[HeartWare]

Hello,

Due to my less than satisfying experience with Brecht MINI I began a mission to inform as many people as I could of that experience. Through my aftermath research I have found that I'm not the only one... not by a long shot. In hindsight I wished I had done this research prior to my purchase. Some people may say that I should have also done more research and been more familiar with the MINI prior to purchase. And normally I would have, except the vehicle I was driving prior blew its transmission and I had to move quickly. What was always in the back of my mind was that it would be great to own a MINI and here was an opportunity so I had to immediately put it in the forefront of my mind. I know better than to count on a dealership to give straight / correct answers, but I let my vulnerability of being under a short time constraint push me to act too quickly. It always amazes me how little the majority of car salesmen know about the product they're selling! Anyway, I constructed a letter (with the help of my grammatically perfect wife Elaine) to send to the General Sales Manager of Brecht BWM / MINI (who was the last person I talked to there and basically told me to take a flying leap) in which I recap my complete experience and express my discontent. So without further adieu here is the letter:

November 23, 2007

Chip Palid
General Sales Manager
Brecht BMW/MINI
1557 Auto Park Way
Escondido, CA 92029
(760) 745-3000 X1316

Mr. Palid,

This letter is to recap the experience my wife, Elaine, and I had with Brecht MINI dealership and my final phone conversation with you on Tuesday evening, November 20, 2007. Both of these have, so far, been unfavorable. I suggest that you read it in its entirety, but, if not, then at least the last paragraph.

My initial interaction with Brecht MINI was with your BDC Manager, Michael McCabe, who answered my email inquiry about a specific MINI Cooper S that had all the features that we wanted, at the right price. He was nice, cordial and assured me that Brecht MINI gives their customers the benefit of the doubt and do everything they can to make sure that their customers are satisfied to the extent that they will pass on referrals to their friends and family. After a few days, and several calls to Mr. McCabe, to make sure that the car was still available, Elaine and I were able to put together the time to make the hour trip to your dealership, late afternoon on a Saturday. As this was a ways to travel, I called Mr. McCabe one last time to let him know we were on our way and to make sure the car was, once again, still there. After arriving and looking around for the car, we were getting the feeling, from greeting salespeople, that the MINI of our choice was already sold and gone long before I made the last departure call to Mr. McCabe. I have since been told that this was because your computers take 24 hours to update and so Mr. McCabe couldn't have known. Even if that were true, it would appear to me to be an inefficient system and, knowing that, then a simple intercom call to the lot would have easily confirmed. However, a few days earlier, while talking with Mr. McCabe, he forgot about which vehicle I was interested in and made a quick computer lookup and found that the one he thought I wanted had been just sold that day. Although it wasn't the vehicle we were interested in, I make note of this because it appeared that he could, indeed, see via your computer system, that the confirmed sale had taken place within a couple of hours, NOT a whole day! The first discrepancy of your explanatory phone call.

I went to announce my arrival to Mr. McCabe and retrieve him from his office. We went back to the MINI lot where Mr. McCabe verified with your MINI Cooper Sales Manager Jim Wolleson that, in deed, the car of our interest had already been sold and left the lot long before my departure call. By the way, this verification was made by your computer system, Hmmm... another completed sale made only a few hours earlier. At this time Elaine suggested to me that because the car we settled on after a couple weeks of searching was gone, that we should just leave. At this time, both Mr. Wolleson and Mr. McCabe said that they would make it up to us so I decided to give your dealership what, ultimately, you did NOT give to us: the benefit of the doubt. My 1st mistake. Mr. Wolleson looked up on your computer a couple of MINIs within our price range that were just brought in and passed us off to your salesman (not a "Motoring Advisor" in my book) Clifford Oko-Odoi of which is pretty much the basis for this letter. Because a leather interior is her first priority Elaine asked before leaving the office if the cars about to be shown had leather. The response was affirmative. The first of the two was an automatic transmission, which I rejected immediately because I wanted a manual transmission. This is something I had confirmed a week prior to Mr. McCabe so I was a little surprised that it was part of the offering. The second was a manual transmission and as I approached it I was deliberately looking at the seats that looked to be leather. With Mr. Oko-Odoi within a foot behind me to my right, and my looking through the driver’s side window, I said, "So, this has leather?!" Mr. Oko-Odoi replied, "Yes it does!" There were specific questions that Mr. Oko-Odoi did not know the answer to and tended to whitewash some of my concerns. One of which was bulging on the passenger "leather" seat of which he had no explanation for and basically said it was no big deal. I'm sort of used to this with salesmen, especially car salesmen, so although somewhat frustrating I didn't pay it much weighted attention. My 2nd mistake. We all got in for a test drive with me driving, Elaine on the passenger side and Mr. Oko-Odoi in the back seat on the passenger side. Before starting the engine I say to Elaine, "It has your leather!" To which she excitedly replies, "I KNOW." No comment from Mr. Oko-Odoi. There could be the argument that he didn't hear that, but he correctly commented on all of our conversations while doing as much as 65 MPH while on our test drive.

