...building gets infested with the fleas of 1,000 camels.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to post this, but as it turns out, things keep getting worse and worse.

Our delivery experience was a disaster. We dealth with Jon, and he is one of the most professional, courteous auto salesmen I have ever encountered. I have to give him the highest praise. That is all the good I have to say! Linda Gresham is a rude, unprofessional, beast with the personality of a sloth. Paperwork signing was downright disgusting, and if there had been another dealership within 100 miles we would have let them keep the car and gone somewhere else.

After dealing with Century for 2 months before the car came in, my ever desire was catered to. No Century Plaquards on the vehicle, don't drill the front bumper, etc. This was because of Jon. He made sure everything was taken care of. I spoke with him and e-mailed him probably a dozen times about the vehicle.

It came time to sign the paperwork and we dealth with Linda. We were transferring the tag from the Neon, and had advised Century of this. We came to the dealership and they requested the current registration from the Neon. We did not have it, as we were never told that we had to have the old registration!! We drove my car, and not the Neon. After discussing this at length with Linda about current state requirements and the like, she actually had the nerve to turn to my girlfriend and say "Do you understand what we're talking about?" At this point we both hit the roof. We left steaming and decided to go to the Ford dealership as she also liked the explorers.

We went to the Ford dealership (everyone was gone for the night) and ate dinner to allow some cooling off time. We went back to the dealership at 9 PM and knocked on the door. They let us in and my girlfriend read her the riot act for approximately 1 hour until she was finished speaking her peace and Linda apologized many times. I gave her the check and left.

I went to pick the car up and gave it to Adrianne for her birthday (this was magnificent by the way.) I started looking at the paperwork after this incident and realized that we paid for the Intire Program (covers damage to wheels and tires due to road hazards etc.) but we never got the certificate to show we were enrolled in the program. We called and they told us to come to the dealership to discuss this. We went and finally received the cetificate so we could get our latest wheel incident covered.

Other inicidents that I don't want to go into also made us really dislike this dealership.

To top it all off, I just called their parts dept. and the guy on the phone was EXTREMELY short with me about ordering the Aero Kit. I asked for a price and he said $1200. I asked about painting and he said another $1000. I don't disagree with the prices but I know I can get it cheaper from Classic. I asked him for the Part Number and he REFUSED TO GIVE IT TO ME!!!!

Any prospective MINI buyers in the Greenville area save yourself lots of time and heartache and order your MINI from MINI of Charleston who has a PERFECT 5 STAR TRACK RECORD!!!!

FrogGuts

 

Jeez that experience sucked, sorry to hear that a overbearing hosebeast ruined the delivery experience. My wife and I dealt with Hank at century and your correct, the sales staff is great but the female sales manager is a total ***. We never had dealings with her personally, a fact im sure she is greatful for, and we never will. It is sad that one rotton apple can ruin a barrel. Century is not that bad of a dealership but that is only if you don't deal with Linda. Mini of Charleston is a Top Notch Dealer and I hate to say but our convertable will NOT go through Century as long as Linda works there. In fact already on the list at MoC.

 

Don't forget to post your experience to the under-utilized "dealer ratings" section of MCO. That's the best way to help other avoid the problems you've experienced! Sorry to hear of your difficulties - trust me, the car is well worth it! I had a scummy buying experience too, but I got over it by the time I was about a quarter of a mile away in my new car.

 

I’m with MINI USA. I’m sorry your sales experience was not what you expected. We are here to work with you and your dealer. If you need our assistance, please phone us at (866) ASK MINI.

 

>>I’m with MINI USA. I’m sorry your sales experience was not what you expected. We are here to work with you and your dealer. If you need our assistance, please phone us at (866) ASK MINI.

I thought you were not allowed to post here anymore :evil:

X2

 

>>I’m with MINI USA. I’m sorry your sales experience was not what you expected. We are here to work with you and your dealer. If you need our assistance, please phone us at (866) ASK MINI.<<

I'm a member of minicooperonline.com. I'm sorry that your grassroots fan base is more enthusiastic and self-sufficient than you expected. I'm sorry that we're not all dashing out to buy your $65 polo shirts and congregating in your lame Owner's Lounge. We're here to drive our cars and to help other people deal with issues that you have neglected to fix. If you'd like to post here, please offer some constructive advice, rather than canned, robotic instructions to call a phone number.

 

>>I'm a member of minicooperonline.com. I'm sorry that your grassroots fan base is more enthusiastic and self-sufficient than you expected. I'm sorry that we're not all dashing out to buy your $65 polo shirts and congregating in your lame Owner's Lounge. We're here to drive our cars and to help other people deal with issues that you have neglected to fix. If you'd like to post here, please offer some constructive advice, rather than canned, robotic instructions to call a phone number.

*high5ing chrisnl*

 

<< I’m with MINI USA. I’m sorry your sales experience was not what you expected. We are here to work with you and your dealer. If you need our assistance, please phone us at (866) ASK MINI.

Seriously, browsing the forums, and Ctrl-V into any thread! useless

 

We just purchased our 4th MINI. The first was at Century but all others were elsewhere.I too will not buy from Century as long as Linda is there. I suppose MINI USA can do nothing about who the dealers hire.

 

well, some of you already know my story with Linda, but here it is anyways.... and yes, this definitely is the SHORT version, I promise!

This is the first car I've ever purchased, and thus, the first car in my name alone, without receiving any help from parents, friends, etc. I'm 21, btw. I purchased the car from Henk, but Linda went over all the paperwork with me. Without saying how much my monthly payment was going to be, she made me sign everything and was very nice to me considering I had about a MILLION questions about what I was signing, as I'm not a 'stupid kid,' I'm a business owner myself....

