E-mail below was sent to the BMW Executive Team. No response received.
Aurpon Bhattacharya aurpon@gmail.com
Jul 14, 2019, 2:15 PM (2 days ago)
to Harald.Krueger, Richard.Hart, Shaun.Bugbee, Bernhard.Kuhnt
Dear Mr. Krueger and the BMW Executive Team,
I am writing to you to express my disappointment in my new 2019 BMW X5. We have been in the BMW family for years. I had an X3 that I traded in for the X5 while my wife has a Mini Cooper. Ours is a family of 3--my wife, 9 year old daughter, and myself--living in the Washington DC metropolitan area.
We have been thrilled with the drive and features of the BMWs and were looking forward to the much hyped X5 with its safety features. The VIN for my vehicle is: 5UXCR6C58KLK85270.
Here are the issues we have been facing and have interacted with Ms. Alison Gaughenbaugh at Executive Customer Relations, who has been thoroughly professional and a pleasure to communicate with. Unfortunately, we also have to interact with the BMW of Fairfax dealership and Roshad Petteway with Customer Relations who has been anything but.
1. Issues with sensors from Day 1 with automatic parking. This is a feature that I was excited about and the Fairfax dealership sold heavily to me. 2 out of 5 times, the automatic parking takes me on top of a curb. An issue I complained about, the dealership tested it and told me that will happen from time to time and I shouldn't rely on it. Of course I don't rely on it blindly but is a feature I paid for and expect it to work correctly. Because I use it carefully, I got to stop the car before it went any further up on the curb while auto parking. I have stopped using the feature.
2. When this happened and I complained, Ms. Gaughenbaugh requested the BMW of Fairfax dealership to test the vehicle. They did and had provided the excuse above, I asked them to show me that the forward collision control was working, they said I'd need to be too close to a vehicle to test with them and they advised against demonstrating it to me. Also, while at the dealership, I was told the vehicle needed some software upgrade and while doing so, the vehicle shut down completely so they had to spend time figuring out why all the systems shut down with the 1 update. That made me very concerned.
3. When I took the vehicle back from the dealership after the test, I got back home and discovered they had broken the kidney grill and damaged the driver side door with a dent. That set alarm bells ringing. Clearly there was no quality control otherwise how was the car released to me with a broken grill? I sent back pictures immediately at which point the dealership agreed to replace the kidney grill and touched up the ding on the door. Please note no apology was provided to me for damaging my property and the dealership insisted the door ding was a rock chip--not possible as this was a 4 month old car at that point that I managed and cleaned very carefully weekly. Imagine my fustration and the harassment at having to take the car back for it to be tested, getting it back damaged, having to take it back again to get it fixed, driving with a loaner off and on, etc.
4. Addiitonally, the car is very high for my wife and daughter to step in and out of. The dealership told me that a foot rail is available. I was about to order it. At that point the dealership told me that attaching a footrail to the car is not possible as a foot rail is not designed for the X5 that I bought contrary to what they had told me 3 days before that. At that point, all my faith in the dealership was lost with all the miscommunication.
5. Finally, 2 weeks ago, while parking with my daughter in my car, my car ended up brushing a pole. While I was parking, the sensors showed nearby objects next to the doors as yellow, did not beep nor turn red when I was too close to the pole, and did not beep or turn red when I brushed against the pole either, damaging the door. I contacted Ms. Gaughenbaugh and the dealership immediately to address my concerns as my faith in the safety systems of the BMW has been thoroughly erorded. Ms. Guaghenbaugh asked me to bring the car in to the dealership and asked Roshad Petteway to work with me. It was difficult to communicate with Mr. Petteway who called me but did not provide me his contact information. I had asked him to email it to me right after the call. I reached out to Ms. Gaughenbaugh 2 days later when Mr. Petteway had still not provided me his contact information. At that point, he did contact me and told me the sensors probably worked as expected but I should not be overly reliant on it! My request to BMW and the dealership was, at that point, to fix the door for me at which point I will sell it off as I have no faith in BMW any more.
The dealership came back to me with a quote to fix the door without mentioning anything about having tested the sensors. Not sure why they were communicating with me and not customer relations. Regardless, I communicated back to Mr. Petteway and, he made the dealership test the sensor. I heard back later from Mr. Petteway and he told me, as I had started to expect from BMW, that the sensors worked as expected and I shouldn't be reliant on them. That is not the issue. The issue is that the sensors stayed yellow, did not beep, and did not turn red even after brushing against the pole. I have no faith in the BMW safety system anymore and most certainly do not want to use it as my family car.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
E-mail below was sent to the BMW Executive Team. No response received.