After the test drive we were seated in the office and went through the usual dealership price haggling stage. After settling on a price, and confirming the deal, Mr. Oko-Odoi asks us to complete a scored evaluation of him. He all but gets on his knees, begging us to give him 5's across the board. He stated that if we gave him even a single 4 he could get fired, citing a "story" of a "fellow salesman" who received one 4 and the rest 5's, and was subsequently fired because of this. I, personally, didn’t think he was worth 5s, but this was Elaine's doing and she's an easy mark for a sob story and is always worried about doing someone an injustice, even if it means doing it to herself.

We moved into the financial office and in trusting all that I have heard, my 3rd mistake, I allow the contract to be signed without reading it through thoroughly, my 4th mistake.
Now it's time for Mr. Oko-Odoi to give us the walk through. Some things he knew, some he didn't. There were times that he actually talked himself into a corner and then glossed his way out. There were some specific questions that both Elaine and I asked of which he had no answer to, a couple of which he just told us to look up in the manual. Do you find that acceptable?! I told him that he just dropped a couple of points on his evaluation score. He thought I was joking, but really I wasn't. We drove the car home.

A couple of weeks of around the town errands found us enjoying the car. But then I took a longer trip to my parents on a warmer day and I found myself sweating in the seat. This has never happened to me before on leather, but being sure this was leather I let it go attributing it to something else, like maybe the clothes I was wearing. Additional warmer days brought more sweating, which drove me to double check the contract, for which I found Leatherette (vinyl) NOT Leather! I called Mr. McCabe and told him my story. He did point out that the contract did say Leatherette, of which I told him that I unfortunately did not read the contract, trusting what I was told. He said that because Brecht MINI values their customer's generational referrals he would see what he could do.

After a week of waiting I called Mr. McCabe again. He said that he had talked with, and forwarded, this to Mr. Wolleson. He stated that Mr. Wolleson probably hadn't called because he was out of town for a while and things had been hectic due to the brush fires. OK, I'll buy that. So Mr. McCabe transferred me to Mr. Wolleson's voicemail, advising me to leave him a message, of which I did. After the passage of still another week, with no call back, I called Mr. McCabe again, but only received his voicemail. I left another inquiry message and was called back the next evening. I found our approximately 30 minute conversation unsettling because, for all intents and purposes, you declared to me that you gave Mr. Oko-Odoi the benefit of the doubt in trusting him and not us. And that if we wanted leather that it would not only NOT be factory leather, but we would have to pay almost as much as the factory leather package to get it. First of all, you told me that you had a sit down, supposed, heart to heart talk with Mr. Oko-Odoi and that he looked you square in the eyes and he said that he never told or implied to us that the interior was anything but vinyl. In other words, how could he lie to you while making eye-to-eye contact. With my many personal experiences with sales people I have NEVER known one who didn't know how to lie well, especially when their job is in the sling. You totally supported him because he's been there a "long" time and therefore must know the products well. Based on that logic I would have guessed that he started working there less than a week ago. I found him of a typical salesman stature: try hard to make the sale with only having to put in enough effort to get by only knowing the basics of the product he's selling. Instead of really sitting down and extensively learning every aspect of what you are selling, which is what I would do, but just rather picking up bits and pieces as you go along (treading water instead of swimming). Now if it was a mistake that was made then, by your inflection, it couldn't have been Mr. Oko-Odoi's mistake because he is too competent, so it would have to be ours. Based on you completely and without question supporting Mr. Oko-Odoi with regard to your confidence in his knowledge of MINIs, I question your powers of assessment based on my short and less than favorable experience of him expressed in the earlier above paragraphs (unless you're naive of your salesmen's tactics, but a person doesn't get to be in your position by being naive). Elaine and I feel that we have already purchased a car with leather in which we now have to purchase leather again. Had we originally known it was not leather we would not have purchased it and would have gone elsewhere to find the car that had what we wanted. By the way, the car was fresh on the lot and had no window sticker verify included features before purchase. If you could step out of your salesman shoes and into your customer's shoes, maybe then you could more clearly see how we are looking at this whole ordeal.