I took the car home on the 25th of August. On the 27th, I got a call from her when I was tearing the front bumper off to install my Sylvania X1010 HID driving lights (they ARE pretty damn nice, aren't they?!), and she said I needed to come back into the dealership to 'resign my contract, since [she] messed up the original one.' I wasn't too sure about what she messed up, so I asked '...and how much more is this going to cost me a month?' to which she replied 'well, its going to be an extra $14 a month.'

Yep, $14 x 4 years of payments = $672. I called my dad who called his friend who sold him his Escalade and was told that this was a 'shady' thing to do, but I had no choice but to re-sign a contract... ONLY IF they did something for me to re-sign it, of course! So I went in to talk to Linda on the 29th, and she said that she would get me $672 worth of merchandise, parts, options, etc from the Parts Department. Basically anything that had to be ordered for the car, I could get if it came below $672! So I went to town on everything I could find - shirts, clothes, sweatshirts, my rear fog light, the sport mesh grilles, the 1/18th scale Dark Silver Cooper S model, etc etc etc.

I go to pick up the last of my cool stuff on Wednesday, the 1st of October. What Linda did definitely wasn't the best thing in the world, especially as a SALES MANAGER, but I think she handled it pretty well. I had NO leverage, but she didn't even try to fight with me!

So there's MY problematic story with them, hopefully this means that she's learned her lesson with treating customers like she did for you, FrogGuts! Then again.... maybe not!!!

 

I was part owner and full time operator of a fairly large BMW dealership for 30 years and we NEVER called someone to come back in to resign a contract to bump the payment, and yes we did make mistakes but a deal is a deal. We would just cash the original contract (even with a $672 mistake with the market as it is with the MINI brand they still made a profit) and go on with our life, even if we screwed up so bad as to show a lose. That is not the way to operate an automobile dealership if you are looking for repeat/referral business.

_________________
2003 Chili Red/White MCS, sport pack w/white wheels, cold weather pack, black leather w/anthracite dash, DVD-based Navigation w/OBC, HK sound, MFSW, PDC, rain sensing wipers & auto dim mirror.

 

>>I’m with MINI USA. I’m sorry your sales experience was not what you expected. We are here to work with you and your dealer. If you need our assistance, please phone us at (866) ASK MINI.


I needed your assistance ever since I bought this POS car - I have never recieved any satisfaction after repeated attempts through you and your dealer network! My car still hiccups and yoyos like a biatch and you don't seem to give a toss.

WMMV Mini USA/BMW NA


:evil: :evil: :evil:
_________________
'03 S DS

 

TOKIO; you need to document, document, document your problems and work with your BMW zone rep. Take it in to your dealer, explain the problem to the service advisor, and make sure it is written upEXACTLY like you stated!!! Pick it up and drive it. Still not resolved? Return to service dept. again. Make sure it is written up EXACTLY like the first service order. Now you have some legs to stand (lemon law) on if it is not resolved in 3 tries. Good luck!

 

>>I was part owner and full time operator of a fairly large BMW dealership for 30 years and we NEVER called someone to come back in to resign a contract to bump the payment, and yes we did make mistakes but a deal is a deal. We would just cash the original contract (even with a $672 mistake with the market as it is with the MINI brand they still made a profit) and go on with our life, even if we screwed up so bad as to show a lose. That is not the way to operate an automobile dealership if you are looking for repeat/referral business.


Jerry,

I agree completely. Problem was, my father's friend at the Cadillac dealership told us that the contract was NOT completed - that the 'a deal is a deal' phrase you used above is NOT correct, because BMW has not authorized it, and they would not provide the financing for the car for me to be able to keep it. In other words, if I did NOT go back to re-sign the contract, BMW would have the car repossessed since they had not yet agreed upon the terms and conditions of the contract drawn up by one of their agents, whether it was correct or not.

It took two days for her to figure out the problem, either that, or it took two days for her to have the nerve to call me back in! Either way, I was forced to come in and re-sign a contract, since the car still was not authorized by 'the man' yet (BMW Financial Officer). Hey, I'm not sticking up for her or ANYONE by saying this, I'm just providing some more details that can prove this point in either direction.... I'm on no one's side here but MY OWN!!!

 

Yes, I am aware of problems with BMW Financial and them not accepting the terms of the contract. We usually ran into that problem on leases where WE used the wrong residual and BMW kicked the contract back because of our error. If the residual we used was too high it meant the payment was too low so we would adjust the selling price or rate where our profit was concerned to make the payment still come out to what we had agreed on. I stand by my statement, we NEVER had a customer come back in to renegotiate the terms of a deal and bump them in the process. They could have adjusted the deal to satisfy BMW Financial by simply lowering the selling price or rate and have you sign a new contract, not having you resign a new contract at a higher payment.

_________________
2003 Chili Red/White MCS, sport pack w/white wheels, cold weather pack, black leather w/anthracite dash, DVD-based Navigation w/OBC, HK sound, MFSW, PDC, rain sensing wipers & auto dim mirror.

 

I ordered my MINI from Century last August and it was delivered late November. Linda was the "Motoring Advisor" and my experience was excellent. She answered all my questions, provided snacks to my 7 year old daughter, and convinced the dealership to offer me more for my trade than Carmax.During the entire MINI purchasing process, Linda and Henk were professional and courteous.

I'm sorry for your bad experience, but give Linda and Century another try.