did on their own. I might have believed that I made some mistake if not for all the other lies that they told me. I did walk around the car before returning it, but I know now to take photos. I told them to pull their video footage because I know that the person who retrieved the car is the one who damaged the tires. Obviously, they never got back to me on that request. I have had many loaner cars from BMW of Austin and they are always returned in perfect condition.
No one can deny you service for putting up a negative review of your experience with them prior. No one can force you to take down a valid review. In College Station, one man owns all the automobile dealerships, also known as a monopoly. We have a valid contract. BMW knows this and is working with the state to revoke their charter. To service my car now, I can take it in to Austin (2 hours each way) or Houston (one hour each way). Despite the fact that they defrauded me, I am supposed to pay for an attorney to get my money back. I have all the documentation. My contract, my bank statements, all information from BMW Finance where any reputable dealership would have returned the funds the moment they knew they made a mistake. If you go to the website, bmwofcollegestation.com, you will see that they hand-pick testimonials, and the most current one is from 2/13/2020. There is not a place to add any testimonials on this site. The only place that you can post a review is on the “Brazos Valley Imports” Facebook site. Again, nowhere on the grounds does it refer to this consortium and they move it around to suit their needs at the time, focusing primarily on the Hyundai vehicles. Anyone who knows anything about cars, knows that Hyundai’s are garbage. I had 2 brand new Elantras both blow the catalytic converter within the first 3000 miles.
If you go to Brazos Valley Imports Facebook site, my review is the top review, noted as “Most Helpful” and I left it on 4/14/2022. They claim that I said I was going to sue them, which I never said, but nothing that they say holds any weight. I would like to expose these people for who they truly are, and that is why I am working with the state, with whom I worked and have many contacts and one of my best friends and her husband both retired from, and BMW so they can have the charter revoked (maybe then a reputable dealership owned by someone other than a single person who could care less about the treatment of his customers could build a REAL BMW dealership). They have held on to my money now since 10/11/2021, and I have had enough. I love my car and I owe less on it than if I were to buy a KIA, so I am NOT giving it up because these ies do not know what they are doing and thought they could take advantage of a woman. They had no idea that this woman graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Management Information Systems and has been a senior IT Product Manager for over 2 decades.
Since I took the time to have them added to the BBB.org site, please take a look. You will see that they are NOT BBB accredited. The only reason that an “A” shows up there is because that is what real BMW dealerships earn. I want this information in the public domain.
Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because response does not answer any part of my complaint. 1. We were handled poorly by [redacted], who by his own admission was irritated with us for speaking to a sales representative while we waited.2. We brought the car in because it would not drive at all. Again, [redacted] refused to write down all of our complaints due to his prejudice against my family.3. Pre-payment was NEVER requested. It was mentioned to my mother at one point as the reason for why repairs were not started, but did not say that we needed to pay in order to commence repairs. They simply refused service silently until we got irritated with waiting over a month for repairs.4. We were told the timing issue and leaks would fix the vehicle and make it operable again, this was a lie as further "problems" were discovered. This is listed as the 6th most common car repair scam on the Texas Attorney General website:[redacted]5. Money was never a concern for me or my mother. The service department assumed that we had a budget on this car, and treated us as if that was the issue: "In the end her bill was lowered from the approved 981.00 down to 695.07 in an attempt to help offset her concerns."I still do not understand why we are discussing money. I brought my car in to be fixed, the fact that it is not fixed alone should be cause for concern for a reputable repair shop.6. They fixed a coolant leak, however the car was returned to us with no coolant. How do you know a leak was fixed if no liquid is in the container?7. Furthermore, the car was returned to us in the same condition. It can not drive over 50mph (which is the shops perception of the issue) and still does not drive at all (the issue we brought it in with that was never written down). 8. The service manager asked my mother "How much more money do you expect to spend on this vehicle?", instead of determining the root issue and quoting a price. - How is this an appropriate question, before actually understanding the issue with the car?9. "upon initial inspection with the customer" This is a lie - no inspection was completed with us present. [redacted] asked us why we brought the car in, only wrote down a couple of issues we spoke of.10. "Customer gave approval for the repairs and the technician moved forward" - I gave approval because [redacted] assured me this would fix the car and it would be operable again. This was cohesion to acceptance based on misinformation and is illegal under state consumer laws.