But, per my usual M.O. of not wanting to make a rash decision without cognitively massaging it for a time, I told you that I would discuss it with Elaine. As Elaine is much more even tempered than I am, it came to a surprise to me that she was even more upset at your so-called resolution. Maybe even more than that, being that she is the most truthful and trusting person I know, she took it rather personal that she could be thought of otherwise. But, still, I sat on your decision for about a week, which did not change my mind or feelings of which were actually amplified by the passage of time during which I called Mr. McCabe back to express by regret and dissatisfaction. Basically YOU have spoken and there was nothing he could do. Based on us purchasing both the extended maintenance and the extended warranty I even offered another resolutionary approach of trading the car in for another with leather in hopes that we would receive some special consideration based this whole ordeal. But this transaction would be treated as if we were first timers fresh off the street with these three options: 1) sell the existing car privately and then buy from you, 2) trade in at current market value (of which we would take a hit with no consideration), or 3) "enjoy the existing car as is" (PLEASE stop selling already!).

I still have hopes that you will give us, your customer, the benefit of the doubt, a concept that was originally sold to us by Brecht MINI. Until then I will close this letter by saying the following: About 8 out of every 10 times we park the MINI in a public area we are approached. With a smile on their face we are almost always asked two questions. The 1st question is, "How do you like it?" We answer, "It's a blast... except for one thing..." The 2nd question is, "Where did you get it?" Of which we answer by merely handing them a copy of this letter. Is this worth losing a potential sale or two over? I leave that up to you!

Sincerely,


Craig Johnson
cc: All those who have interest in the MINI Cooper.

[Lolance]

Ah mate...sounds like you got a raw deal from a very very ***** dealership.

Hope it works out okay and you get what you deserve (and Mr. Oko-Odoi ). The manager holds ultimate responsibility and TBH, sounds like a complete prat.

Good luck!

[JaridP]

wow....
Did you get a window sticker with the car?

[rellik666]

Oh My God!

Firstly I didn't realise that MINI's came with anything other than cloth or leather and secondly, what a complete tool!

I feel for you! I have only ever dealt with pretty good dealerships, so I cannot comprehend the heartache this must be causing you.

What a rubbish start to your MINI Adventure, unless in the "trade" we know to haggle on price and extra's but we like to think that they wouldn't outright lie and at least understand the product they are selling.

[ablekane]

Let me recount what happened this weekend:

Yesterday I went to Brecht Mini in Escondido to put money down on a new car due to arrive next weekend. I put down $1000 as I had been told for the last three months by my contact there. Once the Sales manager saw me he instructed the salesperson to have me fill out a credit application even though I'd stated numerous times I'd be returning with a bank check. Speaking with the manager he was very dismissive and told me, "without a credit check we can't verify you are who you say you are." I informed him I just put down $1000 bucks, of course I'd be back. Do normal people just put down money and not return?" He then said, "If it's not your credit, it wouldn't matter. You'd be surprised what people would do." His name is Steve Payton. He further went on to state that just because I was putting this money down there was no way to know that a few days from now they wouldn't get a call about someone using their credit card. In short, I had stolen the credit card and was just going hog wild.

When I said I would not do a credit application, he told the salesperson to refund my $1000 and said I was always free to go to the Mini in Irvine and buy a car.

When I called my bank to inform them of this, they said this should never have happened. Accordingly, when I walked across the street to Brecht BMW, they were also initially surprised that my money was returned and my desired car was not held-- until they heard his story then it seemed they drew the forces together. Again I was told that I could be an identify thief and even if I walked in with the bank check in hand, they would not sell me a car until they verified I was who I said I was because they had no idea who I was. Mike Lewis, the Sales Manager, also informed me that I could go to Irvine if I wanted to buy a Mini. But if I filled out a credit app he'd be happy to sell me a BMW.

It began to appear that because I didn't balk at the trade-in value, produced a Platinum credit card without issue and refused to give them my personal information, I was profiled as an identity thief. Perhaps race or sex was not an issue, but I've never heard of a car dealership refunding money so quickly and I have NEVER been so dismissed at a place of business in any country or state I've traveled. As I was informed, if Brecht truly cared about ID theft, they could call the bank and verify. Yet there would be no photo attached to my social security, so this view they posited falls flat.

I know you get many emails every day, but I have lived to age 35 and traveled throughout the world and have NEVER been so treated. In this case, my money was not good enough for Brecht because it seemed that since I have a platinum card with money as well as black skin, I was inherently an ID thief. Perhaps it could have been my dread locs or size. I don't know. If there is another explanation, I'd love to hear it, but no one at Brecht could offer one. So either business is so good they can pick and choose their customers, or I wasn't a good enough customer. There is no policy they could produce that justified their stand and all I wanted was a round number in order to finish the loan process with my bank. Not sure, but this is heck of a way to explain to my kids about Black history Month and how far we've come, don't you think?

Today, the GM emailed with nonsense, stating Patriot Act statutes. I actually found the acts he was talking about and his dealership is in complete violation. Yeah, I got profiled. I was suspicious. Imagine, a black woman with dreadlocs and two kids with a platinum card and good credit. Go figure!


Seems like I can't post the URLS that cover the Patriot Act requirements, but if you want them, just contact me. BTW, Brecht is no where close to being compliant.