I went through a presumingly typical Mini purchase experience at Dessert Mini Las Vegas that was actually quite satisfying, no hazzle, no hard sale, a MA that was pleasant to deal with etc.

I ended up buying a MCS with lots of extras and paid about $35,000 for a fun little car (no discounts or freebies of any kind, including paying for a Mini baseball cap for my son old during pickup (I thought that this really showed insensitivity on their part - a customer just wrote a cheque for $35,000 and instead of giving the nagging 2year old a $10 cap I had to stand in line again to pay for this (had nothing to do with money, just a little sour feel).

Well, three weeks into happy Motoring, I send the MA an e-mail daily to find out where my license plates are, I called him daily every day on the three days before the temporary license expired. While I had great and immediate responses during the purchase phase, I did not get any reply and it became obvious when I had him paged through the operator and he was always out with 'guests', that something was wrong.

On the first day of standstill, ie having a brand new car and not being able to use it, I got hold of the Manager of the BWM dealership and found out that they forgot to turn in the paperwork. Tons of apologies from the manager, the MA finally called and blamed everyone else (including me for selecting the presumingly wrong license plate, which turned out not to be the case).

I was by then driving a Chevy Malibu rent a car (imagine having a brand new MCS in the garage and dealing with a rented Chevy!). He offered to pay for the rental, not without pushing out a few tears that his girlfriend will kill him because he has to pay personally for this.

Well, after 10 days I got a note that the plate has arrived and he wants to bring it personally, which was fine by me. Well, of course he did not show up.
My language drifted from friendly to strong when I again left him a message the next day to find out what happened, when I talked to him later in the day yesterday he told me that he thought I was out of town and did not want to bother my wife with this (and it is her car) and he will come by definetely on that day (that was yesterday).

Sure enough, no sign of the plates, another no-show and no communication.

Will be interesting what the day will bring ...


It is amazing how the ignorance and greed (he had his commision, so why bother with continuous service) of one employee can change ones perception of a company - I feel like having paid for a vacation to Hawaii and being locked into the hotelroom and not being allowed to the beach or having paid for a great dinner in a beautiful restaurant only to find out that the chef is asleep and did not bother to cook the food ...

Very frustrating, but I have good news for all of you: I can assure you that the Mini is a far superior car to a bright shiny Chevy Malibu!!!

 

Jeez, that's pretty darn bad. I think you have every right to ask for further compensation (notice I said ask!!!). Yes, three weeks have passed, but this is
a delivery issue. Maybe something that is no cost to them but good for you, like 4th year of maintenance. And of course more of an apology!

 

I've found that to be true as well since the car sells itself. My MA from eastbay ordered the wrong color and tried to blame it on me. Luckily I had documentation. Service was bad from the very beginning with no return calls. I the buyer had to call them again and again. Just terrible.....all because they are MSRP dealer. Ended up order from somewhere else.

 

Without going into too much detail, I'm just going to suggest that you stay as far away from Desert MINI as you can. I know at least two people (plus myself) who have been turned off of MINIs because of the employees there.

 

Ack......I find myself sort of hyperventilating reading this post. I am just about to do my build and each time I hear horror stories I cringe. THIS is why people go postal! You shouldn't have to chase someone up to do their job. Sorry you had to go through all this.....in the end, you got the MINI and it is worth every penny!

 

I got the Mini and it is worth every penny, but unfortunately it is sitting in the garage and I can not drive it as I do not have a licence plate (temporary expired and permanent one is sitting with the Mini guy who still ingnores my phonecalls ....)

 

How far are you from the Dealership?
Jim

 

I guess they got your $35K for a MINI and not even a JCW??????

WOW.

 

I'm sorry to hear of your experience. It is obvious that this moron does not know anything about customer retention, or your recommendation to other potential customers.

Thankfully, my MA is teriffic. He called yesterday to give me production status, and said that I was welcome to come in and take as many more test drives as I felt necessary, while waiting for my MCS....So there are some good ones out there.

 

Man, what an ordeal. i would probably at this point just bypass the sales guy all together and just get the sales manager or one of the owners on the phone and ask him WTF! it is absolutely nonsense that you paid 35K for something that is just taking up space in the garage. I used to work at an Acura dealership before i joined the Navy, we used to go through sales people like i change my socks. They either couldn't make their quota or their customer service was really lacking. Hopefully this guy's boss gets wind of this and corrects the problem.

 

45-50min drive usually (which translates to 60 in the Malibu) - thus about 2 hours drive back and forth (which I would not mind, though I was assured two days in a row that they will bring it by, which I consider the least they could do)

 

I would be in my car on my way over there and in their face once I arrived. There are "mistakes", which happen. That's life. Then there is blatant incompetence and negligence (your case).

 

but what would that accomplish? unless it's some free stuff or service...but would you really want to get serviced from that place after all this?

 

It's pretty hard to ignore someone when they are in your face.

 

S H I T happenes dude . . . hopefully you will be alright

 

I must say that I have always had good experiences with Desert Mini. In fact, a couple of the MAs there are good friends of mine. I also know the service writer Danielle and the shop foreman Mark. Please don't judge the dealership by just one person. Having dealt with many bad dealerships in the past, I would have to say that Desert Mini is one of the best dealerships that I have ever worked with. I am hoping that it wasn't Donovan or John that put you through this.....

 

What I don't get is they can issue you a temporary plate in about 30 seconds when you buy. Can't they issue another one when it expires (I'm sure they can). So what's with the rental car bit? Hit the print button and spit out another temp and keep driving your car.

 

Just what I was thinking...

 

I hope you took the fugger's money for the rental.

 

Hey Chiki143,

I wouldn't stress over this post if I were you. Having been through the Mini order process twice, I'm happy to say it was actually fun and flawless. Hopefully the dealer you choose has better customer care than what some folks are finding in Las Vegas. My local dealership is very cool. Not like a car dealership at all. It's more like hanging out at a good coffee shop with lots of Mini and BMW toys scattered about.

 

I think I would be demanding a 07 MCS to drive until they sort their screw up out.

I had a very similar issue with a Toyota truck once. I drove a new Supra for a week while they straighted out their screw up.

 

Thanks for sharing. I am not buying from them ever!

 

After reading teh original post, I was wondering to myself which MA you had. I have to agree with John (justaguyinvegas) about many of the employees at Desert MINI. They are really hamstrung by many of the corporate policies there, but Donovan and John (MAs) were both charter members of the Sin City MINI Club and I've known them a long time, and Danielle (service writer) really does her best to help her customers as best she can under the rules she has to abide by.
Hopefully, your bad experience with the temp tags were a problem with an MA who didn't know any better. I doubt it was Donovan or John, since you mentioned his gf and both these guys are married.

 

totally my experience, it was a great experience buying a car without being hassled, the service just unfortunately stopped once I had paid ...

 

Believe me, I tried, but apparently (according to them) it is not possible