Regards,
[redacted]
Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because:Company is not taking responsibility for their actions.1. [redacted] was upset with my family, he even admitted so to my mother in the weeks that transgressed from this. Retracting his statement at this point will not make this point go away. - On the phone my mother said "To be honest [redacted] you seemed irritated with us ever since the first day." - [redacted] then responded with "Well, your family was kind of all over the place.." 2. I told [redacted] MUCH MORE than what he wrote down. My initial complaint was "The car does not run", I continued to mention that "we have seen smoke coming from under the hood, the engine lights are on, gages do not work, not sure if that means anything because we are not mechanics and do not know what is wrong". [redacted] told me "it is okay, I wrote down the 'jist' of what you described. The mechanics will diagnose and figure it out from here".- Now this sheet is being used to say that I only requested specific maintenance? I requested my car be fixed to working condition.- Additionally, all of the problems that were on this list have also not been fixed.3. Repairs were requested. [redacted] spoke to me and quoted $1000-1200 to fix the head gasket. At this time I said to fix it. About a week later my mother had the conversation with the service manager, who informed her that the quoted price of $1000-1200 was incorrect because there are additional costs of up to $500 to send the head gasket to be fixed.- This is a common auto-repair scam as quoted by the Texas Attorney General- Go to* [redacted] - Your company violated numbers: - 4. giving you a verbal estimate as to the cost of repairs, then charging a higher price - [redacted] quoted $1000-1200 for head gasket then you informed of additional fees. - 5. representing that repair services will be completed by a certain day in order to induce the sale, then failing to have the repair services completed by that day. - [redacted] informed my mother the car would be ready on a particular day, she showed up to find out it was not and would not be for another week or two - 6. telling you that repairs are needed when in fact they are not needed. - [redacted] told us the initial work would make the car operable again. This was false, as the head gasket needed to be replaced and was the true issue. 4. Test driving the vehicle and completing the repairs that were completed are not required to know if the head gasket is broken. In fact, the issues we described that are on your document are all telling signs of a blown head gasket, including coolant leaks, smoke from under the hood. - The fact that this was not investigated first also speaks to the fact that your mechanics failed to diagnose the issues.From your responses, it seems apparent that you are not willing to take responsibility for the way my family was handled. I will forward this as a complaint, as it does not seem as if a resolution will be possible. Regards, [redacted]
• Service/Maintenance Contract: $3049 (48 months or 50K miles): all service
• IAS Windshield Protection: $1215
• IAS Tire & Wheel Replacement: $3538
BMW of College Station provides no advertising to notify anyone that they are not a standard BMW dealership. I had to get them added to the Better Business Bureau so I can try to file a complaint publicly, but I am having difficulty because they work so hard to keep their identity a secret. After I left a negative review on their website that I finally tracked down via my bank statement, they changed the site to make it appear that they focus on Hyundai vehicles. I do believe that is a very deceptive business practice, but it is NOT my primary concern.
As I believed that this was a normal BMW dealership, even found on my BMW app as a BMW service location, I had my car towed when two of the tires were destroyed when they ripped up the roads to install fiberoptic internet in our neighborhood. I knew that we had all the extended coverages when I brought my car in and that the contract was in the glove box. My service was handled by both Jason Patek and the service manager. I had provided them with both sets of keys as my husband’s set was not connecting with car correctly. Both sets of keys have the name and phone number of the dealership with which we purchased the car.
Mr. Patek first approached me in the waiting room and stated that they could not verify that our tires were covered under the tire and wheel contract, and I told him that the contract was in the glove box, and, since he had both sets of my keys, he volunteered to look in the glove box for me. He waited a period of time and then returned and told me that he was unable to locate the contract (this entire exchange was a lie as he later put, in writing, that he “would never make such an offer as he would not go through a client’s personal items” and I also had the glove box locked because it needed to be replaced and Mr. Patek did not even know how to unlock it). Every other reputable service department will bring your car around and allow you to access it.
I then, believing Mr. Patek had indeed looked in my glove box and for some reason the contract had been moved, directed them to contact the sales rep who sold me the BMW (he had handled two BMW transactions for me and we have a close relationship), Mike Hanaway of BMW of Austin (they checked their incoming calls and nothing came from a BCS exchange at any point that month). Mr. Patek returned to me and claimed he spoke directly with Mr. Hanaway; I even clarified with him, “you spoke directly with Mr. Hanaway” to which he answered in the affirmative, which I knew to be untrue. I knew Mike would have to send them to the service department and I would have left had my tire not been blown out and a second tire damaged.
