For what it is worth, this is to inform of problems we have had after we purchased (paid cash) and took delivery of our MC from Desert Mini of Las Vegas on July 2, 2007.

I have to say that our experience in ordering the car went quite well and we were totally unprepared for all of the problems that we have had after taking delivery of the car. When we did the paperwork at the time of delivery, we made clear that we are Texas legal residents and needed to have the title or other necessary registration documents sent by the dealer to the TX DMV offices to allow us to register the car. We were assurred that this would be no problem. So right after buying the car we submitted our paperwork to the Texas DMV and after a couple of days we contacted them by phone to find out if they had the documents from the dealer needed for registration. We were told that they had our documents but that nothing had been sent by the dealer - this is now almost a week after we paid cash for the car.

We then commenced a weeklong period of frustrating and unreturned phone calls to the dealer to find out what had happened to the documents they were supposed to send to the TX DMV. At one point we were told by our MA, Donovan Resh, that it wasn't his job to handle these kinds of customer problems, and when we attempted to contact the title clerk, we were told that she was in training for the week and her voicemail said she was on vacation and would not return any phone calls until the following week. The sales manager, Tony Zita, assured us that our problems were being taken care of, but they definitely were not dealt with by anyone at the dealership for the two week period following our purchase of the car.

So, after two weeks of having paid cash for the car, we still have no title or ownership documents sent to us or to the TX DMV, and until just recently had no idea where the dealer sent our registration paperwork. We could not get anyone in the dealership to try to track or trace our documents and to get them redirected to where they were supposed to have been sent. We finally found out that they sent them to our TX address instead of the TX DMV, after we told them that we were traveling all summer and would not be at that address.

We have now had to make arrangements to have someone retrieve the documents that were misdelivered by the Las Vegas dealer and to get them to the TX DMV offices. After over two weeks the title clerk called us today to tell us that they would try to have duplicate documents prepared to send to TX for our registration. We were also told over a week ago by our MA that they would overnight us a temporary permit to continue to be able to drive the car after our original one expired, but we have never received this and our permit expires tomorrow. We assume that they expect that we will just park the car until we somehow manage to get all of this straightened out, but not with any help from the dealer.

We have purchased a number of cars over many years but we have never had such a complete lack of concern and response to what were clearly problems created by the dealer. I should point out that the dealer was very clear that until our check cleared they would not give us any ownership or title documents to the vehicle, but it apparently is a different story when you have paid for the car and you want to get them to give you what you need to show title and to register the vehicle. Suffice it to say that this is the last car we will purchase from Desert Mini of Las Vegas.

 

Jedorme,
I am really sorry to hear about your problems with MINI of Vegas. How frustrating after all your excitment about picking up your little OB. Good customer service (returned phone calls, follow-up, respectful treatment) is something I have always experienced with my Honda dealer. Hopefully your experience is not the norm with MINI dealerships.

Your story is a good reminder for me to follow up with MINI of Dallas. I also bought my MINI out of state, and am under the assumption that all of the paperwork was sent to WA for registration. My MA even said she would overnight FedEx two week extension temp plates to my parents' house in TX if my plates didn't make it to WA before the temps expired. She never once said, "That isn't my job."

 

Sorry to hear about your problems. It is unfortunate, but there are many bad MINI dealerships and many good ones. If you are fortunate, you will have more than one to choose from in your area when it comes time to have some service work done.

 

Wow, that's some story. Sad really, when you consider that dealerships are challenging businesses to run (and keep running). The goof that told you it "wasn't his job" is a cancer on the business that can best be rectified by talking directly with the principle(s) that own the dealership (the managers aren't the answer; not in this case).

I put almost 20 years of my life in new car dealership operations and when I was in the business, that kind of disrespect to a customer would have been grounds for immediate termination. I guess it's hard to get good help nowadays.

Lhoboy nailed it: there's good dealers and bad dealers and if you're lucky, you find a GREAT one along the way. Sorry you found a bad one. Word-of-mouth is a powerful thing; use it to your advantage (as you've done here).

 

That is a bummer, but why did you buy your MINI in Las Vegas if you live in Texas? Lots of good MINI dealers in that big 'ol state of yours.

 

Bet you he's a military member stationed here...

 

Kind of a long story - no I'm not in the military (did that many years ago) and am actually retired from the San Francisco area. We spend winter in the Socal desert (near Palm Springs) but travel the rest of the year in an RV. We are legal residents of Livingston, TX, but we are really "paper Texans" who spend little or no time there.

We started our trip this year and went to Las Vegas to see and drive a Mini - the closest dealers to where we live in the winter are all in the L.A. area where we avoid driving the coach like the plague. So we tested and liked the car and then travelled to Oregon where we are spending the summer. My wife fell in love with the Oxygen Blue color and we could not find any car west of the Mississippi to buy so we had to order one.

We liked a young salesman at the Las Vegas dealer who actually did most of the work demo'ing the car (not the MA who told us it wasn't his job to help us later), so we decided to give them our business. Knowing what we do now, we should have ordered it from the Portland dealer - closer to where we are spending the summer and I can't imagine would have been any less helpful in taking care of problems they created.

Another minor example of the less than expected customer service from the Las Vegas dealer: when we picked up the car we were told that they had misplaced the second key (we ordered the convenience package so it is a computer chip in a casing rather than an actual key); that they would try to find it and get it to us but if not found by the time we left town 2 days after taking delivery, they would order us another one.

We found out today that the salesman has done nothing to order this key and the title clerk is now taking care of ordering one for us. Just one more example of the customer doesn't really matter once the car is out the salesroom door in Las Vegas.