Aurpon Bhattacharya aurpon@gmail.com Jul 14, 2019, 2:15 PM (2 days ago) to Harald.Krueger, Richard.Hart, Shaun.Bugbee, Bernhard.Kuhnt
Dear Mr. Krueger and the BMW Executive Team,
I am writing to you to express my disappointment in my new 2019 BMW X5. We have been in the BMW family for years. I had an X3 that I traded in for the X5 while my wife has a Mini Cooper. Ours is a family of 3--my wife, 9 year old daughter, and myself--living in the Washington DC metropolitan area.
We have been thrilled with the drive and features of the BMWs and were looking forward to the much hyped X5 with its safety features. The VIN for my vehicle is: 5UXCR6C58KLK85270.
Here are the issues we have been facing and have interacted with Ms. Alison Gaughenbaugh at Executive Customer Relations, who has been thoroughly professional and a pleasure to communicate with. Unfortunately, we also have to interact with the BMW of Fairfax dealership and Roshad Petteway with Customer Relations who has been anything but.
1. Issues with sensors from Day 1 with automatic parking. This is a feature that I was excited about and the Fairfax dealership sold heavily to me. 2 out of 5 times, the automatic parking takes me on top of a curb. An issue I complained about, the dealership tested it and told me that will happen from time to time and I shouldn't rely on it. Of course I don't rely on it blindly but is a feature I paid for and expect it to work correctly. Because I use it carefully, I got to stop the car before it went any further up on the curb while auto parking. I have stopped using the feature.
2. When this happened and I complained, Ms. Gaughenbaugh requested the BMW of Fairfax dealership to test the vehicle. They did and had provided the excuse above, I asked them to show me that the forward collision control was working, they said I'd need to be too close to a vehicle to test with them and they advised against demonstrating it to me. Also, while at the dealership, I was told the vehicle needed some software upgrade and while doing so, the vehicle shut down completely so they had to spend time figuring out why all the systems shut down with the 1 update. That made me very concerned.
3. When I took the vehicle back from the dealership after the test, I got back home and discovered they had broken the kidney grill and damaged the driver side door with a dent. That set alarm bells ringing. Clearly there was no quality control otherwise how was the car released to me with a broken grill? I sent back pictures immediately at which point the dealership agreed to replace the kidney grill and touched up the ding on the door. Please note no apology was provided to me for damaging my property and the dealership insisted the door ding was a rock chip--not possible as this was a 4 month old car at that point that I managed and cleaned very carefully weekly. Imagine my fustration and the harassment at having to take the car back for it to be tested, getting it back damaged, having to take it back again to get it fixed, driving with a loaner off and on, etc.
4. Addiitonally, the car is very high for my wife and daughter to step in and out of. The dealership told me that a foot rail is available. I was about to order it. At that point the dealership told me that attaching a footrail to the car is not possible as a foot rail is not designed for the X5 that I bought contrary to what they had told me 3 days before that. At that point, all my faith in the dealership was lost with all the miscommunication.
5. Finally, 2 weeks ago, while parking with my daughter in my car, my car ended up brushing a pole. While I was parking, the sensors showed nearby objects next to the doors as yellow, did not beep nor turn red when I was too close to the pole, and did not beep or turn red when I brushed against the pole either, damaging the door. I contacted Ms. Gaughenbaugh and the dealership immediately to address my concerns as my faith in the safety systems of the BMW has been thoroughly erorded. Ms. Guaghenbaugh asked me to bring the car in to the dealership and asked Roshad Petteway to work with me. It was difficult to communicate with Mr. Petteway who called me but did not provide me his contact information. I had asked him to email it to me right after the call. I reached out to Ms. Gaughenbaugh 2 days later when Mr. Petteway had still not provided me his contact information. At that point, he did contact me and told me the sensors probably worked as expected but I should not be overly reliant on it! My request to BMW and the dealership was, at that point, to fix the door for me at which point I will sell it off as I have no faith in BMW any more.
The dealership came back to me with a quote to fix the door without mentioning anything about having tested the sensors. Not sure why they were communicating with me and not customer relations. Regardless, I communicated back to Mr. Petteway and, he made the dealership test the sensor. I heard back later from Mr. Petteway and he told me, as I had started to expect from BMW, that the sensors worked as expected and I shouldn't be reliant on them. That is not the issue. The issue is that the sensors stayed yellow, did not beep, and did not turn red even after brushing against the pole. I have no faith in the BMW safety system anymore and most certainly do not want to use it as my family car.
- Aurpon B., Oakton, VA, US