Well, it's said first impressions are lasting impressions, and I gotta say, so far I am not too impressed with BMW of Honolulu.

I called a couple of weeks ago to ask if they would perform a courtesy delivery on a new 328 coupe. (Courtesy delivery = I buy the car at the local dealer [if you recall, I'm in the Army, currently stationed at Ft. Leavenworth, KS; I will arrive in HI mid-July]; when the car is shipped from Germany it goes direct to HI & is prepped by the dealer there for delivery.) "Glen", the sales manager, literally answers "courtesy delivery? Nah, we're not interested in doing that." He tried to tell me it was because he didn't want to have to get stuck repairing any damages as a result of shipping (???). (He then said he gets damaged new Bimmers "all the time", when I asked him "wouldn't the VPC repair any minor damage, before it gets to you?"....hmmmmm...) :confused

So I check their website, there is no Glen listed as any type of sales manager. So I e-mail Dennis Short, who is listed as the President and General Manager for BMW Hawaii. I didn't say anything about my conversation with Glen; I just explained my situation and why I was requesting a courtesy delivery, and asked if they would be willing to do it. Well, it's been over two weeks, and I never even received a reply. WTF...?

Hey, I get it...they want to sell me the car, not some other dealer. Well, that's great, except that doesn't solve the issue of why I asked them to do it in the first place (the Army only covers the cost of shipping one POV to Hawaii; I would have like to traded in two of my cars, place an order for a new one, and ship it to HI, thus saving shipping costs, and scrambling madly to find a 328 coupe locally before I leave in early July - which is what I am doing now.)

But the issue isn't even whether or not they would do it; it's their attitude. I got blown off twice by the top guy, as well as his (supposed) sales manager. What the hell is up with that? How about, "well sir, that's not a service we would normally provide, we may have to charge you for a couple of hours labour for vehicle prep" (or whatever.) Come on, how long does vehicle prep take? I mean, show some inclination to work with someone, rather than what they so obviously implied "hey, you ain't buying the car from us? Go f*ck yourself."

Yeah, I'm kinda pissed...I am normally the type to support the local dealer for parts & service, club events, etc. Just a really poor overall impression of these guys I have now...I don't even want to set foot in their place after I get there. I would have expected a better response from a Hyundai dealer. What do you guys think? Agree/disagree?

Agree. Sadly, many Hawaii dealers are like that. I got a similar response from Servco Toyota.

Will Soong at BMW of Honolulu.

808-597-1265

Maybe he can help you.

He's always been helpful to me, and I have a couple of old e34s that never go further than the parts dept. (I service them myself)

Agree. Sadly, many Hawaii dealers are like that. I got a similar response from Servco Toyota.

really? I thought customer service was their #1 priority...

That is sad, Dennis Short may not even be in town as he is from New Zealand. My wife knows him personally and when we were shopping around the sales staff wouldn't even try to get Dennis for her.

Will Soong is an Assistant Service Manager, who is my go to guy when I service or need things done at BMW.

Talk about a bad experience, I went to BMW after a salesman told me that they just got in a rare 2004 330ci with SMG trans. So I make an appointment to go in and test drive the car. Well I was told the car was not ready and that it was being cleaned. I was shown about 3 other cars and told to test drive two others one automatic and one standard but not the one I went into see. 2 hours later after test driving those two other cars, I was told the car was still being cleaned. So I told him if was taking them 2 hours to clean the car then it must have been trashed and I left.

I personally don't like being lied to and that is all this salesman was doing to me. I don't think they even had the car, yet to be led around and shown other cars which "might interest you." Hell I know what interested me, which is why I made the appointment...duh.

But you are right on BMW, I had 2 now 1 Mercedes and the sales department over there is outstanding. A night and day difference from BMW.

the bastards still havent gotten back to me about ripping me off. the service manager never returned my calls or emails

which reminds me... can i still file a complaint against tem? it's kinda been a while

Dennis is in town maybe 1/2 the time. The other half, he travelling on business. As for Glen, he is the sales mgr, but the website hasn't been updated. His name is actually Glen Mervine and he took over as sales mgr @ 2 years ago when Kevin Keppel left to work for Honda.

Dennis is in town maybe 1/2 the time. The other half, he travelling on business. As for Glen, he is the sales mgr, but the website hasn't been updated. His name is actually Glen Mervine and he took over as sales mgr @ 2 years ago when Kevin Keppel left to work for Honda.

Thanks for the heads-up. Man, I should seriously consider opening a BMW dealership there before I retire from the Army...