They actually, even though they were in possession of both sets of original keys with the phone numbers, name and address of the dealership where the BMW was purchased, called the service department of the “BMW of South Austin” dealership which only had my old BMW X1 on file (I don’t even know why they had that information as we have NEVER BEEN THERE, especially since they did not even have a location when I bought either BMW). I was charged $1211.62 for the 2 tires, which they refused to reimburse and is still a balance that is outstanding. I even returned today with all the evidence in hand and a College Station police offer, and they refused to reimburse me.
As soon as I returned from dropping off my car, I reached out to where I had purchased it to verify the information that I was provided. It took them a couple days to research everything, send me all contracts, and go through their call logs. The service manager at BMW of Austin is Andy Hathaway (512-898-7685) and he knows about this entire situation.
I reached out to BMW College Station and Mr. Patek started back-tracking and trying to cover his mistakes. When the service manager contacted me, I could have used many choice words to review my experience, but I simply asked him if it was customary for the service team to lie to customers. He then told me that he refused to adhere to my contract that I paid thousands of dollars for and that he would not service my car, he refused to refund the money I was charged that, had he contacted the correct dealership and provided the VIN, would have never been assessed. I posted my feedback onto his website when I was finally able to locate it. My husband took the vehicle in when the oil change was required and they refused to service the car because I told the truth about my experience there.*
My contract is with BMW, if they are going to be permitted to act as a BMW dealership and not honor contracts because of their own ineptitude, then they should not be permitted to use the BMW charter. Just the fact that I reached out to the sales manager and even the owner and no one has seen fit to return my call, apologize to me for the way that I was treated, further they have never reimbursed me the $1211.62 that they took fraudulently. They also refuse to provide me with an invoice from the service. They were so rude to me today, knowing that there was a police officer at the ready should they try to strong arm me like they did my husband; my husband brought the car in for an oil change and they surrounded him with everyone who refused to return a call to me, trying to intimidate him because I filed a factual public complaint on their website, which is illegal.
As an aside, when I returned the loaner car, which my home cameras, all around the house had tracked upon coming and going, which I drove very little and nowhere where there were red curbs, there was no damage to the wheels on the loaner vehicle. I drive a BMW X7, and I NEVER hug the curbs out of habit from driving such a large car. Having been on doctor ordered rest after significant jaw surgery and subsequent oral surgery, I would only help my husband out in the morning and take my children to private school (highway, no red curbs) and took the car out for no other reason. In fact, the date that I left to return the loaner car and pick up my own, my cameras captured me leaving and there was no damage to that car. I parked it away from any other vehicle and did not even come close to the curbs when I returned to the dealership. Mysteriously, after I parked the car to return it, they later drove it up and claimed that I had damaged the wheels and charged me an additional $330, red paint on the wheels, which I am fairly certain that they did on their own. I might have believed that I made some mistake if not for all the other lies that they told me. I did walk around the car before returning it, but I know now to take photos. I told them to pull their video footage because I know that the person who retrieved the car is the one who damaged the tires. Obviously, they never got back to me on that request. I have had many loaner cars from BMW of Austin and they are always returned in perfect condition.
No one can deny you service for putting up a negative review of your experience with them prior. No one can force you to take down a valid review. In College Station, one man owns all the automobile dealerships, also known as a monopoly. We have a valid contract. BMW knows this and is working with the state to revoke their charter. To service my car now, I can take it in to Austin (2 hours each way) or Houston (one hour each way). Despite the fact that they defrauded me, I am supposed to pay for an attorney to get my money back. I have all the documentation. My contract, my bank statements, all information from BMW Finance where any reputable dealership would have returned the funds the moment they knew they made a mistake. If you go to the website, bmwofcollegestation.com, you will see that they hand-pick testimonials, and the most current one is from 2/13/2020. There is not a place to add any testimonials on this site. The only place that you can post a review is on the “Brazos Valley Imports” Facebook site. Again, nowhere on the grounds does it refer to this consortium and they move it around to suit their needs at the time, focusing primarily on the Hyundai vehicles. Anyone who knows anything about cars, knows that Hyundai’s are garbage. I had 2 brand new Elantras both blow the catalytic converter within the first 3000 miles.
If you go to Brazos Valley Imports Facebook site, my review is the top review, noted as “Most Helpful” and I left it on 4/14/2022. They claim that I said I was going to sue them, which I never said, but nothing that they say holds any weight. I would like to expose these people for who they truly are, and that is why I am working with the state, with whom I worked and have many contacts and one of my best friends and her husband both retired from, and BMW so they can have the charter revoked (maybe then a reputable dealership owned by someone other than a single person who could care less about the treatment of his customers could build a REAL BMW dealership). They have held on to my money now since 10/11/2021, and I have had enough. I love my car and I owe less on it than if I were to buy a KIA, so I am NOT giving it up because these i
Since I took the time to have them added to the BBB.org site, please take a look. You will see that they are NOT BBB accredited. The only reason that an “A” shows up there is because that is what real BMW dealerships earn. I want this information in the public domain.
Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because response does not answer any part of my complaint. 1. We were handled poorly by [redacted], who by his own admission was irritated with us for speaking to a sales representative while we waited.2. We brought the car in because it would not drive at all. Again, [redacted] refused to write down all of our complaints due to his prejudice against my family.3. Pre-payment was NEVER requested. It was mentioned to my mother at one point as the reason for why repairs were not started, but did not say that we needed to pay in order to commence repairs. They simply refused service silently until we got irritated with waiting over a month for repairs.4. We were told the timing issue and leaks would fix the vehicle and make it operable again, this was a lie as further "problems" were discovered. This is listed as the 6th most common car repair scam on the Texas Attorney General website:[redacted]5. Money was never a concern for me or my mother. The service department assumed that we had a budget on this car, and treated us as if that was the issue: "In the end her bill was lowered from the approved 981.00 down to 695.07 in an attempt to help offset her concerns."I still do not understand why we are discussing money. I brought my car in to be fixed, the fact that it is not fixed alone should be cause for concern for a reputable repair shop.6. They fixed a coolant leak, however the car was returned to us with no coolant. How do you know a leak was fixed if no liquid is in the container?7. Furthermore, the car was returned to us in the same condition. It can not drive over 50mph (which is the shops perception of the issue) and still does not drive at all (the issue we brought it in with that was never written down). 8. The service manager asked my mother "How much more money do you expect to spend on this vehicle?", instead of determining the root issue and quoting a price. - How is this an appropriate question, before actually understanding the issue with the car?9. "upon initial inspection with the customer" This is a lie - no inspection was completed with us present. [redacted] asked us why we brought the car in, only wrote down a couple of issues we spoke of.10. "Customer gave approval for the repairs and the technician moved forward" - I gave approval because [redacted] assured me this would fix the car and it would be operable again. This was cohesion to acceptance based on misinformation and is illegal under state consumer laws.
Regards,
[redacted]
Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because:Company is not taking responsibility for their actions.1. [redacted] was upset with my family, he even admitted so to my mother in the weeks that transgressed from this. Retracting his statement at this point will not make this point go away. - On the phone my mother said "To be honest [redacted] you seemed irritated with us ever since the first day." - [redacted] then responded with "Well, your family was kind of all over the place.." 2. I told [redacted] MUCH MORE than what he wrote down. My initial complaint was "The car does not run", I continued to mention that "we have seen smoke coming from under the hood, the engine lights are on, gages do not work, not sure if that means anything because we are not mechanics and do not know what is wrong". [redacted] told me "it is okay, I wrote down the 'jist' of what you described. The mechanics will diagnose and figure it out from here".- Now this sheet is being used to say that I only requested specific maintenance? I requested my car be fixed to working condition.- Additionally, all of the problems that were on this list have also not been fixed.3. Repairs were requested. [redacted] spoke to me and quoted $1000-1200 to fix the head gasket. At this time I said to fix it. About a week later my mother had the conversation with the service manager, who informed her that the quoted price of $1000-1200 was incorrect because there are additional costs of up to $500 to send the head gasket to be fixed.- This is a common auto-repair scam as quoted by the Texas Attorney General- Go to* [redacted] - Your company violated numbers: - 4. giving you a verbal estimate as to the cost of repairs, then charging a higher price - [redacted] quoted $1000-1200 for head gasket then you informed of additional fees. - 5. representing that repair services will be completed by a certain day in order to induce the sale, then failing to have the repair services completed by that day. - [redacted] informed my mother the car would be ready on a particular day, she showed up to find out it was not and would not be for another week or two - 6. telling you that repairs are needed when in fact they are not needed. - [redacted] told us the initial work would make the car operable again. This was false, as the head gasket needed to be replaced and was the true issue. 4. Test driving the vehicle and completing the repairs that were completed are not required to know if the head gasket is broken. In fact, the issues we described that are on your document are all telling signs of a blown head gasket, including coolant leaks, smoke from under the hood. - The fact that this was not investigated first also speaks to the fact that your mechanics failed to diagnose the issues.From your responses, it seems apparent that you are not willing to take responsibility for the way my family was handled. I will forward this as a complaint, as it does not seem as if a resolution will be possible. Regards, [redacted]