I guess that could explain why Dennis didn't reply. It also proves my point. If he's out of town so much, why doesn't he set up his out-of-office reply to let people who are trying to contact him know that? And they haven't updated the website in two years? Grrrrr.... :mad Anyway, whatever. It just kind of chaps my ass every time I think about it though.


On an unrelated note...:D I think I found a 328 coupe; now I'm just waiting to find out if my dealer can get the allocation from the dealer it belongs to. It's currently in production, and should be delivered mid-June. Montego blue (the light blue) with Natural brown interior. Only options are premium, sport, and Steptronic (that's all I wanted.) (My wife will be driving it most of the time, so she had to have Step.) I think it also has comfort access, which I personally think is worthless, but I can't change the order. I'm trading in the Honda CR-V and my 2003 540/6 :(, so I am bringing the new 328 coupe and my 83 320i (and my motorcycle.) Of course, I will be paying the shipping for one of the cars (about $1500, as I understand...)

P.S. I will try to contact Will to see if he can tell me anything different.

I personally find most local auto dealers' websites to be useless/out-of-date/wrong/frustrating, etc.

Until the web starts to become a significant source of income for them (like the front door) it will be ignored. just look at most dealer's websites to get a feel for how much they value that channel. If their Sunday paper ads looked that bad, or were that inaccurate, you can bet they'd spend some money to get it right.

I know of very few local dealers that are making an effort to improve their online contact channels. One is even going so far as to host their site servers in house and have switched over to full voip for all their phone lines, but they're an exception.

The other exception to local dealer's websites is the scionhawaii microsite that Servco did when that brand was launching here. That was kinda out-of-the box for here.

But what do I know about that webschtuff... I just look at it the way you do, from a consumer/potential customer's point of view.

Good luck finding your 335 coupe.

Hopefully BMW NA are reading these customer complaints:confused

I wish or hope that Dennis would be reading this as he is a great guy.

On Glen Mervine, being new he is clueless as to what is going on. My wife brought up a problem about the dealership to him and he was trying to tell my wife she was wrong.

I'd like to chime in that i've had nothing but good experiences at BMW Honolulu. My SA is Will Soong, previous to that it was Anthony Scarfone, and before that is was Jennifer ( who is now at Mini )

I'd like to chime in that i've had nothing but good experiences at BMW Honolulu. My SA is Will Soong, previous to that it was Anthony Scarfone, and before that is was Jennifer ( who is now at Mini )

Hmmm, more kudos for Will. I'm beginning to see a pattern here!

Will is a very good friend of my wife who was in the car business for some 20 years.

He helped me out when I had a screeching coming from my belts, which only occurred in the morning when first starting the car. He kept the car overnight and had 4 senior technicians come in early and told them they had one shot at locating and fixing the problem, which they did.

It is guys like Will that make BMW worthwhile.

Will is a very good friend of my wife who was in the car business for some 20 years.

He helped me out when I had a screeching coming from my belts, which only occurred in the morning when first starting the car. He kept the car overnight and had 4 senior technicians come in early and told them they had one shot at locating and fixing the problem, which they did.

What was causing the screeeeeeeching? :eek: :D

pulleys and the belt had to be replaced. They intially changed the belt and the sound went away but when I told Will that the screeching would only happen in the morning on a cold start so after they had worked on the car. The car had already been running for the day. So he had all the technicians listen for which pulleys were doing the nasty.

He also gave my97 M3 a good going over and updated everything that needed to from suspension to flushing of the brakes and coolant. So pretty much I have a new cars with no worries

One caveat about BMW of Honolulu is their Service Advisors don't usually stick around for a long time. The turnover is incredible as I think the only one that has been at the dealership for a long time is Mike Claus. He was a MINI SA for a couple years, but just moved over to the BMW side. he is also a bfc member and posts under mclaus.

Other than Mike, I think the next guy would have maybe a year experience at the dealership. Mike MacDonald has been at the dealership for many years, but he moved to the back of the Service side and I'm not sure if he's still there.

One caveat about BMW of Honolulu is their Service Advisors don't usually stick around for a long time. The turnover is incredible as I think the only one that has been at the dealership for a long time is Mike Claus. He was a MINI SA for a couple years, but just moved over to the BMW side. he is also a bfc member and posts under mclaus.

Other than Mike, I think the next guy would have maybe a year experience at the dealership. Mike MacDonald has been at the dealership for many years, but he moved to the back of the Service side and I'm not sure if he's still there.

I saw Mike a couple of months ago. He was keeping an eye on the "new" night time service when it started up. Good man..... Haven't seen him since :( :rolleyes